Martial Spirits

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"A natural Superb Grade Martial Spirit, it turned out to be a Superb Grade Martial Spirit!"

A natural Superb Grade Martial Spirit is extremely rare. Not only in Canglan County, but in the entirety of the Luo Tong Kingdom as well.

In the Luo Tong Kingdom's history of more than two centuries and a historical human population of at least four billion, there have never been more than five people in the kingdom's history who naturally possessed Superb Grade Martial Spirits.

Now, Huang Wei was the sixth person in Luo Tong Kingdom's history who naturally possessed a Superb Grade Martial Spirit!

Huang Ming and Han Mei looked at the Three-Eyed Black Tiger Martial Spirit hovering behind their son, excitement visible in their faces.

Huang Qide's laughter continued to reverberate in the martial hall for some time. He did not expect his impromptu visit to the Martial Hall to give him such a wonderful surprise!

"Good, good, good!" Huang Qide repeated the word 'good' three times with a wide smile.

'It's a good thing he's a cultivator, otherwise he might die with that amount of excitement,' Yu Tao jokes. At the same time, he started praying to the most powerful divine entity he could think of.

Icarus Estrella.

Yes, that guy.

Praying to the person who possibly killed you and everyone you know is factually horrible and disgusting. But who knows, perhaps he might actually awaken a superb grade martial spirit if he does this.

The martial hall became boisterous as the present high-ranked members of the Huang Clan offered their congratulations to Huang Ming and Han Mei.

On the side, Yu Tao watched Huang Wei and Huang Xiaolong having a friendly-looking conversation.

The period of congratulations and the two cousins' conversation, however, didn't last long as Huang Qide called Huang Wei to his side.

Laughing, Huang Qide turned to Huang Ming and Han Mie, and said, "Huang Ming, Han Mei, you two have done a great job of creating an excellent grandson!"

Huang Ming and Han Mei felt a little embarrassed at their father/father-in-law's praise.

"Dad, don't you think we should first continue with the awakening ceremony?" Huang Ming recommended it.

Huang Qide nodded in agreement; he became a bit too excited there. Smiling amicably, he said, "Right, let's continue with the awakening ceremony."

It was now Huang Xiaolong's turn.

The people of the Huang Clan couldn't help but turn to look at Huang Xiaolong. Huang Wei, as one of Huang Qide's grandsons, has awakened a Grade 11 Martial Spirit. What about Huang Xiaolong?

With the Huang Family and the assembled clan members watching, Huang Xiaolong calmly stepped into the hexagon-patterned light beam.

Huang Peng and Su Yan could not help but hold each other's hand nervously, even their heartbeats quickened while watching their son stepping into the hexagonal-patterned light beam.

The beam of light wrapped around Huang Xiaolong for a brief moment before a black light took over, enveloping him. Then, a bluish-black, two-headed silhouette of either a serpent or dragon emerged behind Huang Xiaolong.

The silhouette condensed and the end result was a two-headed primordial divine black dragon with two pairs of pure white eyes, different sets of horns, and glistening black and blue scales.

Once it condensed and became more corporeal, it released a domineering roar that frightened most of the children in the audience.

Recovering from shock, Huang Qide observed Huang Xiaolong's Martial Spirit and spoke, "This martial spirit is a Two-Headed Primordial Divine Dual Dragon of the primordial divine black dragon-type and primordial divine blue dragon-type¹. The last known Two-Headed Primordial Divine Dual Dragon is a High Grade 13 Martial Spirit of the primordial divine bone dragon-type and the primordial divine blood dragon-type."

Hearing that, the people couldn't help but gasp in shock.

"However," Huang Qide continued as a bright smile formed on his face, "this Two-Headed Primordial Divine Dual Dragon is not just a High Grade 13 Martial Spirit, but instead a Top Grade 13 Two-Headed Primordial Divine Dual Dragon!"

Huang Qide's words reverberated throughout the hall, shocking the people present.

A Top Grade 13 Martial Spirit!

Even in the exalted top-ranked kingdoms of the Broken Blade Empire, Top Grade 13 Martial Spirits are still a rarity! Yet, their Huang Clan somehow managed to produce such a rare genius!

The people present couldn't help but boil in excitement and joy.

Just as people were about to start congratulating and celebrating, Huang Qide stated, "Right after this, we, of the Huang Clan, are required to swear on an oath to the Blood Oath Altar no matter their status in the clan. Understood?"

"Yes, Manor Lord."

Although everyone was stunned by Huang Qide's order, they naturally complied. The appearance of Huang Xiaolong's martial spirit will cause an uproar not only in the Luo Tong Kingdom, but also the entire Broken Blade Empire.

