Awakening Martial Souls

In the courtyard near the foot of the mountain, three village children stood in a line. Their expressions made it easy to see just how nervous they were.

"Children, don't be nervous. There won't be any danger during the Martial Soul awakening process," Lin Yueyao said with a smile.

Seeing her gentle, kindly smile, the children seemed reassured and finally calmed down quite a bit.

After soothing the three children, Lin Yueyao took six black stones from her Storage Soul Tool under Lin Yan's watchful gaze. She arranged them into an array on the ground, then said, "Xiao Song, you go first."

Among the three, the boy named Li Song stood at the very front.

Hearing Lin Yueyao call his name, Li Song nervously glanced at his parents.

Only after receiving his parents' encouragement did he walk toward the array on the ground.

"Xiao Song, don't be nervous. You can do it!"

Lin Yan cheered Li Song on from the side. They were the same age and lived in the same village. Lin Yan had grown up playing alongside the three of them.

"Mm!" Li Song nodded, then stepped into the center of the array.

Lin Yueyao raised a hand and sent a stream of Soul Power into each of the six stones.

The originally black stones abruptly turned golden. The next moment, countless golden specks of light drifted out and entered Li Song's body.

"Xiao Song's father has an inherited sickle Martial Soul, while his mother's Martial Soul is a plate. Unless there's a mutation, his Martial Soul should be one of those two."

After dying suddenly in his previous life, Lin Yan had arrived in Douluo Continent with his memories intact. He was therefore extremely curious about this world's unique Martial Souls.

There were not many people in the village, and he had long since learned exactly what Martial Souls every family possessed. Li Song's family was no exception.

A moment later, under Lin Yan's watchful gaze, an utterly ordinary sickle appeared in Li Song's hand.

Seeing this, Lin Yan thought to himself, Just as expected!

It was a standard, ordinary sickle. Clearly, there had been no mutation.

Everyone in this world possessed a Martial Soul. Martial Souls were divided into Beast Martial Souls and Tool Martial Souls. Beast Martial Souls were animals, while Tool Martial Souls were objects. Plants also counted as Tool Martial Souls.

Martial Souls varied in strength.

The stronger the Martial Soul, the stronger the Soul Master could become.

The sickle Martial Soul was one of the relatively weak Tool Martial Souls.

That was not strange. Ninety-nine percent of people in this world possessed weak Martial Souls. Only the less than one percent had the qualifications to cultivate as Soul Masters!

After awakening a Martial Soul, the next step was testing Innate Soul Power.

Martial Souls were something everyone in this world possessed.

Innate Soul Power, however, was not.

Innate Soul Power ranged from level one to level ten. Level one was the lowest, while level ten was the highest.

The higher one's Innate Soul Power, the greater a Soul Master's talent. Level ten was known as Innate Full Soul Power and allowed one to directly obtain their first Spirit Ring. If it was level zero, it meant they could not cultivate and could only remain an ordinary person for the rest of their life.

Lin Yueyao took out a crystal ball.

After Li Song withdrew his Martial Soul under Lin Yueyao's guidance, he immediately placed his hand on the crystal ball.

No light appeared on the crystal ball. Lin Yueyao glanced at Li Song, shook her head regretfully, and said, "Xiao Song, you don't have Innate Soul Power. You cannot cultivate or become a Soul Master!"

At those words, Li Song, his parents, and his family all wore despondent expressions.

From anticipation to disappointment.

It was the emotional journey most people in this world had to experience.

Lin Yan silently watched from the side. Without Innate Soul Power, one could not cultivate, meaning the Martial Soul was useless. It could only serve as an everyday tool, such as for cutting grass.

The second to step forward was a girl named Wang Chuner. Her Martial Soul was a rolling pin, and her Innate Soul Power was also zero.

Only the last boy, named Sun Shaoqiang, tested with level-one Innate Soul Power. His Martial Soul was a kitchen knife. Although it was equally ordinary, the presence of level-one Innate Soul Power meant he could at least cultivate. He had hope of becoming a Soul Master in this life.

