Sacred Awakening, Child of Light (I)

Long Xingyu said, "Spiritual power is divided into external and internal. External Spiritual Power refers to the changes and enhancement of your own body. Simply put, it means training your physical body until its strength and flexibility reach a certain level. But merely increasing physical strength has its limits. That limit is two hundred spiritual power."

"I told you before that for any profession, advancing from the second tier to the third is a watershed. The vast majority of people can never break through the second tier and enter the third realm in their entire lives. From a knight's perspective, that means being unable to cultivate Internal Spiritual Power. From a mage's perspective, it means being unable to guide the elements of heaven and earth for one's own use."

"Although your External Spiritual Power can still improve, if you wait until it approaches two hundred before cultivating Internal Spiritual Power, you will only get half the result for twice the effort. The year I had you meditate was preparation for Internal Spiritual Power. As Internal Spiritual Power increases, the strength of one's body will rise along with it. When evaluating a true powerhouse's total spiritual power, it is measured by adding Internal Spiritual Power and External Spiritual Power, without counting the amplification from skills."

"Give me the Awakening Stone you brought back from Haoyue Branch Temple." Long Xingyu held out his hand to Long Haochen.

Long Haochen hurriedly handed the yellow stone to his father.

Long Xingyu said, "Over the next two years, I will teach you to cultivate Internal Spiritual Power while training your External Spiritual Power to its peak. You will also learn the mysteries of spiritual stoves. But before that, I must complete the most solemn ritual of us knights for you: Sacred Awakening."

Long Haochen listened attentively. He had woken from his dreams very early that morning, and at that time, he had secretly sworn that he would never let what worried his father come to pass. He would cultivate with even greater diligence than before and not disappoint his father's painstaking efforts.

Long Xingyu continued, "From a certain perspective, we knights cultivate both magic and martial arts. Martial techniques are the various skills and methods of using spiritual power that I have taught you, including Internal Spiritual Power in the future. As for our magical attribute, there is only one: the sacred Light Attribute."

"This Awakening Stone I had you bring back can change anyone's innate attribute to light. The stronger one's innate spiritual power and the more one's physique leans toward light, the better the effect during awakening. But the sacred light magic of us knights differs from that of mages. Mages use magical elements through their understanding of them, while we rely on our own spiritual power to invoke and stimulate the Power of Light. The Knight Temple publicly calls this method of use the power of faith. But in truth, the deeper a knight's understanding of the Ten Great Precepts, the more powerful their sacred light magic will be. Do you understand?"

After thinking for a moment, Long Haochen said, "Dad, does that mean that as long as we knights diligently cultivate Internal Spiritual Power, we can express it in two different forms: martial techniques and sacred light magic?"

Long Xingyu was instantly taken aback upon hearing this. He had never imagined that Long Haochen would gain such insight so quickly.

"That's right, you can understand it that way. A knight's spiritual power is the source of both martial techniques and magic. This is entirely different from those aberrant magic warriors among warriors, who can never amount to anything. All right, I'm going to awaken you now. Come outside with me."

As he spoke, Long Xingyu led Long Haochen out of the wooden cabin and up to the mountaintop.

With a casual wave of his left hand, a layer of clear golden light spread out from Long Xingyu's body. In the blink of an eye, it transformed into a golden dome five zhang tall and ten zhang in diameter, enveloping father and son within.

The dense aura of light seemed to cleanse Long Haochen's soul in an instant. Bathed in that golden radiance, he felt as though everything about him was being sublimated. Compared to the Holy Aura Li Xin had released when using the Ascension Array, this golden dome Long Xingyu had casually cast was like the glow of a firefly beside Haoyue.

"This is Light's Protection, a high-level defensive skill for knights. Haochen, close your eyes and focus inward. No matter what you feel next, you must remain calm and quietly sense the changes within yourself. Especially your understanding of light. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

Long Xingyu looked at his son before him, drew a deep breath, and slowly raised the Awakening Stone in his right hand. He had not told Long Haochen that compared to the Sacred Awakening undergone by ordinary knights, the pain Long Haochen would have to endure would be far greater. His spiritual power had not yet reached one hundred and ten. Compared to those who only underwent knight awakening upon reaching the peak of Quasi-Knight, the burden on his body was easy to imagine. Of course, this would also develop Long Haochen's potential for light to the greatest extent possible.

According to the rules of the Knight Temple, prematurely undergoing Sacred Awakening was strictly forbidden. They feared it would leave aftereffects on a knight; if it failed, there could even be danger to one's life.

Of course, Long Xingyu was not gambling with Long Haochen's life. No one understood the mysteries of the Sacred Awakening process better than he did. The rules of the Knight Temple held no meaning for Long Xingyu. Long Haochen possessed spiritual power far beyond that of ordinary people. At the same time, he had a pure, kind, flawless heart. Coupled with the fact that he had already met most of the knights' Ten Great Precepts, and with Long Xingyu's precise control, success was practically inevitable. Long Haochen would simply have to endure considerable pain.

Dazzling golden light lit up in Long Xingyu's hand, its brilliant radiance surpassing the morning sun in the sky almost instantly. Yet none of that light leaked outward; it was all contained within the dome by Light's Protection. At this moment, the figures of Long Xingyu and his son could no longer be seen within the dome.

Long Haochen suddenly felt the air around his body grow hot. At the same time, a current of heat rose within him, as if a sun had suddenly appeared inside his organs. The crystalline, translucent sensation made him instantly realize that countless pathways seemed to have appeared throughout his body, every one of them an extension of the sunlight within him.

With his eyes closed, he saw a bright golden color—the gold within his body. At that very moment, intense pain erupted.

A faint layer of gray gas burst from Long Haochen's pores, vanishing with a soft puff amid the golden radiance. Those were the impurities within his body, the purifying effect of the Sacred Awakening process.

In the instant of purification, Long Haochen felt as if ten thousand sharp arrows had pierced through his body. At the same time, that burning sensation became even more intense.

Sacred Awakening was not merely the process by which knights gained the ability to transform spiritual power into sacred light energy and cast magic. It was also a process of cleansing a knight's soul and body. The reason knights who had undergone Sacred Awakening rarely betrayed their faith was precisely because of this.

Long Haochen's body trembled violently. If anyone could have seen the situation within Light's Protection, they would have discovered that fine threads of blood were steaming from every pore of Long Haochen's body. Yet it was precisely amid this process that a ring of golden light gradually emerged at the center of his chest, growing ever brighter.