Chapter 3: Spirit Awakening

The next three days went by in a flash. The whole village was awash with anxious energy as even those whose children weren't going to be apart of the awakening ceremony were busying about the village. 

The various aunties and uncles spent most of the time cleaning up around the village. The pathways and road were weeded and even some of the homes had been washed in preparation for the spirit master from the city's arrival. There were even a few persons who went out of the village and went to the meadows on the outskirts, specifically so that they could harvest some wild flowers to plant along the pathways of the village.

In three days they had managed to transform the sleepy village into a bright and welcoming town.

A festive air seemed to infect everyone and as the day of the awakening ceremony arrived everyone was prepared to look their absolute best, as they prepared represented their village.

Even the farmers who hardly ever took a days rest decided to forgo the fields just for the day. Awakening a martial spirit was just that important of a mile stone in the life of a child and everyone wanted to share apart of the joy.

Tian Wei awoke on the big day to the sound of his mother busying herself in the kitchen making a huge breakfast for the family. It would have been the perfect start to a perfect day had Tian Wei not been so nervous that his appetite was non-existent. Even when his parents assured him that he was going to be fine, Tian Wei still felt jittery as he counted down the minutes.

Thankfully he didn't have to wait long, as a short while after he had finished his breakfast a knock at the door alerted them to the Old village head coming to collect him.

Grampa Jack or 'Old Jack' as everyone liked to call him was a short slightly hunched backed old man that spent his days looking after all the children of the village while their parents were off at work. Just about everyone in the village had been taken care of by him at some point in their life and even though he was getting on in age, no one ever pushed for him to step down from his position as the village leader. 

Tian Wei quickly told his parents good bye and joined the every growing queue of children who were following obediently behind Old Jack. 

"Now children remember that you have notching to worry about. As long as you listen to the official Spirit Master and do exactly what he tells you to do you won't have any problems."

Jack kept reminding the children over and over as they approached the spirit hall of the village. Even though the building had such a lofty name, in reality it was just the largest building situated at the middle of the village.

It was often times the place where big village meetings were held and even though the villagers did their best to maintain its upkeep, the building was still littered with cracks from wear and tear over the years. 

Even then, because of the importance of todays activities, the building had been cleaned up to the best of the villagers capabilities. Its white walls glimmered in the light of the sun and the stained glass windows gleamed as they shrouded the interior in a kaleidoscope of colours. Even the creeper vines that had claimed dominion over some of the buildings walls had been trimmed and pruned, no longer looking so wild and untamed but now added a touch of warmth and life to the otherwise cold building. 

The children were quickly herded towards the double door at the front of the building where they were greeted by a young man around the age of twenty. He stood impatiently at the front door of the Spirit Hall tapping his feet as he waited for the children to come forward.

They all bowed quickly to the official in greeting before Old Jack addressed them as he unlocked the doors.

"Now everyone this here is a Spirit master from the Spirt Hall of the kingdom who is going to carry out your ceremony today. I hope that some of you are blessed enough to be able to become great Spirit Masters in the future. Our village once produced a powerful Spirit Master that wowed the whole kingdom back in the day! Maybe one of you will become the new legend of our village."

The Spirit master who had been watched everything from the side only scoffed at the rambling of an old man, barely holding back his laughter and ridicule. No matter how delusional the old bat was, it was simple impossible for anything of note to appear in such a remote village. He had already passed through several other villages and unsurprisingly none of them had produced a single person with the talent to become a spirit master.

It was cruel to give these children hope only for it to come crashing down once they realized they were trash.

Of course that was for the parents and the other villagers to deal with, he just wanted to get it over with and get back home. he'd had enough of the boonies for a life time. 

