“Kid, you should go and take a look. It will be a good reference for when you awaken your martial soul in the future,” Old Lei decreed and of course, Wun Fan didn’t dare go against his words. As the young master of the clan, Wun Fan managed to get the disciples to step aside and let him and Wun Siu Lan through. The two of them successfully made it to the center of the sparring grounds.
Heh, sometimes it was good to be a lineage young master.
Wun Fan and Wun Siu Lan saw numerous disciples from the Enforcer’s Hall forming a perimeter around the arena and keeping unauthorized individuals away. Wun Fan saw Wun Ching Yeung, the great elder, and the third elder at the center of the arena. Even Wun Ping was observing from inside the perimeter, but the second elder was nowhere to be seen. It seemed like what happened the night of the banquet was still haunting him.
“Fan, Siu Lan,” the great elder noticed the two of them and shouted in their direction. He then waved his hand and motioned for the Enforcer’s Hall disciples to let the two of them in.
“Clan master, great elder, third elder,” Wun Fan and Siu Lan both bowed as they approached. After all, they must not forget their manners when they were in front of all these disciples of the Wun Clan.
“I have always wanted to have you witness a Martial Mortal awaken his martial soul, Wun Fan, but you have always been a lone wolf. It’s nice that you have finally recovered from your disease and become more active around the house. This is a good opportunity for you to learn a little about what you will face in the future.”
Someone was sitting at the very center of the arena. Wun Fan recognized the person. He was Wun Fook Sang. His original surname was Chiu and he was six years older than him. His talent caught the third elder’s eye and he was thus bestowed with the surname Wun. Wun Fook Sang was greatly favored by the third elder. He looked very ordinary, but his personality was exactly the same as the third elder, so much so that it seemed like they were cast in the same mold.
Both of them preferred silence and spent their days with hardly a word.
Wun Fan saw that Wun Fook Sang had a weird expression on his face. He seemed to be in pain, and his entire person seemed very restless. Anxiety was written all over his face. The third elder was consoling him by his side, constantly and patiently repeating the things he needed to remember. Wun Fan had hardly ever seen the third elder speak so much when he usually spoke as little as possible. He didn’t even talk this much in their conversations together.
The atmosphere was very solemn.
The great elder whispered in Wun Fan and Wun Siu Lan’s ears, “Wun Fook Sang reached advanced Martial Mortal realm last week. He’s been feeling restless for the past five or six days. Even his soul energy has been very unstable and uncontrolled. This is the first sign of awakening one’s martial soul, known as ‘faltering’. Every time a Wun Clan disciple is about to awaken their martial soul, the clan will make preparations in the arena and teach them everything they need to know. The elders will also be watching over them when they awaken, in order to make sure that nothing goes wrong. Even if an accident were to occur, the elders will be there to protect them and save them from any mortal danger.”
Wun Fan was given a further explanation of the details of awakening one’s martial soul. It was only then that he learned that there were several steps that came before one had a chance of awakening their martial soul.
“Breaking”; the process of continuously pouring soul energy into the Wind Pond Point, so as to excavate the adjacent Wind Mansion Point.
“Forging”; the process of repeatedly tempering the Wind Mansion Point. It was only when the pressure point has been tempered enough that it will be able to host a sufficiently powerful martial soul. As its name implies, the Wind Mansion Point is the Mansion of Wind, the core of all outer pressure points and guardian against all illness and disease. That is why the Wind Mansion Point is where the martial soul resides. Consequently, the Wind Mansion Point is also known as the martial heart; the heart of the martial soul. That is why the base of the skull, where the Wind Mansion Point is located, has always been the most closely guarded part of any martial artist. Protecting this point was more important than everything else.
“Faltering”; when the Wind Mansion Point has been tempered enough to become a martial heart, the martial artist’s soul energy and mind will become restless, agitated and uncomfortable. This condition is known as ‘faltering’. The individual will be unable to absorb any more aether from their surroundings to convert into soul energy, and will also be constantly leaking soul energy from their bodies.
“Rising”; embracing the tribulations. The world will unleash tribulations that correspond to the quality of the martial soul, which includes lightning tribulations, aura tribulations and inner demon tribulations. The martial artist will have nowhere to go but forward. If they survive this ordeal, they would be met with a bright future; fail and they would be met with death.
Break before the Forge; Falter and then Rise. These eight words spelled out the process of awakening one’s martial soul.
Typically, the martial artist will start to lose control of their emotions one or two days before the heavenly tribulations. They would become very depressed and start to behave erratically and abnormally. However, Wun Fook Sang only appeared to be anxious and wasn’t out of control. It seemed like he had an unusually disciplined mind.
Wind started blowing in the arena, a cold breeze that seemed to come out of nowhere. Initially, it was cool and refreshing, but soon clouds began to gather and turn dark. A flicker of lightning would flash every so often within the clouds. The wind slowly grew stronger.
The Wun Mansion stretched several kilometers long and was so big it stood out against the larger geography. You could get a sense of the size of the Wun Mansion just from the fact that it had a mountain for a backyard.
Sometimes Wun Fan would wonder how grand the Wun Clan’s origin house in the capital was, when even the Green Sea Town branch house took up so much space.
