"Nine Leaf Sword Grass? I've never heard of that either! You didn't just make that name up, did you?"
The deacon was puzzled. The name sounded impressive, but how could a grass Spirit with only one leaf dare to call itself that?
Suddenly, he thought of something. There was another possibility: it could be a mutated weed Spirit. No wonder he hadn't seen it before.
Yes, that must be it.
This explanation perfectly accounted for why he didn't recognize this Spirit.
Jiang Yunzhou was stunned, secretly thinking to himself, 'Do you even hear what you're saying? What do you mean I made it up?'
He didn't know how to refute that, because he didn't know the situation either.
"There's nothing special about it, is there?"
He couldn't figure it out, absolutely couldn't figure it out.
Clearly, this seemed to have touched upon his blind spot of knowledge.
Since he couldn't understand it, according to his usual standards, it would naturally be treated as a Waste Spirit.
He had traveled hard to several villages, yet there wasn't a single person who could cultivate. It was a wasted trip.
After asking his question, he shook his head to himself, making to leave.
He couldn't even be bothered to continue the spirit power test.
Jiang Yunzhou saw this and grew anxious. Looking at his stance, was he not going to test his spirit power?
How could that be? Why was he being treated differently?
He quickly raised a hand and shouted:
"Uh, Spirit Master, please wait, you haven't tested my spirit power yet..."
How could he be a Waste Spirit? This was unacceptable to him.
This was his only chance; missing it would be troublesome.
The deacon glanced at Jiang Yunzhou, a hint of impatience flashing in his eyes.
But looking at Jiang Yunzhou's hopeful gaze seemed to stir his few remaining sense of responsibility, and he finally pulled out the crystal ball.
Fine, test it then. It only takes a moment anyway.
"Here, put your hand on it..."
Something unexpected happened.
"Buzz..."
The originally dull crystal ball suddenly erupted with an extremely dazzling blue light.
The light instantly filled the entire small room. For the other children who had no spirit power, this light was even a bit blinding.
"Ah!"
"My eyes!"
"So bright!"
This was accompanied by a cacophony of discussions.
The Spirit Hall deacon's eyes were also wide, his mouth slightly agape, his face full of disbelief.
"Full spirit power? It's innate full spirit power? This... this doesn't make sense!"
It was clearly just an ordinary weed, so how could it have innate full spirit power?
Upon hearing that he possessed innate full spirit power, the most excited person was undoubtedly Jiang Yunzhou himself.
He could finally relax. He could finally relax.
It wasn't in vain that he had transmigrated.
He knew his Spirit must be something extraordinary.
Right now, he just wanted to see what kind of expression the Spirit Hall deacon would have—shock or surprise?
A sense of satisfaction at proving everyone wrong suddenly rose in his heart.
He just quietly watched the speechless Spirit Hall deacon.
After a moment of contemplation, the deacon took out a pen and paper, asked Jiang Yunzhou for some basic information, and then wrote out a Spirit Hall certificate.
"Here, child, keep this safe. You can use this certificate to register for school..."
After some thought, the deacon still didn't take this child with full spirit power seriously.
So what if he had full spirit power? This grass had already been labeled as a Waste Spirit by him.
In the eyes of ordinary people, Spirit Masters couldn't make mistakes.
If he were to go back on his word now, wouldn't that be slapping his own face?
Jiang Yunzhou actually didn't pay too much attention to the deacon's reaction.
With the certificate in hand, having the opportunity to enroll in school was enough; he didn't need to ask for more.
He was just a little curious why, with his innate full spirit power, there wasn't a symbolic invitation to join Spirit Hall.
Surely a token gesture would have been appropriate?
He felt like something was missing, and it was quite unsettling.
He had even thought that if possible, joining the Spirit Hall faction wouldn't be out of the question.
At the very least, his future life would be secured.
It seemed hopeless now; they clearly didn't think much of him.
He looked at the certificate, and after seeing the deacon's signature, his expression became very strange.
It turned out that the Spirit Master's name was Su Yuntao.
