Bearing the Weight of the Rock Pattern, an Eleven-Year-Old Soul King

At eleven, Yuan Yu's Soul Power broke through to level fifty.

This time, the Rock Pattern awakened.

It wasn't as loud as Lightning or as light as the Wind Pattern.

The moment it awakened, the Sun Wheel Blade grew three times heavier.

Yuan Yu was sparring with Yan at the Training Ground.

The sudden weight nearly dragged his wrist down.

Yan threw a punch.

Yuan Yu raised his blade to block it.

Bang!

This time, Yuan Yu wasn't the one forced back.

Yan was.

Yan stumbled back three steps and looked down at his numb fist.

"What did you do now?"

Yuan Yu looked down at his blade too.

"I'd like to know."

The ground trembled faintly.

The Rock God's Divine Sense descended.

"The fifth of the Ten Thousand Manifestations Nine Trials: Bearing the Weight of the Rock Pattern."

"Trial: Withstand three levels of crushing pressure on the Gravity Stone Platform while protecting all nine Soul Lamps. Not one may go out."

"Reward: A God-given Spirit Ring bestowed by the Rock God."

A black stone platform rose from the center of the Training Ground.

Nine Soul Lamps stood upon it.

Their flames were so weak that a gust of wind looked enough to extinguish them.

Yuan Yu stepped onto the platform.

The first level of pressure fell.

His shoulders sank.

The second level fell.

His knees bent.

When the third level fell, a dull rumble shook the entire platform.

All nine Soul Lamps flickered at once.

Yuan Yu understood.

Standing firm himself wasn't enough.

He had to protect the lamps too.

The Rock God was testing what he could bear.

Not just the weight on his own shoulders.

Hu Liena, Xie Yue, and Yan stood below the platform.

Ling Yuan and Azure Luan had come too.

Bibi Dong stood farther away, watching the boy on the platform.

Yuan Yu tried shielding the lamps with the Water Pattern.

The water curtain had barely risen before the pressure crushed it apart.

The Wind Pattern didn't work either.

Wind could carry the pressure away, but it couldn't protect all nine lamps.

The Flame Pattern was even less suitable.

The moment fire appeared, the lamp flames grew unsteady.

In the end, he could only grip the Sun Wheel Blade.

The Rock Pattern lit up.

The blade grew terribly heavy.

Every time he raised his hand, it felt as though he were lifting a boulder.

Yuan Yu drove the blade into the platform.

His Soul Power sank through the blade into the ground.

Rings of dark yellow rock pattern rose around the nine Soul Lamps.

Their flames steadied a little.

The first incense stick burned down.

Sweat covered Yuan Yu's forehead.

Then the second incense stick.

His arms began to shake.

At the third incense stick, the pressure on the platform intensified again.

One of the nine flames suddenly bent outward.

Yuan Yu raised a hand and pressed down.

The Sun Wheel Blade grew heavier still.

He gritted his teeth and held steady.

Then a second flame began to waver.

Then a third.

The nine Soul Lamps were like nine lives. He couldn't let a single one go out.

Yuan Yu remembered the people trapped by the flood in Water God's Illusion.

He remembered the guards caught in lightning chains inside the Thunder Array.

And he thought of the people close to him.

The medicine Qian Renxue had given him.

The worry Ling Yuan couldn't hide when she scolded him.

Azure Luan's quiet protection.

Bibi Dong's coldly spoken words: "You cannot die."

Ordinarily, none of these things felt heavy.

Now they all weighed on his shoulders.

Bearing the Weight of the Rock Pattern.

What he bore wasn't stone.

It was the people and responsibilities he couldn't simply abandon.

Below the platform, Yan frowned.

"He's going to get crushed like that."

Xie Yue said, "The Divine Trial won't stop just because he's in pain."

Hu Liena said softly, "But he's only eleven."

Ling Yuan said nothing.

She wanted to say the same thing.

But Yuan Yu was no longer the child she had once hauled to the Awakening Hall by the back of his collar.

He was an eleven-year-old, level-fifty Soul Ancestor.

Soon, he would be a Soul King.

He had chosen the Ten Thousand Manifestations Nine Trials himself.

That path was never going to be easy.

On the platform, Yuan Yu's vision began to darken.

An image of Stone Breathing surfaced in his mind.

