With a soft boom, Bai Wushang poked through the soul crystal.
It was like planting a seed in the dirt. The seed broke through the earth, took root, sprouted, and eventually grew into a gigantic tree in a very short time. Bai Wushang's soul power skyrocketed at an alarming rate, and every cell in his body was cheering.
A small black sun suddenly appeared in the originally boundless space of the sea of consciousness filled with gray mist, perched right in the center, and was spinning in place at a slow, regular speed.
Soul vortex? Is this… my awakened soul power?
Bai Wushang remembered what he had learned in class, and remained incredulous.
According to the normal process, a preparatory master could not rely on himself to achieve soul awakening, and had to wait until he was 16 years old and aided by a specific awakening array before he could successfully open up his mind space, thus condensing the soul vortex, and possessing soul power.
Soul Power was a symbol of official Master status!
This world was derived from transcendent creatures.
Insects, orcs, witches, goblins, angels, demons, bloods, giants, ghosts… Countless races and endless branches and infinite mysteries created this vast world of survival of the fittest.
The human race was weak by nature, and only a small group of them had the talent of Soul Power. Once they successfully awakened, they would have an unparalleled and powerful ability—to form pet contracts with extraordinary creatures and control them to fight!
Subdue, nurture, fight, advance, evolve… The Masters kept climbing and moving forward so that the human race could take its place on the stage of the transcendent world!
For as long as any child of the human race could remember, their strongest and purest desire was to awaken Soul Power and contract a pet beast.
From this moment on, Bai Wushang had crossed that dividing line between mortal and divine, stepping into the beginnings of another world, and he inevitably felt a bit dazed.
I remember the books mentioning that autonomous awakened ones are also known as Innate Masters, which is very rare: the probability is about one in 10,000 of an ordinary preparatory Master. With my original natural talent, I definitely wouldn't have made it. Could it be because I devoured and fused with the soul essence left behind by Qin Long, causing me to overtake and break through that critical line?
Bai Wushang pondered silently, and then felt a bit worried. I wonder if this will leave any residual effects. Hopefully, I won't lose more than I gain because of this…
Looking down at himself, Bai Wushang was shocked to find that his body seemed to have undergone some changes due to awakening his soul power. He felt a little taller than 5'8", which he had been, his shoulders were a bit wider, and the surface of his skin had an additional layer of luster.
The most conspicuous thing was suspended in the air on the right side of his body: a dictionary-like book, faded in color, with arcane and ancient patterns engraved throughout and far more exaggerated in size and thickness than the average book.
If there was still some unreal feeling before, then now after seeing this slightly mysteriously glowing book, Bai Wushang finally believed the truth.
This was the Book of Oaths, also known as the Book of Contracts, a special energy mass made of Soul Power and flesh and blood essence coalescing; it wasn't a substance.
It was a credential for the identity of a Master, and automatically formed upon awakening the Soul Power.
Its main function was to give the user the ability to "contract" with transcendent creatures, through which they could enter into a pet contract.
Also, the Book of Oaths had a built-in independent living space that could accommodate a contract pet.
"The Book of Oaths? Brother Wushang, how did you… You became a Master?"
Mu Xiaoxiao stared at the book in awe, and her small mouth dropped so wide in surprise that an egg could fit in.
After thinking about it in silence, Bai Wushang decided to keep the matter of Qin Long in his heart, and not tell anyone.
This matter was too surreal. There were actually other parallel worlds beyond the Transcendent Plane, completely subverting people's views. Any leakage of such information would cause major trouble, and not be good for himself or his friends.
So, Bai Wushang just blurred out the part about the transmigraters, and simply explained that he had taken the desperate step of activating a divine protection spell to survive. As a result, the protection spell had not only healed his body, but also seemed to have triggered a chain reaction that had accidentally caused his Soul Power to awaken of its own accord.
"Ah! Then wasn't your life expectancy shortened again?" said Mu Xiaoxiao sullenly with a bitter look.
