Clear Sky Hammer

Tang Wulin hurried back to his cramped bedroom and gently closed the door behind him, shutting out his parents' gazes.

He leaned against the door, his chest heaving, his whole body trembling slightly with excitement he could barely contain.

At last, he was alone.

After examining it several times, Tang Wulin sighed helplessly.

He had to admit that the juvenile Blue Silver Emperor, whose bloodline had been completely sealed, wore a flawless disguise. There was not the slightest difference between him and ordinary blue silver grass; no outsider could possibly tell them apart.

He withdrew the martial soul in his right hand, took a deep breath to settle his emotions, and slowly opened his left hand, which he had kept tightly clenched.

The next instant, crackle!

Sharp, crackling thunder suddenly exploded in his palm. Wild purple lightning coiled around his fingertips, and a savage, domineering power instantly swept through the little room.

A small, ancient-looking hammer hovered quietly above his left palm.

The entire hammer was forged in an unfathomably deep black, its texture like the finest obsidian that would not melt even after ten thousand years. There were no superfluous flourishes on its body, only densely packed, crisscrossing divine patterns of ancient origin. Flecks of golden light flowed deep within some of the lines. Ancient and weighty, it carried an oppressive majesty weathered by endless ages. Its massive head was solid and sturdy; even hovering motionlessly, it radiated a terrifying sense of power that could suppress all things and shatter any defense.

The Clear Sky Hammer!

Tang Wulin recognized it at a glance—the continent's foremost tool martial soul from ten thousand years ago—and his heart gave a violent shudder.

It really was this!

Holding back his excitement, he carefully poured his meager innate soul power into the hammer, hoping to grip it firmly. But the moment his soul power flowed in, the Clear Sky Hammer spun out of control and began swelling madly before his eyes.

Ten centimeters, fifteen centimeters, twenty centimeters, twenty-five centimeters...

The hammer grew larger and larger, its weight increasing exponentially, far beyond what his six-year-old body could bear.

An immensely heavy force pressed down relentlessly through his arm. Tang Wulin's little face flushed crimson, and both arms shook. Even with every ounce of his strength, he could not hold it steady at all.

I'm done for! I can't withdraw it!

Watching the Clear Sky Hammer continue to grow, Tang Wulin completely lost his composure, frantic enough to feel his head burning. If this went on, the heavy hammer would smash straight through the floor and inevitably alert his parents outside. Then the secret of his twin martial souls would be exposed completely.

At the critical moment when the Clear Sky Hammer was about to slip from his grasp and fall, a vast, majestic voice, spanning the time and space of countless ages, rang out in his sea of consciousness without warning. It struck directly at his soul, utterly unruffled:

"Steady your mind, gather your breath, breathe deeply, and withdraw your martial soul."

The voice was ethereal and elusive, neither male nor female, neither sorrowful nor joyful. It was like a god's whisper, yet also like the Great Dao of heaven and earth itself, guiding his mind directly.

Tang Wulin instinctively followed its guidance. He closed his eyes, cast aside his panic and distracting thoughts, focused his mind, and steadied his breathing.

Sweat kept running down his forehead, soon soaking the wisps of blue hair above it. Drenched from head to toe, he expended an enormous amount of mental effort before finally shrinking the ever-expanding Clear Sky Hammer little by little and withdrawing it completely into his body.

The rumbling lightning in the room instantly vanished, and everything returned to stillness.

Tang Wulin braced himself against the table and gasped for breath, unable to calm down for a long time.

He had heard that mysterious voice with perfect clarity, yet no matter how he recalled it, he could not tell whether it had been male or female. It had been insubstantial and elusive, like a dream or an illusion.

He looked around his empty bedroom. There was no one there; nobody could possibly have helped him in secret.

Tang Wulin scratched his head, frantically reassuring himself inwardly as he stubbornly insisted:

I must have been so nervous just now that I started hearing things.

There was absolutely no way that bargain-bin biological father of mine, Sea God Tang San, had secretly helped me from inside my mental world. Absolutely not!

After he had completely withdrawn the restless, out-of-control Clear Sky Hammer into his body, an overwhelming exhaustion that sank into his very marrow instantly swept over him.

Forcibly activating his second martial soul, keeping his mind taut throughout, and following that mysterious voice in his head to steady the Clear Sky Hammer and return it to its place had drained almost all the soul power left in his body. Even his spiritual power had been exhausted to its limit.

His limbs and every bone in his body felt weak and numb, his head heavy and muddled. He was limp and powerless, and even raising a hand became extraordinarily difficult. Using the last shred of strength in his body, Tang Wulin struggled over to the bed. His body tilted, and he collapsed straight into the soft bedding. Within seconds, he had fallen into a deep sleep.

But his peaceful sleep did not last long before a strange change quietly descended.

As Tang Wulin slept soundly, the skin all over his body visibly reddened. His once fair, luminous skin turned scarlet and scorching hot, and delicate meridians emerged clearly beneath it. Blood raced through them, circulating far faster than in an ordinary person, while his heart pounded violently with muffled, rapid thuds.

The restless power of the Golden Dragon King surged within him once more. His rampaging bloodline battered his meridians without cease, and danger quietly spread.

Just then, the golden Sea God Trident marking that had flashed briefly between his brows during his awakening slowly surfaced again.

Golden light flowed slowly downward, spreading from between his brows to his neck and through the meridians throughout his body. Gentle yet domineering divine power coursed through him, silently suppressing the rampaging Golden Dragon King bloodline. Accompanied by a series of faint, delicate cracks from his bones, the divine power gently tempered his entire skeleton. All the impurities accumulated in his body and the turbid energy within his meridians were forced out.