Heavy.

Steady.

A weapon wielded in both hands like an axe, its strike defined not by speed but by weight.

Stone Breathing.

First Form.

Serpent Rock: Twin Poles.

Yuan Yu gripped the Sun Wheel Blade with both hands.

The Rock Pattern on the blade blazed to life.

"Stone Breathing: First Form."

"Serpent Rock: Twin Poles!"

The blade's edge swept left and right.

Two thick rock patterns spread beneath it, coiling around the nine Soul Lamps like stone serpents.

The crushing pressure fell.

The lamps stayed lit.

The fourth incense stick.

The fifth.

Until the final moment, all nine lamps remained alight.

But Yuan Yu didn't let go at once.

He was afraid they would go out if he did.

The Rock God's voice sounded beside his ear.

"Knowing when to let go is part of bearing the weight."

Yuan Yu froze for a moment.

Only then did he slowly release the hilt.

All nine Soul Lamps remained lit.

Their flames were small, but steady.

The Rock God's Divine Sense descended, calm and firm.

"Bearing the Weight of the Rock Pattern: Passed."

The fifth God-given Spirit Ring rose from the ground.

A dark gold ring settled around the Sun Wheel Blade.

Rock Elemental Mastery was his.

Five God-given Spirit Rings lit up behind Yuan Yu at once.

Water blue, red-gold, violet-white, blue-green and dark gold.

His Soul Power broke through.

Level fifty-one.

Level fifty-two.

It finally stopped at level fifty-three.

Eleven years old. A level-fifty-three Soul King.

The Training Ground fell silent.

Yan stared at Yuan Yu for a long while before saying, "And I'm still supposed to fight him when I turn twelve?"

Xie Yue said, "You can try."

Yan looked at Xie Yue.

"You think I can win?"

Xie Yue's expression remained calm.

"I didn't say that."

Hu Liena burst out laughing.

Yuan Yu stepped down from the platform. His face was pale, but he still smiled.

"Brother Yan, is our fight when you turn twelve still on?"

Yan was silent for a moment.

"It is."

Yuan Yu raised an eyebrow.

Yan gritted his teeth. "I can lose, but I'm not backing out."

Yuan Yu looked at him, his smile fading a little.

"All right."

"Then let's both give it our all."

Hu Liena handed Yuan Yu a cloth.

"Wipe off your sweat first."

Yuan Yu took it. His hand was still trembling.

"Thanks, Sister Nana."

Xie Yue looked at the nine Soul Lamps on the platform.

"Why didn't you let go at the end?"

Yuan Yu thought for a moment.

"I'm afraid the light will go out."

"Didn't the Rock God say that letting go is also a way of bearing the weight?"

"I heard him."

"Then why are you still afraid?"

Yuan Yu smiled.

"There's a beating between understanding it and actually doing it."

Yan sat on the steps and muttered, "That was one hell of a beating you took."

Yuan Yu looked at him.

"So don't hold back when we fight at twelve."

Yan looked up.

"Who do you think you're looking down on?"

"Good."

That eased some of the frustration in Yan's heart.

Yuan Yu was strong.

Absurdly strong.

But he didn't treat them like background figures there to spar with him.

He truly saw them as opponents.

Bibi Dong stood in the distance, watching. For a rare moment, her gaze softened.

Yuan Yu was pushing Spirit Hall's Golden Generation forward.

That wasn't a bad thing.

Qian Daoliu had arrived as well.

He looked at the Five Spirit Rings behind Yuan Yu and spoke slowly.

"A Soul King at eleven."

"Yuan Yu, from this day on, you are no longer just a child under the Worship Hall's protection."

At those words, everyone in the Training Ground turned to Yuan Yu.

The child under the Worship Hall's protection.

Spirit City's little drunkard.

The academy's most outrageous genius.

Those names still fit.

But "an eleven-year-old Soul King" carried an entirely different weight.

Yuan Yu knew it too.

The Five God-given Spirit Rings weren't just for show.

They meant he was ready to step onto a larger stage and face fiercer storms.

Yuan Yu stood straight.

Qian Daoliu said, "You're ready to go out and see this continent."

Yuan Yu's eyes lit up.

Ling Yuan sighed beside him.

She knew.

There was no keeping this boy here anymore.