The things that happened in Bai Wushang's childhood were known to everyone in the Mu Family who was familiar with him, naturally including Mu Xiaoxiao.
"If there's only one protection spell left, it will probably last three years… By then the seal will break, and the blood poison will storm back in…" Bai Wushang muttered. "But, I won't give up easily. From today onwards, I will work harder, and never fear fate until the last moment…"
Mu Xiaoxiao was silent for a while before she spoke to change the subject.
"If you've awakened on your own, you're now at the peak of the Spiritualist?
"I remember Grandpa saying that the Master who awakens through the array assistance will transform the soul power that has been naturally accumulated within the past 16 years into soul power, and the initial soul power depends on each person's accumulation, and will be in between the three zones of early, middle, and late Spiritualist. Meanwhile, in the case of a Master who awakens autonomously, their initial soul power will reach the peak of Spiritualist directly, starting from a higher level than others, and they can save a lot of cultivation time…
"Of course, this alone is not enough to set off the rarity and power of the autonomous awakened. What is most precious is that the autonomous awakened have an additional opportunity to summon their life-bound pet beast!"
"Life-bound pet beast…" Bai Wushang said quietly, suddenly looking up at the sky and frowning.
By now, it was completely dark. The crescent moon hung in the sky, and the stars were mostly obscured by thick clouds.
After him becoming a peak Spiritualist Master, both his physical qualities and his perception had qualitatively improved, and a burst of strange hissing sounds coming from the side of his ears caused his sense of vigilance to peak.
"XIaoxiao, the life-bound summon has to be carried out with full concentration; no distraction is allowed. Look, it's getting dark now. Something will inevitably come out to feed in the wilderness… We'd better find a safe place to hide first before we consider the next step."
"Okay!" Mu Xiaoxiao nodded obediently, and pointed her slender finger at her neck, saying, "But when it comes to danger, don't always protect me first. I still have my family's protective jade pendant."
Bai Wushang saw that the lotus jade pendant with a light green luster had a clear crack.
"We just fell from a high altitude, and the jade pendant triggered automatically, but it could only protect me, so I was unharmed," Mu Xiaoxiao whispered while tugging hard on the corner of Bai Wushang's torn and tattered clothes, and tears seemed to rise again under her eyes. "Everyone else is probably dead, and died horribly… It scared me to death when I saw that you were all badly mangled…"
"Okay, okay. It's okay."
Bai Wushang patted Mu Xiaoxiao's head dotingly, his gaze gentle and his heart slightly moved.
With nothing more to fall back on since the calamitous incident at the age of six, Bai Wushang had been adopted by a woman.
But that woman wasn't very reliable, and it didn't take long for her to throw him to the Mu Family. Bai Wushang spent most of the 10 years between the ages of six and 16 in the Mu Family compound. He could be considered partially the Mu Family's child.
Mu Xiaoxiao was a direct member of the younger generation of the Mu Family, but unfortunately, she had an average talent, and was also a bit playful and capricious, and didn't stand out among her siblings.
She and Bai Wushang had grown up playing together—the two were very close—and Bai Wushang had always taken care of her as his own sister.
Shaking his head slightly, Bai Wushang pushed those warm feelings out of his head for the time being. Business first.
In the hazy moonlight, he dug and searched through the wreckage of the floating ship, fishing out two one-meter-long, three-finger-thick metal rods, one for him and one for Mu Xiaoxiao, to use as makeshift weapons.
Bai Wushang's current physical qualities were comparable to those of a regular early to mid young transcendent creature, but Bai Wushang knew that the wilderness was a place full of unknown variables, and his own practical combat abilities were lacking, so he didn't dare to be careless in the slightest.
"Be careful. Stay close to me."
Holding up the improvised torch that had just been lit, Bai Wuhsang held Mu Xiaoxiao's hand as he explored towards the unknown darkness.