Martial Soul Awakening

Spirit City, orphanage.

Fang Mo sat on the stone steps of the orphanage, staring blankly at his small, thin hands.

He had been transported here for six years already.

He was the seventeenth child sent here, so the orphanage matron called him "Little Seventeen."

Fang Mo ignored what the matron called him, because he had a name he had used for more than twenty years—Fang Mo.

These past few days, he had been focused on one thing: confirming the current timeline.

Qian Xunji was dead!

News of his death was no secret in Spirit City.

The previous Pope had died suddenly, and the new Pope, Bibi Dong, had taken the throne. The entire city was caught in the turbulence of a changing of power.

The atmosphere in the streets was taut, like a string that could snap at any moment.

There were three times as many patrolling Soul Master guards as usual. The undercurrents between the Elder Hall and the Pope Palace were so obvious that even the orphanage matron could sense them.

Qian Xunji had only just died, and Bibi Dong had only just taken office.

Fang Mo rapidly searched through the original story's timeline in his mind. From Bibi Dong's ascension to the battle at Jialing Pass, there were roughly thirty years.

Thirty years. If events followed the pace of the original story, he had enough time to grow from an orphan into a powerhouse.

Thirty years sounded like a long time.

But for an orphan with no Martial Soul, no background, no system, and no lucky encounters, he was not even sure whether he could live until tomorrow.

So he had to stay calm!

The original story was his only weapon.

He knew the course of the world, knew of the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well, and knew the key points in the next thirty years.

The value of that information was immeasurable, but only if he lived long enough to reach those days.

He sorted through the key figures in his mind.

Qian Renxue, Bibi Dong's daughter and Qian Xunji's bloodline.

According to the original story, she was around nine years old now and should already have been brought into the Consecrated Hall by Qian Daoliu for training.

Fang Mo remembered clearly that Bibi Dong's attitude toward Qian Renxue was extremely complicated.

It was not merely dislike. Every time she saw that child, she was reminded of the trauma Qian Xunji had inflicted upon her.

Qian Renxue was the most sensitive chess piece in all of Spirit Hall's power struggle, and also the greatest knot in Bibi Dong's heart throughout her life.

There were also Hu Liena, Xie Yue, Yan... the Golden Generation meticulously nurtured by Spirit Hall.

At this point in time, they should have been between seven and nine years old and already entered Spirit Hall's preparatory training camp.

These children were Spirit Hall's core investment, and the Elder Hall personally oversaw their growth.

Fang Mo knew their strength and their fates very well. However, they were all still just children.

And right now, the most important thing was...

"Little Seventeen!"

The matron's shrill voice came from the courtyard. "Today is the awakening ceremony! All children over six, gather in the front yard!"

Fang Mo's pupils suddenly contracted.

It was here! The most important moment was here!

Martial Soul awakening.

The front yard was a small open space, its ground swept spotless.

A man in a Spirit Hall uniform stood in the center, with a fist-sized blue Awakening Stone beside him.

Seven children were urged into a line. The oldest was eight, while Fang Mo was the youngest.

The middle-aged man swept his eyes over them, a trace of impatience on his face.

For an awakener, awakening the children of an orphanage was the dullest assignment.

Most of these children's parents had been low-level Soul Masters or ordinary people. The chance of them awakening powerful Martial Souls was minuscule.

"One at a time. Place your hand on the Awakening Stone and focus."

The first child stepped forward.

He awakened a hammer Martial Soul, with Level Two Innate Soul Power.

The awakener casually wrote it down in his record book without even raising his head.

The second awakened a gray rabbit, with Level One Innate Soul Power.

The third awakened a withered blade of grass, with zero Innate Soul Power.

The matron sighed in disappointment and quickly pulled those children aside.

Fang Mo stood quietly at the end of the line. He looked calm on the surface, but his mind was already racing.

What would his Martial Soul be?

If he awakened some worthless Martial Soul with zero Innate Soul Power, then all his plans would turn to bubbles.

"Next."

Fang Mo took a deep breath, then slowly walked forward.

Looking at the Awakening Stone within reach, Fang Mo slowly raised his right hand and placed his palm against its cold surface.

"Focus."

The awakener said it mechanically.

Fang Mo closed his eyes.

Blue light lit up.

This was normal.

When the Awakening Stone received a soul resonance, it emitted blue light. The intensity of that light corresponded to a Soul Master's potential.

The awakener gave it a careless glance, his pen ready to record the result at any moment.

The blue light lasted less than a breath.

Then it changed!

The blue radiance was frantically swallowed by Fang Mo, rapidly dimming, deepening, and growing heavy.

The entire process took no more than three breaths, yet everyone clearly saw the change.

Darkness.

Not ordinary darkness.

The instant the blue light vanished completely, a thick, almost tangible darkness surged from Fang Mo's body and spread in every direction.

"What—!"

The awakener staggered back a step, and his record book fell to the ground with a smack.

Centered on Fang Mo, that darkness drove back every ray of light around it.

The children screamed and fled in all directions.

Fang Mo did not move.

He stood at the center of the darkness, his eyes tightly shut.

This was not the aura of a soul beast, nor was it something that should appear during a Martial Soul awakening.

It was a kind of... divinity.

Cold, filled with resentment and unwillingness, as though it were divinity that had crawled out from a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

Wrapped in ultimate darkness, it coiled slowly around Fang Mo like an invisible venomous snake.

Fang Mo's breathing stopped for an instant.

Then.

The darkness gathered before Fang Mo.

It no longer spread aimlessly. Instead, it converged toward a single point.

It compressed, twisted, and stretched—as if invisible hands were using darkness as clay to mold a silhouette.

A human form.

It was the outline of a woman.

Her figure was slender and graceful, her long hair cascading down to her waist like a waterfall.

Her features were still indistinct, shrouded by a mist-like veil of darkness. Yet even so blurred, she radiated a breathtaking beauty.

And an innate pressure that made people instinctively want to kneel before her.

The entire yard fell deathly silent.

The awakener stood there with his mouth open, but no sound came out.

He had performed awakenings for twenty years. He had seen beast-type Martial Souls and tool-type Martial Souls, but never a humanoid Martial Soul.

Fang Mo opened his eyes.

He knew what this was.

Jialing Pass. The Rakshasa God. Bibi Dong after her defeat.

More clearly than anyone present, he understood what this phantom represented.

A woman who had been defeated and died on the battlefield, a soul filled with resentment and unwillingness, had now been reborn as his Martial Soul.

The darkness did not last long.

The awakener collapsed onto the ground, the back of his uniform soaked through with cold sweat. His mouth opened several times before he finally forced out one sentence.

"Th-this... Let's test your Innate Soul Power first."

Fang Mo lowered his head to look at his palm, then placed his hand on another stone.

"Innate Full Soul Power!"

The awakener cried out in shock.

But there was not the slightest joy on Fang Mo's face.