17 Awakening (Part 3)
Translator: GGP
Liu Ming walked to a corner of the formation and calmly sat down cross-legged.

He had noticed the Spirit Masters like Senior Brother Lei had become slightly fatigued after several previous spirit-opening ceremonies.

The bright light flashing from the installation of those huge crystals on the entire Spirit Gathering Formation was also not as dazzling as it was at the beginning.

Although he did not know how many times a Spirit Master could assist with the Mystical Incantation under normal circumstances, or what kind of impact it would have on disciples in the formation when the energy in those crystals was exhausted, he certainly did not want to become the last batch to experience it personally.

Besides, after observing the earlier waves, he had already seen everything that needed to be seen, and staying later would not benefit him; it was naturally better to join one of the first few groups and attempt to break through to the Spirit Sea.

Other noble clan disciples who could understand this were probably not few in number, but after witnessing the terrifyingly high fatality rate earlier, they had subconsciously become somewhat hesitant.

However, even so, they quickly gathered over a hundred people.

To Liu Ming’s surprise, Gao Chong and Mu Mingzhu were also among them, which made him glance at them.

Mu Mingzhu’s complexion was not very good, and her beautiful eyes carried a hint of fear, obviously, the previous scene had greatly shocked her.

On the other hand, the tall young man beside her, although a little pale, looked much calmer than the girl.

“Begin,”

As soon as the burly man surnamed Lei saw that enough people had gathered, he immediately gave the command, and the entire formation was activated with a buzzing sound. At the same time, dozens of streams of spiritual liquid sprayed into the formation, and a misty spiritual rain drifted up once more.

With a ‘boom,’ a huge ball of light descended from the sky and landed firmly on Liu Ming.

Immediately, Liu Ming felt as if his shoulders carried the weight of ten thousand pounds, his chest grew hot, and his body, unable to support the weight, was pressed to the ground.

At this moment, Liu Ming had no time to care about others, only seeing himself enveloped by the white light, and a moment later, feeling a chill on his back, it seemed something penetrated into his body and quickly rolled towards his dantian.

Having seen the process of spirit-opening in others, Liu Ming was not panicking, knowing that it was the Spirit Master’s Yuan Energy entering his body. He pushed against the ground with both hands, trying to prop up his body.

But no matter how hard his arms tried, his body remained pressed to the ground, unable to rise in the slightest.

Liu Ming was slightly startled.

Although he had seen others struggling immensely to stand up, he had not expected it to be this difficult.

As he was not one of those born with incredible strength, nor had he focused on training this aspect, it would not be easy to stand with ordinary means.

With this thought, Liu Ming’s breathing became somewhat rapid. After taking several deep breaths, his arms suddenly grew thicker as he uttered a low shout, and with a hard push against the ground, his body finally began to slowly rise.

He had, in an instant, used a secret technique to stimulate his strength, temporarily increasing the power in his arms several-fold, inch by inch sitting himself upright.

During this process, the young man could even hear the cracking sound of his own bones, and his skin turned slightly red under the immense pressure.

A short while later, once Liu Ming had finally sat upright, he had the chance to glance at the others, resulting in a wry smile in his heart.

He was not the first to rise; many other noble clan disciples had already sat up correctly, including the delicate Mu Mingzhu.

Clearly, other noble clan disciples, just like the disciples from the Barbarian Ghost Sect, had undergone specialized training for this, or possessed secret techniques similar to his for stimulating physical strength.

However, when he looked at Lei Zhen, his gaze involuntarily paused.

Seeing him in the white light with an air of ease about him, not a single wrinkle on his clothes, it seemed as if the gravity within the ball of light had not troubled him at all.

As Liu Ming was speculating in his mind, a complex incantation began to echo above the formation. At first, the sound seemed to come from a great distance, but in an instant, it thundered by his ears relentlessly.

In a flash, he felt as if his body was boiling over, the Yuan Energy that had been still inside him began to circulate wildly through his meridians, rapidly increasing in speed and intensity.

Although he had anticipated it, Liu Ming still found his body becoming intensely hot all at once, and the meridians throughout his body were torn by the reckless onslaught of the heavenly and earthly Yuan Energy, causing wave after wave of excruciating pain, as if countless sharp knives were ceaselessly slicing him, with each wave more ferocious and violent than the last.

Liu Ming’s eyes shone brightly, and his face revealed surprisingly little of the pain he was suffering.

On the fierce island, he had endured countless tortures worse than death to learn those unorthodox secret techniques, and the sequelae of using these secret techniques were extremely painful in themselves.

The countless instances of practicing secret techniques on the island allowed Liu Ming’s body to endure a level of pain that far surpassed what most could imagine—sometimes to the point of numbness.

At this moment, he easily pushed aside the pain that disturbed his mind and focused all his attention on using the art of Yuan Energy control and the power of mantras to guide the violent Yuan Energy in his body, forcibly gathering it toward his dantian little by little.

