Martial Soul Awakening

Under Xiaofei's anticipation, three days passed quickly.

Three days later, besides Village Chief Jack and the nine children who had arrived, there was also a young man in the Spirit Hall. He looked to be in his twenties, with sharp brows, bright eyes, and an exceptionally handsome face. He wore a white outfit suited for combat, with a black cape behind him. At the center of his chest was a fist-sized character: "soul."

This was the standard attire of personnel directly affiliated with the Spirit Hall. On his left chest was a badge engraved with a longsword, bearing a total of three crossed swords.

Someone as familiar with Soul Masters as Old Jack knew that the number three represented the third rank of Soul Master titles: Soul Grandmaster. The longsword, meanwhile, represented the fact that this Spirit Hall deacon was a Battle Spirit Master.

"Greetings, respected Battle Soul Grandmaster. We'll have to trouble you this time." Old Jack respectfully bowed to the young man.

A faint pride showed between the young man's brows. He gave a slight, neither warm nor cold bow in return. "I don't have much time. Let's begin now." Old Jack said, "All right. Children, this is a great Soul Master from Notting City. Next, he will guide you through awakening your martial souls. You must cooperate with the master during the awakening. Grandpa hopes that one of you will be able to become a soul master."

The young man said somewhat impatiently, "All right, you said the same thing last year. Is becoming a soul master really that easy? I've already visited six villages, and not a single person had soul power. There weren't any suitable martial souls either."

Xiao Fei had secretly been watching the young man. So this was the legendary Su Yuntao, known as the Blind Douluo. A landmark figure in the eyes of countless transmigrators, he had witnessed the rise of the Tang God King.

The young man's gaze fell upon the eight children before him. As an inspector deacon of the Spirit Hall, helping ordinary people awaken their martial souls was part of his job. He had long since grown used to it.

"Children, line up." His attitude toward the children was much gentler. The nine children stood before the young man. Tang San stood second from the end, while Xiao Fei deliberately stood at the very back. He had two reasons for this. First, he wanted to carefully watch Tang San's martial soul awakening and see whether it truly matched the original story. Second, he felt that he had the best physical condition and was the tallest of them all, so he ought to make the final appearance. In his memories, the protagonist always appeared last. Then I'll be the protagonist.

The young man smiled. "My name is Su Yuntao. I am a level twenty-six Great Soul Master and your guide. Now, I will awaken your martial souls one by one. Remember, no matter what happens, do not be afraid."

As he spoke, Su Yuntao opened his bundle on a nearby table and took out two items: six pitch-black round stones and a shining blue crystal ball. He arranged the six black stones into a hexagon on the ground, then gestured for the first child on the right to stand inside it. "Don't be afraid. Close your eyes and feel carefully." As he spoke, Su Yuntao's eyes suddenly lit up. Under the terrified gazes of the children, he gave a low shout. "Lone Wolf, possess!" A faint green light emerged first from the center of his brow, traveled upward along his forehead, and entered his hair. Su Yuntao's hair had originally been black, but after the green light entered it, it instantly turned gray and rapidly grew longer. Fur of the same color appeared on his exposed hands, while his body seemed to swell considerably larger than before, becoming packed with muscles. The Spirit Hall's special uniform was highly elastic and did not burst despite his enlarged frame. Su Yuntao's eyes had turned a dim green, while claws extending from the ten fingers of both hands glimmered with a faint cold light. Two rings of light rose from beneath his feet and continuously circled from his feet to the top of his head. One was white, and the other yellow, making for a particularly eerie sight.

The child called into the circle of black stones was a boy. Seeing the changes in Su Yuntao's body, he immediately cried out, "Ah—" and tried to run away in fright. The green glow in Su Yuntao's eyes was indeed terrifying. He grabbed the child. "Don't move. I told you not to be afraid. This is my martial soul, the Lone Wolf. If any of you become soul masters in the future, you'll be able to use the same kind of ability."

Everyone had been frightened by Su Yuntao. After all, village children were naturally afraid of wolves. Xiao Fei carefully observed Su Yuntao. His body had become wolf-like, somewhat like a transformation in a novel. He should possess certain wolf-like traits, such as physical strength, speed, defense, and so on. Was this the advantage of beast martial souls? In the early stages, martial soul possession gave the body some of an animal's strengths.

Su Yuntao quickly struck out with both hands, sending six faint green lights into the six black stones on the ground. At once, a hazy golden radiance emerged from the stones, forming a pale golden barrier that enveloped the child from before.

"Hold out your right hand." Su Yuntao stared at the boy with his dark green eyes and gave the command sternly. The boy instinctively extended his right hand. Instantly, all the points of light surged forth, and in the next moment, a sickle appeared in his palm. It did not seem like an illusory projection of light, but something that truly existed. Su Yuntao frowned. "A tool martial soul. Can a sickle be used as a weapon? Barely, I suppose."

"Place your right hand on the crystal ball and see whether you have innate soul power." The boy did as instructed and placed his hand on the crystal ball, but it did not light up. "No innate soul power. You cannot become a soul master." The child looked deeply disappointed.

Seven children were tested in succession, and none had innate soul power. When it was finally the eighth child, Tang San's turn, Xiao Fei became excited. He wanted to see whether he could witness the beginning of that rise.

Sure enough, just as the original story said, Tang San awakened an ordinary Blue Silver Grass in his right hand, with almost nothing unusual about it. Yet his left hand remained tightly clenched. Seeing that it was Blue Silver Grass, Su Yuntao looked disappointed. "This is the Blue Silver Grass martial soul, a standard trash martial soul. It is the most common trash martial soul on the Douluo Continent. It basically has no possibility of becoming a soul master."