After seeing everyone off, Lin Yueyao did not put away the Spirit Stones needed for awakening Martial Souls. Looking at Lin Yan, she said, "Xiao Yan, you're six years old now as well. Let's awaken your Martial Soul today."

"Alright!" Lin Yan nodded excitedly.

Every six-year-old child in this world looked forward to the day they awakened their Martial Soul.

Lin Yan was naturally no exception. Moreover, as someone who had transmigrated, he anticipated this kind of extraordinary power even more.

Lin Yan confidently walked into the center of the Awakening Array.

Witnessing Li Song and the others fail with his own eyes did nothing to shake his confidence.

Because he knew very well that things like Martial Souls and Innate Soul Power depended on bloodline—or, in other words, one's parents.

As the old saying went, dragons gave birth to dragons, phoenixes gave birth to phoenixes, and rats' children dug holes.

As long as one's parents were talented and outstanding Soul Masters, their descendants' talent would usually not be poor.

Of course, mutations occasionally occurred. For example, Tang San's teacher, Yu Xiaogang from Douluo Continent I, was a typical case.

As the young clan leader of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, with a father who was a Titled Douluo standing at the peak of the Soul Master world, he had only half a level of Innate Soul Power because of a mutation. He was practically crippled, and at his advanced age, he was still merely a level-twenty-nine Soul Grandmaster.

Lin Yan did not know who his father was, but his mother was undoubtedly exceptional—perhaps even monstrously so.

Three years ago, when she was only in her early twenties, she had already displayed the cultivation of a Six-Ring Soul Emperor.

In the Soul Master world, that made her an absolute peerless genius, one in ten million.

For that reason, he often felt puzzled.

In terms of talent, his mother had become a Soul Emperor in her early twenties.

In terms of appearance, she was worthy of being called breathtakingly beautiful. Someone like her would absolutely be considered a goddess-level figure in the Soul Master world, so why had she brought him to live alone in seclusion in such a small mountain village?

And for a full six years at that!

There had to be some hidden reason behind it!

"Mother's Martial Soul is a short-handled spiked club, a power-attack Tool Martial Soul. I wonder what Martial Soul I'll awaken? Will it be a spiked club like Mother's, or will I inherit a Martial Soul from the bloodline of the father I've never met?"

With those thoughts in mind, Lin Yan felt somewhat uncertain.

As a descendant, he could inherit either parent's Martial Soul.

It depended on whose Martial Soul was stronger. The stronger it was, the greater the chance of inheriting it.

"Xiao Yan, Mommy is going to begin!" Lin Yueyao said seriously.

"Mm, I'm ready." Lin Yan nodded solemnly.

Lin Yueyao once again raised her hand and sent out a stream of Soul Power. Bright specks of light gathered around him, and Lin Yan immediately felt as though he had fallen into a hot spring, his entire body warm and comfortable. The next moment, a mysterious power suddenly erupted from deep within his body.

The next moment, a black short-handled spiked club appeared in Lin Yan's hand.

The spiked club was thick at one end and narrow at the other.

The thicker portion was evenly covered in one-inch conical spikes, occupying a third of the spiked club's length.

(For reference: Kaido's spiked club from One Piece.)

A closer look immediately revealed faint purple currents flickering across the spike-covered striking portion of the spiked club, crackling softly.

Clearly, the spiked club also possessed lightning-attribute attack properties.

"So heavy!" Before Lin Yan could carefully inspect his Martial Soul, he felt an astonishing weight press down from his palm.

Bang—

Unable to hold on, one end of the spiked club naturally dropped and smashed into the ground. The stone-slab-covered ground violently shook, and several square meters of flooring shattered and caved in!

Hiss—

Seeing that power, Lin Yan could not help sucking in a breath of cold air.

This spiked club weighed at least a hundred jin.

Moreover, its destructive power was astonishing. It had merely fallen naturally from a height of seventy centimeters, yet it caused such terrifying damage to the ground!

An ordinary hundred-jin weapon falling naturally from the same height definitely could not cause this kind of destruction. Clearly, it was not as simple as it appeared.