Chapter 1099: The Guild Came Alive

The previous levels all had puppets with four heads and eight arms. Although there were none here, there was a black pillar, which should serve the same function.

"Let's try and see..."

Sitting down, he pressed his palm against the ground, and a ring of light immediately enveloped the pillar. Just like the previous spirit awakening, Zhang Xuan's consciousness instantly seemed to sink into darkness.

"Light up!"

Knowing that illuminating the darkness was equivalent to awakening the item's spirit, he activated the Heavenly Dao Spirit Awakening technique in his mind and pointed his finger forward.

Hum!

A beam of light shone forth, dispelling the darkness, but it was extremely faint, like a candle in the wind, flickering and on the verge of going out at any moment.

"Hmm?"

He frowned.

With the previous puppets, activating the Heavenly Dao Spirit Awakening technique would illuminate the entire area, but now it only lit up what was in front of him, and it was easily extinguished. This meant that the item's spirituality was much harder to awaken than expected.

"As expected of a Seven Star level, it's indeed much more difficult..."

Knowing this, Zhang Xuan wasn't discouraged; instead, his eyes lit up.

The previous tests had no technical difficulty at all; this one was the real deal.

"Let's see how hard the Seven Star test is... I will light you up today no matter what!"

Faced with a challenge, Zhang Xuan was immediately filled with interest.

Other spirit awakeners could only perform the ritual three times a day and then needed a long rest before continuing. But he was different; the Heavenly Dao Spirit Awakening had almost no side effects, and with his soul power far exceeding that of his peers, he wouldn't tire even after dozens of attempts in a day.

He pointed his finger forward again.

Another flame ignited, still faint, but it pushed the darkness a bit further away.

"Merge!"

His soul spun rapidly, bringing the two flames together. The previously separate flames slowly merged.

Both flames were spiritualities he had ignited, imbued with his soul consciousness, so merging them was not difficult.

Of course, this was only true for him. The flames ignited by the Heavenly Dao Spirit Awakening had identical attributes. Ordinary spirit awakeners could not do this.

If the attributes were different, they couldn't merge; otherwise, it would be like having two consciousnesses in one item, like the Sacred Domain Bodhi Tree back then. If they fought for control, they might even destroy the entire weapon.

Whoosh!

After merging, the flame grew much stronger, illuminating the surroundings. Although it still couldn't dispel all the darkness, it was no longer on the verge of dying out.

"It really works..."

Merging spiritualities was something he had thought of on a whim, and he hadn't expected it to actually work. He smiled lightly and pointed forward again.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Two more flames were ignited and merged with the current one.

With four flames merged, the flame became a torch, vigorous and powerful, radiating light that illuminated at least a hundred meters.

"Such a large space..."

With the light, Zhang Xuan could now see his surroundings clearly.

With the previous puppets, the range of his consciousness was only a few meters or a dozen meters. Once the spirituality was ignited, it could cover everything. But here, even after illuminating a hundred meters, he still couldn't see the end... This weapon was simply too big!

The larger the weapon, the stronger the spirituality needed to support it, just like the Golden Origin Cauldron required a stronger spirituality than the Ice Rain Sword... Having ignited the spirituality four times and still not finding the boundary showed that this pillar was terrifyingly powerful.

"I didn't expect a Seven Star test to be this hard. I don't believe I can't light it up..."

Seeing that even the torch couldn't reach the end, Zhang Xuan's competitive spirit was aroused.

If he, with his Heavenly Dao Spirit Awakening technique, couldn't pass the test, wouldn't he be letting down the library in his mind?

"Continue..."

He tapped his finger again, accelerating his soul's rotation. Several more flames appeared before him. With the continuous overexertion, his face turned slightly pale.

Although his soul power was strong and he could perform spirit awakening many more times than ordinary people, continuous use still caused significant damage to his soul.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

He continued merging the ignited spiritualities. The torch became a bonfire, illuminating even farther, but still no end was in sight.

Not seeing the end meant failure.

"I'll go all out..."

Gritting his teeth, he spat out a mouthful of blood essence, and Zhang Xuan's consciousness held on desperately.

After continuously merging thirty-two flames, the bonfire before him turned into a blazing sea of fire, like a scorching sun, illuminating the surroundings.

Rumble!

The pitch-black space shook, and he finally saw the entire situation clearly.

The space in this weapon that contained consciousness was actually several li in size. No wonder the spirituality was so hard to awaken.

Having finally succeeded, Zhang Xuan felt completely drained, but also filled with curiosity.

He had cultivated the Heavenly Dao Spirit Awakening technique, and his understanding of spirit awakening had reached the peak of Seven Star, even the early stage of Eight Star. He could be sure that Vice President Xu and the others were far slower than him in spirit awakening...

Yet even so, he had nearly exhausted himself to succeed. What kind of test was this?

Wasn't it too difficult?

...