As he prepared himself for the awakening ceremony he took out several glass orbs from his bag and slotted them into their awaiting spaces on a circular platform that had been placed into the centre of the room. The platform was covered in archaic symbols and markings that all seemed to revolve around the centre of the platform, which had an empty space just large enough for someone to stand in. While he did that he address the jittery children

"Alright, alright. Listen up cause I'm not going to repeat myself after this. While I'm sure you are expecting some grand and amazing thing to happen, the awakening ceremony is rather simple. Its broken into two parts, the spirit awakening and after that your soul power is tested. Regardless of what type of spirit you awaken, as long as your soul power is greater than zero upon awakening then you can become a Spirit Master."

The Spirit master looked around at the expectant eyes of the children before him and could only sigh to himself. Every year he gave the same speech and each year he was disappointed at how useless these villages were.

"Any way If any of you actually manage to awaken with soul power, then we'll bother with further explanations. Right now when I point to you, you'll need to step unto the circle platform. I'll inject the circle with soul power and you'll feel as if your body is heating up. Don't fight against the feeling and let it flow through you naturally. As long as you do that, there will be nothing to worry about. Now lets begin. You, get over here."

The boy that the spirit master had pointed to stumbled forward and almost fell flat on his face when he tripped while getting onto the platform. With an aggrieved look on his face the boy quickly found his place in the center of the spirit awakening array.

The spirit master who stood opposite the boy who was now standing in the centre of the platform, made a few final checks on the array and the crystal before he clenching his fist and shouting out with a roar. 

Immediately, it was as if a fierce wind had blown through the entire room as clouds of dust were lifted from the floor. All of the children were surprised and confused. It was if a weight had been placed on their shoulders weighing them down and preventing them from moving. It was a scary feeling and Tian Wei couldn't help but tremble in worry.

While all this was occurring Tang San who had been at the back of the group, while also rooted to the spot, didn't show too much fear. It was obvious that what ever was happening was something natural since Old Jack hadn't made any complaints. 

Under the disbelief of the children, the Spirit Master started growing. He gain a couple more inches in height and his frame seemed to expand as his muscles seemed to inflate. Then he was covered in gleaming silver fur as his fingernails extended into claws that gleamed wickedly. Even his teeth elongated as fangs became visible in his mouth. 

Once his transformation was complete the Spirit Master ignored the confused children and placed his hands onto the platform. In the blink of eye the concentric circles that had been on the platform jumped into the air and circled around the boy, showering him in golden specks of light. 

The boy in question suddenly closed his eyes and scrunched up his face in concentration before reaching out his hand. Slowly the glowing particles of light that had been roaming around his body coalesced in the palm of his hands and as their glow dimmed an intricately designed ceramic pot was revealed. 

Silence pervaded the room as everyone watched as the pot slowly rotated around the boys palm, and it was only broken once the Spirit master spoke out with a hint of disdain.

"Martial spirit tool spirit: Delicate Ceramic Pot awakened. It is considered a trash spirit as it does not have any defensive, offensive, or augmentation ability." 

He handed the boy a larger dull crystal ball and told him what he needed to do to test for soul power. Not surprisingly he failed the test with a soul power of zero. 

The Spirit master didn't even bother to comfort the child and quickly pushed him to one side to start on the next child. From then on the same pattern continued for a while, a child would step forward unto the platform where they would be engulfed in golden beads of light until their martial soul was awakened, after which their soul power was tested. 

Their were all types of Martial souls awakened; spoons, forks, scarfs, there was even a machete the only martial spirit that might have had potential as a offensive Martial spirit. Unfortunately they also had zero soul power and as such his hopes of souring through the sky were dashed before they even got a chance to form. 

Tian Wei watched all of this from the side and as more and more children were deemed as wastes his hopes continued to crumble until he accepted the fact that he was also going to be a waste. His excitement faded away into a calm sense of acceptance and he simple watched the days proceedings with a heavy heart. 

As Tang San stood on top of the platform to awaken his martial spirit his spirits rose once more. If their was anyone who deserved to awaken a powerful martial soul it was him and as such Tian Wei sent a small prayer for his friend. 

