In the True Martial World, people who have the potential to cultivate can awaken a Martial Spirit at the age of 16. A Martial Spirit is a Spirit that is born from a person's nature and potential.
Martial Spirits could have all sorts of forms ranging from a sword to a dragon, even plants can be Martial Spirits, anything could be a Martial Spirit. Only those who had the potential to become a cultivator would be able to awaken a Martial Spirit.
The strength of a Martial Spirit depends on the potential of a person while the form of the Martial Spirit would depend on the person's personality and nature. Therefore, it wasn't difficult to determine someone's personality from their Martial Spirit.
All of this was found out after countless years of research and experimentation on countless people, along with careful observations during the Awakening Ceremony of teenagers who had turned 16. Although experimentation had raised some issues and complaints from the masses, it could not be denied that it brought immense knowledge and benefits to everyone. This is why this sort of inhumane research on Martial Spirits is secretly continued to this day.
Similar to Cultivation Realms, Martial Spirits were also divided into separate Tiers. This is based on the strength they possess when they are awakened during the Awakening Ceremony.
These Rankings are known as Martial Spirit Tiers. The weakest Martial Spirit is ranked as Tier 9 while the strongest Martial Spirit is ranked as Tier 1.
However, it had been many millennia since a genius owning a Tier 1 Martial Spirit appeared in the True Martial World. People who awaken high-tier Martial Spirits would be snatched up by the giant sects of the True Martial World as soon as they appeared. They would be regarded with utmost importance and be allocated as many resources as needed to nurture these rare geniuses into leading figures of the world.
Finding out the Tier of a Martial Spirit was very easy. Whenever a Martial Spirit was activated, the Martial Spirit would shine with flashy halos. The number of halos a Martial Spirit possessed, indicated its Tier.
For example, if one awakened a Tier 9 Martial Spirit, there would be 9 halos encompassing it. Likewise, if one had a Tier 1 Martial Spirit, it would be surrounded by a single halo.
Martial Spirits were the standard within the True Martial World. Anyone who did not have the potential to become a cultivator would remain mortal and die a mortal death.
Those who possess a Martial Spirit and cultivate to reach the pinnacle of Cultivation have larger lifespans compared to mortals, the prerequisite for this would be to make a breakthrough into the 2nd realm of Cultivation, the Physique Transformation Realm which came after the first realm of Cultivation, Spirit Channelling Realm to get this first increase in lifespan.
Cultivators in Physique Transformation Realm would have a larger lifespan, because when a cultivator breaks through a big realm of Cultivation, not only does their strength increase, but their lifespan also increases by a large sum. The same applies when the cultivator breaks into the next big realm. This is one of the main reasons mortals yearn to become cultivators.
Whenever a teenager reaches the age of 16, they would instantly become the focus of the entire family. Once the Tier of their Martial Spirit is determined, they will either be cast aside like trash or rise within the family in the blink of an eye. This is the natural selection of the True Martial World. Potential matters the most, the birthday of the age of 16 for all people in the True Martial World is their biggest day, as it would determine whether they would rise or fall.
This was common knowledge in the True Martial World, even mortals knew of this information – Including Tang Yin.