"Come, your uncle will take you to pick a soul spirit."
The serious atmosphere dissipated, and Agravaine was beaming with joy.
"With your current Spiritual Power and physical strength, Little Arthur, it won't be a problem even if your first soul spirit is a thousand-year-old one."
"A thousand-year soul spirit, huh?"
In this era, the requirements for a Spirit Master's physical strength to absorb a soul spirit are not as high as before; it mainly depends on Spiritual Power.
Spiritual Power Ranks are divided into Spirit Origin Realm, Spirit Connection Realm, Spirit Sea Realm, Spirit Abyss Realm, Spirit Domain Realm, and the Spirit Sovereign Realm, which reaches the level of the gods.
With a Spiritual Power of 333, he has already far surpassed the Spirit Origin Realm and is in the Spirit Connection Realm. It's enough for Arthur to absorb a thousand-year soul spirit.
Just as the two walked out of the Awakening room, a Spirit Conductor approached them. He asked hesitantly, "Your Excellency Dragon Sparrow, may I ask what that pillar of light was just now?"
Dragon Sparrow was Agravaine's title.
"Oh, I just had a Breakthrough. It's nothing big," Agravaine said, waving his hand with a cheerful smile, looking quite convincing.
"Phew, I'm sorry for disturbing Your Excellency." The Spirit Master breathed a sigh of relief; he had thought something had happened. Since it was a disturbance caused by the Pagoda Master, it wasn't surprising. He didn't associate it with a Martial Soul Awakening, as there had never been such a phenomenon during a Martial Soul Awakening in all these years.
"It's fine, go back to your work."
Once the Spirit Master left, Agravaine turned his head with a smile. "Little Arthur, you don't blame me for stealing your thunder, do you?"
"As long as you're happy." Arthur didn't care.
"Actually, it's for your own good. A tall tree catches the wind," he said calmly. "It would be even worse if word of this reached the Pagoda Master's ears."
"You mean Qiangu Dongfeng?"
The only person who could be called the Pagoda Master by a Branch Pagoda Master like Agravaine was Qiangu Dongfeng.
"Exactly. Qiangu Dongfeng is no good." Agravaine narrowed his eyes slightly, his tone unfriendly. "A minor Genius is fine, but if one is too much of a Genius, they will incur his wariness. You either become his dog or get suppressed by him."
"He even sticks his nose into every department, vying for power."
Agravaine let out a sneer. "Heh, he thinks he's so calculating, treating us like fools."
"Little does he know we just can't be bothered to compete with him. Sigh, the Spirit Conduction Tower will be ruined by his hands sooner or later."
"That's true," Arthur agreed. He had forgotten some details of the original work, but he still had some impression of Qiangu Dongfeng; he really wasn't a good person.
"Let's go. Today, your uncle is in charge. You can pick any soul spirit in this pagoda!"
There was one more thing Agravaine didn't mention. Over the past two years, because he had paid extra attention to matters regarding Evil Soul Masters, he had noticed something was off; the Spirit Conduction Tower's crackdowns on Evil Soul Masters had recently weakened.
Although there were policies within the Pagoda that provided a reasonable explanation for this, he still had a bad premonition.
Along the way, Arthur silently pondered what soul spirit he should choose.
For a Spirit Master, the choice of a soul spirit is of paramount importance; one wrong step could foreshadow future failure.
However, for Arthur, a soul spirit might not be as important as one might imagine.
He could feel that his holy sword and holy spear Martial Souls didn't have a strong need for Martial Soul Abilities. They came with their own Noble Phantasm Releases.
Noble Phantasm Release was his strongest means of attack, its power linked to his spirit power cultivation and the degree of release of the Thirteen Restraints.
So as long as he didn't get stuck at a certain Rank, soul spirit abilities could at most only determine his floor.
Feeling his two Martial Souls, Arthur wavered between the Sword of Promised Victory and the Spear that Shines at the End of the Era. He was hesitant about which one to Cultivate first.
The holy sword had Thirteen Restraints.
The holy spear did too; its restraints were modeled after the holy sword, also numbering thirteen.
"I'll Cultivate the Sword of Promised Victory first."
Although the holy sword and holy spear had the same status, there was still a difference in power.
No matter how you looked at it, the holy sword was specifically for destroying enemies. The holy spear's role was more about anchoring the World, so it was definitely inferior in terms of attack power.
"Then the choice of a soul spirit is very simple."
Arthur made a decision to try and choose a soul spirit that could grant him buff-type Martial Soul Abilities.
Fancy offensive Martial Soul Abilities couldn't raise his ceiling, so his first choice would be buff-type Martial Soul Abilities to enhance his own stats.
Once his physical stats were enhanced, Arthur just needed to be a good vessel for the holy sword, and leave the rest to the sword itself.
They arrived at a special, pure white metal room.
Turning on the screen, Agravaine searched through one soul spirit after another.
"Little Arthur, which Martial Soul do you plan to Cultivate first?"
"The holy sword."
"That sword, huh." After thinking for a moment, Agravaine selected a soul spirit.
It was a wolf-type Spirit Beast. Its body fur was a blue-purple base color, interspersed with delicate and brilliant patterns that glowed slightly, like twinkling starlight.
"An eleven-hundred-year-old Starlight Wolf. This is an extremely powerful light-attribute Spirit Beast. Their powerful hunting talent even makes them abandon the pack-living habits of wolves to live alone."
Hearing his uncle's introduction, Arthur asked, "Can it give me a buff-type Spirit Ability?"
"Most likely not."
"No, I don't want it."
He switched to another Spirit Beast. White scales covered its entire body like armor, and its massive frame made the earth tremble with a slight movement. It was visibly a mountain dragon-type Spirit Beast.
"White-Armored Mountain Dragon, fifteen hundred years of cultivation..."
"A Dragon type?" Before the other could finish, Arthur shook his head repeatedly. "No, I don't want it."
"Then look at this one, the Titan Giant Ape. A leader in the power category of the Spirit Beast World, it possesses both offense and defense and is very powerful."
This one was very good, but he felt it didn't suit him. "No, I don't want it."
Agravaine couldn't take it anymore. "You brat, you don't want this, and you don't want that. What on earth are you thinking?"
"These are all the good thousand-year soul spirits I have here in the East Sea City Spirit Conduction Tower."
"Uncle, are there no unyielding spirit souls?" Arthur finally revealed his true intention.
He didn't have high requirements for soul spirits, and buff-type Martial Soul Abilities were hard to come by, so it was better to just choose an unyielding spirit soul.
In this era where Bloodline was supreme, choosing an unyielding spirit soul meant he at least wouldn't back down just because the opponent's Bloodline was noble.
"unyielding spirit soul?" Agravaine stared blankly at Arthur as various thoughts flashed through his mind. Finally, he nodded. "Alright!"
The figure of a Spirit Beast that seemed to tear through the sky appeared on the screen. Its wingspan was over ten meters, its body resembled an eagle but was sturdier, and its muscle lines were as tight as forged iron, brimming with explosive power.
"Sky-Rending Cry-Vulture!"
"One of the overlord Spirit Beasts of the sky. This one only has twelve hundred years of cultivation."
"If it were a hundred-thousand-year Sky-Rending Cry-Vulture, it would truly blot out the sun. It's a pity that nowadays, it can only reach a hundred thousand years in the form of a soul spirit."
"Ten thousand years ago, one might have seen its complete form."
"Even with only a thousand-plus years of cultivation, the Sky-Rending Cry-Vulture possesses significant intelligence, making it very difficult to tame."
"This is the one." Arthur felt an instant connection; such a cool soul spirit was meant to be used by him.