As the golden beads coalesced into the form of a blade of blue river grass and as the other children laughed at the pitiful spirit, Tian Wei felt his heart bleed for his friend. The Spirit Master didn't even want to waste time with checking Tang San's soul power but did so in the end just to be thorough. 

In a shocking twist the orb that had been dormant the entire morning began to glow in a vibrant blue that only seemed to increase in brightness until the entire room was engulfed in its glow.

Everyone watched on in shock as Tang San placed the orb back onto the pedestal it had been on, looking around for someone to explain what had just occurred. The Spirit Master who had been silently watching it all unfold seemed to think something over before shaking his head and explained.

"I've never seen something like this before, but you awakened with an innate soul power of ten, the maximum amount of soul power a persons can awaken to and any person who does manage to do so is considered a genius since their potential is considered limitless. The amount of time and effort it would take someone else to train up their soul power and strength would allow you to gain twice if not thrice as much benefit in your cultivation. Its just to bad that your spirit is the trashy river grass."

With a final sigh the Spirit Master continued with the awakening. Even though Tang San could possible become a Spirit Master everyone in the room understood just how difficult such a path would be. At least none of the children were laughing at him anymore.

Tian Wei walked up to comfort Tang San but before he could say anything he was told to step onto the platform for his own awakening.

He ignored the jeering looks of the other children and quickly found his place at the centre of the platform. He allowed himself to block out all the distracting thoughts and focused solely on what was happening to him in the moment. As the golden beads of light started to swirl around him, Tian Wei closed his eyes and looked inward as he felt his spirit begin to form, drawing upon his very body, soul and mind in ways that he couldn't understand. 

Suddenly he felt as if a swarm of ants had dug into his very bones and started to ravage him. He was confused and afraid. Had he done something wrong and messed up the awakening ritual? Was he doing to die? He didn't know why he had suddenly been ingulfed in pain and for what ever reason it was as if his body refused to listen to him. All he could do was grit his teeth through the pain and allow the energy in his body to flow in the way that it wanted to go.

Quickly he noticed that the flow that had originally been one whole, suddenly splintered into two, each coalescing into the palm of each hand. Yet while one stream seemed gentle and was filled with warmth, the other only seemed wild and untamed, anywhere it passed in his body was engulfed in more pain before finally settling down once the flow had passed.

Eventually, after what felt like hours the two streams seemed to reach a boiling point as they burst out with power, however while the gentle stream emerged from his hand without problems, the wild and painful stream seemed intent on staying hidden. 

Now able to control his body again Tian Wei opened his eyes and looked around the room. Gasps and murmurs of surprise rung out form the spectating crowd and Tian Wei could only join them in their surprise as he looked upon the manifestation of his martial soul. 

In the palm of his hand bobbing up and down gently while rotating every so slowly in the air, was shield. It wasn't one of the crude shields that the uncles of the village sometimes used when fending off the small beast that sometime attacked the flocks of grazing animals from time to time, but was instead an ornate hexagonal shield covered in archaic symbols. Its upper section was thicker and broader than its bottom section which was elongated and split at the bottom. it resembled a tower shield with a golden hexagonal gem inlayed at its centre surrounded by golden accents.

The symbols on its surface also pulsed with the same ethereal golden glow and from time to time its was as if the shield itself was breaking apart into different segments, slowly expanding and shrinking rhythmically, connected by golden threats of energy almost as if it was breathing. 

All eyes in the room were on the beautiful shield and even the Spirit Master was at a lost for words. Slowly he held out the soul power orb towards Tian Wei who placed his free hand onto it absentmindedly.

Immediately the same phenomena that had graced the hall when Tang San held the orb once more made an appearance as the hall was awashed in an emerald light. 

"Full innate soul power. Two people from this village awakened with full innate soul power. This is ... amazing."

No one refuted the Spirit Masters words as they could only agree. For years to come many people in the village would still speak about the two young boys that completely managed to turn the annual Awaking Ceremony over on its head.