With a soft "pop," Bai Wushang pierced the Soul Crystal.

  It was like planting a seed in soil – the seed broke through the earth, took root, sprouted, and finally grew into a towering tree in an incredibly short time... Bai Wushang's soul power surged at a terrifying speed, every cell in his body seeming to cheer and leap for joy.

  In his originally boundless Sea of Consciousness filled with gray mist, a small black sun suddenly appeared, settled right in the center, rotating slowly and rhythmically in place.

  "A Soul Power Vortex? Have I... awakened my Soul Power?"

  Bai Wushang recalled what he had learned in class, still finding it hard to believe.

  According to the normal process, a Prospective Master couldn't awaken their Soul Power on their own. They had to wait until their sixteenth birthday and use a specific Awakening Array for assistance to successfully open their Sea of Consciousness, thereby condensing a Soul Power Vortex and gaining Soul Power.

  Soul Power was the symbol of an official Master!

  This world originated from extraordinary creatures.

  Insectoids, Beastmen, Witches, Fairies, Angels, Demons, Blood Clan, Giants, Ghosts... Countless races, endless branches, infinite mysteries, forged this vast world where the strong preyed on the weak.

  The human race was inherently weak. Only a small fraction of those with the talent for Soul Power, once successfully awakened, possessed an incomparably powerful ability – to form Pet Beast Contracts with extraordinary creatures, commanding them to fight!

  Taming, nurturing, battling, advancing, evolving... Masters climbed continuously, forging ahead, allowing the human race to secure a place on the stage of the extraordinary world!

  For any human child, from the moment they formed memories, the most fervent and purest wish was to awaken Soul Power and contract Pet Beasts.

  From this moment on, Bai Wushang had crossed the dividing line between mortals and the sacred, stepping onto the starting point of another world. His emotions were inevitably somewhat dazed.

  "I remember the books mentioning that spontaneous awakeners are also called Congenital Masters. They are extremely rare, with a probability of about one in ten thousand compared to ordinary Prospective Masters. With my original aptitude, it definitely wouldn't have been possible. Could it be because I devoured and fused with the soul essence left by Qin Long, allowing me to leapfrog ahead and break through that critical threshold?"

  Bai Wushang pondered silently, then grew a little worried. "I just don't know if this method will leave any side effects. I hope the gains don't outweigh the losses..."

  Looking down at himself, Bai Wushang was astonished to find that his body seemed to have undergone some changes due to the Soul Power awakening. His original height of 1.78 meters felt taller, his shoulders broader, and his skin even had a lustrous sheen.

  Most strikingly, floating beside his right side was a book resembling a dictionary. Its color was ancient, its entire surface engraved with arcane and ancient patterns, and its size and thickness were far more exaggerated than ordinary books.

  If there had been a sense of unreality before, seeing this slightly mystical, glowing book finally convinced Bai Wushang of the truth.

  This was the Book of Oaths, also known as the Book of Contracts. It was a special energy body condensed from soul power and life essence, not a physical object.

  It was the credential of a Master, automatically condensing upon awakening Soul Power.

  Its primary function was to grant the user the ability to 'Contract', allowing them to form Pet Beast Contracts with extraordinary creatures through it.

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  Simultaneously, the Book of Oaths contained an independent living space that could accommodate contracted Pet Beasts.

  "Book of Oaths? Wushang gege, you... how did you become a Master?"

  Mu Xiaoxiao stared blankly at the book, her small mouth agape wide enough to fit an egg.

  After thinking silently for a moment, Bai Wushang decided to bury the matter of Qin Long deep within his heart, telling no one.

  This matter was too fantastical – the existence of other parallel worlds beyond the extraordinary plane completely overturned people's imagination. Leaking any information would cause immense trouble, bringing no benefit to himself or his friends.

  Therefore, Bai Wushang simply blurred out the part about the transmigrator, explaining briefly that in order to survive, he had taken a risk and activated a Sacred Guardian Seal. As a result, the Guardian Seal not only healed his body but also seemed to trigger a chain reaction, unexpectedly causing his Soul Power to awaken spontaneously.

