Innate Level Twenty

When the level-twenty testing crystal was brought in, the Awakening Hall fell even quieter.

The crystal was larger than the last one, with faint golden lines running through it.

The Red Cardinal held it in both hands, his palms slick with sweat.

Innate Full Soul Power at level ten already marked a genius.

Innate level twenty was a starting point only a God Level Martial Soul could reach.

The most famous example in Spirit Hall was Qian Renxue.

The Six-Winged Angel.

The Angel God's inheritance.

Innate level twenty.

But Yuan Yu wasn't a member of the Qian family.

Nor did he have the Six-Winged Angel.

His Martial Soul was a blade.

A Nine-Patterned Blade no one had ever seen.

Yuan Yu studied the second crystal, looking even more serious than the Red Cardinal.

"Is this one more expensive?"

Ling Yuan gritted her teeth. "Ask me how much it costs one more time, and I'll hang you from the hall doors."

Yuan Yu shut his mouth.

He placed his hand on the crystal.

It lit up at once.

Light surged from the bottom, climbing fast.

Level ten.

Level eleven.

Level twelve.

The Red Cardinal's eyes widened.

The light kept climbing.

Level fifteen.

Level eighteen.

Level nineteen.

At last, platinum light filled the entire crystal.

Level twenty.

The hall went dead silent.

Yuan Yu stared at the crystal for a long while. Only when it didn't break did he breathe a sigh of relief.

"Good. This one's sturdy."

Ling Yuan didn't smack him this time.

She looked at Yuan Yu, her expression conflicted.

The boy usually couldn't take anything seriously.

But with innate level twenty right before their eyes, no one could dismiss him as a child who only knew how to cause trouble.

Azure Luan Douluo looked at Qian Daoliu.

Qian Daoliu was silent for a long time.

"Record it."

The Red Cardinal swallowed.

"Yes."

His pen touched the register, but he wrote slowly.

Name: Yuan Yu.

Age: Six.

Martial Soul: Sun Wheel Blade.

Innate Soul Power: Level twenty.

Even after he finished the last three words, his hand was still shaking.

Yuan Yu himself didn't seem to feel much.

He looked up and asked, "So can I go get two Spirit Rings right away?"

Chrysanthemum Douluo could no longer laugh.

"Little Yuan Yu, Spirit Rings aren't something you just go and collect."

"But I can't leave those levels sitting there for nothing, can I?"

Outside the hall, chaos had already broken out.

The knights guarding the hall didn't dare let anyone near. All they could do was usher the children waiting for their awakenings, along with their parents, farther away.

Someone whispered, "Who's inside?"

No one dared answer.

But that burst of light had been too bright.

Even with the hall doors shut, the people outside had seen platinum light streaming through the cracks.

Several children were too frightened to speak.

Braver ones stood on tiptoe to peer inside.

One of them saw only a young boy in white standing in the hall. He held no blade, and there was no Wine Gourd at his waist, yet a crowd of important people surrounded him.

The child suddenly felt that awakening a sickle Martial Soul today might not be such a big deal after all.

The Red Cardinal turned toward the hall doors.

Qian Daoliu said, "Clear the area."

Azure Luan raised his hand.

Several knights immediately shut the hall doors.

The heavy stone doors closed, cutting off the sounds outside.

Yuan Yu looked at them and blinked.

"Did I make a big scene?"

"You're only realizing that now?" Ling Yuan said.

"I thought it would just glow a little."

"A little?"

Ling Yuan laughed despite her frustration.

"Ordinary children don't blow up testing crystals or fill a level-twenty crystal with light."

Yuan Yu rubbed his nose.

"Then I'll keep a lower profile next time."

"With your talent, that won't be possible," Chrysanthemum Douluo said.

Yuan Yu sighed.

"Being a person is hard."

Ling Yuan was about to speak when the sound of a scepter tapping the floor came from outside the hall.

Once.

Twice.

The taps were soft.

Yet everyone immediately lowered their heads.

"His Holiness the Pope."

