"Mother, rest assured, I will surely be able to awaken my martial soul."
"I, no matter what, will not disappoint you. I aspire to become an unparalleled powerhouse. I will go to the Holy Mountain and rescue you!"
A young man, who appeared somewhat soft and delicate, was standing before the square, with tears glinting in his eyes.
Just moments before, he had seen the figure of his mother, as if reaching out to him, gently touching Zhou Xing's head, telling him softly, ‘I have left a gift for you.’
"Brother Zhou Xing, you are crying."
Beside the young Zhou Xing was a 13-year-old girl with large, beautiful eyes. Seeing Zhou Xing weeping, she quickly took out a handkerchief and wiped his tears.
She knew that Brother Zhou Xing was once again missing his mother.
"The Martial Soul Awakening Ceremony is about to begin, Brother Zhou Xing, you have to be ready. The Mistress once said, 'Men should not shed tears easily.' Have you forgotten the Mistress' words?"
The Mistress, referring to Zhou Xing's mother, the former Mistress of the Zhou family, was taken away five years ago by powerful beings of the Sacred Mountain of Black Dragon and imprisoned on the Black Dragon Mountain.
The Sacred Mountain of Black Dragon was a legendary entity, the mightiest existence in this continent. It was a place so high above, said to be the dwelling of the gods.
The girl, called Xiao Dou, was Zhou Xing's personal maidservant, who was very clear about Zhou Xing's emotions.
"I have not forgotten."
As soon as Zhou Xing heard Xiao Dou's words, he immediately stopped crying. Looking ahead with resolute eyes, he vowed to become a man who could stand strong in the world. He absolutely could not disappoint his mother!
He believed that his mother, who was currently in the prison on the Sacred Mountain of Black Dragon, was still concerned about him, looking forward to seeing him become a real man!
This is the Great Ning Dynasty, in Nanhuang Province's Nanhuang City, one of the three great families, the Zhou Family.
The annual Martial Spirit Awakening Ceremony of the Zhou Family is underway. All individuals who have reached the third level in their martial arts training or have turned sixteen years old can participate.
"As everyone knows, the Martial Spirit is one of the three souls and seven spirits of a person. The three souls refer to your spiritual soul, destiny soul, and martial soul. The spiritual soul is your consciousness, the destiny soul represents your fate, and the martial soul determines whether you will become strong in the future."
"Only those with a formidable Martial Spirit can progress further on the path of cultivation. If you do not possess a Martial Spirit, you can only stop at the realm of martial arts. Even if you try hard all your life, you will only remain an ordinary person. You will forever be an insignificant creature, and you will never be extraordinary!"
"Without a strong Martial Spirit, all is but illusion and emptiness! Do you wish to live your life as an underdog, feeling inferior to everybody?"
A senior member of the Zhou family, an old ancestor who has reached the third realm of cultivation, the Spirit Communication Realm, is explaining the meaning of Martial Spirit to the young ones.
Martial Spirit is the basis of cultivation, its importance is self-evident!
The Zhou family is one of the three great families in Nanhuang City and is currently very large. This year, just the number of those needing to awaken their Martial Spirit is over a hundred!
Among these individuals, Zhou Xing stands inconspicuously.
"We definitely can awaken our Martial Spirit!"
"We refuse to be inferior. We aspire to become unparalleled warriors!"
Many young members of the Zhou family confidently voice out these words. These individuals are the geniuses of the Zhou family. A few of them have already reached the Fifth Level of Martial Arts at the tender ages of fourteen or fifteen!
Such strength is something Zhou Xing can only look up to!
Although he is very dedicated in cultivation, he was born with incomplete spiritual veins, making him almost less than an average person. The effort that others need to unblock a meridian, he has to exert ten or twenty times the effort!
Despite being sixteen years old this year, he only possesses the First Level Martial Arts!
Any member of the Zhou family, even the son of a servant, had more power than Zhou Xing at this age!
