Golden Finger

As everyone filed out of Spirit Hall, Village Chief Old Jack hurried over to greet them. "How did it go, Master? Did anyone awaken a Martial Soul this year?"

Su Yuntao glanced at the old village chief and sighed.

"Two did. One awakened Soul Power at level six today, and the other had Innate Full Soul Power. But that one's Martial Soul was a Trash Martial Soul—Blue Silver Grass. Now you understand, right? All right, I have to head to the next village, so I'll be going."

The old village chief murmured, "Trash Martial Soul, Blue Silver Grass?"

"Who was the other one?"

Seeing the old village chief ask, Su Ming hurriedly answered, "Grandpa Village Chief, that was me. One of my Martial Souls is Cloud,"

"The other one is Tang San, and his Martial Soul is Blue Silver Grass."

Anxious to inspect the information the Furnace in his mind had just sent him, Su Ming said to Old Jack, "Grandpa Jack, I just awakened my Martial Soul and want to test it out, so I'll head back first."

With that, he left.

Back home, Su Ming lay on his bed and closed his eyes, sensing the information the Furnace had just sent into his Sea of Consciousness after his Martial Soul Awakening.

"Vast Void Creation Furnace"

[Heaven and earth as the furnace, creation as the craftsman.]

Function One: Refine energy or matter.

Function Two: Manipulate creation and bring forth all things.

Seeing the description of Function One, Su Ming immediately thought of countless ways to use it.

Then he looked at Function Two: "Manipulate creation."

The Creation Furnace could also absorb energy and condense it on its own, but the process was too slow.

The Vast Void Creation Furnace could condense Creation Qi by itself, without needing to be fed other energy or matter. It condensed one thread every seven days.

It could also extract Soul Power from his body to generate Creation Qi, strengthening his body and Martial Soul. It was practically a cure-all.

After learning how to use the Vast Void Creation Furnace, Su Ming was beyond excited. Once he had calmed himself, he stretched out his right hand and summoned his Martial Soul, ready to strengthen it.

A cloud emerged from his right hand. He began studying his Martial Soul. To strengthen it, he first needed to figure out what direction it should evolve in. He thought about how clouds formed.

Clouds formed when the sun evaporated water vapor. What about the clouds in the sky? They brought wind, rain, snow, and thunder. They had quite a few attributes: wind, lightning, water, and ice. Right, they could also turn into mist to evade attacks, so that meant space, too.

He took out the Creation Qi that the Creation Furnace had condensed over six years. There were more than three hundred threads in total. He planned to keep one hundred and split the rest evenly into two portions, one to strengthen his body and the other to strengthen his Martial Soul.

He took out one portion and was about to strengthen his body, cleanse his meridians and marrow, and increase his Innate Soul Power when something suddenly occurred to him.

"No."

"I can't do this in the village. If cleansing my meridians and marrow hurts, I might cry out and draw Tang Hao over. Better go to the stream behind the village. I can wash off the impurities there, too."

Su Ming put away his Martial Soul, got up, and headed out to the stream behind the village.

As soon as he left the house, he ran into Grandpa Jack, who had just walked Tang San home.

Seeing Su Ming hurry out, Old Jack quickly called after him:

"Su Ming, where are you rushing off to, you rascal? Hold on. I have something to tell you."

Hearing Grandpa Jack call him, Su Ming stopped and turned to look at Old Jack.

"Grandpa Jack, I was going to catch a few fish in the water."

"I just went to see Tang San. I'd originally thought of giving Tang San our village's Work-Study Student spot this year and having you wait another year, but Tang Hao refused. So the spot is yours this year."

Su Ming thought it over. To avoid anything going wrong, he said,

"Grandpa Jack, since Tang San's family doesn't want the spot, you can give it to me. But what if he changes his mind and wants to go?"

