Summoning Ten Ten-Thousand-Year Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bears (First Soul Skill)

Jiang Yuandong, an elder of the Nording City branch of Spirit Hall, had lived for fifty-seven years and presided over more than thirteen hundred spirit awakening ceremonies.

He had seen Flame Dragon Spirits that spewed fire, powerful beast spirits capable of raising storms, and had even been fortunate enough to witness a branch mutation of the legendary Seven Treasure Glazed Tower.

But he had never seen the sky split open when someone awakened their spirit.

Of course, that came later.

For now, sunlight filtered through the gaps in the training ground's dome, breaking into patches of gold across the floor.

The six-year-old children stood in a crooked line, their chattering noise making Jiang Yuandong's temples throb.

He had never personally attended awakening ceremonies in previous years.

He was a level fifty-six Soul King, someone who could make all of Nording City tremble with a stomp of his foot. There was no need for him to preside over an introductory ceremony for a bunch of snot-nosed brats.

But this year was different.

Word had it that among this batch of new students was a collateral descendant of a great noble family from the Heaven Dou Empire, whose spirit might be a high-grade tool spirit.

For that reason, Jiang Yuandong had specially changed into a brand-new gray robe and polished the badge on his cuff, which marked him as a fourth-rank elder of Spirit Hall, until it gleamed.

"First one, come up."

A chubby boy was pushed onto the awakening platform and shakily pressed both hands against the enormous crystal ball.

Blue light flashed, and the phantom of a hammer appeared above his head.

Jiang Yuandong glanced at the soul power measuring device.

Level three.

"A tool spirit. Innate soul power level three. Some potential. Next." he announced blandly.

The second child stepped onto the platform. The crystal ball glowed red, and the phantom of a Fire Fox leaped out, tiny flames curling around its tail.

Jiang Yuandong sat up straighter.

A beast spirit, and a fire-type one at that. Innate soul power level five.

"Good potential." He rarely said more than necessary. "Go home and tell your family that they can send you to an intermediate soul master academy next year to give it a try."

A buzzing murmur of envy immediately rose from the line.

The next few were utterly unremarkable, until that noble descendant stepped onto the platform.

He wore fine clothes and a jade belt, his chin tilted high as though he were a proud peacock.

The crystal ball blazed with golden light.

The phantom of a golden short blade hovered in the air, light flowing along its edge as a sharp aura rushed forward.

"Golden Blade Spirit! Innate soul power level seven!"

Jiang Yuandong stood and clapped three times.

Level seven. In a small place like Nording City, producing even one in ten years was enough to make people burn incense in gratitude.

"As expected of noble blood." Jiang Yuandong stroked his beard, in an excellent mood.

"Next."

The end of the line was silent.

Jiang Yuandong frowned and looked over, only to find one child still standing at the very back.

He was entirely different from the other excited, nervous, curious six-year-olds.

Quiet.

Far too quiet.

The boy wore an old shirt washed pale with age. Its sleeves were too short, exposing two thin wrists.

His hair was somewhat messy, obscuring half his face. The visible eye was a pale color, like a thin layer of ice frozen over a river in winter, without a trace of warmth.

An assistant came over, flipped through the registry, and reported in a low voice, "Elder, his name is Su Chen. He is an orphan adopted by an old herb farmer outside the city. He has no family background."

The boy who had just awakened the Golden Blade Spirit glanced back and let out a snort of laughter.

"An orphan came here to awaken too? Stop wasting the elder's time. Go back and grow your herbs."

Several children nearby joined in with mocking laughter.

Su Chen ignored everyone's gaze.

He took a step forward and walked toward the awakening platform.

His pace was neither fast nor slow, and every step landed steadily. In the empty training ground, those faint footsteps sounded strangely distinct.

Jiang Yuandong looked at him twice more.

An indescribable instinct made this old elder, who had overseen more than thirteen hundred awakening ceremonies, sense that something was unusual.

Like the suffocating stillness in the instant before a storm arrived.

"Put your hands on it." Jiang Yuandong composed himself and spoke in a businesslike tone.

Su Chen pressed his palms against the crystal ball.

The next second, the crystal ball exploded.

It did not light up, nor did it flicker. It exploded.

Golden fragments shot in every direction. Jiang Yuandong's body reacted faster than his mind, and a soul power barrier instantly unfolded, blocking the lethal shards flying toward the children.

His Gray Shadow Wolf spirit even emerged from his body on its own without being summoned. Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black—five soul rings spun wildly.

All the soul power of a level fifty-six Soul King was forcibly pushed to its limit in that instant!

It was not because he wanted to release it.

His spirit was terrified. It was defending itself beyond his control!

An indescribable aura surged wildly from the six-year-old child's body.

Jiang Yuandong's first reaction was not shock, but suffocation.

It felt as though an invisible mountain had crashed down onto his chest.

No, not a mountain.

A mountain had boundaries, but this aura had no end.

The sky above the training ground changed color.

Dark clouds rolled in from every direction at an utterly unnatural speed, as though an invisible hand were forcibly gathering them together.

