Awakening

Each dantian was harder to create than the last one, even with the help of the perfect pills. After all this cultivation method required both luck and talent.

For the past six years Feng Xiao and Feng Hu would go to the forest at the outskirts of the city to fight wild animals in order to consolidate their cultivation. Their hard work had most certainly paid off. Two years ago the brothers participated in the annual contest for the young cultivators under the age of 15 and took 1st place. They ended up fighting against each other but the result was a tie each time, so they were declared as 1st place both.

The 15th year was the most important for every person for they were able to awaken their spirit, if they had one that is. Martial spirits were classified into 5 categories namely the weapons, the animals and the humanoids. Each category had 4 ranks green, yellow, red, purple and the legendary black.

In the Yi Kingdom if one awakened a yellow spirit they could attempt to gain a noble title. Why? Because, their qi absorption speed was higher. Humanoid spirits would appear when the family had a strong foundation and a good connection with an ancestor. That was because the humanoid was an ancestral spirit.

The awakening was a public event, which was held in key cities of kingdoms, where all cultivators that had reached qi perception stage could take place in, as the stone tablet that was necessary was extremely rare. Many of the surrounding kingdoms did not have one, and the citizens were forced to either join other kingdoms awakening or sect tryouts. The older one was the lower their chances of succeeding, so very few people were older than 15 and almost none above 18.

Everyome was anxious as this was a defining moment in their life, most people would even settle for the lowest of the grades. In the end a low grade spirit is better than none.

Around 300 people had gathered to try their luck and many more to spectate. The awakening order was based on status.

So the candidates were given numbered plates as they were entering the big and spacious arena. It was like a coliseum which could accommodate about 5000 people and its the place where the young geniuses fought for the title "number 1 genius". Out of the 300 people, the nobles accounted for 120 while the rest were commoners.

The Emperor would always stand up every year and welcome everyone, so he said: "Welcome everyone. I wish all youngsters good luck". Once everyone saw him get up they bowed respectfully and when he finished speaking he made a dismissive gesture and sat down.

The elder standing beside the stone tablet now started calling numbers. First it was the princess' turn as she was the only person from the imperial family. Once she appeared everyone was fired up, she was a very beautiful woman and everyone fancied her, many even worshipped her as their goddess.

Once she entered the stage the elder greeted her: "Greetings your Highness" and he then bowed respectfully.

As soon as she touched the stone tablet a jaguar appeared, which emitted a red light.

"Unparalleled genius" shouted everyone. Even the Emperor was amazed, he was happy to have such a talented child. After all that meant she could soar into the skies.

Almost everyone was stupefied even the elder, but he came back to his senses quickly.

He then shouted "Next" and handsome young man came up the stage, it was none other than Feng Xiao. By now everyone had recovered and wondered what spirits could the twins have. He walked up the stone tablet and started circulating his qi and the he shouted "Awaken". A majestic red bird appeared with a faint black glow, which one could barely see. The aura it emitted made everyone feel inferior and ashamed of themselves.

Once again they were stupefied, it was a lengedary black grade animal. And everyone knew it was gonna be repeated because they were identical twins and that's how it's been since ancient times.

Now Feng Hu came up the stage lightly touching the stone tablet and circulating his qi. The exact same scene as before took place. Not one but two legendary black grade animals.

Emperor Xia got up and said happily "Hahaha, very worthy of my sworn brother's sons. In the future you shall even surpass him". After that he sat down and signaled a servant to come over. He then whispered something to his ear and made a dismissive gesture and the servant left.

Now the awakening continued, but the audience was even more enthusiastic than before. The results however, were not as expected there were around to 17 nobles and 4 commoners with yellow ranked spirits and about 150 people with green martial spirits.

"Now that the ceremony is over, it is time for the competition. Whoever wants to challenge someone then come onto the stage" said the elder while instructing some people ta take the stone tablet away.

Two hours had gone by yet none had challenged Yi Ning or the twin brothers Xiao and Hu...until now. An arrogant young noble with a yellow grade python, Ao Ye got up on stage and challenged Feng Xiao. Once Feng Xiao came on stage Ao Ye arrogantly said "2 months ago j lost in the tournament because I had just entered the ninth layer of qi refining, but now I am at peak of qi refining. I will defeat you this time".

Feng Xiao replied "The reason why you lost is because you have your eyes above your head. I can defeat you with a single move. Your movements are simple, crude and easy to read". Before he was finished speaking Ao Ye had already launched an attack.

Everyone felt disgusted by that behaviour, as for Feng Xiao he had already anticipated that and before the enemy's attack landed he had already thrown a kick aiming at his left leg.