"Listen carefully, you children. Next, I will—"
At the front of the quiet room, a middle-aged man lit three incense sticks, bowed respectfully, and then retrieved a two-foot-square sandalwood treasure box from a cabinet. After opening it, Huo Yuhao was somewhat dumbfounded, because the man pulled out a slightly smaller gilded, dragon-carved treasure box from within. Right after that, repeating the same process like unboxing a set of nesting dolls, he pulled out a diamond and pearl treasure box, a glazed agate treasure box, and finally a flat-topped silver treasure box. Only then did he take out six pitch-black, matte small round stones from the innermost box.
"Oh, so a martial soul awakening requires such precious treasures to proceed smoothly?"
Although Huo Yuhao was unclear about the exact worth of those six matte black round stones, just looking at the nested layers of treasure boxes told him that this item was undoubtedly of immense value, and perhaps even priceless—much like certain famous katanas where the scabbard encasing the blade might be exceptionally costly, adorned extravagantly with crocodile skin, gold, and jade, yet the most valuable part remains the legendary blade itself.
Fortunately, he had not recklessly left the White Tiger Duke's Mansion with his mother before the martial soul awakening. Otherwise, if he had wanted to awaken his martial soul outside, it would likely have taken a great deal more effort.
Such a precious treasure was presumably a private collection of imperial nobility and sect factions. Even with money, it would be very difficult to acquire. For ordinary commoners to request such a supreme treasure just to awaken a martial soul once—there was no telling how high a price they would have to pay.
Soon, the children ahead of Huo Yuhao in line awakened their martial souls one after another. Tool martial souls accounted for the majority of them, though most were merely everyday tools and farm implements, such as sickles, plows, harrows, washboards, and hacksaw blades. Aside from those, a few people awakened martial souls like Blue Silver Grass and sheep. However, apart from a boy with a sheep martial soul who had half a rank of Innate Soul Power, the others all possessed no Innate Soul Power without exception.
A barely suppressible smile clearly showed on the face of the boy with the sheep martial soul. Having Innate Soul Power meant having the opportunity to cultivate. In the future, when working for the White Tiger Duke's Mansion, he could work as a gatekeeper or guard rather than doing the odd jobs his parents did, which not only offered higher monthly wages and better food, but also carried a somewhat higher social status when stepping out into the world.
"Tool martial souls, beast martial souls... well, it's pretty much what Mom said."
Watching the people ahead of him awaken their martial souls one by one, Huo Yuhao could not help but feel a lingering sense of anticipation.
"If I can awaken a tool martial soul, I hope it's a katana like Sabimaru—that would be just the best."
"Your name is Dai Yuhao, right? Come over here and stand in the middle of these six round stones."
Just as he was deep in thought, the middle-aged man's voice rang out.
Huo Yuhao looked around to the left and right; he was the only unawakened child left in the room. The man's use of that surname made Huo Yuhao instinctively feel a trace of rejection, but he kept quiet. The other children had already left, so Huo Yuhao said no more, stepping across and walking into the circle enclosed by the six small stones.
Six faint beams of light poured into the awakening stones on the ground, and a layer of golden radiance emerged from the stones, forming a pale golden barrier that enveloped Huo Yuhao inside.
Specks of golden light entered his body one by one, gradually gathering upward.
In the secret chamber of the awakening room, a middle-aged woman was observing the activity in the quiet room through a one-way translucent gemstone embedded in the wall. When she saw that Huo Yuhao showed no signs of White Tiger martial soul possession, she relaxed considerably.
She let out a quiet breath of relief.
"Good thing he didn't inherit the White Tiger martial soul. A lowly maid is a lowly maid; even if she managed to share in the master's favor, the leftover bastard still can't inherit the White Tiger martial soul."
The next instant, the earlier golden specks of light surged upward rapidly.
Huo Yuhao's eyes instinctively burst forth with a deep blue light, and a slight mental fluctuation drifted outward. Immediately following that, Huo Yuhao's gaze shifted from its original calm to chilling indifference—an indifference that regarded life with detachment, or rather, the apathy of someone who had grown accustomed to witnessing the withering of life yet was powerless to change it.
His cold eyes slowly swept across the people in the room. The middle-aged man responsible for awakening the martial souls felt his arm instinctively twitch the moment his gaze met Huo Yuhao's icy eyes, completely frozen in place by that look. Huo Yuhao's gaze did not linger on him; instead, it swept across the walls of the quiet room, pausing slightly on a gemstone embedded in the wall before that chilling look slowly dissipated, and his gaze once again became serene and placid.
"I—I'll test your Innate Soul Power."
The middle-aged man looked at Huo Yuhao somewhat incoherently, while Huo Yuhao wore a blank expression. "Sir, what is my martial soul? I didn't feel any martial soul possession, nor do I have a tool martial soul in my hand."
"It must be your eyes. A Body Martial Soul. You can figure out the rest yourself later."
The man clearly lost his patience to explain things properly to Huo Yuhao. Huo Yuhao's sudden change in gaze had truly startled him, and feeling somewhat humiliated as a result, he had no desire to continue lingering on the topic with Huo Yuhao.
An eye martial soul... it seemed somewhat a pity. How wonderful it would have to be a long blade martial soul instead.
Thoughts churned within Huo Yuhao's mind.
Just now, my emotions seemed to have been magnified a little by the power stirred up by those six black stones, and slight emotional fluctuations appeared as well. But judging by that middle-aged man's reaction, it looked like he had been frightened. This should be the effect produced by that eye martial soul, right?
Huo Yuhao secretly pondered his eye martial soul within his heart, analyzing the assistance this martial soul could bring him.
Disrupting the opponent's state of mind before striking, seeking out flaws before the enemy could react, and executing a Shinobi Execution directly—if the effect of this eye martial soul was truly this formidable, its value in single combat would likely be no less than the Bloodsmoke Technique released during chaotic battles.
Even without obtaining a Soul Skill yet, just by awakening the martial soul, could there be such a huge enhancement?
Just as Huo Yuhao wanted to study his martial soul further, the man's voice sounded once more. "Put your hand on this crystal ball and let me test your soul power rank."
The crystal ball lit up faintly, looking as though the Innate Soul Power was merely at rank one.
"Innate Soul Power rank one. At least you can cultivate. Go on."
The man waved his hand expressionlessly, signaling that the other person could leave. Not until Huo Yuhao had completely walked out the door did a fawning expression finally hang upon the man's face. "Madam, that brat's martial soul is not the White Tiger, and his Innate Soul Power rank is only rank one. You..."
The man's voice received no response. In the secret chamber behind the wall, a middle-aged woman was still shivering uncontrollably from fear even now.
Just moments ago, it was as if she had been tossed into a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. The emotions contained within the eyes of the child she called the son of a lowly maid—just a single glance into them had left her dizzy. That gaze filled with a bloody aura was even more terrifying than the master who had experienced countless battles on the battlefield.
Not until the man's voice rang out did she gradually pull herself away from that terrifying scene.