Huo Yuhao from The Peerless Tang Sect is incredibly talented.

After the meeting, the members of the mutual aid association went out in groups of three with the Awakening Balls to do missions and earn Holy Coins, awakening martial souls for children for free and teaching gymnastics along the way.

A few days later, under Huo Yuhao's special training, Wang Dong was finally able to master a portion of the death power within his martial soul, and it would no longer leak out.

……

On a street in Shrek City.

This area was previously handled by other groups, but today it's Xiao Xiao, Wang Dong, and Huo Yuhao's turn.

Since the mutual aid association had been operating here for several days, the news of free martial spirit awakening had already spread, and many children of the appropriate age had gathered outside the door early on.

There were even quite a few older men and women.

The awakening of martial spirits has begun.

The first one to come over was a little girl.

"Hold this ball in your hand when you awaken. Don't be afraid. It'll only take three breaths, very quickly." Xiao Xiao handed the awakening ball to the girl, her voice as gentle as if she were coaxing a frightened kitten.

The girl grasped the milky-white sphere in both hands. After three breaths, a faint, pale yellow light shone on the surface of the sphere. Xiao Xiao glanced down at the awakening result displayed simultaneously on the virtual screen, a bright smile spreading across her face: "Martial Soul: Green Grass, Innate Soul Power Level 1. Congratulations, you are a Soul Master!"

The girl paused for a moment, then turned and ran towards her mother, shouting as she ran, "Mom! I have soul power! I have soul power! They say I'm a Soul Master!"

The woman in the patched-up, coarse cloth clothes knelt down to catch her daughter, her rough hands repeatedly stroking her face, her eyes reddening. She looked up at Xiao Xiao, her lips trembling, and finally managed to utter only two words: "Thank you... thank you..."

Are there places in Shrek City to awaken martial souls? Yes, but it costs money, and the price isn't low—one gold soul coin per awakening.

Given their family's financial resources, they could probably only afford to give them one awakened martial soul in their entire lives.

Xiao Xiao looked at the two of them and said with a smile, "Auntie, I see you haven't awakened your martial soul yet, why don't you awaken it too?"

"Ah, me?" The woman seemed a little at a loss.

After all, in Douluo Continent, awakening a martial soul for a six-year-old child is the cheapest option. For an unawakened adult, it's not that it's impossible to awaken, but the cost is much higher.

In Shrek City, the place to awaken a martial soul costs ten gold soul coins for an adult.

The woman paused for a moment, wiping her rough fingers on her clothes again and again, as if afraid that her hands were too dirty and might damage the bright white sphere.

She looked back at the neighbors queuing behind her, then at Xiao Xiao, her lips moving as if she wanted to say something, but she didn't dare to speak.

"I...I'm this old, can I still awaken something? How much money would that cost...?"

"It's free." Xiao Xiao gently placed the Awakening Ball into her hand, her eyes crinkling with a smile. "It's free. You can hold it for a little while."

The woman clasped her hands together and carefully held the milky-white sphere in her palms.

A moment later, a very faint yellowish-brown light shone on the sphere, indicating a level three soul power and a scythe martial soul.

She stared blankly at the rough lines on her palm, then at the ball, and suddenly covered her mouth, her shoulders trembling slightly.

"I also have a martial spirit... I've lived for over thirty years, and this is the first time I've ever known I have a martial spirit..."

"Auntie, don't thank me." Xiao Xiao quickly took her arm, her green eyes sparkling, her tone as serious as if she were reading a text in class, "If you should thank someone, you should thank the city lord of Tiandou City. It was the city lord who told us to do this."

"Thank you, thank you so much!" The woman was too moved to speak.

"Oh yes, Auntie, here you go. Practice the exercises in this notebook with your family. It will help improve your health."

Xiao Xiao casually pulled one of the booklets from a stack on the table, handed it to the woman, and gave her a word of advice.

So Xiao Xiao began to awaken the next person's martial soul, while Wang Dong assisted from the side, and Huo Yuhao was outside, holding a stick to maintain order.