He had a title: Blind Douluo.
Well, then, no problem there.
Shenma Village
It had been decades since a Spirit Master capable of cultivation had emerged from Shenma Village.
Thus, the fact that Jiang Yunzhou could cultivate became a grand event in Shenma Village... In the six years he had been in this World, the days leading up to school were the most luxurious time Jiang Yunzhou had experienced.
Overnight, the villagers collectively became enthusiastic, treating him like a young master.
They sent all sorts of delicious food to his house.
He had meat at every meal, and every meal was filling, his complexion visibly reddening by several shades.
He lived like this in the village until school started.
After enrollment.
As an orphan, Jiang Yunzhou had no source of income. He understood the essential skills for transmigration, and this World also had them.
Anything more difficult, he simply didn't understand, and it was impossible to earn money relying on those things.
So, his life was still relatively tight.
Although his status as a work-study student exempted him from tuition fees, the money for food had to come directly from his own pocket.
The small subsidy from Spirit Hall, coupled with occasional relief from the old village chief, became his means of survival.
There was no other way; after awakening his Spirit, his Spirit seemed to be particularly good at absorbing energy. He alone could eat the amount of three people.
He could only choose some cheaper foods and try to eat more. In this way, he completed six years of cultural theory classes at the junior Spirit Master academy.
In the first few years of school, he was so thin that he was skin and bones, and even stray dogs on the street would disdainfully walk around him.
In the dead of night, he would also curl up on his cold bed, secretly grumbling:
Why didn't he, like the protagonists in storybooks, encounter a noble person who fell from the sky? Was his fate not miserable enough?
Was that kind of treatment truly an aura only reserved for the main characters?
He felt as if he had been set up, relegated to a marginal figure, like a shadow deliberately forgotten in a corner, utterly lacking presence.
His current situation could be described in two words: an extra.
Even though he had enrolled with innate full spirit power aptitude, he still wasn't given much importance.
Moreover, the arrogance flowing in the veins of those students from noble families made them disdain commoners, let alone associate with him?
Jiang Yunzhou was once out of place with them because he wasn't wealthy enough.
He also had high aspirations, so since that was the case, he disdained to curry favor with these snobbish brats.
This impoverished and lonely life continued until his Spirit began to show its prowess, only then gaining a little attention from the academy's higher-ups, and his life saw a slight improvement.
He discovered that his Spirit would change after he became a Spirit Grandmaster. When he was level 20 and added his spirit ring, his Spirit underwent its first transformation.
That sword grass quietly grew a second leaf!
This change initially surprised Jiang Yunzhou, but it also gave him a vague conjecture about his Spirit: his Spirit could grow as his realm improved.
It wasn't until after he reached level 30 as a Spirit Elder that he gained a more comprehensive understanding of the Nine Leaf Sword Grass Spirit.
He had always believed his Spirit was extraordinary, and indeed it was; it was even a hidden, growth-type top-tier Spirit!
The Nine Leaf Sword Grass Spirit, for every spirit ring rank limit it broke through, the sword grass itself would grow an additional leaf.
And each additional leaf would directly double his basic strength and cultivation speed on top of the original base!
When he broke through to Spirit Elder, the sword grass Spirit already possessed three verdant sword leaves.
This meant that his strength and cultivation speed were already three times that of others!
With these enhancements, Jiang Yunzhou cultivated faster the further he progressed, rapidly achieving a curve-breaking overtake.
Both his combat ability and spirit power advancement speed far surpassed his peers.
The academy could no longer treat him as a marginal figure. They began to take him seriously, exempted him from miscellaneous duties, and provided some financial assistance for living expenses, equivalent to a special scholarship.
Only then did his precarious and arduous life come to an end.
(Supplementary Spirit Sword Grass setting explanation: A level ten Spirit Master has one leaf, a level twenty Spirit Grandmaster has two leaves, and so on. By level ninety, it will be the complete form of the Nine Leaf Sword Grass, with a ninefold increase.)