After Tang San repeatedly insisted, Su Yuntao tested his innate soul power. The crystal ball shone like a gemstone, its entire surface filled with radiance. Su Yuntao was shocked. "Innate full soul power? This is the first time in all my years of work that I've encountered innate full soul power. What a pity." Thinking of Tang San's Blue Silver Grass martial soul, Su Yuntao's face filled with disappointment.

It was finally Xiao Fei's turn. He stood amid the six black stones, and as Su Yuntao injected soul power, Xiao Fei felt warmth spread through his entire body. Then a mass of flames burst forth from him, followed by the image of a bird covered in fire appearing in his vision. Looking carefully, wasn't this Ma Hongjun's Fire Phoenix from the Shrek Seven Devils? Yet Xiao Fei found something very strange. He felt that something was off with his body, especially his right hand, which felt oddly unnatural.

"Flame Bird? It's actually a Flame Bird! A very good beast martial soul." Su Yuntao looked thrilled. Xiao Fei rolled his eyes at him. What kind of eyesight was that? He mistook a Fire Phoenix for a Flame Bird. He truly deserved the title of Blind God King.

"Come, let's test your innate soul power."

Xiao Fei did as instructed and placed his hand on the crystal ball. The crystal ball lit up, though it was clearly dimmer than it had been for Tang San. "Innate soul power level eight. You can become a soul master, and your potential is tremendous." In Su Yuntao's memories, aside from Tang San, Xiao Fei had the highest innate soul power he had ever encountered.

"Hello, Xiao Fei. My name is Su Yuntao, and I am a deacon of the Spirit Hall. Are you interested in joining our Spirit Hall Academy? You will receive the best training."

Xiao Fei looked hesitant. "I'm sorry, Master Su Yuntao, but I still need to ask my grandfather. There are only Grandpa and me in my family. I want to study in Notting City first, then join the Spirit Hall after I grow up."

Xiao Fei did not have any particular aversion to the Spirit Hall. It was just that the Spirit Hall's internal education was rather standardized, making it unsuitable for individual development. The people it trained were too uniform and generally lacked anything distinctive. In the original story, among the seven members of Spirit Hall Academy who faced Shrek, aside from the Golden Generation's three members, the others had almost no notable performances.

As Soul Ancestors above level forty-five, they were higher in level than everyone from Shrek, yet each performed worse than the last. Even Hu Liena and Xie Yue performed only ordinarily, with barely any outstanding individual ability. Their martial soul fusion skill had actually ended up in a one-on-one fight with Tang San, meaning Tang San alone restrained two Soul Kings. It was truly disappointing. The only one who stood out somewhat was Yan, whose defense and explosive power were both displayed, only for him to be gang-beaten afterward. Besides, there were so many opportunities on the Douluo Continent. If he joined the Spirit Hall, wouldn't all those opportunities go to waste? Xiao Fei did not think he could surpass level forty-five at fourteen years old. Innate soul power level eight was lower than the Shrek group's average.

Su Yuntao led Xiao Fei and Tang San over to Old Jack.

Old Jack nervously came forward to greet Su Yuntao. "Master, how did it go? Do any of the children in our village have a chance of becoming soul masters this year?"

Su Yuntao looked excited. "Two of them awakened innate soul power. Tang San has innate full soul power, but unfortunately, his martial soul is the trash martial soul Blue Silver Grass. The other is Wang Xiao Fei. He awakened the Flame Bird martial soul and has innate soul power level eight. He has excellent prospects for development, but unfortunately, he refuses to go to Spirit Hall Academy with me and wants to stay home."

Su Yuntao knew that Xiao Fei was Old Jack's grandson, so he kept urging Old Jack to send Xiao Fei to Spirit Hall Academy. Old Jack knew that Xiao Fei had his own ideas, so he told Su Yuntao that perhaps Xiao Fei would go to Spirit Hall Academy after graduating from the junior academy. This left Su Yuntao looking disappointed.

After returning home, Old Jack waited until he was sure they were alone before asking, "Xiao Fei, why don't you want to go to Spirit Hall Academy? For commoner soul masters like us, Spirit Hall Academy is the fairest place and has the best environment."

Xiao Fei voiced his thoughts. "Spirit Hall Academy may indeed be relatively better at the beginning, but the internal competition is too intense and unsuitable for individual development. I have other ideas and goals that cannot be accomplished at Spirit Hall Academy."

There was another reason he did not mention: he did not want to work under that crazy woman Bibi Dong. If Bibi Dong had not repeatedly acted so foolishly and gone easy on them in the original story, Shrek would never have been able to develop. For the sake of his own life, it was better to stay away from idiots and cherish life.

Returning to his small room, Xiao Fei summoned his martial soul. He still felt that something was strange. After summoning his Fire Phoenix martial soul, he felt that his flames were not very pure, as though impurities had been mixed into his phoenix fire—and there seemed to be quite a lot of them.

This was probably the evil fire that Ma Hongjun had in the original story. His innate soul power was even one level lower than Ma Hongjun's, so the evil fire problem was likely even more severe. If he wanted to continue cultivating, he first had to find a way to suppress his evil fire.

There was also something else. Xiao Fei always felt as if he had two martial souls, but he could not discover the other one. He kept feeling that something about his body was wrong, as though his right hand did not quite belong to the rest of his body.

The original story described this in great detail, and parts of it were referenced here. It could also be considered a sign of respect for the original story.