Douluo Continent, Heaven Dou Empire, northeast of Soto City — this was a rather prosperous village.
It was still early morning, the sun had just shown its face, but walking through the village one could already smell waves of delicious aromas, a clear sign that the villagers had begun their busy day.
On this land where everyone possessed a martial spirit, the variety of martial spirits could be described as countless and strange.
In this village, the vast majority of people had food-type martial spirits: the common ones being rice, wheat, tofu;those of higher quality included various meats. Although there weren't many people with spirit power, most of them were low-level spirit masters, around level ten or twenty.
Still, as the saying goes — people live on food.
As a small village near the prosperous Soto City, under the influence of their food-type martial spirits, the quality of ingredients produced in the village was generally higher than that of other villages.
By supplying ingredients to the city or directly selling finished foods there, the villagers' lives were relatively comfortable. Because of this, the village was known as the Food Village.
In the middle-east section of the village, there was a small courtyard surrounded by a wooden fence.
The courtyard wasn't large, roughly average by the village's standards, but it was kept neat and tidy.
At that moment, a pair of three-year-old twin brothers stood on wooden stakes in the yard, each maintaining a horse stance. Judging from their trembling legs, they had clearly been holding the position for quite a while.
It was obvious that the two children were competing, gritting their teeth and staring each other down, neither willing to jump down first and admit defeat.
Just as one of them was about to fall from exhaustion, a gentle female voice came from inside the house:"You two, stop fooling around and come in for breakfast."
That voice broke the tense atmosphere between them.
Both boys jumped off the stakes, quickly trying to stretch their sore, trembling legs.
The boy on the right moved his legs while saying, "Stinky little brother, you're lucky this time. If Mom hadn't called us for breakfast, you'd have lost for sure."
Hearing this, the boy on the left immediately retorted, "Oscar, stop talking nonsense. We've competed so many times, and you usually lose more than you win. This time wouldn't be any different.
And besides, you just happened to be born one minute earlier than me — calling me your little brother is fine, but what's with the 'stinky' part?
Don't forget we're twins. If I'm a stinky little brother, then you're a stinky big brother. Think carefully about that."
From the front, one could see both boys had beautiful peach blossom eyes and adorably chubby cheeks.
Their faces were very similar; the biggest difference was in their eye color — the one on the left had deep blue pupils, while the one on the right had dark brown ones.
At this moment, the older brother named Oscar had a slightly frustrated expression, glaring angrily at his younger brother — clearly, he had been countered by him.
He could only throw out a line of mock anger — "Aosqin, this isn't over!" — before turning and heading toward the house first.
Hearing this, his younger brother Aosqin smirked proudly, a flash of smugness in his eyes."Hmph, so what if you're part of the main character group, or my older brother? We're blood brothers — I'm not letting some brat like you take advantage of me."
Watching the small figure of Oscar walking ahead, a few thoughtful glimmers passed through Aosqin's eyes.
In this life, he was named Aosqin — Oscar's twin brother. But originally, he wasn't from the Douluo Continent at all; his soul came from another world.
Three years ago, Aosqin had been a college graduate in China. After graduation, he worked for a while, but the job pressure was unbearable, so he resigned.
He then focused on preparing for the civil service and public institution exams.
Unfortunately, those exams were like a single-log bridge crossed by tens of thousands — in the blink of an eye, a year passed, and he still hadn't crossed that bridge.
Late at night, when he put down his pen after studying, he often fantasized about having some sort of golden finger of his own.
He didn't desire anything outrageous like becoming a godly tycoon — just a library that could provide detailed study guides or videos, teaching him whatever he wanted to learn.
After all, even though modern society had an explosion of information, many professional fields still had steep learning thresholds — not everything could be found online.
He had to admit, for most people, not knowing where to start was often the main reason they gave up on learning something new.
"I'm not greedy," he had thought, "if I could just get detailed guidance on learning three things, that'd be enough. And if it even came with a fully realistic simulation lab, that'd be perfect."
Thinking that, he drifted off to sleep.
When he woke up, he had turned into an infant. Struggling out of his mother's womb, he cried loudly after taking his first breath of air.
He heard a man's excited voice, a woman's congratulatory voice, and a gentle yet weak female voice. Before he could understand what was happening, his newborn body exhausted itself and he fell asleep again.
Over the next full year, he gradually realized he was no longer in his original world.
He had felt lost, afraid, and had missed his parents from that old world — but he knew there was no way back. All he could do was accept it.
While praying silently for his parents' wellbeing, he threw himself fully into adapting to this new world.
The language here wasn't too different from his previous one, so learning it came easily to Aosqin. Once he learned to speak, he realized he was in the world of Douluo Continent.
The existence of the Spirit Hall and his twin brother Oscar confirmed it — this was the world of the first Douluo Dalu.
Knowing that, Aosqin naturally began planning his future.
Well, actually, there wasn't much to plan. With his twin brother Oscar around, just clinging tightly to the main character group's leg would practically guarantee a safe life.
As for whether he could become a Spirit Master himself — with Oscar's innate full spirit power, being his twin brother meant he couldn't be that bad off.
He also had other ways to ensure he'd have spirit power. But for now, it was time to eat.
Thinking that, Aosqin quickened his pace, caught up to Oscar, and together they pushed open the door and entered the house.
Inside, a bearded man was already sitting at the table, while a young woman in her early twenties, dressed in a simple cloth skirt, was setting dishes on the table.
Looking closely, the phrase "gentle as water" suited her perfectly. Seeing the two children enter, both the man and woman smiled warmly and urged them to wash their hands and eat.
The table was already filled with fried meat and bread, and the aroma wafting through the air made Aosqin's stomach growl loudly after his morning exercise.
Ignoring his brother's competition, he quickly washed up and sat down, devouring the delicious breakfast.
In less than five minutes, the food on the table was gone. After eating, the brothers Oscar and Aosqin obediently helped their mother clean up the dishes.
Their father, Aubergine, began packing up the goods he would bring to Soto City to set up their stall — their family's livelihood.
Soon after tidying up, Aubergine called to his wife to get ready to leave."Shuangshuang, let those two boys clean up themselves. We need to hurry or we'll miss the morning market crowd in the city.
Also, Aosqin, after cleaning up, take your brother to your uncle Aubert's place and help him out, just like before. Don't spend the whole day playing."
As soon as he finished speaking, a slightly reproachful female voice came from the kitchen:"All right, all right, I know Xiao Qin is sensible, but Xiao Ka isn't bad either. They're only three years old — it's not like our family's so poor we can't afford to eat."
Even though her tone carried mild blame, it was still full of gentleness. Despite her words, Yun Shuangshuang still gave a few instructions to her sons before leaving the kitchen and heading out with her husband.
As ordinary villagers, they indeed needed to start their day early to make a living.
From the kitchen came Aosqin's voice: "Dad, Mom, be careful on the road. Come back early tonight. I'll look after Oscar."
"Hey, I'm the older brother! I should be the one looking after you," came Oscar's slightly unwilling and somewhat guilty protest.
As for why he felt guilty — it was because, even in his short life so far, he knew that his younger brother was indeed smarter than him and seemed capable of handling anything well.
(End of Chapter)