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Fire Phoenix Douluo, who had long since sworn off marriage and treated the two little ones like her own nieces, cleared her busy schedule just to spend the day with them for their Martial Soul Awakening.
She had already made up her mind: no matter what kind of Martial Souls the kids awakened—even if they turned out to be completely underwhelming—she would still raise them with everything she had. Even if they didn't awaken soul power and could only live as regular people, she'd make sure their lives were worry-free.
After all, neither she nor her sister Luan Yu had married or planned to start families of their own. Whether the kids had Martial Souls or could become Soul Masters didn't matter to them anymore.
Holding Meteor and Firefly by the hand, Fire Phoenix Douluo led them into her soul vehicle. As one of the top guardians of the Sun Moon Empire, the leader of the Fire Phoenix Soul Engineer Regiment, and a soul engineer once ranked alongside Starry Sky Douluo Ye Yulin, one of the top three of the empire—her ride obviously wasn't your average soul tool vehicle.
In terms of defense alone, this vehicle was as tough as an eighth-grade defensive soul tool. On top of that, it was fully loaded with offensive and detection-type soul tools. Its overall cost could rival that of a ninth-grade soul tool. Only someone like Fire Phoenix Douluo—a ninth-grade soul engineer herself, a high-ranking member of the empire, and ridiculously wealthy—could afford to build something like this.
This car was actually one of her proudest inventions. The inside was super spacious—plenty of room for four people to sit comfortably. As Meteor stepped on the fiery red carpet inside, he realized it was made from the pelt of some rare soul beast. He looked around the interior of the vehicle, wide-eyed and impressed.
Soul tools in the Sun Moon Empire were basically this world's version of high-tech devices, upgraded through magic. Thanks to the unique presence of soul power, these soul tools could sometimes even outperform the tech from Meteor's original world.
Take the soul tool war car he was sitting in now—it's an all-terrain, all-purpose beast. It could cruise through the roughest terrain, even scale mountains without breaking a sweat. The materials used to build it were all rare and specially refined for soul tools. This thing was on a whole different level compared to the delicate, easy-to-dent cars from his own world.
Plus, since it was powered by soul energy, it was super safe and convenient. If it ran out of energy, you just swapped in a new core—something a soul engineer could do in minutes.
Under the curious and awed stares of passersby, the car—decorated with fiery red patterns and featuring a majestic, wing-spread phoenix figure on the hood—started moving slowly toward the Awakening Hall in central Mingdu.
Today, central Mingdu was way livelier than usual, a total contrast to its typical calm. Every six-year-old in the city would be coming to awaken their Martial Soul over the next few days. Mingdu had five large Awakening Halls—in the center and in the north, south, east, and west districts. On top of those, there were dozens of smaller Awakening Halls where commoners could awaken their Martial Souls for free.
The big halls were mainly for the children of nobles and high-ranking officials.
The Sun Moon Empire's royal family did all of this not only to provide free awakenings for commoners but also to gather info on the next generation in Mingdu. As the ruling power, keeping tabs on officials' offspring was just standard procedure.
If they allowed random Soul Masters to handle awakenings in private, how many civilian geniuses would slip through the cracks? It's worth noting: the Sun Moon Empire offered the best treatment to its citizens across the entire Douluo Continent—and was the only empire to provide free Martial Soul awakenings to the public.
That's also why the Sun Moon Empire produced so many talented commoners. Just like Fire Phoenix Douluo and Ice Phoenix Douluo—those two sisters came from ordinary families. After awakening their Martial Souls, they received imperial support, enrolled in the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineering Academy, and even got accepted into the prestigious Mingde Hall. That's how they achieved what they have today.
So even though Luan Yu didn't like getting involved in imperial politics, she never forgot the empire's kindness. Whenever the Sun Moon Empire faced danger, she'd always stand by it without hesitation.
She still chipped in for soul tool research projects too. When invited, she'd lend a hand—even if it meant working with the high-level research teams.
After all, most of those major research projects needed more than one or two ninth-grade engineers. They required large teams to make real progress. Luan Yu, though carefree and a bit of a recluse, couldn't turn down invitations from her old classmates and teachers.
So the royal family mostly turned a blind eye to Ice Phoenix Douluo living on the edges of the system. She was still contributing in her own way—plus, her sister had joined the military and was now the leader of the Fire Phoenix Soul Engineer Regiment.
The annual Awakening Day was the most exciting time in Mingdu. It was when all age-eligible children would awaken their Martial Souls. In Douluo, a Martial Soul could change a person's entire life. Everyone had one, but not everyone could awaken soul power along with it. In fact, not even one in a thousand people had that kind of luck.
But soul power meant potential. It meant strength. If someone's Martial Soul came with soul power, they could cultivate it, become stronger, and eventually step into one of the most respected professions in all of Douluo—the Soul Master.
So even the most ordinary families pinned their hopes on Awakening Day. If their child awakened soul power, it could turn their entire future around—and maybe lift the whole family with them.
At the Awakening Hall in central Mingdu, the crowd was already forming, with families lining up with their children. Anyone coming here for the awakening wasn't just anyone—these were the rich and powerful. Still, because the one conducting the awakening here was a Title Douluo, even royal family members had to line up to show respect.
This was the only hall in the city where a Title Douluo personally performed awakenings. The other four major halls had Soul Douluo in charge, and the smaller ones only had Soul Saints or Soul Emperors.
Outside of Mingdu, in other cities, it was common to see even lower-ranked Soul Masters—Soul Elders or Soul Deacons—handling awakenings.
"Big bro, what do you think my Martial Soul will be?"
A little girl who had just turned six, with short, shiny purple hair, looked up at her older brother, her big sparkling eyes filled with both excitement and nervousness.
Her brother, who had the same purple hair—though his was long—looked about twenty. He was handsome, fair-skinned, and had a warm smile on his face.
"Hmm… even I don't know. It's all up to luck. But hey, our family's inherited Martial Souls are all pretty awesome. Whatever you awaken, it's bound to be good."
Truth be told, the purple-haired young man wasn't entirely confident that his little sister would inherit one of their family's Martial Souls. There had been cases in their clan where Martial Souls mutated, or where siblings awakened completely different souls. It wasn't guaranteed they'd all get one of the top inherited ones.
"....."