Huo Ling

(Brain storage area. Leave your brain behind and live worry-free.)

At Stone Creek City's Stone Creek No. 3 High School, a dark-skinned boy sat by the classroom window, propping his chin on one hand. He was Huo Ling, and he was gazing listlessly at the noisy classroom.

It was already senior year. The students had just returned from summer break and were still suffering from vacation syndrome, with no sense that school had actually started.

"What'd you do over break? You got so much darker."

After fooling around with the other classmates for a while, his deskmate returned to his seat, looked Huo Ling over, and asked in surprise.

"Moved bricks..."

Huo Ling's family was struggling financially. Both his parents were ordinary factory workers, and he had two younger brothers. Their meager wages barely kept a family of five afloat.

During the break, Huo Ling, already a senior, had found work as a laborer at a construction site to earn some money for the household.

"You really moved bricks?!"

"What else? Look at these muscles."

As he spoke, Huo Ling pulled up his sleeve and flexed his arm, showing off what a summer of bricklaying had done for him. His muscles bulged as he tensed them.

"Damn, impressive!"

His deskmate felt Huo Ling's muscles and couldn't help feeling envious.

"Know where I went over break?"

Then his deskmate lowered his voice.

"Where?"

Huo Ling leaned back against the desk behind him, relaxed, and asked lazily, his eyes narrowing slightly.

He knew his deskmate like the back of his hand. One look at the guy's ass, and he could tell whether he was about to fart or take a dump.

The guy was obviously about to start bragging. If Huo Ling didn't let him finish, he'd be as miserable as someone constipated after holding it in for three days.

"My dad signed me up for a wilderness survival course. I trained for a month, and now I feel insanely strong!"

His deskmate grinned broadly, his words brimming with pride.

"So you're getting ready to head to the Spirit Realm."

Huo Ling shifted, leaned against the wall, and rested his head on one hand as he teased him.

"You bet! Once I succeed at Spirit Awakening, I'll be your big brother. I'll look out for you!"

His deskmate waved a hand grandly, brimming with confidence.

"Sure. I'll be waiting..."

"What about you? You're going to have to get ready for Spirit Awakening this year. Want to go together?" his deskmate asked.

"Me? I'll see..."

Huo Ling answered perfunctorily with his eyes closed.

As soon as his eyes shut, his thoughts began to wander.

Spirit Awakening was a new term that had appeared on Blue Star less than three hundred years ago.

More than three hundred years ago, the world had been a barren wasteland devoid of the supernatural, commonly known as an Age of Waning Magic. Power belonged to the collective.

But then an unexpected event occurred, and the world changed dramatically.

Blue Star had been captured by the Spirit Realm!

The Spirit Realm was an incomprehensibly vast world where the supernatural was everywhere. As Blue Star drew closer and closer to it, the supernatural elements within the Spirit Realm began flowing toward Blue Star, like water running downhill. They poured into Blue Star without end.

What was more, spatial rifts and gateways between planes appeared from time to time, allowing humans to travel to the Spirit Realm.

Of course, creatures from the Spirit Realm could also travel to Blue Star.

For Blue Star, this was both a revolution and a catastrophe. Many creatures in the Spirit Realm possessed supernatural powers. It was hardly easy for ordinary humans on Blue Star to resist them by force.

Fortunately, the great will of the Spirit Realm welcomed the arrival of a new world. Various supernatural legacies contained within the Spirit Realm came to Blue Star as well.

With the help of technology and the supernatural powers that gradually emerged, the people of Blue Star managed to defend their home and began to explore the Spirit Realm.

Spirit Awakening had been devised by the sages during this period. Blue Star had once been barren of the supernatural, and everything on it had been mundane.

Although supernatural energy from the Spirit Realm had seeped in, transforming Blue Star would still take a great deal of time.

Then someone discovered that if they ventured deep into the Spirit Realm, captured and compressed its aura, and brought it back to Blue Star, releasing it there would speed up the supernatural energy's influence on humans.

Once the supernatural energy in a human reached a certain level, the Spirit Realm would capture that person and transport them there.

