Chapter 02: Grade Seven Martial Spirit?

"A grade ten martial spirit, it turned out to be a grade ten martial spirit!"

A grade ten martial spirit was very uncommon. Not only in Canglan County, but the entire kingdom.

Huang Ming looked at the Three-Eyed Black Tiger hovering behind his son. Both of his fists were clenched tightly, barely able to contain the excitement he felt at that moment. Even so, his body trembled slightly.

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

"Good, good, good!" Huang Qide repeated the word ‘good’ three times with a wide smile. Inhaling deeply, he gathered himself as he tried to suppress the excitement in his heart.

His eyes were full of joy as he looked lovingly at this grandson who possessed a grade ten martial spirit. He believed with the support and cultivation resources provided by the Huang Clan Manor, Huang Wei's achievements would surely surpass him, allowing his grandson to reach a realm that he spent his entire life dreaming of.

At this moment, Huang Peng walked towards Huang Ming to offer his congratulations: "Congratulations Big Brother.”

Huang Ming looked at Huang Peng’s sincere face, then he patted Huang Peng’s shoulders and said: "Thank you, Second Brother. Let’s wait awhile, Xiaolong has yet to awaken his martial spirit, there is a chance that he too might possess a grade ten martial spirit.” However, those who heard this understood that they were only words of comfort. After all, grade ten martial spirits weren’t white cabbages.

In the big hall, Huang Clan Manor Elders and some stewards were busy congratulating Huang Ming.

"Wei’er, come here." At this time, Huang Qide, who was standing in the center of the hall, laughed as he waved at Huang Wei.

“Yes, Grandfather." Huang Wei replied. Before arriving at Huang Qide’s side, he passed in front of Huang Xiaolong, and his eyes inadvertently swept past Huang Xiaolong, carrying obvious complacency and arrogance. This little exchange went unnoticed by others, however it did not escape Huang Xiaolong’s perception.

Grade ten martial spirit, Huang Xiaolong calmly looked back at him.

Although Huang Wei was his cousin, the two of them weren’t close. Two years ago, Huang Wei and several other children of the Elders were bullying his sister Huang Min and coincidentally, Huang Xiaolong happened upon the scene. Thus the consequence needs no explanation. Huang Wei and the several Elders’ children were beaten up miserably. Ever since then, Huang Wei has held a grudge.

Huang Wei walked over and stood in front of his grandfather. Huang Qide’s hand reached out to rub Huang Wei’s head, smiling and filled with love. Laughing, he turned to Huang Ming and said, “Huang Ming, you did a good job of giving birth to an excellent grandson!”

On the other end, Huang Ming felt a little embarrassed while listening to his father’s praise, ”Dad, don’t you think we should first continue with the awakening ceremony?”

Huang Qide nodded in agreement, this was not the proper time to discuss this matter. Smiling amicably, he said: “Right, let’s continue with the awakening ceremony.”

After Huang Wei, it was Huang Xiaolong’s turn. When Huang Qide spoke, the elders, stewards and disciples could not help but turn to look at Huang Xiaolong. Huang Wei as one of Huang Qide’s grandsons has a grade ten martial spirit. What about Huang Xiaolong?

With 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 light beam.

Huang Xiaolong did not stay inside the light beam filled area for very long. Just like Huang Wei, a black light also appeared around Huang Xiaolong’s body. Seeing this scene, the crowd stared blankly, and subsequently a blue light suddenly appeared next to the black light. Two different lights flashed intermittently, giving off a devilish sensation.

Then, a black shadow and a blue shadow appeared behind Huang Xiaolong’s head. Everyone saw a serpent-like creature that had two heads − one with a black head, the other a blue head.

The surrounding people exchanged glances with each other.

A double-headed serpent martial spirit?!

Within their knowledge of beast type martial spirits, a double-headed serpent was either red or yellow in color, but this double-headed serpent appeared in black and blue.

Huang Qide looked at the martial spirit behind Huang Xiaolong, his puzzled eyes were tinted with a trace of disappointment. In his opinion, this grandson’s martial spirit was nothing but a variation of the double-headed serpent martial spirit. Some Huang Clan Manor disciples also possess variation types of martial spirits. Therefore, the emergence of a variation martial spirit was not uncommon. Even though a grade seven double-headed serpent was considered a high-grade martial spirit, compared to Huang Wei’s Three-Eyed Black Tiger, the difference was like heaven and earth.

Huang Peng and Su Yan looked at the martial spirit hovering behind their son, Huang Peng’s expression differed not from Huang Qide. Although compared to the majority of the clan people a grade seven martial spirit’s talent was considered high, Huang Peng was still a little disappointed with the outcome. Which parent doesn’t wish the best for their children?

"Old Manor Lord, what do you think?" Chief Steward Chen Ying couldn’t help but refer to Huang Qide.

