Free Web NovelChapter 193: Awakening of the eight gods
The neon glow of the city streets blurred into a kaleidoscope of vibrant blues and crimsons as Alex continued his solitary walk. To the rushing crowds of salarymen, teenagers glued to their smartphones, and low-ranked Hunters in tactical gear, he was invisible—a ghost passing through a forest of steel and glass.
Yet, beneath that placid surface, Alex’s mind was processing a torrent of data. The conceptual framework of this world was remarkably efficient. In the Soul World, a cultivator might spend a century enduring bone-breaking tribulations just to break through a single bottleneck. Here, a cosmic cosmic switch flipped during an awakening ceremony, and a mortal instantly commanded the laws of fire, space, or gravity.
It was artificial, yes. It lacked the deep, foundational comprehension of true cosmic laws. But as a mechanism for mass-producing high-density combatants to defend a reality? It was brilliant.
"An ecosystem engineered for rapid militarization," Alex murmured, his voice swallowed by the rumble of a passing subway train. "And the Dragon Monarch is the apex predator waiting in the wings."
Deep within Alex’s inner universe, the transition was reaching a state of equilibrium. The silver river of the Soul World’s essence had fully braided itself into the vast, dark-gold currents of his original cosmic power.
Where the two energies met, a localized nebula had formed. It didn’t spark with destructive friction; instead, it hummed with a quiet, terrifying density. It was a power that could simultaneously anchor a soul and shatter a star.
Perched at the nexus of this cosmic forge, Headmaster Lucien stood in the central pavilion of the Heavenly Origin Academy. Before him stood the eight commoners he had gathered.
Five young men, three young women. They wore the simple, coarse-clothed tunics of outer-ring laborers. Their hands were calloused from manual labor, and their eyes held the cautious, defensive look of those who had spent their lives at the absolute bottom of a world ruled by soul masters. In a world where a person’s worth was dictated by their Spirit, they were less than dust.
Yet, despite their trembling knees, none of them fled. Their gazes were fixed on Lucien with a mixture of reverence and desperate hope.
"Headmaster Lucien," the oldest of the youth, a young man named Ren with a jagged scar across his knuckle, spoke up tightly. "Is it true that we might be useful to someone of his level?"
Lucien, whose aura normally commanded the fear and respect of thousands of elite cultivators, offered a remarkably gentle smile. "He did. And remember your manners, Ren. He is watching."
Before Ren could process the words, the space in front of the pavilion rippled.
The air didn’t tear; it simply dissolved, revealing a projection of Alex. He wasn’t physically there, but a sliver of his consciousness manifested as a silhouette of pure, starlight-flecked shadow.
The eight commoners instantly fell to their knees, their foreheads pressing against the cool stone floor. The sheer weight of existence emanating from the silhouette, even dialed down to a fraction of a percent made their souls shiver.
"Rise," Alex’s voice echoed, not in their ears, but directly inside their minds.
They stood, trembling but resolute.
Alex examined them. Their lack of a Martial Spirit, which the Soul World viewed as a fatal defect, was precisely what made them perfect. Their meridians were empty, unmarred by the rigid pathways of traditional cultivation. They were blank canvases.
"You have been cast aside by the laws of your birth world," Alex spoke calmly. "But laws are merely parameters set by those who came before. I am going to change your parameters."
Then with a wave of his hand, he teleported the eight individuals.
One moment they were standing within the grand pavilion of the Heavenly Origin Academy, shivering under the weight of their teacher’s unseen presence; the next, they were standing in a secluded alleyway, surrounded by towering walls of brick and steel.
Alex stood before them, his expression as unreadable as ever. In the academy, he was known only as a mysterious, enigmatic teacher whose true depth even Headmaster Lucien couldn’t fathom. Here, dressed in ordinary clothes, he looked no different from any other young man on the street.
"This is a different world," Alex spoke calmly, his voice instantly grounding the panicked youths. "Its laws are different from yours. In your birth world, you were judged by the presence of a Martial Spirit. Here, power is unlocked through a process called awakening. I have brought you here to go through it."
Ren, the oldest of the group, swallowed hard and bowed deeply. "We will follow your guidance, Teacher."
Alex nodded slightly. "Follow me."
