"Are you sure you didn't see it wrong? One hundred points of Innate Internal Spiritual Power?"
"How could I possibly have seen it wrong? Seniors, if you don't believe me, why don't you hide yourselves and observe Yuhao after he wakes up?"
"Sigh, what's there to argue about? Don't you know what kind of person Haoyu is? Besides, that phenomenon of heaven and earth yesterday was so powerful. How could it have been fake?"
"That's right. Tianyin said the phenomenon yesterday was a projection of a pair of eyes and a scorpion. I wonder what it meant."
"Why think so much about it? All I know is that our Knight Temple has produced a genius. He's just an ice-attribute knight, and we have the relevant texts, so his cultivation won't be a problem."
"But Haoyu said Huo Yuhao wants to cultivate both magic and martial arts. What do you think we should do?"
"Cultivate both magic and martial arts? Isn't that setting him up for disaster? Don't you know how difficult it is?"
"That's right. I don't support cultivating both magic and martial arts either. Huo Yuhao must stay at the Knight Temple. I hear a genius named Li Zhengzhi has appeared at the Magic Temple, so we definitely can't send Huo Yuhao over there."
"Then what should we do about cultivating both magic and martial arts? Should we give Huo Yuhao a chance to try?"
"Here's what I think we should do..."
"..."
In a daze, Huo Yuhao heard quite a few voices talking.
The voices were as clear as if they were right beside his ear.
He didn't know whether it was because his Spiritual Power had made a breakthrough.
When he regained consciousness and woke up, he found that he had already returned to his bedroom.
He immediately sat up in bed and looked around. Yang Haoyu was sitting beside the stone table in his room, holding several books.
But Yang Haoyu's gaze was not on the books. It was on him.
"You're awake. Tell me how you feel!"
Huo Yuhao blinked at his words, nodded, and carefully took stock of himself.
He discovered that after the awakening ceremony, his body felt no discomfort at all. Instead, he felt an indescribable fullness.
A force different from Soul Power was surging through his meridians, and he could sense a trace of cold from it.
He guessed that this was the Internal Spiritual Power he had awakened.
After taking stock of the changes in his body, Huo Yuhao used his mind to look inward at his Sea of Consciousness. He found that his Spiritual Power had grown considerably stronger, and the golden lake of Spiritual Power had expanded to nearly twice its previous size.
After awakening his Internal Spiritual Power, he felt that his ability to use Spiritual Power had improved another notch.
More importantly, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm in his Sea of Consciousness was already showing signs of waking. If Huo Yuhao stimulated him from outside, he might wake up a little sooner.
All of this was thanks to the awakening of his Innate Internal Spiritual Power.
But he certainly couldn't blurt out all the changes in his body to Yang Haoyu. He could only tell him the basics.
"Grandpa, I feel like my body is full of strength, and I can sense fluctuations of Internal Spiritual Power in my meridians. I also seem to feel much more alert."
As Huo Yuhao answered, he pretended to ponder for a moment, then said somewhat uncertainly:
"Also, I think I've grown a little taller."
Hearing this, Yang Haoyu nodded in relief and said:
"Good. The awakening ceremony purified your body and nourished your flesh, so you were able to feel yourself growing a little.
"As for the sensations inside your body, those are all normal reactions after awakening Internal Spiritual Power. Spiritual Energy is a part of your body, and you need to learn to control it."
Yang Haoyu set the books in his hands on the stone table and continued:
"These are some ice-attribute magic texts. None of them are high-level; they mainly cover second- and third-tier ice-attribute magic.
"Yuhao, if you can learn all this magic within three days, I'll support you in cultivating both magic and martial arts. If you can't meet the goal, it will mean your Spiritual Power isn't strong enough to support cultivation in both professions.
"When that happens, you'll only be able to follow the path of a knight. Do you understand?"
As the foremost of the Six Great Temples, the Knight Temple had some of the various temples' basic texts, though it did not have the higher-tier ones.
Yang Haoyu had set such a stringent requirement because he did not want Huo Yuhao to follow the path of cultivating both magic and martial arts. After all, that path was full of thorns and far too difficult.
Earlier, the phenomenon of heaven and earth that had appeared when Huo Yujia awakened had roused quite a few of the Knight Temple's hidden powerhouses.
After learning of Huo Yuhao's existence and discussing the matter, those people had also decided to let him try.
The original plan was for Huo Yuhao to learn all the second-tier ice-attribute magic within one day to pass the test.
But in the end, Yang Haoyu had overruled everyone and raised the difficulty, choosing to have Huo Yuhao learn the third-tier ice-attribute magic as well.
The others could do nothing about it and could only let Yang Haoyu have his way.
Nor was he deliberately making things difficult for Huo Yuhao. After all, once Huo Yuhao awakened his Innate Internal Spiritual Power, his Internal and External Spiritual Power combined had already exceeded three hundred points, meeting the standard for a third-tier Grand Knight.
Besides, if learning this low-tier magic took him so long, wouldn't learning higher-tier magic in the future take even more time?
That was why Yang Haoyu had ultimately decided to have Huo Yuhao learn third-tier magic as well.
Huo Yuhao looked at the three books Yang Haoyu had set down. Instead of agreeing immediately, he asked:
"Grandpa, can I take a look first?"
"Of course!"
Huo Yuhao hurried out of bed, went over to the stone table, and began leafing through the books.
After looking through them once, he found that they contained only a dozen or so spells, and that, just as Yang Haoyu had said, they were mostly second- and third-tier magic.
What Huo Yuhao found strange was that he had only read the descriptions of the spells once, yet he felt as though he had already learned them.
But this was too astonishing, and he still needed to verify it, so he did not show it.
He then closed the books and nodded solemnly to Yang Haoyu:
"Grandpa, I accept this test. Three days it is!"
"Good, that's the spirit!"
Yang Haoyu smiled in relief, then pointed to a box on the stone table and said:
"There's food prepared for you inside. Eat before you practice!"
With that, he walked straight out of the room, leaving Huo Yuhao space to cultivate.
After Yang Haoyu left, Huo Yuhao first opened the food box and prepared to eat.
There was no rush to cultivate. Eating was what mattered.
The box contained a bowl of magical beast broth and several pieces of pastry, and he ate every bit of it.
As the warm food entered his stomach, most of his physical fatigue was dispelled.
He wiped his mouth, spread the three books out in front of him, and began reading again.
The first ice-attribute spell was the Ice Ball Technique, a second-tier spell. It condensed ice-attribute Spiritual Energy into a ball and injured enemies by throwing it. The key lay in compressing and rotating the Spiritual Energy.
Huo Yuhao read it twice, then closed his eyes.
Memories of his previous life surged through his Sea of Consciousness.
He remembered how he had once condensed ice balls from profound ice to attack enemies. The principle was almost identical to that of the Ice Ball Technique.
The only difference was that magic on the Holy Demon Continent required an incantation to guide Spiritual Energy, whereas the Soul Skills of his previous life only required Soul Power to circulate.
An incantation?