02,

At seven years Long Bei started teaching him weapon martial arts and he hoped Long Jin would choose the hammer as his main weapon, that was because the hammer was Long Bei's weapon of choice and since he was a blacksmith, the hammer worked as his working tool and his warrior weapon.

By this time Long Jin had displayed a great amount of strength which his father made him think was just average so Long Jin always pushed himself to be better and het stronger, however as they trained in weapons Long Jin chose a spear as his weapon.

Long Bei didn't understand why as the spear wouldn't do his strength justice, for someone with such explosive strength the spear was a limiting factor however Long Hin had made his choice and he chose to respect that.

Deep down he was well aware of why Ling Jin had made that choice as it spoke to his lineage, by the age of ten Long Jin could already complete forging practices on his own and had become his father's assistant in their workshop.

However this was also the age at which young children allover the city would go to the Huangdi dojo to check whether they had the potential of becoming spirit masters, to do that they would need to go through a test administered by a spirit master.

During the test a spirit master would introduce spirit energy into the body of the child, as long as the child was of an acceptable age, the soirit master would attempt to open a cultivation channel in the child's body.

These are paths that naturally form during the process of a person's growth, the state of these meridians determined whether one could become a spirit master or not, if the channels had developed properly then the child passes the initial test.

If the channels didn't grow well enough the spirit master attempts to correct them and if they are successful then the child also passes the first test, however there are some channels that are permanently blocked and cannot be opened, this signifies that the person is illegible for cultivation.

The most common occurrence though was that the person's body failed to register any cultivation channels, this also signifies that the person is fully incapable of cultivation.

If a child passes the first test then they are taken to a second test, during this test thr spirit master initiates the flow of spirit power through the cultivation channels and after the flow has been fully initiated the child is then tasked to attempt cultivation.

If the child can successfuly circulate spirit power through their meridians and open up a dantian the child passes the second test, however some people fail to open up a dantian, this is because although the meridians were formed the person's body may be incapable of withstanding spirit power so the energy leaves the body the same way it enters.

This person is also considered incapable of becoming a spirit master and they are let go, this is the last level at which a perosn can fail. Is a perosn passes the second test though then they are assured of becoming spirit masters.

The dantian developed at this stage is the main focus of the third test, during the third test the child is aided by a spirit master in opening up an elemental attribute by finding their own connection to nature. The elemental attribute becomes the basis of awakening the spirit soul.

This is because forming the elemental core is the sign that one has entered the spirit nurturing realm and has successfuly become a spirit master, at that point an illusory form of a child's spirit soul manifests itself.

This process creates a spirit ring to manifest behind a spirit master and the first notch takes form, thos notch is normally a sigil and it can take any form a spirit master desires but that form is decided at the first formation.

After the first notch is formed all the other notches take the same appearance of that very notch. Similarly a similar ring and notch appears on the body of the spirit soul creating the an unbreakable spirit contract between a human and their spirit soul

At that point the child becomes a spirit master and starts taking classes at any spirit dojo of their choice, thr main role of the dojo is to provide guidance on the spirit master's growth, educating them about the world of spirit masters and also teaching them the basics of martial arts.

From that point onwards the young spirit master starts the journey of nurturing this spirit soul to maturity utilizing the elemental core as the base, its only after the spirit soul has been fully formed that it can be manifested,

At that point a second notch appears on the spirit ring of both the spirit master and the spirit soul which informs the spirit master that their spirit soul is fully formed, that is also the key that a spirit master has advanced from the first level to the second level.

The reason spirit masters need to learn martial arts is because although a spirit master is a major part of a spirit master's life the spirit soul is more of a way for a spirit master to amplify their bodies, the stronger a spirit soul becomes the stronger the spirit master becomes.

After the spirit soul becomes a dragon it then becomes a spirit master's greatest ally in a fight, this was because dragon knights were feared beings as not only were they incredibly powerful on their own their spirit souls could fight independent of a spirit master with the same fighting capacity.

Before that a spirit master could only use the a spirit soul to enhance themselves during a fight but the spirit soul couldn't fight on its own independent of a spirit master, because of that a spirit master needs to be able to protect themselves.

Although it's not feasible to teach a spirit master fighting skills, it doesn't hurt to learn a few. The reason it's not feasible is because as a spirit soul grows and develops a spirit master creates their own spirit skills that work best for both spirit master and spirit soul.

In the future both spirit master and spirit soul can unleash these skills in combat but external skills that a spirit master learns from outside sources can only be used by the spirit master and in most cases don't match a spirit master's fighting style.