In a spacious room of the Spirit Awakener Guild, three women sat facing each other. They were the guild's highest authorities: Vice President Xu, President Ruan, and Vice President Chen.

"Xu Ying, what exactly happened? The Jibei Twin Heroes are not to be trifled with. Although Luodi Xiong Daokou is average in strength, Qingtian Xiong Cangxu is not someone we can handle. If they come looking for trouble, our Spirit Awakener Guild might owe another favor to the Master Teacher Academy..."

President Ruan looked over.

Daokou had come to help a student with spirit awakening to break through to the Primordial Spirit realm, but ended up beaten half to death without doing anything... She had heard about it as soon as she arrived and had hurriedly called Vice President Xu and Vice President Chen over.

If the Jibei Twin Heroes were reasonable people, there would be nothing to fear. But those two had a notorious reputation and had suffered such a loss. If they caused trouble, with their strength, they couldn't suppress it.

They would have no choice but to seek help from the Master Teacher Academy.

"It's like this..." Vice President Xu Ying recounted Zhang Xuan's matter in detail.

"You say... this guy might be a battle master?" President Ruan frowned slightly and nodded. "If that's the case, then it's fine. Even if the Jibei Twin Heroes want to act arrogant, they wouldn't dare to go against the Battle Master Hall!"

Not to mention that the Battle Master Hall was a branch of the Master Teacher Academy, it also contained countless powerful warriors that no profession would dare to offend.

"If Qingtian Xiong Cangxu comes looking for trouble, just shift all the blame onto that guy. Don't bring trouble to our Spirit Awakener Guild. We are only an auxiliary profession and cannot contend with these strong individuals..."

President Ruan instructed.

Most spirit awakeners were women because their delicate minds made it easier to grasp the essence of the practice.

Being women themselves and practicing an auxiliary profession, they naturally couldn't be a match for these thugs.

To be honest, if it weren't for the rules set by the Master Teacher Academy, the Spirit Awakener Guild would have been plundered by other professions long ago, and wouldn't be as prestigious as it is now.

For this reason, their guild only existed in places with a Master Teacher Academy; they didn't go elsewhere to avoid unpredictable trouble.

"Alright..." Vice President Xu Ying nodded, then suddenly remembered something. "By the way, that young man hasn't left yet. He said he wanted to learn some spirit awakening techniques and went to the library to read books!"

"Reading books? A man wants to learn spirit awakening?" President Ruan shook her head.

It wasn't that she looked down on men, but it simply wasn't something they could achieve.

"I've already sent someone to see if he's really studying. They should be back soon..." Vice President Xu Ying shared the same opinion and didn't think highly of Zhang Xuan. But now that two or three hours had passed and he still hadn't come out, she couldn't help but be curious.

Creak!

As soon as she finished speaking, a woman hurried in.

She was Vice President Xu Ying's student, a Six Star spirit awakener.

"How is it? Is that kid really reading?" Vice President Xu Ying smiled as she saw her return.

"Reporting to President Ruan, Vice President Chen, and Teacher... He wasn't just reading... He also took the spirit awakener exam..."

The woman still couldn't believe what she had just seen.

"Took the spirit awakener exam?" Vice President Xu Ying frowned. "He seemed completely ignorant about the spirit awakening profession, right? He read for less than three hours and wants to take the Four Star spirit awakener exam?"

She had interacted with him, and he knew nothing about spirit awakening. And he wanted to take the exam? What a joke!

"He... not only took the exam, but also activated the spirituality of the puppet in the corner... The puppet ran around everywhere, and we sisters had to suppress it..." the woman quickly replied.

"Ran around... No!"

This time, President Ruan was puzzled and couldn't help but look over. "Activating two arms and one head of the four-headed puppet is enough to pass the exam. Because of the other heads' restrictions, even if activated, it shouldn't be able to move... How could it run around?"

"He... activated the spirituality of all four heads and eight arms of the puppet..." The woman's lips trembled as she spoke, as if she didn't believe it herself.

"All activated?" The three presidents stood up simultaneously, their eyes filled with disbelief.

Activating one spirituality to control four heads... was simply impossible. Even they couldn't do it. And a guy who knew nothing had done it after just reading for a while?

"Are you saying... he activated that Four Star puppet?"

Vice President Xu Ying could no longer contain herself.

If that were true, this young man might indeed be a spirit awakening genius.

"Not just the Four Star... He also activated the Five Star and Six Star ones. Now he's in the Seven Star room, doing something with the pillar in the corner..."

The woman said.

"He activated the Five Star and Six Star ones too?"

The three presidents all staggered.

After a moment, President Ruan frowned. "The Seven Star puppet is broken and hasn't been repaired. That pillar is the support for our guild building. It has no spirituality and can't be activated..."

Boom!

Before she finished speaking, everyone felt the guild shake violently, as if they were sitting in a small boat tossed by water.

"Bad news, President... Our guild... has come alive!"

Immediately after, an elder rushed in, his face pale.