Even when a few children managed to measure their Soul Power, most had only one or two levels. It was hard to say they had much of a future.
Whenever an orphan failed to awaken a Martial Soul, Dean Grandma would gently comfort them and tell them not to be sad.
Yet the disappointment on those children's faces was still hard to hide.
Lu Chen saw it all but said nothing.
That was how cruel Douluo Continent was.
The moment a Martial Soul awakened, many people's lives were already divided onto different paths.
The only orphan who had anything to boast about was a child who awakened a Mutated Martial Soul.
The child's Martial Soul seemed to have mutated from some ordinary plant, and its final form was called Ghost Demon Vine.
It wasn't a top-tier Martial Soul, but among the orphans today, it was the best result.
More importantly, the child had Innate Level 5 Soul Power.
When the result came in, Dean Grandma visibly relaxed, while the child himself was so excited his eyes reddened.
The Cardinal glanced over and nodded slightly, but didn't seem particularly surprised.
He had clearly expected this sort of outcome.
The children born to native residents of Spirit City had better backgrounds. Most of their parents had some connection to Soul Masters, so they were naturally more likely to awaken better Martial Souls.
The children from the orphanage, on the other hand, had complicated backgrounds and widely varying aptitudes. It was no surprise that many of them awakened ordinary Martial Souls.
So the Cardinal didn't pay it much mind.
To him, this was simply a normal occurrence each year.
The line moved forward.
At last, it was Lu Chen's turn.
Dean Grandma looked down at him, her eyes full of encouragement.
"Xiao Chen, go on."
Lu Chen looked up at her and nodded seriously.
"Mm."
He showed no obvious sign of nervousness. He simply stepped toward the Awakening Array.
One step, then another.
When Lu Chen took his place in the center of the array, the Cardinal's gaze settled on him as well.
Perhaps it was because Lu Chen was so calm, or perhaps because Dean Grandma had mentioned his background earlier, but the Cardinal looked at him with a little more attention than he had shown the other orphans.
Still, he said nothing. He merely raised a hand and began pouring Soul Power into the Awakening Array.
As the Soul Power flowed in, the array lit up.
Gentle light rose from beneath Lu Chen's feet, enveloping his entire body.
Lu Chen felt warmth spread through him, as if some force were stirring awake deep within every part of his body.
The sensation was strange. It didn't hurt or feel uncomfortable. Instead, it was as though something long dormant had finally begun to awaken.
He closed his eyes without thinking.
The next moment, the scene before Lu Chen suddenly changed.
He was no longer standing inside the Awakening Temple.
All around him stretched the vastness of space.
Boundless darkness spread in every direction, while pinpricks of starlight glimmered far away, cold and distant.
Before him hung a desolate planet that had already perished.
There was no life on it, no sound—only stillness.
Gray-green gases blanketed the planet's atmosphere, as if overdevelopment had caused its entire environment to change drastically for the worse.
Lu Chen froze.
Before he could understand what was happening, he noticed that the planet before him seemed to be shrinking rapidly.
No.
It wasn't the planet that was shrinking.
He was growing.
A change beyond words took place in his perception.
Lu Chen felt as though he were no longer in a human body, but had become a spherical mass of dark purple, cloudlike energy.
That mass of energy was vast, profound, and cold, yet it carried an aura so sacred it was almost terrifying.
He was enveloping the ruined planet.
Then he devoured it.
Lu Chen's consciousness seemed to float amid it all, watching the dark purple energy he had become spread little by little across the planet's surface, drawing the lifeless world completely inside itself.
Lu Chen felt his physical strength rising at an incredible speed, while his mental power seemed to be breaking through just as fast.
At the same time, a sudden change occurred outside the Awakening Array.
Behind Lu Chen, a spherical mass of dark purple, cloudlike energy appeared.
At first, the energy was unstable, like mist or clouds, slowly circling around some indescribable core.
The Cardinal's calm expression changed abruptly.
Dean Grandma's eyes widened too.
The other children were so frightened by the sudden aura that they stumbled backward.
Then the mass of energy rapidly transformed, actually beginning to condense into a solid form.
Its form was a Colored Dragon, a fusion of a Western dragon and a humanoid figure.
Its body was mainly red and purple, with a golden dragon head and horns, enormous membranous wings, and a long, spiked tail. It was both sacred and savage.
A vast, imposing, sacred, and terrifying form appeared behind Lu Chen.
Though it was only a manifestation during Martial Soul Awakening, it already radiated enough pressure to make people's hearts tremble.
If Lu Chen had been awake, he would have recognized it at once.
It was the top-tier monster from the Ultraman Worldview: the Universe Devourer, Leugocyte.
And that wasn't all.
The instant Lu Chen's Martial Soul appeared, an enormous phantom of Leugocyte appeared above all of Spirit City.
It hung high in the sky, as though it had descended from the depths of the universe.
Its dark purple energy silhouette shrouded the heavens. Its terrifying pressure spread across the city, yet it carried an almost sacred air.
All of Spirit City was shaken.
Countless people looked up at the sky, their faces filled with shock.
Soul Masters felt it even more keenly.
That wasn't a fluctuation an ordinary Martial Soul could produce.
It was an aura far beyond anything they could ordinarily comprehend.
Inside Pope Hall.
Pope Bibi Dong abruptly looked up, her gaze passing beyond the hall's doors as though she could see the terrifying yet sacred phantom in the sky above Spirit City.
Well, actually, she was sensing the aura of a god-level Martial Soul.
Shock showed plainly on her face.
"A god-level Martial Soul..."
Bibi Dong spoke softly, her voice trembling with an emotion she could barely hide.
"Another god-level Martial Soul, just like that beast's daughter..."
She could sense that the aura was anything but ordinary.
Even from a distance, its pressure was unmistakable.
Bibi Dong's gaze quickly turned sharp.
Without the slightest hesitation, she gave an order.
"Gui Mei."
At her words, a shadowy human figure silently appeared in the hall.
The figure seemed to emerge from the shadows, as though it had always been part of the darkness.
The moment it appeared, it bowed respectfully to Bibi Dong.
"Your subordinate is here."
Bibi Dong looked toward the Awakening Temple, her voice steady but full of unquestionable authority.
"Bring the child who awakened a god-level Martial Soul to Pope Hall at once."
Gui Mei asked no questions.
He simply bowed and acknowledged the order.
"Yes."
In the next moment, his body swiftly turned into a black shadow. He left Pope Hall and sped toward the Awakening Temple.
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