Su Mo was quietly cultivating in his room.
His Devouring Martial Spirit floated behind him, and he was enveloped by Spiritual Qi.
The endless Spiritual Qi turned into runes and melted into Su Mo’s body.
He was cultivating the Lv 3 of the Elephant’s Strength Skill.
After completing the Lv 2 cultivation skill, Su Mo’s physical strength had surpassed that of six tigers but was still weaker than that of seven.
Now that he was cultivating the Level Three cultivation method, his physical strength was once again rapidly increasing.
Endless amounts of Spiritual Qi entered him, turning into elephant-shaped runes that were absorbed by his body crazily.
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, 10 days had already passed.
During these 10 days, Su Mo had only spared a little time to cultivate his genuine Qi. Once his cultivation had reached the Peak Lv 7 Qi Cultivation Realm, he used all his time to cultivate his body.
His physical strength was increasing even faster than his cultivation.
During 10 days, he had already reached the middle stage of Lv 3 of the Elephant’s Strength Skill.
Su Mo felt like his body had an explosive power that could allow him to break the air with a single punch.
The strength of eight tigers!
His physical strength alone equaled that of a martial artist at Level Eight.
Lv 3 of the Elephant’s Strength Skill was actually ten times more difficult to cultivate than Level One.
However, Su Mo’s Martial Soul was now ten times faster at absorbing Spiritual Qis than before.
“Huff!”
Su Mo stopped cultivating and walked out of his room.
“Xi’er, what are you looking at?”
Xi’er was sitting on a stone chair in the yard, resting her cheeks in her hands and pursing her lips slightly. She looked adorable.
“Brother Su Mo, you’re out of seclusion!” Xi’er exclaimed joyfully when she saw Su Mo.
“Yes!”
“Xi’er, have you reached the peak of the Body Tempering Realm yet?” asked Su Mo.
The corners of Xi’er’s mouth curled into a beautiful smile that spread like a blooming flower.
“I didn’t let you down! I’ve already completed the Ninefold Body Tempering,” said Xi’er proudly, lifting her snow-white chin slightly.
“Good. Once I finish my challenge match today, I’ll help you awaken your Martial Soul.”
Su Mo was also happy for Xi’er and said with a smile, “Soon, my Xi’er will also be a real martial artist!”
“Hehe!” Xi’er giggled.
“Let’s go! Xi’er, today is the day of the clan meeting’s challenge matches.”
They walked toward the clan’s martial practice field.
…
A simple grandstand had been set up in the martial practice field.
On the stand stood Master Su Hong and various other elders.
Below the spectators stand, 10 wooden chairs were placed neatly, with over 100 young Su disciples gathering around the chairs.
Su Mo and Xi’er’s arrival attracted many people’s attention.
After his battle with Wei Liang, Su Mo was now considered a legend in the Su clan.
However, some still looked down on him.
Su Tianhao and Su Hai did not even bother to look at him.
“Humph!” Su Yu glanced at Su Mo and scoffed with jealousy.
He had taken Liu Yushan from Su Mo, but Su Mo had found a girl much more beautiful than Liu Yushan, making Su Yu extremely envious.
Su Mo ignored everyone’s looks and walked onto the martial practice field.
After a while, Master Su Hong scanned the crowd, stood up, and said, “Alright, now that almost everyone is here, let’s begin the challenge matches.”
“First, I’ll announce the 10 seeded disciples.”
“Su Tianhao!”
“Su Hai!”
“Su Yu!”
“Su Mei!”
“Su Mo!”
“Su Peng!”
“…”
Su Hong announced 10 names.
“The 10 of you are the seeded competitors. You can take your seats in front of the stand.”
“If anyone thinks they’re powerful enough, they have two chances to challenge any of these disciples.”
“Alright, let the challenge matches begin!”
The 10 seeded disciples sat in their seats, including Su Mo.
Su Mo knew that these so-called challenge matches were actually no more than a formality.
These 10 seeded disciples were basically the 10 strongest people among the Su clan inferiors.
Su Tianhao and Su Hai were both at Lv 9 Qi Cultivation Realm, and the girl called Su Mei, who was the second elder’s daughter, was at Lv 8.
Even the weakest ones among them were at Lv 6.
Next, people began to challenge the seeded disciples.
Almost everyone chose to challenge the weakest disciples.
After an hour, the challenge matches ended.
Besides a disciple at Level Six who successfully replaced a seeded disciple, all other challengers failed.
Su Mo and the other rest were too powerful, so they were never challenged.
The challenge matches soon ended, and Su Mo prepared to leave.
“Su Mo,” Su Yu suddenly said, walking toward him.
“Yes?” Su Mo asked.