Worst comes to worst, a malicious expert will appear and slaughter all of them before they could get the protection of the empire's higher-ups. Therefore, it was crucial to swear an oath to the Blood Oath Altar.

The Martial Spirit Awakening Ceremony then resumed.

The martial spirits that were awakened after Huang Xiaolong and Huang Wei's martial spirits were nowhere near good, but it was expected so the majority weren't disappointed. At the very least, two Grade 10 Martial Spirits did appear from Chen Ying's family.

After thirteen minutes, only ten children remained. One of them is Yu Tao and he is the next one in line to have his martial spirit awakened.

Yu Tao's heart began beating a little faster as he stepped into the hexagonal-patterned light beam; this was the most excited he's ever been since he arrived into this world.

The beam of light wrapped around him for a brief moment before a black light took over, enveloping him. Then, a blue-gray silhouette of a whale emerged behind him. Like everyone else, he, too, watched as the shape of the whale condensed and became more corporeal.

The end result was a rock-like whale with a deep bluish-gray skin and white underbelly with speckles of black, white, gray and blue; red, orange and silver lights twinkled around it.

"That is a Low Grade 11 Meteor Whale," Huang Qide said in a tone of disbelief. Though he was elated, he didn't expect this.

The same couldn't be said about most of the other members though, as most of them had shocked, envious, and even infuriated expressions on their faces.

One must know that since the founding of the Huang Clan, the arrangement of the children who undergo martial spirit awakening are based on their status in the Huang Clan.

Huang Wei and Huang Xiaolong, before the awakening of their Martial Spirits, are considered to be of equal statuses, but Huang Wei is the first who had his martial spirit awakened because he's a bit older than Huang Xiaolong.

Then after them are the higher-ups' descendants, and so on and so forth.

What's important to note is that a few of these children descended from peak Houtian Realm cultivators or higher, and thus making their innate talent higher than the average members of the Huang Clan.

Yu Tao, on the other hand, despite not having descended from a strong cultivator, has a higher innate talent than most of them. So it wasn't strange that some of the clan members have negative thoughts about him.

Not that Yu Tao cares. For him, this is but a step into achieving his ambition, and with Huang Xiaolong as a backing, it could be said that his future is limitless.

The tense atmosphere vanished as Huang Qide's boisterous laughter reverberated in the hall and even reached outside, therefore gaining everyone's attention. Smiling, he began a speech.

The speech lasted for five minutes and at the end, the atmosphere became brighter and livelier.

All of the residents present in the Huang Clan were then gathered in the Martial Hall and were made to swear to the Blood Oath Altar using an oath that Huang Qide made to secure their future.

However, due to the Huang Clan population and other variables, it was going to take a while for it to finish.

Since Yu Tao, along with the two cousins, were top priority, they were the earliest ones that swore their oaths; the oaths they swore were different from the rest.

Soon after they swore their oaths, Huang Qide brought them to the Huang Clan central palace while he ordered Chen Ying and the others to facilitate the process and actively guard the Huang Clan.

-

Inside Huang Qide's office at the highest point of the Huang Clan central palace, Yu Tao and the other two waited for Huang Qide's return.

While waiting, Yu Tao memorized the map of the Huang Clan territory.

The Huang Clan is located in a forested and mountainous region in Canglan County where not a single sect nor family that could match it is found. So technically it owns all of the land, which isn't far off from the truth as most of the towns and villages in this region depend on the Huang Clan for protection.

The Huang Clan headquarters, the place where the members live, is located on elevated land of about 1,650,000 hectares².

The clan's headquarters is a concentric town known as the Huang Clan Town, and is the home of over 25,000 clan members.

The outer region is the first line of defense, and it contains the clan's farms and pastures for self-sustainability and large-scale training grounds.

The inner region contains the residence of the clan members, numerous important places, etc.

The important structures are marked on the map, with the Huang Clan's central palace being the largest of them.

The Huang Clan's central palace is one of the earliest structures in the manor. It is located at the most central area of the plateau, and is where Huang Qide and his wife's children were born and raised in.

Facing its four entrances are the four mansions that were built to dedicate their four children.

The first is the western mansion and it is dedicated to Huang Ming; it is where he and his family live now.

The second is the eastern mansion and it is dedicated to Huang Peng; it is where he and his family live now.

The third is the northern mansion and it is dedicated to Huang Zhong, the second youngest of the four siblings and the third son.

The fourth is the southern mansion and it is dedicated to Huang Ling, the youngest of the four siblings and the sole daughter.