The dark clouds above were not small at all. They actually managed to completely overshadow the Wun Mansion, despite its massive size. Some of the civilian housing nearby were also shaded by the clouds, but the people didn’t seem to mind. Many of them simply shrugged and said, “Seems like the Wun Clan is going to have another powerful martial artist. Girl, help your mom take the clothes in. It’s about to rain soon.”
Indeed, as the largest clan of Green Sea Town, the Wun Clan often had disciples who awakened their martial souls. How else could the clan support its tremendous size and numerous enterprises?
Wun Fan looked up and saw the dark clouds churning without stop. Lightning flashed brightly within as the clouds charged up with energy. It was an intimidating sight. Some of the more timid disciples were frightened by this and couldn’t help but shuffle back. The great elder saw this and shouted furiously, “No one is allowed to step back. If you are scared just by the sight of this heavenly tribulation, it will become your greatest fear and you will never again have the chance to awaken your martial soul.”
“As disciples of the Wun Clan, you work hard to reach the Martial Mortal realm. You may even one day hone your power until the Martial Vassal, or even the Martial Scholar realm. Would you resign yourself to never being able to awaken your martial soul? To become a martial artist who has no soul?”
The great elder’s warning was clear. Those who stepped back would never make any progress in their training. The right path forward was to stay and confront their fear. His words snapped everyone out of it. The disciples stopped stepping back and tried their best to confront the intimidating aura of the lightning clouds. Some of the disciples’ faces were contorted with fright and their legs shook uncontrollably, but they forced themselves to stay on the spot.
Meanwhile, the disciples who had already awakened their martial souls calmly watched on from the sidelines, both the young and the old.
“Old Lei, the Spiritstartler Ring is able to take on auras for its own use. Can it absorb the lightning of the lightning tribulations the way it absorbs purple energy?” Wun Fan looked up at the overwhelming electricity crackling in the skies. He couldn’t help but be impressed. The power of humans was truly incomparable to the forces of nature.
“I have said this before, but until you reach the realm of Innate Martial Master, you can only use your body as a conduit to absorb aether and channel it to the ring,” Old Lei suddenly chuckled slyly, “It’s not as if you can’t contain the power of the lightning within the ring; the question is if you have the ability to refine the lightning power and wait for the Spiritstartler Ring to absorb it while your body is enduring the full might of the light tribulation.”
“I, for one, am really interested in knowing the answer to that question. Haha!”
Wun Fook Sang, who had been sitting on the ground this whole time, started sweating profusely. He looked up and stared at the lightning in the clouds calmly. He tossed his sword aside and prepared to face the lightning unarmed!
“Old Lei, how is a mortal human supposed to be a match for heavenly lightning? How is someone supposed to fight it?”
“Just remember one word, ‘endure’. If you can endure the lightning and survive, you will succeed. Fail to do so and you can say your goodbyes to this world,” Old Lei replied simply, but his answer unnerved Wun Fan. Wun Fan glanced at the horrifying aura in the skies and looked at Wun Fook Sang’s determination in the face of death. He was speechless.
No wonder people said that the martial path was incredibly dangerous.
“Here it comes, kid,” Old Lei said. Right after that, the great elder also spoke up and reminded Wun Fan and Wun Siu Lan to watch closely. In particular, Wun Fan was about to step into the realm of Martial Mortal. The more he learned, the more beneficial it would be for him.
The lightning in the skies was charged up and ready to go. It rumbled loudly, as if a beast was roaring ferociously. The vicious intent was simple and direct; it wanted to kill everything that went against nature’s will. The drizzling raindrops were like the drops of water with which the executioner used to wipe down his blade before the execution. It wet the robes of all the Wun Clan members present.
Wun Ching Yeung walked by the great elder’s side, both elated and anxious, “Judging from the scale of this tribulation, it must be an excellent quality martial soul.”
Wun Ching Yeung’s gaze at the boy in the arena was filled with hope. The only thing he could do now was bless him. Given how powerful he was, he could not interfere in the process, or the tribulation would see him as intervening. When that happened, the might of the lightning would increase exponentially, so much so that he would not even be able to protect himself. If things went wrong, both of them would die to the lightning strikes.
That was why no one dared to intervene in the process of the tribulation, no matter how powerful they were. Not only would their help be pointless, it might even result in a worse outcome.
Wun Fook Sang slowly stood up. He took out the pills that the third elder had given him earlier and swallowed all of them. It was only then that he felt a little less uneasy.
Those who were about to awaken their martial souls would usually prepare pills to help them in facing the tribulations. The pills were mostly for recovering aether or for healing wounds. However, judging from the jade bottle used to contain the pills, the pills themselves were probably of pretty high quality. Wun Fan wondered to himself if Old Lei would prepare pills for him when it was his turn to awaken his martial soul.
Wun Fook Sang stared at the lightning in the skies. The sense of danger in his mind suddenly grew immensely. The lightning beast was ready to pounce. Wun Fook Sang couldn’t help but shout furiously at the skies, “Come at me, bitch! Your loud farts in the sky don’t scare me!”
He stood upon the earth with no fear of the heavens, a man with courage and daring to spare for a thousand men. 228Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXg4D28ioNd
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