“Haha! Haven’t you heard? Wei Rufeng announced publicly that if you attended this martial arts competition, he’d break your limbs and ruin your cultivation to avenge his brother and Wei Liang.” Su Yu smiled, his eyes full of gloating.
“Wei Rufeng is back?”
Su Mo arched his brow.
Wei Rufeng was Wei Lin’s older brother and the oldest son of the Master, Wei Wankong. He was also the first genius of the Weis.
He left Sunnywood City a year ago and entered one of the four sects in Skymoon Country, Scorching Sun Sect.
“If he wants to avenge his brother, I’m afraid he doesn’t have the ability to do so!”
Su Mo shook his head unconcernedly and left with Xi’er.
“Humph! How delusional! Has his confidence grown to this extent after defeating Wei Liang?” Su Yu sneered.
…
Su Mo left the martial practice field with Xi’er and went to the Sus’ memorial temple.
“Xi’er, I’ll help you awaken your Martial Soul now,” said Su Mo.
“Alright!” Xi’er nodded nervously.
“Brother Su Mo, what kind of Martial Soul do you think I’ll awaken?” she asked.
“Haha! I don’t have the power to predict the future!”
Su Mo smiled and said, “However, I know that my Xi’er is as beautiful as an elegant phoenix, so your Martial Soul will surely be amazing.”
“Brother Su Mo, you’re teasing me again!”
Xi’er’s face instantly turned bright red.
Soon, Su Mo and Xi’er reached the clan memorial temple.
In the temple was a small altar called the Awakening Altar.
However, it was tricky to open the Awakening Altar, since it required a great amount of genuine Qi or Spiritual Qi.
The Sus usually waited for a large group of disciples to enter the Body Tempering Realm before awakening their Martial Souls together.
“Xi’er, step onto the altar,” said Su Mo.
Xi’er took a deep breath, slowly and daintily walked up to the altar, and sat down cross-legged.
Su Mo walked to the back of the altar, where there was a groove: the magical eye of the Awakening Altar.
Usually, the Sus activated this eye with the help of genuine Qi from many elders or abundant Demonic Cores of demonic beasts at the Spiritual Martial Realm.
Su Mo did not have such powerful genuine Qi or such powerful Demonic Cores, but he did have Spiritual Stones.
He took out a Spiritual Stone from his storage ring and placed it in the groove.
Buzz!
As soon as the stone was placed inside, the eye began to work its magic.
Suddenly, a great amount of white light erupted from the altar.
The white light turned into a strange rune and entered Xi’er’s body.
Xi’er’s body seemed to have a shadow wiggling inside of it.
Time trickled by.
Su Mo soon saw cracks appearing on the Spiritual Stone in the groove, as if it was about to crumble.
This meant the Spiritual Qi in the Spiritual Stone was about to be used up.
Su Mo immediately took out a couple more stones and placed one in the groove.
More and more runes floated above the altar and enveloped Xi’er’s entire body.
However, her Martial Soul still did not awaken.
Soon, the second Spiritual Stone also ran out of Spiritual Qi, so Su Mo placed the third one in.
Then,
The fourth one.
The 10th one.
The 20th one.
The 30th one.
The 40th one.
Su Mo’s expression changed, and his eyes were filled with confusion.
He had used a lot more Spiritual Stones than were needed to awaken a Martial Soul.
The value of 40 Spiritual Stones in gold was about the yearly income of the Sus.
If awakening Martial Souls needed this much Spiritual Qi, the Sus would not be able to afford it.
Su Mo frowned, gritted his teeth, and kept putting in more Spiritual Stones.
50 stones!
80 stones!
100 stones!
105 stones!
After a while, all his Spiritual Stones were gone.
However, Xi’er’s Martial Soul had still not awakened.
When the last Spiritual Stone was used up, the Awakening Altar slowly stopped working. It dimmed and became silent again.
Su Mo’s face darkened. “I’ve used over 100 Spiritual Stones, but Xi’s Martial Soul still hasn’t awakened!”
“What’s going on?”
“Does Xi not have a Martial Soul?”
There were some people who were born without Martial Souls and could never become martial artists.
Su Mo was very confused. He soon dismissed this idea because he could feel Xi’er’s Martial Soul vibrating strongly within her.
“Then why won’t it awaken?”
Su Mo could not understand.
“Brother Su Mo, why… why can’t I awaken my Martial Soul?”
Xi’er looked at Su Mo with the same confusion in her eyes.
“I don’t know!”
Su Mo shook his head and said, “Don’t worry, Xi’er. We’ll go ask my father. He’s witnessed many awakenings, so he should know why.”
Then, they left the memorial temple and walked toward Su Hong’s quarters.