Thunder rumbled deep within the clouds, one clap after another.

Above Nording City, an enormous black vortex appeared and slowly turned, a strand of indescribably eerie light showing through at its center.

Behind Su Chen, something lit up.

Jiang Yuandong narrowed his eyes, struggling to see what was within that light—

It was a throne.

An enormous throne formed of dark golden light hovered silently three feet behind Su Chen.

Above the throne's backrest floated nine mysterious circular slots, arranged in an arc as though waiting for something to fill them.

The first slot was glowing. Golden light flickered within it, the frequency growing faster and faster.

Jiang Yuandong's mind completely crashed.

He searched through everything he had learned in his life, running every known classification of spirit through his mind—beast spirits, tool spirits, mutated spirits...

Nothing.

There was absolutely no spirit in Spirit Hall's highest archives that looked like this!

"Th-this... what is this...?"

His voice squeezed out from his throat, so dry that even he found it unfamiliar.

Then he remembered something.

Soul power! He had not tested Su Chen's soul power yet!

Jiang Yuandong trembled as he pulled out Spirit Hall's specially made soul power measuring device from his sleeve.

The instant its needle approached Su Chen, it went completely mad.

It suddenly shot toward the bottom, slammed against the end, sprang back, then rushed downward again and bounced back once more.

After repeating this three times, the needle snapped into place at the highest mark and did not move at all.

Innate full soul power.

Level ten.

Clang.

The soul power measuring device slipped from Jiang Yuandong's trembling hand and crashed onto the floor.

He opened his mouth, his voice completely out of tune. "Innate... innate... full soul power. Level ten."

The entire venue fell deathly silent.

Even the six-year-old children stopped crying, pinned in place by that invisible pressure, barely daring to breathe.

The Golden Blade boy's face turned white as paper.

However, the true terror had only just begun.

The first slot of the Void Throne suddenly blazed!

Black light shot into the sky!

A soul ring slowly descended from the center of the black vortex overhead.

Black.

A ten-thousand-year soul ring.

It spun as it descended, precisely settling around Su Chen's body.

Jiang Yuandong's voice tore apart completely, trembling with tears:

"A soul ring attached itself automatically! He did not even kill a soul beast! The soul ring came to him on its own!"

He did not know that at that very instant, on the edge of the Star Dou Great Forest thirty miles outside Nording City, an arrogant Ten-Thousand-Year Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear suddenly collapsed without warning. Confusion still lingered in its eyes, but its essence had already been forcibly extracted by godlike power spanning space.

The black soul ring stabilized around Su Chen and began to rotate.

The training ground's floor cracked.

Not one crack, but ten.

Ten beams of dark golden light shone through the fissures. The hard stone tiles lifted one by one, shattered, and turned to powder.

The instant the first Dark Golden Terrorclaw Bear stepped out of a crack, Jiang Yuandong's Gray Shadow Wolf spirit let out a mournful cry and completely retreated into his body.

One.

Two.

Three.

Ten.

A full ten!

Every one of them stood over three meters tall, their entire bodies covered in dark golden metallic scales. The terrorclaws on their forelimbs, longer than a human forearm, reflected a chilling cold gleam.

Ten Ten-Thousand-Year Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bears stood silently behind Su Chen in two rows.

The training ground's floor continued to collapse beneath their immense weight, spiderweb-like cracks spreading from the center all the way to the surrounding walls.

Crack—

Enormous visible fissures appeared in the walls.

The pressure of ten ten-thousand-year soul beasts erupted at the same time.

It was not an attack directed at anyone. Their mere existence was enough to crush everything.

Among the new students, the children collapsed one after another.

Some cried. Some could not even cry, rolling their eyes back before fainting outright.

The Golden Blade boy's legs gave out, and with a thud, he dropped to his knees. A foul-smelling liquid rapidly spread through his pants.

Jiang Yuandong's legs shook like sieves. He clung desperately to the awakening stone platform behind him just to keep from kneeling as well.

His teeth chattered wildly as he forced out each word through the gaps:

"Ten... ten-thousand-year... Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bears... ten of them..."

Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bears, one of the ten great ferocious beasts of the Star Dou Great Forest!

A single ten-thousand-year specimen was enough to force every soul master in Nording City to join hands and fight bitterly for three days and three nights!

And now, there were ten here.

Ten legendary ferocious beasts stood behind a six-year-old child like the most loyal guards.

There was not the slightest trace of ferocity in their dark golden vertical pupils. Instead, they were as docile as house dogs waiting for their master's touch.

The wind stopped.

The thunder faded.

The enormous black vortex in the sky slowly dissipated as well.

Sunlight fell once more, shining on Su Chen and the ten metallic beasts behind him, casting ten enormous shadows that blotted out the sky.

Su Chen raised his head.

He glanced at Jiang Yuandong—the strongest soul master in Nording City. At that moment, his face was pale and greenish, his lips trembled, and the five soul rings within him cowered in silence.

Su Chen's expression did not change at all, as though he were merely asking something trivial.

"Does this spirit... qualify?"

The training ground was deathly silent. No one answered.