"How about this? Master Su Yuntao said the other villages didn't have anyone awaken Soul Power this year. Grandpa Jack, could you ask the other villages and see if they'd give their spot to our village?"

Old Jack thought about it. The well-behaved, sensible Tang San might really persuade Tang Hao to change his mind and let him attend the academy. After all, as long as Tang San hunted a Soul Ring—even a ten-year one—he could become a Soul Master.

"All right, go have fun. I'll ask around first thing tomorrow morning."

Seeing that Grandpa Jack had agreed, Su Ming jogged to the stream behind the village. He glanced around to make sure no one was there, then went to a calm stretch of water and crouched in the stream, with only his head above the surface.

He took out the Creation Qi and began strengthening his body. The agony he had expected never came. Su Ming only felt a warm current nourishing his whole body; it felt wonderful. Black impurities began to appear on his skin, but the stream soon washed them away.

After rinsing himself off, Su Ming stepped out of the water. His skin was as white as jade, and his whole body felt clear and pure.

Feeling the change in himself, Su Ming was overjoyed. This Golden Finger was incredibly useful.

He quickly took out the other portion of Creation Qi and began strengthening his Martial Soul. As the Creation Qi purified and washed over him,

Su Ming had just recovered from the clear, pure feeling of having his meridians and marrow cleansed when he sensed his Innate Soul Power rapidly climbing: level seven, level eight. Nourished by the Creation Qi, his Innate Soul Power rose from level six to level eight.

After sensing the change in his Soul Power, Su Ming took a deep breath and suppressed his delight. Then he focused again on his right hand.

A pale white cloud slowly appeared, floating lightly above his palm. It looked ordinary, even a little unremarkable.

This was his Martial Soul—Cloud.

Focusing on his Martial Soul's changes, he found that he could summon it and stand on it to fly, and that he could also use lightning.

It had also gained an innate Martial Soul ability: condensing Water Element and summoning a cloud overhead to make it rain and heal.

To test his Martial Soul's ability to fly, Su Ming summoned it, climbed aboard, and flew toward a spot upstream where there were lots of fish.

As soon as he climbed on, he wobbled and fell off. To avoid an accident while flying, he sat down to control his Martial Soul instead. He didn't dare use its wind attribute to speed up, so he could only fly slowly upstream.

Before long, a school of Grass Carp was swimming lazily in the water upstream. In the distance, a cloud with a person on it wobbled and plunged into the stream.

Su Ming, who hadn't been sitting steadily, crashed into the water. Seeing that the fish were about to scatter, he summoned his Martial Soul and channeled Soul Power into it. Lightning Power burst from his body and spread in every direction.

When he saw fish floating belly-up, he stopped channeling Soul Power and put away his Martial Soul. On the bank, he saw that more than ten fish had been stunned. Su Ming picked out the three biggest ones and planned to use his Martial Soul's innate ability to heal the rest and see what happened.

After picking them out, Su Ming looked at the fish stunned in the stream and raised his hand. A huge cloud formed above the water.

Su Ming activated his Martial Soul's innate ability, and a light drizzle began to fall from the cloud. The stunned fish were splashed by the rain and immediately started leaping about again. After the shower, the grass on the bank turned greener, the water it had touched grew clearer, and even the air felt fresher.

Looking at the places the rain had reached, Su Ming thought, My Martial Soul's innate ability is pretty good.

Carrying the three fish, he summoned his Martial Soul, climbed aboard, and controlled it as he flew toward the village.

He wobbled past the west end of the village and flew to the front of Tang San's house. Seeing Tang San chopping wood outside, he greeted him smugly.

"Tang San, check out my Martial Soul. How's my flying?"

Tang San, who was chopping wood outside, had sensed something flying overhead a while ago. But when he saw it was Su Ming, he was still surprised.

"Su Ming, is this one of your Martial Soul's abilities?"

"Yep, yep. Here, take a fish. I just caught it."

"By the way, did your father agree to let you go to the academy?"