Compared to the ecstatic Shane, Su Yuntao was quite bewildered.
Although both children had Innate Full Spirit Power, one had Blue Silver Grass and the other some broken chip – neither showed much potential for development!
Su Yuntao truly lived up to his fan nickname, the "Blind Douluo"; presented with two promising talents, he stubbornly refused to acknowledge either!
The nine children had successfully completed their awakening ceremony. After Su Yuntao wrote out their certifications, he headed outside.
"Lord Su, are there any children from our village who can become Spirit Masters this time?"
Village Chief Grandpa Jack had been waiting outside all along and hurried over when he saw them emerge.
"Good news, two children from your village can become Spirit Masters this time!"
"Bad news, both of them have trash Martial Souls, not worth cultivating."
Su Yuntao shook his head, handed the Martial Soul certifications to Grandpa Jack, and then headed off to the next village.
"What? Innate Full Spirit Power Blue Silver Grass? What a cruel joke of fate!"
After Grandpa Jack read the certifications, his heart nearly broke.
"Tang San, Shane, are you willing to go to a Spirit Master academy to study and become true Spirit Masters?"
After calming down, Grandpa Jack hadn't given up hope. So what if their Martial Souls were a bit lacking? At the very least, they could still become Spirit Masters!
"Grandpa Jack, I'm willing!"
Shane was the first to respond. He knew Holy Spirit Village only had one quota for a working student, and he had to seize the opportunity!
"I… I have to go back and ask my dad," Tang San replied after a moment's hesitation.
"Alright then. Shane, you head back first. I'll go with Tang San to try and persuade that drunkard father of his."
The mere mention of Tang Hao made Grandpa Jack shake his head. That fellow, did he even deserve to be called a father?
Shane was about to agree, but then, as if a thought struck him, he suddenly changed his mind.
"Grandpa Jack, Little San, since there's no one at my home anyway, can I go with you guys?"
Grandpa Jack was getting old and had a soft spot for pitiable children.
Without waiting for Tang San's agreement, he immediately pulled Shane over.
"Come on, Grandpa will take you along!"
And so, the old man and two children, each with their own thoughts, headed towards Tang San's home…
It was morning, Tang Hao's usual sleeping time. The blacksmith shop was quiet.
"Tang Hao! Tang Hao!"
But Grandpa Jack didn't care if Tang Hao was sleeping. He truly detested this slovenly blacksmith.
While calling out for Tang Hao, Grandpa Jack looked around for a chair to sit on, but all he saw were broken wine bottles everywhere; there wasn't even a clean spot to stand.
"Who's shouting? Can't a man get some sleep around here?"
A voice tinged with anger sounded. The curtain to the inner room was pushed aside, and out walked Tang Hao, bearded, disheveled, his hair a bird's nest.
"Old Jack, what are you doing here?"
Tang Hao first glanced at his son, then fixed his gaze on Grandpa Jack.
"What am I doing here? Don't you even know today is your son's Martial Soul Awakening day!?"
Grandpa Jack fumed at Tang Hao.
The two quickly started arguing, and Tang San hurried to play peacemaker and calm them down.
Shane, on the other hand, stood aside, enjoying the show while simultaneously trying to collect Tang Hao's attribute data – this was his true purpose for coming!
The design and manufacture of mecha required big data analysis and support. So, the stronger the target from whom he collected data, the stronger his mecha would be!
Looking around Holy Spirit Village, Tang Hao was clearly the hidden final boss of this starter zone!
[Target: Tang Hao]
[Sex: Male]
[Martial Soul: Clear Sky Hammer]
[Spirit Power Level: Greater than 90, specifics unknown]
[Preliminary analysis complete. In-depth mining encountering resistance, unable to proceed…]
"Hiss… Damn it, can't it be done?"
As Shane attempted a remote scan to collect data, he discovered a problem.
The gap in spirit power and mental strength between him and Tang Hao was too vast. The current strength of his Intelligent Chip was insufficient to dig out any useful information.
Just as his data collection failed, the argument over there also reached a conclusion.
Tang Hao pulled Tang San into a small dark room, whispered some secrets to him, and then came out agreeing to send the little runt to the Spirit Master academy.
Grandpa Jack was overjoyed, thinking Tang Hao had finally had a change of heart. Only Shane curled his lip in disdain.