  "Ah! Doesn't that mean your lifespan has shortened again?" Mu Xiaoxiao's face fell, looking unhappy.

  Everyone in the Mu family familiar with Bai Wushang knew about the events of his childhood, including Mu Xiaoxiao, naturally.

  "With only one Guardian Seal left, it can probably last about three years... When the time comes, the seal will break, and the blood poison will return..."

  Bai Wushang muttered to himself, "But, I won't give up easily. Starting today, I will work even harder. Until the very last moment, I will never bow to fate..."

  Mu Xiaoxiao was silent for a long while before changing the subject:

  "With spontaneous awakening, you're now at the peak of the Spirit Practitioner level, right?"

  "I remember Grandpa saying that Masters who awaken with the help of an array convert the spiritual power naturally accumulated over the past sixteen years into Soul Power. The initial Soul Power depends on each person's different accumulation and will fall within the early, mid, or late stages of the Spirit Practitioner level. But spontaneously awakened Masters start directly at the peak of the Spirit Practitioner level. Their starting point is higher than others, saving a lot of training time..."

  "Of course, this alone isn't enough to highlight the rarity and power of spontaneous awakeners. The most precious aspect is that spontaneous awakeners get one extra chance to summon a Natal Pet Beast!"

  "A Natal Pet Beast, huh..." Bai Wushang murmured, suddenly looking up at the sky, frowning.

  The sky had completely darkened by now. A crescent moon hung in the sky, and the vast expanse of stars was mostly obscured by thick clouds.

  After becoming a peak Spirit Practitioner level Master, both Bai Wushang's physical fitness and perceptive abilities had improved qualitatively. The intermittent, unidentifiable roars reaching his ears instantly put him on high alert.

  "Xiaoxiao, the Natal Summoning supposedly requires complete concentration and allows no distractions. Look, it's already dark now, and it's inevitable that things will come out to forage in these barren mountains and wilds... Let's find a safe place to hide first, then consider our next step."

  "Okay!" Mu Xiaoxiao nodded obediently, then pointed her slender finger at her own neck, saying, "But if we run into danger, don't always try to protect me first. At least I have this family protective jade pendant."

  Bai Wushang saw that the lotus-shaped jade pendant, glowing with a faint green light, had a distinct crack.

  "When we fell from the sky just now, the jade pendant activated automatically, but it could only protect me, so I was unharmed."

  Mu Xiaoxiao whispered this while tightly gripping the tattered corner of Bai Wushang's clothes, tears seemingly welling up in her eyes again:

  "The others are probably all dead, died horribly... When I saw you all mangled and bloody, I was truly scared to death..."

  "Alright, alright, isn't everything fine now?"

  Bai Wushang patted Mu Xiaoxiao's head dotingly, his gaze gentle, though his heart felt a stir.

  After the disaster when he was six, Bai Wushang, left without any support, had been briefly adopted by a woman.

  However, that woman wasn't very reliable and soon left him with the Mu family. For the ten years from age six to sixteen, Bai Wushang spent most of his time in the Mu family compound, somewhat considered half a member of the Mu family.

  Mu Xiaoxiao was a direct descendant of the Mu family's younger generation, but unfortunately, her talent was average, and she was a bit playful and willful, not standing out among her siblings.

  She and Bai Wushang had grown up playing together. They were very close, and Bai Wushang had always treated her like a younger sister.

  Shaking his head slightly, Bai Wushang temporarily pushed those warm feelings aside. The current priority was paramount.

  Using the dim moonlight, he rummaged through the airship wreckage and managed to find two metal rods, about a meter long and three fingers thick. He and Mu Xiaoxiao each took one as temporary weapons.

  With Bai Wushang's current physical condition, he could completely match ordinary early-to-mid-stage young extraordinary creatures. However, Bai Wushang knew well that the wilderness was full of variables, and his own combat skills were lacking, so he didn't dare to be the least bit careless.

  "Be careful, stay close to me."

  Bai Wushang held the newly lit simple torch, took Mu Xiaoxiao's hand, and ventured into the unknown darkness....