White Tiger Duke Mansion
At the periphery of the mansion, within the servant's quarters, Zhou Cheng knocked on one of the doors and called out, "Yuhao, are you in there?"
He heard the sound of footsteps from inside. After a moment, the door creaked open, revealing a small face: a young boy with bright blue eyes, jet black hair and an unexpectedly handsome face.
Even though the boy was dressed in plain clothes, this simple attire was not enough to conceal his presence; instead, it created a contrast that showed even more vividly that this boy was different from the other servants living there.
Zhou Cheng did not find it weird or surprising because he already knew of the boy's origin.
He smiled at the child and asked, "Are you ready, Yuhao?"
The young boy, Yuhao, returned a smile and nodded. He already knew that during the afternoon, Grandpa Zhou would be coming, and he was ready to depart at a moment's notice, just waiting for the old man to arrive. He put on his sandals, locked the door, and the two started moving towards the mansion's training grounds.
On the way, Old Zhou looked at Yuhao and inquired, "Did Yun'er explain to you about the awakening process? "
"Yes, Mom did", Yuhao nodded, "But Grandpa, can you tell me more ? She only told me a few basic things", Yuhao asked.
A few days ago, Yuhao had turned six, and as per the norm, this was the time for children to awaken their martial soul.
His mother, Huo Yun'er, already explained to him about the process, and she even asked Old Zhou to take him for the awakening.
Still, it is always better to know more about something that you are going to be part of, so he asked for more details. The training ground was still some distance away, and there was enough time to understand things in more detail.
Seeing the eager look on Yuhao's face, the old man was hit with a wave of nostalgia, and a new vigour overcame him as he started explaining what he knew to Yuhao.
The martial soul awakening is usually performed for every child when they reach the age of six. According to the old man's knowledge, it's not really a fixed time and can be performed a few weeks earlier or later, but over time, it has become a tradition to do so on the day of the child's sixth birthday.
Every human in the world is born with a Martial Soul that lies dormant within the body.
Awakening is the process of drawing this martial soul from deep within the body and manifesting it in the outside world. Only after this process is finished does the martial soul get unsealed, granting people the ability to freely summon it at will.
Some people even say that martial soul is like an organ hidden inside the body, which only becomes usable after the awakening.
However, it is far more robust than any organ and is remarkably durable. Never degrading with time and remaining unchanged throughout life.
After this, Old Zhou raised his hand, as if summoning something, and a small hammer suddenly appeared on top of his palm. He held it up toward Yuhao to give him a closer look and said
"This is my martial soul, Thunder Hammer. Even though I have gotten this old, my martial soul looks the same as the day I awakened it."
"Yuhao, although I compare it to a new organ, do not underestimate its significance because of it. A Martial soul is the most important thing in life, for it determines the talent of a soul master." He said strictly.
"In simple terms, the stronger the martial soul you have, the more talented you are, and the higher you can cultivate. Both my parents were ordinary people with simple hammer and grass martial souls and no cultivation. But perhaps due to a stroke of luck or some unknown fortune, during my awakening, I awakened this mutated martial soul. This is the reason why I was able to become a soul grandmaster in life."
"Your martial soul is your biggest reliance. It can carry you to heaven or plunge you into hell."
After this, the old man looked at Yuhao and said as if imparting profound wisdom,
"It is said that everything can be lost — your fortune, your wife — but your martial soul will follow you for your entire life"
After this old man laughed at his own joke and continued to explain about the awakening process.
"After martial soul is awakened comes the test for the soul power. If you have awakened a good martial soul, then it is certain that you will also have high soul power. The level of soul power you can awaken depends on the strength of your martial soul. At my awakening, I had a soul power level of two, and due to this, I was able to become a Soul Grandmaster after forty years. But that was as far as I could go; I had hit my innate limit and have been stuck at this level ever since."
"Everyone has a martial soul, but only a few people have corresponding soul power, and most people don't have any soul power at all. In the whole world, I have heard that only one in a thousand people actually have any soul power."
Saying this, he paused, lamenting the fate of all those unfortunate souls.
"What happens to people who don't have any soul power grandpa" Yuhao inquired.
Hearing it, the old man hesitated, conflicted, whether he should explain such things to the child, but knowing that this scenario would not happen with Yuhao, he went ahead with it.
"They remain ordinary people, even though they have martial soul, they can't exert its power and can only live a normal life. That's why everyone looks forward to this day. This can become a turning point not just for individuals but for entire families. From this point onwards, everyone is separated into two groups, on one side are ordinary people who don't have any soul power and on the other side are soul masters."
Thinking that the child might become depressed, he added.
"You don't have to worry about it, Yuhao. Both your parents are soul masters, so you will definitely be a soul master with a powerful martial soul," Old Zhou reassured Yuhao.
What he didn't know was that Yuhao really was not concerned about his martial soul or soul power. He was thinking something completely different.
With a quick gesture, he let the old man know that he was okay and signalled for him to continue.
Old Zhou moved the conversation away from the previous depressed topic and shifted it towards different types of martial souls he knew about. He also gave the example of the most famous martial souls in the world, especially White Tiger and how it is one of the most powerful martial soul in the world and how it even produced a god, who was the great ancestor of the Dai Family.
Yuhao listened patiently from start to end. And after some time, his explanation came to an end.
After this, He started telling about the greatness of the Dai Family and of the ancestor Dai Mubai and Zhu Zhuqing. Things which Yuhao had already heard from childhood till now, probably tens of times.
Once things reached this point, Yuhao's mind moved inward toward his own thoughts. The old man has explained a great deal about martial soul and its importance.
But Yuhao thought differently. He was much more fascinated by Soul Power itself than by the Martial Soul.
Old Zhou's explanation indicated that having a powerful Martial Soul was like soaring to the sky. But Yuhao thought the opposite.
In his view, Soul Power was the foundation. And Martial Soul was merely a tool powered by soul power.
Why everyone possesses a Martial Soul, he didn't know. He didn't even have enough information to form any concrete guesses about it.
But one thing he was sure about: It was a tool, and soul power was the fuel needed for this tool to function.
His primary hypothesis was that from birth till the awakening day, each person's body absorbs the soul power from the surrounding environment, and this soul power slowly gets collected and stored in the body, which, during the awakening, is calculated as the innate soul power.
The body should have a container that stores soul power, and this container gets filled over time. Talent should be the rate at which this container gets filled. For some people, it can be fast, for others it's slow. It's all dependent on the meridians, and for those people whose meridians are not capable of transferring soul power to this container, they remain ordinary people.
So, in his view, this container was the true foundation. He even gave it a name, calling it his "Inner Sea". The Martial soul, he believed, should be a later invention, a helper tool to manipulate soul power and unleash it into the world.
This is the reason so many people, even though possessing Martial Soul, remain ordinary, as no matter how good any tool is, without the fuel needed to run it, it loses its utility and can't exert any power.
As for why, he, as a child, has a perspective so different and radical from everyone else around him.
The answer was quite simple: he was unlike anyone else; he was a unique existence in the world.
As for how he was unique, it was due to a secret known solely to him.
A secret, he had no intention of ever revealing to anyone else.