The local branch of the Hunters Association was exceptionally crowded. The massive glass-domed plaza was packed with hundreds of citizens, reporters with floating camera drones, and high-ranking officials dressed in pristine suits.
The atmosphere was electric, and for good reason. Today was the awakening ceremony of Jiang Chengyu, the daughter of the prestigious Jiang Clan. Her ancestor was an X-Rank Hunter, one of the absolute elite powerhouses on the planet. Naturally, the entire world was eager to see if his bloodline would yield another monster.
Alex led the eight commoners into the back of the viewing hall. The youths kept their heads down, eyes wide with a mixture of awe and anxiety as they took in the flashing neon screens, the holographic displays, and the sheer density of the crowd. They had never seen anything like this in their entire lives.
"Teacher," Ren whispered, his voice trembling slightly. "What is that?"
"An awakening crystal," Alex replied quietly, his gaze fixed on the center of the stage.
Standing before a massive, translucent crystal pillar was an extremely beautiful woman. Jiang Chengyu stood with flawless posture, her long dark hair cascading down her back, her expression cool and confident. The ceremony was entirely public, broadcasted live to millions.
As she placed her pale hand onto the surface of the crystal, the massive stone hummed.
Suddenly, a bright Red light lit up, illuminating the stage. It was the color of an E-Rank hunter.
But it didn’t stop there. Almost instantly, the light shifted to Orange (D-Rank), then flashed to Yellow (C-Rank), and surged into a vibrant Green (B-Rank). The crowd held its breath as the crystal rapidly transitioned into a deep Blue (A-Rank) and then erupted into a royal Purple (S-Rank).
The eight commoners watched with wide, opened eyes, completely paralyzed by the display of raw, rising energy.
The purple deepened, transitioning into a fierce Violet.
"SS-Rank!" someone in the crowd shouted. "And the light isn’t dimming!"
With a deafening chime that echoed through the entire plaza, the crystal finally flashed with a brilliant, blinding Golden light. The energy rippled across the stage, forcing the surrounding guards to shield their eyes.
Awakening Result: SSS-Rank.
The hall erupted into absolute chaos. Reporters screamed into their microphones, and the officials from the Jiang Clan smiled with profound satisfaction. An SSS-Rank awakening meant she would undoubtedly inherit the Jiang empire and secure her family’s dominance for another generation.
While the entire hall was celebrating and cheering, Alex remained perfectly still. His eyes, completely indifferent to the golden spectacle, were focused on a completely different layer of reality.
Through his divine consciousness, he had traced the exact path of the energy. The moment Jiang Chengyu touched the crystal, a specific frequency of light had entered her body. It didn’t just measure her soul; it actively searched her biology, checking a specific, dormant sequence within her bloodline inherited from her X-Rank ancestor.
It was a genetic lock. A strong, latent gene that determined the capacity of the power the world’s system would grant.
’So that’s how it works,’ Alex thought, a faint, amused smile playing on his lips. ’It isn’t a random distribution of luck. It is a biological calculation based on inherited potential.’
If the system of this world determined a person’s rank based on the strength of their genetic lineage, then the solution was remarkably simple.
Alex turned his gaze back to the eight trembling commoners beside him. They were still staring at the stage, utterly overwhelmed by the grand display of the SSS-Rank prodigy, feeling smaller and more insignificant than ever before. ƒrēewebnovel.com
With a thought, Alex drew a single drop of his own blood into the hidden space of his palm.
To these mortals, a single pure drop of his blood would instantly cause their bodies to combust from cosmic density. Therefore, Alex precisely manipulated the structure, diluting the essence to a minuscule, sub-atomic level, rendering it entirely safe for a mortal frame while retaining its infinite conceptual weight.
With a subtle flick of his fingers, the diluted essence split into eight microscopic particles, seamlessly sinking through the skin of the eight youths and embedding itself into their core biology.
The commoners didn’t feel any pain. They only felt a sudden, inexplicable warmth washing through their veins, erasing their fatigue and replacing it with a profound, unshakeable stability.
"Teacher?" Ren turned to him, blinking in confusion.
"The line is clearing up," Alex said calmly, gesturing toward the awakening crystal as Jiang Chengyu stepped down from the stage. "Go. It is your turn to step up."