At lunchtime.

Huo Yuhao suddenly spoke up and asked, "Each of you, tell me, is there anything you don't understand about the true meaning of your own martial soul?"

Wang Dong was silent for a moment before speaking first: "The Goddess of Light and Darkness Butterfly is a butterfly, possessing the power of death and the power of light. I also have a character template of the Butterfly of the Underworld. I've read the guidance you gave me, and I've also read the character biography of the Butterfly of the Underworld, but as for the true meaning of martial soul, the love of life, I really don't know how to begin cultivating it."

Huo Yuhao nodded and replied, "You need to participate in the mutual aid society's missions. The more, the better. Not to fight, but to interact with people."

Wang Dong frowned slightly: "Can interacting with people help one cultivate the power of death?"

"Of course not." Huo Yuhao rarely smiled. "But dealing with people will help you understand why you need to cultivate the power of death."

"Life is made more colorful by death."

"Imagine every day is the last day. Every meeting between people is the last. The awakening ball in a child's hand, the tears of a mother covering her face, the wild grass you touched but that remains unharmed—they are precious and beautiful not because they are anything special, but because they will all come to an end."

"Death gives weight to life. Things without an expiration date are not cherished. Journeys without an end are not worth remembering. So the true meaning of loving life is not pretending that death doesn't exist, but embracing death, then turning around and living each remaining day in a way that leaves no regrets."

"Only death knows the preciousness of life, only darkness understands the warmth of light. You understand death better than anyone else, so you should love life more than anyone else. Not love its eternity, but love its brevity, love its fragility, love its burning brightly even knowing that death is inevitable."

"So I should...go and see more living people?" Wang Dong replied.

"right."

Wang Dong lowered his head thoughtfully, looking at his gloved hands, and said nothing more.

Xiao Xiao swallowed the bread in her mouth and patted the crumbs off her hands: "Don't laugh, don't laugh, then how am I supposed to train the Three Lives Soul-Suppressing Cauldron?"

"The state?"

"These two characters were originally separate. 'She' refers to the god of the earth, and 'Ji' refers to the god of grain. In ancient times, humans were able to stand on their own two feet because of the land beneath their feet and the grain in their hands. So the earliest meaning of 'Sheji' was very simple—to worship the land for peace and to worship the five grains for sustenance. Put together, it means: to ensure that those who follow you have land to cultivate and food to eat."

"Later, tribes evolved into states, and 'Sheji' became a synonym for the state. It sounds bigger, but its roots remain the same. Sheji is not a city, a flag, or a slogan, much less something lofty and unattainable. Sheji is the people, living, breathing individuals. Making them happy and strong—that is your way of Sheji."

"You have the best training opportunity. With the Lord of the Void Realm, you can just follow the quests he gives you."

Xiao Xiao nodded earnestly, memorizing every word, then blinked, her green eyes filled with curiosity: "Then, Huo Yuhao, what is the true meaning of your martial soul?"

Wang Dong also raised his head and looked directly at him.

Huo Yuhao took a bite of the bread, chewed it twice, swallowed it slowly, and then slowly said, "Ice Silkworm, huh—"

He deliberately dragged out the last syllable, watching the two curious eyes draw closer and closer, before suddenly changing the subject.

"It is evolution, it is the carp leaping over the dragon gate, it is the python swallowing the dragon, it is the transformation of the dragon and the snake, it is breaking out of the cocoon and being reborn. Its desire is to become the ultimate life form."

No, Tianmeng is already a semi-ultimate life form; she longs for Bingbing.

Huo Yuhao silently added the second half of the sentence in his mind.

Wang Dong froze for a moment, then crumpled the food packaging paper in his hand into a ball and threw it at him: "Huo Buxiao, what are you pretending to be, a riddle teller! You have to make things complicated when a single sentence can be explained in eight roundabout ways!"