Tch, isn't it just because he found out his son has twin Martial Souls and even awakened the Clear Sky Hammer that he changed his tune so drastically?
And all that talk about using the hammer in his left hand to protect the grass in his right – it's laughably absurd.
It was clearly the Blue Silver Grass providing cover for the Clear Sky Hammer all along, acting as a shield.
Now, both children were confirmed for enrollment. However, Holy Spirit Village's sponsored slot had gone to Shane. Tang Hao would have to sell everything he owned to scrape together Tang San's tuition fees.
"Little San, now we can go to school together!"
Shane slung an arm over Tang San's shoulder, grinning as he leaned on him.
"Yeah."
Being fellow Innate Full Spirit Power awakeners, Tang San was starting to acknowledge Shane more and more.
He really was different from those other little brats, worth associating with!
As the two came into close contact, Shane secretly activated his Intelligent Chip and immediately launched a comprehensive analysis of Tang San!
[Target: Tang San]
[Sex: Male]
[Martial Soul: Blue Silver Grass, Clear Sky Hammer]
[Spirit Power Level: Rank 10 - Spirit Master]
[Basic information collection complete. Commencing in-depth mining…]
Seeing this, Shane let out a mischievous smile.
Since the old man is off-limits, I'll just go after you, kiddo!
Being peers, Tang San posed no suppressive threat to Shane.
His attribute data was like a computer without a firewall before the Intelligent Chip – completely open for investigation!
[Preliminary data analysis complete. After filtering and statistics, the following is usable information for the host!]
[Internal Cultivation Method: Mysterious Heaven Skill]
[Hand Technique: Mysterious Jade Hand]
[Hidden Weapon Arts: Hidden Weapon Compendium]
[Eye Cultivation Method: Purple Demon Eye]
[Movement Technique: Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track]
[Grappling Technique: Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon]
[In-depth mining continues…]
Excellent, excellent! Shane hadn't expected the Intelligent Chip to practically strip Tang San bare of all his secrets!
All six great Tang Sect secret arts were converted into strings of data and inputted into Shane's brain!
This feeling of directly copying data without needing to study was simply too exhilarating!
Although Tang San didn't know how to use his mental strength for protection yet, he still sensed something was off after so much data was stolen.
"Brother Shane, do you feel like something's not right?"
Subtly shrugging off Shane's hand, Tang San frowned, creating some distance and asking warily.
Since the Intelligent Chip only copied the data and didn't cause any actual loss, Tang San couldn't quite pinpoint the issue, even though his intuition told him something was wrong.
"Is there, Little San? Maybe it's because your Martial Soul just awakened, so you're more sensitive to your surroundings?"
"After all, Blue Silver Grass should really like this kind of lush green place."
Shane withdrew his hand, feigning ignorance.
"Is that so!"
Tang San didn't know much about Martial Souls yet and was easily fooled.
"Of course! You'll understand once we start school!"
Shane said, taking the opportunity to once again get close to the little runt.
He appeared to be casually fidgeting with him, but in reality, he was buying more time for the Intelligent Chip's data collection!
Shane chattered on about this and that, managing to stall for several more minutes. Finally, Tang San's last secrets were completely exposed!
[Target: Tang San, data collection complete. The following is key usable information!]
[Crafting Blueprints: Tang Sect Hidden Weapons Encyclopedia]
[Usage Introduction: Detailed records of Tang Sect hidden weapon manufacturing methods]
[Special Note: Includes the top ten ultimate hidden weapons, from the Buddha's Fury Tang Lotus down to the Silent Sleeve Arrow, covering everything imaginable]
"Thank you, Little San! I really enjoyed chatting with you today!"
Shane thanked Tang San sincerely, unable to suppress the grin spreading across his face.
"Not at all, it's I who should thank you, Brother Shane!"
Tang San had indeed learned a lot of useless trivia from Shane…
"Shane, Tang San, there are still three months until Nuoding Spirit Master Academy starts. Grandpa will send you both off together then!"
Grandpa Jack looked at the two young children, smiling kindly.
"Okay, Grandpa Jack!" they both replied in unison.
His objective achieved, Shane was thoroughly satisfied.
After collecting data for so long, all he wanted now was to go home and build a mecha!