Other disciples from noble families simply could not endure pain like Liu Ming could, and the willpower of more than a dozen was too weak to bear it. As a result, they immediately lost their mental defenses, and their Yuan Energy went completely out of control, rushing toward their heads.

After several wild bursts of lesser circulation, these people’s heads burst one after another, and as time went on, more disciples from the noble families joined the death row.

In the blink of an eye, half an hour had passed, and only a small number of people were still sitting steadily on the ground within the array.

At that moment, Lei Zhen suddenly raised his head and let out a long howl, and one by one, crystal-clear light bands emerged on the surface of his body, revealing as many as nine, each with faint streaks of lightning ceaselessly flickering on them.

He had actually opened up his Spirit Sea so early and revealed nine Spirit Veins at once.

“Indeed, it’s the lightning attribute among the Spirit Veins, and there are nine of them,” the Sect Leader of the Barbarian Ghost Sect exclaimed in delight upon clearly seeing the unusual phenomenon of the Spirit Veins that appeared on Lei Zhen’s body.

“The Sect has really found a treasure this time. Just having lightning Spirit Veins or nine Spirit Veins is not too extraordinary, but combining both, the value to the Sect could possibly not be much less than that of Jialan’s child with the Nightmare Body. No wonder Senior Brother Lei was not too proactive this time in the contest for Spirit Vein disciples; he had his eye on his own nephew early on. With this child, we could outshine the other disciples by a thousandfold,” Junior Sister Lin murmured, her gaze toward Lei Zhen heating up a bit.

“Junior Brother Lei himself possesses lightning Spirit Veins, so he would be quite suitable to guide the child,” the Sect Leader of the Barbarian Ghost Sect replied with a smile.

Upon hearing this, Junior Sister Lin inwardly sighed in disappointment, knowing that with blood relations as a premise, it would be impossible for other branches to compete for Lei Zhen.

“It’s also fortunate that we have Junior Brother Lei from the Lei Family in our Barbarian Ghost Sect; otherwise, it’s not certain that this child would have been sent to our Sect. With this child’s talent, if he had appeared in one of the other sects, he would likely receive the same level of attention,” Junior Sister Lin consoled herself with a smile.

“True, especially the Wind and Fire Sect, which is well-known among the sects for its lightning techniques—if they had obtained this child, he would probably be treasured immensely,” the Sect Leader of the Barbarian Ghost Sect said with a chuckle.

“Now that this child has successfully awakened his Spirit Veins, the only other one among the remaining people worth looking forward to is that ‘Gao Chong’ independent disciple. By the way, you mentioned a youngster with a strong spirit among these candidates, Sect Leader Senior Brother; I wonder if he can succeed in his assault on the Spirit Sea.” At this time, Lei Zhen had already sat down cross-legged again, and Junior Sister Lin, after a quick glance at other people in the distant array, spoke slowly.

“Whether he succeeds or not will be known in half an hour; you and I will naturally be aware of the outcome,” the Sect Leader of the Barbarian Ghost Sect replied, his tone returning to calm.

But just as he finished speaking, a thunderous rumble suddenly came from the array, followed by an unusual fluctuation sweeping out from within, causing the entire square to tremble slightly.

“What’s going on, what happened?” Junior Sister Lin was startled.

Seeing this, the Sect Leader of the Barbarian Ghost Sect froze for a moment, then stared blankly at the array, remaining silent.

Just then, a disciple sitting cross-legged within the array suddenly trembled, and slowly rose into the air, while a white light whirled around him, revealing a hazy halo.

“This… could it be that ‘that’ has actually appeared…” The moment the Sect Leader of the Barbarian Ghost Sect saw this scene, he could no longer maintain his composure. His form moved, and without hesitation, he shot into the air toward the array.

At that moment, the disciple who had risen on his own had another halo of light condense before revealing a second halo.

“Earth Spirit Veins, this is the celestial phenomenon of the Earth Spirit Veins’ emergence. How can this be…” After trembling, Junior Sister Lin finally came to realization and exclaimed, but she immediately enveloped herself in a glow and hurriedly left the high platform.

Above the array, the Lei surname strongman, Junior Brother Chu, and several other Spirit Masters, upon seeing this scene, understood the significance of what had happened and were all extraordinarily excited. They flew near the disciple and watched as one after another halo appeared on his body, counting the number in their minds.

At this moment, the Gu surname scholar reciting the mantras toward the golden screen in the air was precisely witnessing this spectacle, his amazement was self-evident, but unfortunately, he had not finished reciting the mantras and could only continue to stay in place, unable to move. However, his gaze was equally fiery as he watched the youthful disciple in the air forming the rings.

This disciple was tall and burly with a simple and honest face—he was indeed Gao Chong, the independent disciple.

At the same time, Liu Ming, unnoticed by anyone and seated in another corner of the array, had several strands of silver-white light flowing through his dantian due to someone’s precise control by a tremendous spiritual force. These strands were intertwining at an unbelievable rate, gradually blending together to form a faint silver-white silky sphere.