"Exactly!" Xiao Xiao, rarely on Wang Dong's side, puffed out her cheeks. "You always talk so vaguely about your own stories, like 'a fish leaping over the dragon gate' or 'a python swallowing a dragon.' Just say something sensible!"

These stories don't exist in Douluo Continent; to Xiao Xiao and Wang Dong, this was pure riddles.

"I'm a spirit-type Soul Master, that's how spirit-type Soul Masters talk." Huo Yuhao finished his bread without changing his expression, picked up his water glass and took a sip. "Alright, quite a few people are going to awaken their Martial Souls this afternoon."

Xiao Xiao and Wang Dong exchanged a glance and simultaneously snorted. But neither of them pressed the matter further.

It wasn't that they weren't curious, but rather that they all vaguely felt that whenever Huo Yuhao said these inexplicable things, there was always a fleeting look in his eyes that they couldn't understand.

This is called paying tribute.

The afternoon's wake-up call went more smoothly than the morning's, and the staff's proficiency also increased.

Xiao Xiao became more and more skilled at manipulating the Awakening Ball, and Wang Dong's data entry speed also increased.

After Huo Yuhao maintained order in the morning, order was already established in the afternoon, and Huo Yuhao didn't need to intervene much.

More time is spent on guiding adults in radio calisthenics to children who have already awakened.

Huo Yuhao stood outside the arena, his movements slow and precise. A group of adults and children followed behind him in a crooked line, mimicking his movements, creating a rather comical scene.

As the sun began to set, the three finished their work. Today, they had awakened over a hundred people, including adults and children, all of whom had completed the awakening process.

The data recorded by the Awakening Sphere is simultaneously uploaded to the virtual realm of Tiandou City.

Xiao Xiao was sitting in the room tidying up her things when she suddenly looked down at herself and frowned slightly.

"What's wrong?" Wang Dong asked.

"Something's not right inside the cauldron." Xiao Xiao said, summoning the Three Lives Soul-Suppressing Cauldron. A dark blue-green ancient cauldron phantom appeared before her, the runes engraved on its surface emitting a faint glow.

But this time, at the edge of the cauldron, wisps of pale golden mist could be faintly seen slowly flowing.

The mist was very faint, almost imperceptible without careful observation, but it was definitely there, like strands of extremely fine golden threads, winding between the ancient patterns on the cauldron.

Wang Dong leaned closer to take a look: "Was this here before?"

"No." Xiao Xiao shook her head firmly. "There was nothing in the cauldron before. This golden thing only appeared today. I only felt it when I was tidying up. It's very light and soft, completely different from my soul power, but the cauldron doesn't seem to reject it. Instead, it seems to be actively absorbing it."

Huo Yuhao walked over, looked down and examined it for a moment, then opened the virtual realm.

He clicked on an icon in the search box—the object recognition function.

Then open the visual imagery, upload today's actions, and submit it to the virtual environment analysis to get the results.

Huo Yuhao then forwarded the message to the chat group with Xiao Xiao and Wang Dong.

"Hey, I sent the message to our group chat."

Xiao Xiao, Wang Dong opened the virtual realm.

It was clearly displayed in the group chat.

"Detection target: Faith Power (micro-quantity)"

Source: The power formed by the heartfelt gratitude and trust of the recipients through the medium of martial spirit.

Attributes: No attributes; compatible with any martial soul. Known functions: Improves martial soul quality, enhances soul skill effects, assists in breaking through bottlenecks, and can also be used to forge a godhood.

Xiao Xiao's eyes widened instantly.

Just then, as darkness fell, footsteps suddenly came from outside the street.

Three people dressed in Shrek City city management uniforms walked over from the other side of the road. The one in the lead was a middle-aged man in his forties with a half-smile on his face.

"What are you guys doing here?" The middle-aged man walked closer, sized up the three of them, and his gaze lingered on the Awakening Sphere. "Awakening your Martial Soul? Do you have a license?"

He had been secretly watching all day, and now there were fewer people around.

"What license?" Wang Dong frowned, and subconsciously took a step forward, shielding Xiao Xiao behind him.

