Butterfly Transforms into Butterfly, Fish Becomes Dragon (Good Luck on the Gaokao!)

After a night of scouting, Yang Fan had already determined his current location and timeline.

It was likely East Sea City, the primary map for the future East Sea F4, and the timing should be around the day of Tang Wulin's martial soul awakening.

Yang Fan could easily deduce this from the discussions in the roadside food stalls, where people were talking about what kind of talent the little princess of the Xu family, Xu Xiaoyan, would display at her awakening ceremony tomorrow.

He knew there was a reason for everyone's high expectations and enthusiasm.

Xu Xiaoyan's father was the head of the Xu family and the current Deputy Director of Finance for East Sea City, a position he would successfully transition into fully during the period when Tang Wulin arrived in East Sea City.

Xu Xiaoyu was also a genius; while many might not remember the name, he was well-known as the first love rival of the son of the God King Tang, the man who had successfully wooed Tang Wulin's first love, Ouyang Zixin.

In a world where martial souls could be inherited through bloodlines, as long as Xu Xiaoyan didn't suffer from a malignant or incomplete mutation like the legendary Grandmaster, it was hard for her not to become a genius in such a family.

That was indeed the case, though the girl had a typical "Buddhist" personality, and her level of slacking off in the early stages was no less than Xie Xie's.

Although the public paid a great deal of attention to Xu Xiaoyan, she merely sneezed.

"Mm... Achoo!"

The sneeze did not interrupt what Xu Xiaoyan was doing.

She was curled up on a soft bed covered in pink lace, her two light-blue twin tails swaying with the movement of her turning pages.

She held a romance novel in her arms that was larger than her small face, her chubby little hands pinching the pages, her large, watery eyes staring unblinkingly at the lines of text, her breathing even softening.

Seeing the male lead make a heartfelt confession to the female lead, she couldn't help but purse her small lips, two faint blushes appearing on her cheeks as she giggled secretly like a kitten that had stolen a candy.

She was completely immersed in her own little world, looking both earnest and adorable.

Tomorrow was the awakening day, but Xu Xiaoyan was neither looking forward to it nor worried about it.

Anyway, my brother has great talent and has already been chosen by Father as the heir. I, Xu Xiaoyan, just need to slack off!

Rather than considering a life of fighting, killing, and deception after becoming a soul master, it was better to look forward to whether she might find a handsome, gentle, and considerate prince like the ones in her novels to take her away from home and travel the world.

Six-year-old Xu Xiaoyan fell asleep while thinking these silly, naive thoughts, not even closing the book in her hands.

The sound of light snoring accompanied the girl's sweet dreams in the room.

Caterpillars turn into butterflies; fish become dragons.

Martial soul awakening was like the college entrance exam of his previous life; countless people sought to transform into dragons once they encountered the wind and clouds during this assessment.

Using the mimicry effect of his soul skill, Yang Fan easily blended into the Spirit Pagoda.

He had experienced the awakening ceremony of the Douluo Continent twenty thousand years ago once before, and he wanted to see if this era of the Legend of the Dragon King was any different, while also seeing if he might run into Xu Xiaoyan, Xie Xie, or other minor characters from the original work.

Aside from Xu Xiaoyan, whom he was certain would come, Yang Fan couldn't say for sure about the others.

In this era, martial soul awakening was already widespread; besides the Spirit Pagoda, Shrek, the Tang Sect, and even various families within the Federation likely had their own channels for awakening martial souls.

Xu Xiaoyan coming to the Spirit Pagoda for her awakening was likely due to some cooperation between the Xu family and the Spirit Pagoda, with the Xu family putting forward the genius Xu Xiaoyan to help build the reputation of the East Sea Spirit Pagoda.

Influenced by his modern background, Yang Fan knew without thinking that every Spirit Pagoda branch had its own KPIs, and the worst-performing ones would likely have their resources cut.