"But Zhou Xing will definitely not awaken his martial soul, hahahaha. Although this useless guy is the son of the family head, he is only at the First Level of Martial Arts!"
Zhou He, who was standing by, started laughing loudly at Zhou Xing.
Zhou Xing, although the son of the family head, became a laughing stock in the Zhou family. Everyone thought, if he were not the son of the family head, a person with his talent would not even possess the qualifications to awaken a martial soul!
For each martial soul awakening, a significant amount of resources is required, and a psychic-level powerhouse is needed to preside over it! Only in this way can a stronger martial soul be awakened faster!
And this time, some of the Zhou family's elders did not agree with Zhou Xing’s Awakening, feeling that Zhou Xing's awakening to his martial soul would only waste the family's resources.
Zhou Xing’s father, as the patriarch, had to argue for his son, even paying some of his own salary as the family head, to grant him this opportunity.
"Brother Zhou He is right. Is Zhou Xing going to awaken his martial soul? I'm sure what he'll awaken is a joke!"
"That's right, after a while, we're just going to watch Zhou Xing’s embarrassment! This useless guy!"
The young men of the Zhou family all echoed Zhou He’s words. No one looked up to Zhou Xing.
"Hmm, I will definitely awaken my martial soul later on. Definitely!"
Zhou Xing clenched his fists.
"All right, let's begin the awakening, the first one, Zhou Mao."
The elder Zhou family, sitting in the centre of the square, called out a name. A young man stepped forward.
"I greet the elder."
Zhou Mao sat on a cushion not far from the Patriarch. As soon as he settled down, a giant fiery bird appeared above the Patriarch's head, immediately sending waves of heat around, causing the young men around to retreat continually.
This was the Zhou family Patriarch's top-tier martial spirit, the Fiery Phoenix!
Martial spirit, there were trash martial spirits, which are useless ones like plants and flowers. Lower-tier martial spirits are the typical beasts and herbivorous animals' martial spirits. Middle-tier martial spirits are the ones of fierce beasts, such as tigers, leopards, jackals, and wolves. Top-tier martial spirits, however, are those with the elements of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth.
As for the martial spirits above the top tier, there must be higher-ranked martial spirits. But, what exactly they are, no one knew!
Because no one in the Zhou family, even no one in the entire Southern Wilderness State, had ever awakened a King-level martial spirit!
With one finger from the Patriarch, the Fiery Phoenix roared angrily, and suddenly a whirlwind appeared from nowhere above Zhou Mao's head.
"Ah!"
Zhou Mao screamed in pain, and soon after, like a cracked egg, a martial spirit suddenly flew out from his head.
"Low-tier martial spirit, Wild Boar martial spirit!"
"It's pretty good among the low-tier martial spirits."
"But after all, it's a low-tier martial spirit."
Seeing Zhou Mao awaken the low-tier Wild Boar martial spirit, the surrounding people started whispering.
But Zhou Mao was clearly ecstatic.
"Wild Boar martial spirit, eh. At least it's not a Household Pig martial spirit, it still has some aggression, and robust defense power, hehe!"
The special ability of the Wild Boar martial spirit is defense. Among the same realm, its defense power is almost invincible.
Zhou Mao triumphantly rushed to Zhou Xing's side.
"Look, Zhou Xing, my martial spirit is definitely what you dream of possessing," he boasted. "Though my martial spirit is of a lower-class, I can guarantee that you either don't have a martial spirit, or it's a useless one!"
Zhou Mao pointed at Zhou Xing, wearing his pride on his sleeves.
In the Zhou family, he held a relatively low position and had generic talents. It was only in front of Zhou Xing that he could unabashedly flaunt his power and talent.
"Hmph, my brother Zhou Xing surely has a high-class martial spirit!" Xiao Dou, who was discontented, immediately retorted.
Yet, Zhou Xing remained utterly silent.
