Chapter Three The Second Martial Soul: The Mind

The awakening ceremony of martial souls came to an end.

Within the great formation, Xu Zhao opened his eyes.

Reflected in those twin eyes of sun and moon was the shadow of the Primal Chaos Ancient Dragon—majestic and mysterious, inspiring awe in all who beheld it.

"Zhao'er, what is your martial soul called?" Xu Minghuang asked urgently the instant he saw his grandson wake.

"The Primal Chaos Ancient Dragon," Xu Zhao answered succinctly, his bright twin pupils of sun and moon gazing at the grandfather who had hurried up to him.

"Grandfather, how is it?"

"After my martial soul awakened, did anything change in me?"

"Changed?" Xu Minghuang looked him up and down at once, and his gaze finally settled on those twin eyes, brighter than usual.

The moment their eyes met, he even felt as if his own heart had been laid bare.

"Zhao'er, your eyes..." Xu Minghuang said uncertainly.

He could feel that his grandson's eyes had indeed changed, yet he could not say exactly how.

"Grandfather," Xu Zhao, usually as steady as a little adult, rare as it was, revealed a sincere smile.

"This is my second martial soul."

"A second martial soul? Your eyes?" Xu Minghuang was not especially surprised to hear that his grandson had a second martial soul.

After all, before the awakening, he had always believed that his grandson would awaken twin martial souls of the sun and moon.

"An innate martial soul becomes stronger the more vital the body part it is tied to."

"If this eye martial soul can coexist with your Primal Chaos Ancient Dragon as a twin soul, then it must be a top-tier innate martial soul linked to the sea of spiritual consciousness in the brain."

"No," Xu Zhao said with a shake of his head after hearing that.

"Hm?" Xu Minghuang was puzzled. "If it isn't an eye-type innate martial soul connected to the brain, then what is it?"

"Grandfather," Xu Zhao asked in return.

"Have you never heard the saying, 'The eyes are the windows to the soul'?"

Seeing his grandfather pause in confusion, he pointed to his own twin pupils of sun and moon and continued:

"My second martial soul is the soul. Strictly speaking, it also falls within the category of innate martial souls, since the soul is an indispensable part of a person."

"However, the soul is intangible and shapeless, and because the eyes are the windows to the soul, its manifestation as a martial soul appears upon these eyes."

Xu Zhao's tone, compared with before his awakening, was indescribably relaxed.

There were also differences between twin martial souls and twin martial souls.

The sun and moon were indeed twin, top-tier celestial martial souls, but in the age of soul spirits, they were still constrained by spiritual power.

Primal Chaos Ancient Dragon and the soul were different.

The soul was a top-tier innate martial soul with both spiritual and soul attributes, granting an immense boon to spiritual power.

If, before the awakening, Xu Zhao had only placed his hopes for exceptional spiritual talent on the fact that he was a transmigrator, then now, even if his identity as a transmigrator gave him no advantage at all in spiritual talent, he still had absolute confidence that the talents of his twin martial souls would not be shackled by the system of soul spirits.

With both the Primal Chaos Ancient Dragon and the soul, two top-tier martial souls, together with his knowledge of this world and his foreknowledge of events, so long as his plans were sound, standing atop the world was by no means a distant dream.

"Since they are twin martial souls, you must decide which to cultivate first and which to cultivate later."

Xu Minghuang could see that his grandson was not just a little happy, and so he smiled as he asked:

"Zhao'er, have you decided whether to cultivate the Primal Chaos Ancient Dragon first, or the soul first?"

"I have, Grandfather," Xu Zhao said. After his awakening, he had already made his choice.

"I want to cultivate the soul first."

"Also, I have another matter that will trouble Grandfather."

"Regarding my martial soul, please tell outsiders that I awakened only one martial soul, and that this pair of sun and moon eyes of mine is merely a mutated eye-type innate martial soul."

"Better to keep some cards hidden than to stand out too much."

Although, as a direct descendant of the Xu family, awakening an eye martial soul utterly unrelated to the Xu line would have been enough to astonish ignorant outsiders, any martial soul inheritance could potentially mutate into an innate martial soul during awakening.

Added to that were Xu Zhao's twin pupils of sun and moon, which had long since spread through the upper circles of Ming City. Once outsiders learned that the martial soul he awakened was a mutated eye-type martial soul, their preconceived notions would actually make them think that a Xu family descendant awakening an eye martial soul was something unexpected yet perfectly reasonable.

"Grandfather understands. Rest assured!" Xu Minghuang nodded in agreement, though he felt faintly helpless inside.

A grandson who was mature and sensible ought to be a good thing, yet if he was too mature and sensible, that became another matter.

Just now, without any prompting from him, his grandson had already taken the initiative to suggest concealing his true strength, leaving him, as the grandfather, with the desire to guide him but no clear way to begin.

Still, when it came to martial souls, it was not as though there was no place for him to show his expertise before his grandson.

"Since you've settled on the first martial soul to cultivate, it is time to consider what kind of soul spirit to absorb."

Xu Minghuang took out his soul communication device and sent a message to someone in his contacts.

"Spiritual-attribute soul spirits are rare, and the number of high-quality types is limited to just a few: evil eyes, cyclopes, silver spirit beasts, and so on."

"I've already messaged the tower master of the Ming City Spirit Pagoda. He will help select several excellent spiritual-attribute soul spirits from among those in the Ming City Spirit Pagoda whose cultivation is over a hundred years but under a thousand."

"Later, after the two of us finish breakfast, we'll set out directly. By the time we arrive at the Spirit Pagoda, that old fellow should have almost finished picking them."

"Huh? Now?" Xu Zhao was somewhat surprised. It was only a little after five, so he asked in doubt:

"But at this hour, what if the tower master is asleep and doesn't see the message?"

"Zhao'er, rest easy." Xu Minghuang shook the soul communication device in his hand and said with a trace of pride,

"The message I sent to that old thing had the forced vibration function enabled."

"Even if he were sleeping like a dead pig, the huge buzzing of the soul communication device would wake him."

Hearing this, Xu Zhao instantly pictured the scene...

At the same time.

Ming City, Spirit Pagoda.

As the political center of the Douluo Federation, the branch of the Spirit Pagoda stationed in Ming City, though grouped together with the seventeen other Spirit Pagodas across the cities as the Eighteen Heavenly Pillars, was unquestionably the foremost of the eighteen in scale.

Only the Spirit Pagodas of Heaven Dou City and Star Luo City could compare with it in part, and even they ranked below the main headquarters of the Spirit Pagoda located in Shrek City.

At this moment, at the top of the Spirit Pagoda.

Inside a spacious and luxurious bedroom.

By the foot of the bed, on the smooth floor, a silver-haired old man in pajamas had just crawled up, reached out a finger, and pressed the mute button on his soul communication device.

At once, the world fell silent.

The silver-haired elder sat down by the bed, his face full of displeasure as he scrolled through the soul communication device, muttering under his breath:

"Let me see which old bastard is disturbing this old man's sleep again!"