The smell of iron and gasoline filled Xiao Tian's nose.
"So this is how it ends, huh…"
The headlights came faster than he could react. Tires screeched, metal bent, and then—nothing.
Darkness swallowed him.
…
When he opened his eyes again, the world was different. The ceiling above him was made of old wooden beams, cracked and patched in places. A faint scent of damp soil drifted into the room. He blinked, sat up slowly, and found himself lying on a simple straw bed inside a hut.
His body felt small—too small. Looking down, he realized with a jolt that his hands were not those of a grown man anymore. They were tiny, belonging to a child barely five or six years old.
"What the—?" His voice cracked, childish and thin.
A flood of fragmented memories suddenly forced their way into his mind:
The Holy Soul Village.
A small farming settlement in the remote corner of the Douluo Continent.
His parents, both ordinary farmers, had died when he was a baby.
The villagers took pity on him and raised him as an orphan.
Xiao Tian froze. He knew these names. These places. This wasn't just any strange world.
"This… is Soul Land. Douluo Dalu…" His heart thumped wildly. "I… I reincarnated here?"
He had read the novels, seen the adaptations. This was the world of martial spirits, where cultivation decided life and death. The world where Tang San would rise to power.
His breathing quickened, but after a moment, he forced himself to calm down.
"Alright. Panicking won't help. I've read enough webnovels to know the drill. I died on Earth, woke up in this world. No cheats so far… no system, no golden finger." He glanced at his small hands again. "But I'm alive. That's already something."
He lay back down, staring at the ceiling. Slowly, a spark of determination flickered in his eyes.
"If this is really Soul Land, then the Martial Spirit Awakening will happen soon. Tang San should also be in Holy Soul Village, right? That means I have a chance. If I can't be the strongest, I'll at least survive."
He clenched his fists. He had no divine inheritance, no genius bloodline. But he had one thing this world didn't: the knowledge of Earth.
"Fitness… farming techniques… engineering basics… modern knowledge. If I use them well, I can carve my own path."
Outside, the sun was rising. The villagers' roosters crowed, and life in the Holy Soul Village began another ordinary day.
But for Xiao Tian, everything had already changed.
Today marked the beginning of his new life—
The life of the Black Tiger Reincarnate.