At this moment, the plaza outside the East Sea City branch of the Spirit Pagoda was crowded with people, mostly parents holding their children's hands.

The adults whispered instructions while occasionally looking up toward the Spirit Pagoda, their eyes filled with both anticipation and a hint of nervousness.

The children didn't have so many thoughts; some looked around curiously, while others clutched their parents' sleeves, waiting quietly.

Staff members outside the tower held rosters and called out names one by one.

The children whose names were called stepped out of the line and followed a guide into the nearby awakening room.

Some children went in skipping, but came out with their heads down and red-rimmed eyes—most likely because their martial souls were not ideal.

Others came out full of excitement, chattering non-stop while pulling their parents' hands, and the parents following behind them smiled as well.

Midway through, a stretched, luxurious, and noble-looking soul-guided car pulled up to the edge of the plaza.

Seeing the little girl with blue twin tails following beside Minister Xu, the onlookers recognized her identity—the much-talked-about Xu Xiaoyan.

The Xu family did not use any special privileges to cut in line, waiting honestly for the Spirit Pagoda to call their name.

It wasn't until Xu Xiaoyan's name was called that she followed the Spirit Pagoda staff inside, encouraged by her father.

The awakening room was small and domed, with a glowing magic circle drawn in the center. The spirit master in charge of the awakening stood beside the circle, following the same routine every time: having the child stand inside, injecting soul power, waiting for the martial soul to manifest, and then measuring the innate soul power.

It was no different when it was Xu Xiaoyan's turn.

"Close your eyes and try to feel your martial soul, understand?"

The spirit master whispered, sticking a glowing talisman onto Xu Xiaoyan's forehead.

Xu Xiaoyan nodded obediently and closed her eyes, looking like a blue-haired, twin-tailed doll.

The spirit master stepped back outside the magic circle and took a deep breath.

She crouched down slightly, her fingertips touching the edge of the circle, and light blue radiance spread from her fingertips, falling into the pitch-black star trails on the ground.

"Activate."

Following her whisper, light began to fill the entire circle, resembling a river reflecting starlight.

Yang Fan stood in the corner of the room, watching the scene before him, a flash of surprise crossing his eyes.

It seemed that the power relying on magic circles twenty thousand years later made it easier to tap into the potential of martial souls.

If he had been assisted by such a magic array when he first awakened, he likely would have reached rank 3 soul power even without consuming that piece of Whale Glue he had obtained by chance; even if it hadn't reached rank 3, rank 2 shouldn't have been a problem.

Pale blue light particles overflowed from the array, gradually rising and converging toward the sleeping Xu Xiaoyan. They circled the girl gently, and a faint smile appeared on her face as a pure, shimmering ice staff slowly manifested over her chest.

Supported by these light particles, the girl's body floated half a meter into the air.

The ice staff on her chest began to greedily absorb the light from the array; besides the pale blue, there was even a faint golden glow mixed within.

The Spirit Master tilted her head back, stopping the output of her soul power. Her body went limp from overexertion, and she collapsed onto the edge of the array, gasping for air.

She had presided over many martial soul awakenings today, but this was the first time she had been so drained. As expected of the Xu family bloodline; she should receive news of a promotion and a raise tonight.

Su Yunxi felt a surge of excitement as she thought about it.

It was said that her ancestor had once presided over the martial soul awakening of the Sea God himself; surely, she was no worse than her ancestor.

This little girl definitely had innate soul power of rank eight or higher.

The light of the array gradually dimmed, but those particles did not dissipate; instead, like a cluster of stars, they gently embraced the girl's martial soul.

"Star Wheel Ice Staff... absolute crowd control," Yang Fan couldn't help but mutter.

He didn't notice that his muttering had already been heard by Xu Xiaoyan, who had just finished her martial soul awakening.

Xu Xiaoyan blinked her adorable, large eyes, glancing toward the spot where Yang Fan was standing.

She had an intuition that someone was over there, observing her.