"An Awakening License." The middle-aged man pulled out his certificate from his pocket and waved it in front of the three men. His two henchmen also stepped forward in response.

"Heaven Dou City stipulates that all activities involving the awakening of martial souls must be carried out with an awakening license issued by the City Lord's Mansion. Awakening without a license is illegal. Once verified, the equipment will be confiscated. Do you know that you have broken the law? Be careful, or I will throw you into Shrek City's prison."

He spoke in a calm tone, even with a hint of routine casualness, but every word he uttered was aimed at Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao.

Xiao Xiao's hand holding the Awakening Ball trembled slightly, and Wang Dong bit his lower lip, his face turning paler inch by inch.

"We didn't know about this rule..." Xiao Xiao's voice trembled slightly.

"Now you know?" The middle-aged man took the paper back, put his hands behind his back, and paced around the three of them a couple of times. "Well, seeing that you're both first-time offenders, young and full of enthusiasm to help others, I can understand that. How about this, I'll show you the way."

He leaned closer and lowered his voice, "As long as you pay a management fee of two hundred gold soul coins, and you're not allowed to come to these villages again to awaken martial souls for poor people for free, this matter will be considered as if it never happened."

In Shrek City, awakening martial souls for people is a business for the city management officers. In the past few days, the city management officers have noticed that fewer people are coming. After inquiring, they found out that some people are awakening martial souls for free.

How could they tolerate this? They're giving away their golden coins to poor people to awaken their martial souls for free—what a sin!

Cutting off someone's livelihood is like killing their parents; they came early to see which fool was causing trouble.

Go ask around in Shrek City; everyone knows that the business of awakening martial souls is managed by the city's management.

As for why they arrived earlier but are only being born now.

With so many people in the morning and afternoon, he didn't want to get ganged up on. There were quite a few second and third ring soul masters among them, and the three of them were only third ring cultivators.

One gold soul coin is enough for a low-level soul master family to make a living for a while.

Don't be fooled by the fact that people in Douluo Continent can easily spend tens of thousands of gold soul coins; they are all incredibly powerful individuals.

"Understand……"

Before he could finish speaking, a stick swept from the side.

The blow landed precisely on the hollow where the middle-aged man's neck meets his skull. Before the smile on the man's face could even fade, his pupils rolled back, and he fell straight forward like a chopped-down log, crashing face down to the ground and raising a small cloud of dust.

His two henchmen stood there, mouths agape, not yet realizing what had happened.

Huo Yuhao's movements did not stop for the first time.

He swung the stick again, striking the left henchman on the side of the neck. The man groaned, his legs buckled, and he collapsed to the ground.

The last follower finally came to his senses and turned to run. He had just shouted "Help!" when Huo Yuhao pounced on him and knocked him to the ground with a single blow.

Within five breaths, three men in urban management uniforms lay sprawled on the threshing floor, still breathing, but temporarily motionless.

Huo Yuhao straightened up, casually tossed the dry branch to the roadside, and dusted off his hands. Then he turned to Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao and said, "Go find a rope and tie him up first."

Wang Dong stood there, stunned, staring at him with wide eyes: "You...do you know what the consequences are for hitting a city management officer?"

"We won't get expelled, will we?" Xiao Xiao's face was even paler than when she was scared by the city management officers, and her voice was already trembling with tears. "We're doomed, we're doomed, we're doomed! Don't laugh, you were too impulsive. If this gets reported to the academy, at best we'll get a major demerit, at worst we'll be expelled, and even the mutual aid society will be implicated..."

Huo Yuhao looked down at the three people on the ground, then looked up at the two girls in front of him who were so anxious they were about to cry. A faint smile appeared on his lips, but it was fleeting. However, the determination in his eyes was undisguised.

Shrek Academy motto: Those who dare not cause trouble are mediocre.

"Hmph, why waste words with them? Just take action. We do things honestly and fairly, not like those evil spirit masters."

"Those who obstruct my work are courting death!"