Huang Qide declared: "A variation of the double-headed serpent, grade seven martial spirit."

All Elders and stewards present in the temple hall nodded their heads, apparently agreeing with the Old Manor Lord’s judgement.

Grade seven martial spirit, a variation of the double-headed serpent? Huang Xiaolong stepped out from the hexagonal patterned light beam, his face calm. Only he knew his martial spirit wasn’t as simple as a variation of the double-headed serpent.

Seeing Huang Xiaolong’s martial spirit was only a grade seven variant double-headed serpent, Huang Wei’s mouth curved into a mocking sneer, his eyes provoking as directed them at Huang Xiaolong.

Huang Xiaolong naturally noticed Huang Wei’s provoking eyes, but he didn’t mind in the least, for he was too lazy to play a staring game with a little kid.

The child after Huang Xiaolong was Elder Zhou Guang’s son, Zhou Xuedong. Zhou Xuedong was one of the Huang Clan Manor children Huang Xiaolong beat up for bullying Huang Min.

Very quickly, Zhou Xuedong’s martial spirit was revealed to be a grade six martial spirit − the Blood-Eyes Wolf. One by one, more than a dozen of the Huang Clan Manor’s children stepped into the light beam and had their martial spirits awakened. Most of them possessed grade four martial spirits, some five, and even a few grade six martial spirits. There were a number of waste martial spirits and low-level ones as well.

In this round of the martial spirit awakening ceremony, though Huang Xiaolong’s martial spirit came in second, there was not much of a difference. He and the rest of the Huang Clan Manor children were just a sideshow, overshadowed by Huang Wei’s grade ten martial spirit.

After the awakening ceremony ended, Huang Qide smiled and said to Huang Ming, Huang Peng, and the other present elders: "I will personally be advising Huang Wei’s practice from now on.”

Personally advise? Everyone was astonished.

"Yes, Dad!" Huang Ming’s face bloomed, agreeing immediately.

Looking at his own son, Huang Peng sighed regretfully in his heart after hearing his father’s plan to oversee Huang Wei's cultivation personally.

After a while, the crowd dispersed and the Martial Hall was closed.

Returning to the Eastern Courtyard, Su Yan’s heart was brimming with dissatisfaction, "How could Dad show such favoritism? He wants to oversee Huang Wei's practice personally. What about our Xiaolong? Is Xiaolong not his grandson?”

Huang Peng frowned and waved his hand, his voice heavy as he said: “Don’t mention this anymore. No one is allowed to bring this matter up in the future.” However in his heart he too felt aggrieved, but with Huang Wei’s grade ten martial spirit it was granted that his father would want to do so.

"Xiaolong, your talent is also good. Put more effort into your practice, achieving Eighth Order Warrior will not be difficult for you.” Huang Peng turned towards Huang Xiaolong and attempted to comfort him.

"I understand, Dad." Huang Xiaolong opened his mouth wanting to tell Huang Peng and Su Yan that his martial spirit shouldn’t be grade seven. In the end, he could only reply as such and not say anything more.

Before Huang Xiaolong left, Huang Peng gave him a cultivation technique for training battle qi and explained the important points Huang Xiaolong should focus on during practice. Huang Xiaolong listened attentively and memorized them to heart.

After leaving the Eastern Courtyard’s main hall, Huang Xiaolong returned to his own small courtyard and began practicing his battle qi according to the cultivation technique his father gave him. He sat down on the bed and started absorbing the world’s spiritual energy according to the first order instruction.

As Huang Xiaolong utilized the cultivation technique, his martial spirit emerged from his body; the variant double-headed serpent manifested behind Huang Xiaolong. The so-called grade seven double-headed serpent suddenly stretched its jaw wide and devoured the surrounding spiritual energy at horrific speed, attracting the spiritual energy around Huang Xiaolong.

The spiritual energy devoured by the double-headed serpent flowed into Huang Xiaolong’s body, traveling along the meridians and gradually transformed into battle qi.

Night approached slowly. Moonlight came shining in from the small courtyard window.

A short while later, Huang Xiaolong opened his eyes. His face wore an extremely odd expression. Earlier, he followed the instructions from the cultivation technique his father gave him, the Xuan Qin cultivation technique’s first layer, to condense his battle qi by running spiritual energy along the meridians. He managed to direct the flow of spiritual energy for one complete turn without obstacles or difficulties.

Within these few hours, not only did he successfully convert spiritual energy into battle qi, he broke through to First Order Warrior!

Huang Xiaolong’s heart was filled with a sense of disbelief. If he remembered correctly, his father mentioned that his grandfather spent nearly six months before successfully breaking through to First Order Warrior!

His grandfather’s martial spirit was one of the top grade eight martial spirits, the Six-winged Golden Ape!