Sure enough, Long Yuan had barely stepped out through the wall of the Awakening Room when the Spirit Master woke up.
"Damn, what happened to me? My head hurts so much." The Spirit Master clutched his head, but when he saw Na'er watching him, he immediately pretended nothing was wrong.
"The Martial Soul Awakening ceremony is over. Let's see what your Martial Soul is."
His memories still ended at the moment he activated the Soul Guidance Array. Now that the array had stopped running, he instinctively assumed the Martial Soul Awakening ceremony was over.
Na'er held out both hands and looked them over, but neither showed the Soul Seal that indicated a Martial Soul.
"Um, I don't think I awakened a Martial Soul."
"What? No Martial Soul!"
At that moment, the Spirit Master couldn't care less about his headache or maintaining the airs of an expert.
He grabbed an instrument and went over to Na'er, gesturing for her to place her hand on it.
But after a round of examinations, the Spirit Master gave up.
Every test showed that the little girl had no Martial Soul and no Soul Power.
He had planned to restart the Soul Guidance Array and give it another try, but after he activated it, the array no longer had any effect on her.
In other words, Na'er really had no Martial Soul!
"Forget it. You can go out for now."
Na'er obediently nodded and quietly left.
After she was gone, the Spirit Master continued pacing around the room, deeply puzzled as he tried to figure out why this unprecedented situation had occurred.
Of course, this wasn't actually an isolated case, but it was rare. Usually, it was mentioned only in large-scale statistical reports, which were beyond the reach of an ordinary Spirit Master like him.
When they saw Na'er come out, the three of them hurried over to her.
"How did it go, Na'er? What Martial Soul did you awaken?"
Na'er twirled the hem of her skirt with her fingers and answered softly, "The Spirit Master said I didn't awaken a Martial Soul."
"No Martial Soul..." Tang Ziran fell silent for a while, then took her hand and comforted her. "It's not so bad to have no Martial Soul. At least you can live a peaceful life as an ordinary person. In today's society, ordinary people can still get by."
Tang Wulin felt a little disappointed. In his eyes, not having a Martial Soul was a real shame.
"It's okay. Let's head back first. We've been out for so long, and you must all be hungry. I'll make you a feast when we get home," Lang Yue suggested first.
Na'er rubbed her now-hungry belly and said quietly, "Okay."
After lunch, Tang Wulin returned to his room to cultivate.
His Soul Power had advanced quickly over the past year, and he had already reached level six. At most, he would need another year to reach level ten.
That was a full year ahead of the original story's timeline. It was thanks not only to the higher-grade breathing technique Long Yuan had given him, but also to the Golden Dragon King essence Long Yuan occasionally released for Tang Wulin to absorb.
The biggest problem, however, was that Tang Wulin's ability to earn money hadn't kept pace with his rapidly increasing Soul Power. At least in the short term, he still couldn't save up the thirty thousand Federal Coins needed to draw a random Soul Spirit.
But there was still a year to go. He could only take things one step at a time.
Tang Ziran and Lang Yue went out together without saying what they were going to do.
That left Na'er alone in the living room, watching television.
But she was clearly distracted, and the show on TV didn't interest her in the slightest.
"What are you daydreaming about?"
A familiar voice sounded by her ear. The next moment, Na'er felt someone lift her up.
She turned around and looked at the familiar face. Without resisting at all, she sat quietly.
"I don't know..."
"All right. Since you're not busy, how about we chat?"
"Okay."
"Oh? Don't you have anything you want to ask?" Long Yuan raised an eyebrow.
"Is there something I need to ask?"
"...It's fine if you don't ask."
In truth, Long Yuan didn't know what to talk about either. After all, Na'er was just a child who had lost her memory and felt an instinctive closeness to him.
Of course, Long Yuan felt the same way.
Now, with no outside interference and the two of them close together again, Long Yuan felt as if he had developed some instinctive... desire?
He had never felt this way before. It had only begun today, after Na'er awakened her Martial Soul.
Could this be the attraction between the Golden and Silver Dragon King bloodlines?
"How do you like living in this family? Have you ever thought about recovering your lost memories?"
"I think living like this is pretty nice. As for getting my memories back, maybe they'll return on their own when the time is right."
Na'er thought for a moment before answering.
Her intuition was pretty accurate. According to the original story, if nothing changed, her memories would fully return in another two years. Then she would contact Di Tian and the others and have them come take her away.
After that, Long Yuan chatted with Na'er about all sorts of things in their daily lives. Most of all, Na'er told him which foods were the tastiest and where to find them.
They said goodbye only when Long Yuan sensed Tang Ziran and his wife returning.
"Wulin? Are you still cultivating?"
When Tang Wulin heard someone call him, he immediately stopped cultivating.
"Dad? I'm in here. I'll come out right away!"
As he spoke, Tang Wulin put on his shoes and came out of his room.
"Wulin, we ran into your Uncle Mang Tian on the way back. He said that if you're free right now, you should go to his workshop early. Hurry over."
Although Tang Wulin had no idea what had happened, he got ready and set out.
He had a fixed two-hour time slot for forging each day, and there were still two hours before his scheduled time.
"Hey, Wulin, you're early today." A tall young man in his twenties stopped swinging his forging hammer, wiped the sweat from his brow, and greeted Tang Wulin.
"Brother Long, Uncle Mang Tian asked me to come, but I don't know why."
"I see. Teacher's in his office right now. Go see him yourself."
"Got it."
Mang Tian's workshop was called a workshop, but it only had three people: Mang Tian and his direct disciple, Brother Long.
Tang Wulin was just an errand boy. Mang Tian usually taught him in person once a week, and the rest of the time, he mostly assigned him tasks to tinker with on his own.
"Knock, knock—"
"Uncle Mang Tian, it's Tang Wulin. Are you there?" Tang Wulin knocked politely.
"Come on in."
As soon as he opened the door, he saw Mang Tian, whose muscles filled out his clothes.
"Uncle Mang Tian, what did you want to see me about?"
"Wulin, you've been coming here for a year now, haven't you?"
Looking at the child before him, still somewhat young and inexperienced, Mang Tian's eyes filled with emotion.
At first, he had taken the boy in only because of his friendship with Tang Ziran.
Then he discovered that the boy was born with extraordinary strength, and he'd come to appreciate his talent.
When Tang Wulin first started learning forging, Mang Tian had planned to have him hammer iron blocks for three months, so he could get used to the different striking techniques and ways of applying force.
But he learned quickly. It took him only two and a half months to master all the techniques Mang Tian taught him.
Then, in another two and a half months, he learned how to perform basic metal refining. After that, he spent seven months learning to forge small components, and now he was quite skilled at it.
Truly a forging prodigy, Mang Tian thought with a sigh.
"I called you here today because I want to teach you some real skills."
"Real... skills?"