Chapter 7

Jiang Mang responded with a smile: "I am sorry, but I don't know who I am talking to as I can't see you but the ceremony will start in a couple of minutes which would make a spar inappropriate."

This answer made the youth choke for a second before recovering and retorting: "Your second highness, my humble name is Ming Yan. I understand from your words that you wouldn't reject a spar at an appropriate moment. Would you then be willing to guide me after the ceremony?"

Ming Yan had purposefully raised his voice for his last question and managed to attract everyone's attention to their conversation. The youths surrounding them started whispering but were shocked at Jiang Mang following answer which managed to choke Ming Yan's following words back in: "As you are so humbly requesting my guidance after the ceremony, I will gracefully fulfill your request."

These words raised a storm of whispers and looks of contempt towards Jiang Mang. They looked at him like he was an arrogant clown jumping around but this didn't disturb the youth from walking to a corner and waiting for the start of the ceremony in silence. Ming Yan, on the other hand, started slandering the prince for his high handed behavior despite being only a useless blind fool, lucky to be born as a prince. The youths either agreed with his words or were just silently agreeing and waiting for a good show after the ceremony.

A couple of minutes later, the King and nobleman of the kingdom arrived to spectate the awakening ceremony while a high scholar entered in preparation for the ceremony. The high scholar gave a short speech: "Young descendants of the kingdom, today your noble profound spirits will awaken and open your path towards cultivation. You will have to enter the awakening circle in groups of ten according to your status and to awaken your profound spirits:"

The children had calmed down but the majority were beaming with enthusiasm. Ming Yan was also excited and took a glance at the prince who had his eyes closed and kept a calm expression. He snorted and thought lowly about Jiang Mang's high handed behavior like he was above everyone. Jiang Mang was oblivious about Ming Yan's thoughts because he had never taken any of these youths seriously.

The high scholar was pleased with the youths' behavior and called the first group forward. After the first group had entered the circle and sat down the circle started shining and all the youths started glowing in different colors. It was acknowledged that the longer the awakening persisted, the more extraordinary a profound spirit would be. The last record was broken three years ago when the only princess of Chu awakened twin spirits after persisting an hour of undergoing an awakening while the last record was only three-quarters of an hour. The most common awakening would only take a couple of minutes and a genius would most often be a person who lasted ten minutes or longer. In the last thousand years, the most talented individual, aside from the princess, awakened in forty minutes a flood dragon profound spirit and was now the king of the kingdom of beasts.

All the noble children awakened their spirits in ten minutes and they consisted mostly out of sword type profound spirits with only one exception of a snake type profound spirit. The spectators remained expressionless and group after group awakened their profound spirits. After eight groups, there had only been two youths who had awakened their profound spirit after ten minutes one youth was the son of a marquis and had awakened a lighting attributed long sword as his profound spirit while the other youth, who was the son of a count, had awakened a pure ice elemental in the form of a snowstorm as his profound spirit. Their names were Xiang Zilong and Wen Bing.

The next group would be the last group of nobles and held Ming Yan. After the awakening started, a red hue was seen surrounding Ming Yan and after the first couple of minutes when the spirits of others started awakening, he had still shown no sign of awakening. Minutes continued to pass until he was the last person in the circle at the ninth minute mark. When fifteen minutes had passed his spirit had awakened and it was a demonic-shaped profound spirit filled with killing intent. Ming Yan was ecstatic about his profound spirit because he was the most talented out of everyone who had awakened their profound while he also had a rare demon type profound spirit. Duke Ming was also excited by his son's profound spirit and was accepting the good wishes and praise of those surrounding him. When Ming Yan walked out of the circle a crowd of youths surrounded him to fawn over him but when he looked around he saw the aloof prince still waiting in his corner silently while his servants told him about Ming Yan but Jiang Mang's expression didn't change as he expected which infuriated him.

The high scholar interrupted his thoughts by calling the last group on stage which was only the second prince as he was the only person of royal descent. Jiang Mang made his way up to the awakening circle while the crowd of youths quiet down and Ming Yan was waiting for the prince to make a fool of himself after his superior performance. When Jiang Mang arrived and sat down, The high scholar activated the awakening circle. After the first minute passed, there were no changes to Jiang Mang's surroundings which was quite peculiar. This stayed the same as time continued to pass until the crowd started whispering amongst each other while directing looks of mockery at the prince. It seemed like the prince would be unable to awaken his profound spirit which normally only occurred to peasants and only in extremely rare cases. As the timer continued to tick when there was still no sign of phenomena, the expression of the king started to change into an expressionless face. After the ten minute mark, the nobles started questioning the king but he only remarked that the ceremony was still not over and would not stop unless there was no change after half an hour. Because this phenomenon also occurred when the princess of Chu awakened her profound spirit, the reason for this was that a harder to awaken profound spirit would also show phenomena much later than other profound spirits. The crowd accepted the king's reason but were waiting for Jiang Mang's failure.

As the time approached the half-hour mark, the king became more and more dejected, and just when he was about to order to stop the awakening ceremony, the air surrounding Jiang Mang changed and started flicker with green and black lights which astounded the crowd. The king started laughing while the crowd was tongue-tied. The phenomenon's intensity slowly increased as time passed and the three-quarter mark was soon passed. The crowd was astonished and when the hour mark was slowly approaching, the king started becoming ecstatic. When the hour mark was about to be broken two spirits came into sight which announced the birth of another twin spirit awakening and this at the same level as the little princes of Chu.

When his twin spirit awakened, Jiang Mang had gotten two names in his mind which were the flute of life and the death zither.