When humans entered the Spirit Realm, some lucky ones would succeed at Spirit Awakening with the help of its abundant magic power, transforming from ordinary people into beings capable of cultivation.

Only those captured by the Spirit Realm itself could have their bodies transformed. Anyone who entered the Spirit Realm through another portal would lose the chance to undergo this transformation forever.

This was the leap from a fish to a dragon.

Make it across, and you could rise above others. Supernatural beings could improve through cultivation, choosing from dozens or even hundreds of paths: warrior, knight, Sorcerer, Mage, wizard, and more.

The supernatural world was a place people longed for, and a class they envied.

From then on, the world was divided into two: the supernatural and the ordinary.

The ordinary class was nearly fixed. If they never became supernatural, all the lower-class ordinary people could do for their entire lives was work hard and scrape together enough to eat.

They worked hard to raise children, hoping their own would succeed at Spirit Awakening and become supernatural.

When the classroom suddenly fell silent, Huo Ling looked up. Their homeroom teacher had arrived at the front of the classroom.

He looked over the students and their spirits, then nodded in satisfaction.

"Class, we've been together for three years, and now it's finally time to part ways."

"This semester... will be the turning point in your lives."

"Class monitor, hand out these forms." The teacher surveyed the classroom, looking at the students' young faces.

The class monitor distributed a form to everyone in order.

Huo Ling glanced at his: Stone Creek No. 3 High School Spirit Awakening Application Form!

"Take this form home today and discuss it with your parents. If you want to participate in Spirit Awakening, fill it out and hand it in to me tomorrow."

Spirit Awakening was dangerous, and not everyone who tried it would succeed. So the government didn't require every child to undergo it.

More than three hundred years had passed since the supernatural appeared. Blue Star had long since made it through its most dangerous period. The people of Great Xia had now ventured beyond Blue Star, with many entering the Spirit Realm to exploit and plunder it.

Ordinary people who wanted to join this boom, much like the Age of Exploration, or rise up the social ladder would choose to undergo Spirit Awakening.

The government of Great Xia didn't arrange for ordinary children to study the Spirit Realm from a young age.

First, educational resources were limited. Second, the top of the pyramid was already crowded; there was no need for more people to climb up.

Educational resources were limited, and so were supernatural resources. At present, Great Xia only needed batch after batch of supernatural leeks.

That was why Spirit Awakening was scheduled for the second semester of senior year. If you wanted to take a chance, you could study the Spirit Realm and, in the end, take part in a game of chance with your life on the line.

If you didn't want to gamble, you could study ordinary subjects and become an ordinary cog in Blue Star's workforce: a factory worker, a service worker, someone in entertainment, and so on.

The children of the powerful didn't have to take such a gamble. They had better education, better resources, and better equipment. Even their chances of succeeding at Spirit Awakening were higher.

From the moment you were born, almost everything was already decided.

So... would you take the gamble?

Huo Ling gripped the application form tightly. He knew he had to take the gamble. Even if it cost him his life, he had to seize this one and only chance.

Otherwise, the rest of his life would be no different from his parents'...

"All right, you've worked hard cleaning the classroom today. You can go home now. Don't stay out late."

When the bell rang from the school's tallest building, their homeroom teacher promptly dismissed them.

The students scattered at once.

Huo Ling did too. He grabbed his schoolbag, climbed out through the window beside him, and rushed straight for the school gate.

Even though school had started, he still had a part-time job at a restaurant near home, where he worked as a waiter.

Waiters at restaurants like that had it rough, and part-timers had it especially bad. They had to serve dishes and clear tables, and sometimes even help wash dishes.

What? You think dishwashing is too dirty and exhausting, so you won't do it?

Then you can leave...

Huo Ling worked there from six to eleven every day, earning twenty yuan a day. (The economy for ordinary people is based on the 2000s.)

It wasn't bad pay, but it wasn't great either. Now that school had started, there weren't many part-time jobs he could do. At least the restaurant provided a meal, which was pretty good.

He hurried into the restaurant, changed into his uniform, and started his shift.