[Douluo Dalu] Ten Shadows Techniques, but as a Martial Soul

At the age of six, Zenin Shizukage awakened the strongest technique his family had hoped for over centuries: the “Ten Shadows Technique.”

Then he died at six.

A stab in the back, dealt by his own clan. The cold, suffocating estate, the endless training, the twisted belief that anyone who wasn’t a Zenin wasn’t a sorcerer, and anyone who wasn’t a sorcerer wasn’t human: it all pierced his heart along with that short blade.

He thought he was finally free.

When he opened his eyes again, he was lying in an unfamiliar forest. The wound in his back was still bleeding, and his fragile life was ebbing away once more. The air was so clean it seemed to belong to another world.

It really was another world.

Douluo Dalu, where Martial Souls reign supreme. Someone found him and took him in. His name was Flender: stingy, gruff, but soft-hearted, and head of a rundown academy.

“No name? Then pick one for yourself.”

He thought for three days, then named himself Su Nian'an. May he live in peace from now on.

In this world, his Martial Soul was still the “Ten Shadows Technique,” but he cultivated it in a way completely different from other Soul Masters. His Martial Soul retained the same system as the technique from his previous life. Once he subdued a shikigami, it would become his Soul Skill and serve him.

As long as he had the ability, he could achieve the feat of becoming a Titled Douluo at just six years old.

Divine Dogs, Nue, Great Serpent, Toad, Max Elephant, Rabbit Escape, Tiger, Round Deer, Piercing Ox, and... Mahoraga.

The farther he went, the closer each trial brought him to death.

But every time, a voice would pull him back to the world of the living.

“An'an, if you don’t wake up, I’m going to kiss you!”

It was the boy who was always grinning as he offered him a sausage. Oscar, Shrek Academy’s most shameless “Big Sausage Uncle,” had a face that was impossible to shake off.

He was the first to notice when Su Nian'an was alone, nursing his wounds, and offered him the utmost care. When nightmares woke Su Nian'an in the middle of the night, he brought him a bowl of hot soup. Every time Su Nian'an silently pushed everyone away, he would grin and squeeze into the only spot beside him.

“Are you annoying or what?” Su Nian'an said.

“Annoying,” Oscar said. “But you don’t send me away.”

Su Nian'an never did send him away. He didn’t know when he had started getting used to it: the sound of another person’s footsteps behind him, the figure in the corner of his eye who always needed protecting during a fight, that person’s warmth and scent, and the infuriating refrain, “An'an, call me big brother.”

In his previous life, his clan had treated him like a tool, and an assassin had stabbed him through the heart from behind. He thought that was simply what people were like, that warmth was only the prelude to betrayal.

But Flender’s awkward concern showed him that someone here cared whether he lived. Ma Hongjun’s carefree chatter showed him that friends were there to annoy each other. Tang San showed him with a nod that some understanding needed no words.

And Oscar, through countless reckless approaches, showed him

You deserve to be loved.

Friends had been an impossible dream in the Zenin clan, a despised word. Here, it became real.

The shadow he had despised in his past life became a weapon to protect the people he loved. How could he stand by when the person who had suddenly entered his world was so fragile?

Mo Xi was bewitched by Oscar’s good looks, so she decided to write this story.

Original protagonist uke x Oscar seme

The canon pairing of Ning Rongrong and Oscar will be broken up.

The story follows the main cast, and no character will be unfairly bashed.

The protagonist won’t be a mere plot device. Our little protagonist will have his own trials and growth.

If anything differs from the original, consider it Mo Xi’s own setting.

Theme: Love is the most twisted curse, but also the strongest divine technique