The northern mansion and the southern mansion are the most recent, as the former was built twenty years ago and the latter was built nineteen years ago.

However, both mansions are barely used since Huang Zhong and Huang Ling are still young and haven't settled down yet.

Of course, the Huang Clan Manor hadn't always been like this. It simply changed the stronger and wealthier the clan became.

The old Huang Clan Manor can't be compared with the current Huang Clan Manor.

"Do you think they'll add three more mansions?" Huang Xiaolong started a conversation.

Huang Wei shook his head and said, "It's very unlikely. The locations of where those mansions could be built are either already occupied or would be inconvenient to build any structures on."

"Hmm..." Huang Xiaolong sounded as if he wasn't content with Huang Wei's answer, irking his cousin a bit. He looked at Yu Tao and asked, "What do you think?"

"Oh. Well..." Yu Tao paused for a brief moment to think before continuing, "I mean, why bother with a mansion if you can make something greater like a city or even a kingdom?"

Hearing his answer, Huang Xiaolong's smile widened while Huang Wei gained a thoughtful expression.

"Would you build a city if you reach the Xiantian Realm in the future?" Huang Xiaolong asked.

"No, I would rather not." Yu Tao shook his head.

"Why so?" Huang Xiaolong was interested to know what kind of person Yu Tao is.

Huang Wei was no different as he turned his attention to Yu Tao.

"I have a simple yet difficult dre– No. It's not a dream, for I will make it into a reality. My sole ambition is to explore the entirety of the Martial Spirit World and what could lie far beyond it. It doesn't matter if I die trying, what matters is that I was making progress towards it," Yu Tao proclaimed, his voice filled with fierce determination that was mirrored in his eyes.

Thanks to luck or whatever incomprehensible force, he was given a second chance in this new world and he'll make sure not to waste it.

As Yu Tao's previous life's father always said: A life with very little regrets is a good life.

And that is the kind of life that he wants to live.

Huang Wei was surprised by Yu Tao's words, he kind of didn't expect it considering the latter's answer to Huang Xiaolong's earlier question.

On the other hand, Huang Xiaolong's smile widened at Yu Tao's answer. It was an unexpected but welcomed answer, and was one of the most intriguing things he heard from anyone thus far.

Before the three could continue their conversation, the sounds of two different footsteps outside the room garnered their attention and made them compose themselves.

The doors opened, revealing Huang Qide and a middle-aged woman was following behind him.

-

*1 - I love the primordial divine blue dragon, but I never understood why it was the first of its kind in the Yellow Dragon World. Like, blue is such a common color. If it was a conceptual thing, then I wouldn't complain, but from what I've read it isn't. It is powerful, YES. But color and naming-wise, it's just blue. In the vast world Shen Jian created, he should've just given Huang Xiaolong's one-of-kind Martial Spirit a different look and all that.

Then I thought: Is it a reference to the azure dragon of the four auspicious beasts?

How is that important? Well, in CN novels, the four auspicious beasts and the yellow dragon are guaranteed to be strong. And if you haven't noticed, Huang Xiaolong's name means Yellow Little Dragon or Little Yellow Dragon, which is a reference to how (SPOILER ALERT) he's related to a yellow dragon of his universe.

The yellow dragon is the fifth auspicious beast, but it's not included in most other versions of the symbol beasts/auspicious beasts. Probably because there's already a dragon in the list.

Because of the relation of the yellow dragon to the azure dragon, I believe that Huang Xiaolong's primordial divine blue dragon is a reference to the azure dragon and that's what makes it special.

I'm not sure if that's what Shen Jian intended, but I'm using it because it makes sense for me.

Here's what I'm going to do: The colours of primordial divine dragons wouldn't indicate that their power is this/that specific power 100% of the time, but instead it's going to be their aura and their appearance. I'm not good with describing things because I'm not a lexicon, so I'm going to be dependent on the aura and stuff like that.

The type of primordial divine dragons that are going to be named after colors are dragons who use pure/raw/neutral qi instead of elements and other stuff, hence they're referred to using their colors.

Huang Xiaolong's Primordial Divine Blue Dragon and he himself uses pure qi (I think), but because the description of how no one has ever seen a primordial divine blue dragon before indicates that Shen Jian and I's idea are still different. I could be wrong and our ideas could be similar, but since he wasn't detailed with what he was writing, I'm going to assume that we had different ideas.

*2 - After a little bit of research, I found out the original 850 acres/347.625 hectares was too small. While it was four hectares larger than NYC's Central Park, it wasn't large enough for Chinese high-fantasy novels. Therefore, I decided to change it to something closer to the size of Beijing City, China.