It was time for Long Jin to take the tests as well and although Long Bei could have helped him awaken on his own he figured it was time for Long Jin to go out and experience the world on his own, maybe make a few friends and with luck lifetime allies.

That and nurturing a spirit soul required alot of resources that he couldn't handle on his own however the dojo obtained resources from the super family so it was easy for them to nurture a few spirit masters in each city.

Long Jin sets out that morning with Long Bei escorting him, Long Bei was a respectable blacksmith but one of his legs was a metal cast and so was his left arm, this compared to the other respectable nobles that brought their kids at the dojo made him look like a beggar.

Most powerful families in the city had spirit masters and some of them were already studnets at the dojo, while most of them were alumni, as former students of the dojo they had a greater pull in the affairs at the dojo.

Long Bei on the on the other hand was new to Fengbao city so be had no connections here that could help him should Long Jin run into some trouble, the only aid he could lend would be with his spirit general rank cultivation however even then he wasnt as efficient in battle as be was back then.

At the entrance they are pushed aside by family guards as the child of a noble arrives in a carriage along with his father, this child comes from the Bing Family and his father is Bing Ling, he is a spirit king level master witha rank 3 ice bear spirit soul.

His son Bing Shan was also ten years old hence he was taking the spirit master test, with his father's background it was an absolute certainty that he would become a spirit master the question would become which level his spirit soul would become.

As the father amd son duo step out of the carriage they glance at Long Jin and his father and they simply scoff then walk away like nothing happened, a guard at the dojo comes forward and helps the two of them having gotten used to seeing something of this level happen.

He then let's them inside where they find a line waiting, with the status of the Bing family they skip the line ofcourse moving straight to the spirit master before moving forward, Long Bei chooses to stay behind withstanding the line.

Slowly the line moves and soon it was Long Jin's turn, however before the spirit master works on him, he is told to wait, everyone looks back as another noble family enters the testing hall. This family everyone recognizes as well.

This was the Feng family, the overlords of Fengbao city. The princess of the Feng family Feng Lei was also ten years old and it was time for her to have a go attend the dojo as well.

The family was famous for their Phoenix embroidered clothes and the young lady was no exception, she was dressed in purple and gold garments embroidered in Phoenix feathers at the neck, hands and rims of the dress.

She moves forward with an elder from her family who also happens to be her teacher, thr spirit master begins her test as her teacher apologizes to Long Bei for the inconvenience,

Long Bei simply smiles and says it is fine, it doesn't take long before her test is done and as expected she passed the test easily, next it was Long Jin's turn once more, the soulmaster takes his hand as he asks for Long Jin's personal information.

Long Jin fells a warm current pass through his body from the hand to his elbows then his shoulders then his neck and from there it spreads throughout his body, the effect of the current makes his body spasm internally.

When the current has reached all his body the spirit master writes down the information on a card where Long Jin notices that the spirit master has noted 18 open meridians, he then tells Long Jin that he has passed the test while handing him the paper.

Long Jin and his father move forward as they head to the location of the next next test, as Long Jin arrives he finds Feng Lei taking the test and after the spirit master awakening her body leaves her, she concentrates for a short while and suddenly purple light rotates around her body before forming a spiral at her abdomen and seeping inside her body.

Her teacher is visually pleased as the spirit master tells her that she has passed the second test, he Mark's her card and sends her forward, Long Jin heads forward and hands in his card.

The spirit master reads it and seems shocked at the number of meridians opened but quickly hides it, he then tells Long Jin to sit before him in a meditative position, Long Jin follows the rules and the spirit master sits behind him.

The spirit master places his hands on Long Jin's back and he asks Long Jin to feel the energy flow with him and master the movement of spirit energy through the meridians because he will need to do it himself after that.

Long Bei had already told Long Jin all about the method of cultivation and used a visual guide to show him so Long Jin was well aware of how it was supposed to work he just needed to feel it.

As the spirit master's spiritbenergy entered Long Jin's body Long Jin closed his eyes and felt it flow within him, wherever the energy passed a vein would take form and Long Jin was watching it happen within his body,

The energy spread from one meridian to the other until his whole body was saturated, the spirit master then detaches and asks Long Jin to repeat what theybhad just done,

Long Jin however was already taking it a step further, first he made sure none of the spirit master's energy left his body like Long Bei had told him to, he then used his breathing rhythm to draw in energy from the atmosphere through the meridians and into his body,

As more energy entered his body he felt the energy pool up at the center of his meridians and the pooling energy created a pop as a dantian came into existence. His dantian was a wide space filled with golden mist. He appeared in his dantian and he was standing on the surface of this golden mist.