Bibi Dong entered the Awakening Hall.

She wore a purple-and-gold robe and carried a scepter, her expression cold.

The children in the hall hardly dared look at her.

Yuan Yu, however, looked up and called, "Teacher."

After entering, Bibi Dong first glanced at the shattered testing crystal.

Then she looked at the register in the Red Cardinal's hands.

Only then did she look at Yuan Yu.

She didn't ask about innate level twenty.

Nor did she ask about the Nine-Pattern Sun Wheel Blade.

She knew this child too well.

The bigger the trouble, the more he pretended nothing had happened.

So she began with the question most likely to make him squirm.

Bibi Dong's gaze settled on his face.

Her first question wasn't about his Martial Soul.

"Have you been drinking?"

Yuan Yu's heart tightened.

Even innate level twenty hadn't made him this nervous.

"A little."

Bibi Dong looked at him.

"A little?"

Yuan Yu lowered his head.

"A little more than a little."

Ling Yuan sneered beside him.

Bibi Dong didn't press the matter.

She held out her hand.

"Your Martial Soul."

Yuan Yu hastily summoned the Sun Wheel Blade.

The nine patterns lay deep within the blade, with only a faint glow still lingering.

Bibi Dong took one look, and her expression shifted slightly.

What she sensed differed from what Qian Daoliu had felt.

Qian Daoliu had sensed another kind of divinity, separate from the Angel God's inheritance.

Bibi Dong sensed the stirring of the Rakshasa God's will.

It wasn't fear.

It was more like distaste.

Because this blade held both light and darkness.

Fire and water, too.

And something that could contain different powers in the same place.

Bibi Dong fixed her gaze on Yuan Yu.

"From today on, you are not to leave Spirit City without permission."

Yuan Yu's face fell.

"Teacher, I've only just awakened."

"All the more reason you mustn't run around."

"Can I still drink?"

Bibi Dong's eyes turned cold.

Yuan Yu immediately corrected himself. "I mean, starting today, I'll train seriously and never touch another drop."

"How many days can you keep that up?" Ling Yuan asked.

Yuan Yu thought about it.

"Two and a half."

Bibi Dong raised her scepter and tapped him on the forehead.

It didn't hurt.

But the jumble of memories in Yuan Yu's head grew much quieter.

Bibi Dong's voice softened.

"Yuan Yu, great talent is no excuse to act recklessly."

Yuan Yu looked up.

Bibi Dong met his gaze.

"The greater your talent, the more easily it can push you somewhere there's no turning back."

That wasn't an ordinary scolding.

Yuan Yu could hear it.

She wasn't talking only about him.

Another glimpse flashed through his mind.

Purple-black light.

A shattered throne.

A woman stood amid the blood, with no path of retreat behind her.

The image quickly faded.

Yuan Yu didn't know whether it was real.

But as he looked at Bibi Dong, he stopped fooling around.

"Teacher, I'll remember."

Something stirred in Bibi Dong's eyes.

She was about to speak when someone cried out outside the Awakening Hall.

"The sky!"

Everyone looked up.

Above the hall, the clouds tore open.

The first ray of Divine Light fell from the east.

It was clear blue, as limpid as the sea.

Then crimson-gold flames blazed in the south.

Thunderclap boomed.

A fierce wind swept through.

A rocky glow bore down.

Mists parted.

Light shone into the hall.

Darkness spread across the stone steps.

Finally, a colorless rift opened in midair, pulling everything both far and near before their eyes.

Nine rays of Divine Light.

All descended upon Spirit City at once.

Qian Daoliu's expression changed.

Bibi Dong tightened her grip on the Scepter.

The aura behind Azure Luan Douluo turned cold.

Ling Yuan stepped in front of Yuan Yu.

Yuan Yu tipped his head back and watched every ray of Divine Light descend toward him.

He fell silent for two breaths.

Then he asked quietly, "Is it too late to pretend I'm just passing by?"

No one answered him.

Because nine Divine Senses had already entered the Awakening Hall.