Chapter 2
Su Mo went straight back to his yard after leaving the martial practice field.
Sitting on a stone bench, he moped over what happened at the awakening ceremony.
He was also surprised that he had such a low-rank Martial Soul.
“It’s been 14 years!” Su Mo murmured distractedly.
He was actually not born in this world and came from the Earth.
He had been a mercenary in the 21st century. To be exact, he was a king of mercenaries, a legendary hero in the field.
As an orphan, he had lived with his relatives since he was a child. At the age of 17, he decided to drop out of school and join the army.
After two years’ training, Su Mo was recruited into the strongest special forces in China for his excellent martial skills and soon became the top member of the special forces.
Within four years, Su Mo had successfully executed nearly 100 national military missions.
Su Mo had thought that he would devote his entire life to his motherland, to the army. But unfortunately, he had got discharged from the army for an accident and left the army dismally.
After returning home, he could not fit into normal society or find a job because he had no diploma, skills, or network.
Half sitting around for six months, Su Mo decided to embark on a new journey.
He enlisted several past comrades in arms and formed Dragon Soul, a small mercenary organization.
In the ensuing years, Su Mo and the Dragon Soul Mercenary Group travelled all over the world.
They were on the spot in all wars, including ones in Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Southeast Asia.
The Dragon Soul Mercenary Group developed rapidly from its initial size of a few people into dozens, hundreds, and finally, thousands of people.
It went from an unknown small organization into a powerful mercenary army that ruled over a dark world.
Dragon Soul Mercenary had never failed its missions. For the right price, the organization could accomplish any mission, like destroying the army of a small country or overthrowing governments.
Last year, Dragon Soul Mercenary even defeated Blackblood Mercenary, which used to be the top mercenary organization in the world, thus becoming the new ruler of the mercenary field.
As the leader of Dragon Soul Mercenary, Su Mo was regarded as king of all mercenaries.
One could say that his name remained a taboo in the dark world. When he stomped his foot, the entire dark world would shake.
However, no one could keep his shoes dry if he always walked along the riverside. In the end, he was completely betrayed!
He was sold out by his most trusted brothers and died with his enemies in a trap.
After being in this world for 14 years, he was fully adapted and had almost completely forgotten his previous life.
He was greatly curious about this world, which was a very magical place that was completely different from Earth.
This continent was called Firmament and Continent and had a vast and unmeasurable landscape.
This world highly revered martial arts and believed in survival of the fittest. The strong were worshipped like kings, while the weak were crushed like ants.
If a person could achieve grand completion in cultivation, he would possess the most powerful skills and could travel to anywhere he wanted in the universe.
A powerful martial artist could access unlimited power, status, money and women.
In order to become a powerful martial artist, one needed to awaken his Martial Soul, absorb Spiritual Qi from the heaven and earth, fortify his body, and refine his genuine Qi.
There were countless types of Martial Souls with varying levels of strength.
They were divided into three classes, namely heaven, earth and human class, each of which was classified into nine ranks.
The higher a martial artist’s level of Martial Soul, the stronger his power and potential were, and the faster his ability to cultivate was.
After coming to this world, Su Mo had worked very hard to cultivate.
He did this because he wanted to explore this big and exciting world.
In his previous life, he had been a powerful man and ruled the whole world.
In this present life, he still wanted to be a strong man who could overlook others.
However, today’s Martial Soul awakening ceremony was a humbling slap to the face.
His dream was wonderful, but the reality was much too cruel.
Suddenly, a deep voice sounded at the door and brought him back to his senses.
“Mo’er.”
The voice belonged to a tall and solemn middle-aged man. He was Su Hong, the Master of the Sus.
Upon seeing Su Mo, Su Hong tried to comfort him, saying, “Stop thinking about your Martial Soul. You may have a weaker one, but if you try your hardest to cultivate, you’ll still become powerful one day.”
Su Mo gave him a bitter smile, thinking, “My Martial Soul isn’t just weaker. It’s the weakest one.”
“Don’t worry, Father. I’ll work harder!” he said, forcing a smile.
He knew that his father was comforting him.
Everyone knew that the level of one’s Martial Soul decided his future accomplishments. The stronger the Martial Soul one awakened, the further one would go in martial arts.
This was an indisputable law.
It was impossible for him to become powerful with his Rank 1 Human Class Martial Soul.
“Good.” Su Hong nodded.
He took out a jade jar and handed it to Su Mo, saying, “This is a Qi Condensation Elixir that’ll help you break through your cultivation and enter the Qi Cultivation Realm.”
“Father…”
Su Mo felt his heart ache. After he awakened a Rank 1 Human Class Martial Soul, he would be considered as a total failure to cultivate.
Qi Condensation Elixir was so priceless that the Sus could not have bought it for him, so Su Hong must have bought it with his own money.
Su Mo accepted this elixir, and the two chatted for a while before Su Hong left.
“What type of Martial Soul have I awakened?”
Su Mo was not in a haste to take the elixir after his father left. Instead, he sat cross-legged in his room and released his Martial Soul.
A dark vortex surrounded by a shining yellow halo suspended quietly above him.
“What special skills does it have? I’d better cultivate it for a while.”
Su Mo calmed his heart, used his mind to connect with the Martial Soul, and sensed the Spiritual Qi from heaven and earth
The black vortex began to slowly rotate, and the center of the vortex emitted a strong suction force.
Wisps of Spiritual Qi converged toward Su Mo and entered his body.
He was soon immersed in cultivating and drove his Martial Soul to continuously absorb the Spiritual Qi.
After a long time, Su Mo stopped.
He opened his eyes with a hint of surprise.
“My Martial Soul is Rank 1 Human Class, but its cultivating pace equals the speed of Rank 2 Human Class.”
Su Mo had met many martial artists whose Martial Souls were of the Rank 2 Human Class, and his Martial Soul was no worse than theirs.
This unexpected surprise greatly alleviated his depression.
After some pondering, Su Mo realized that this speed was probably related to the property of his Martial Soul.
His Martial Soul was a vortex which naturally had the property of suction.
Therefore, it was normal for his Martial Soul to absorb Spiritual Qi at a speed that equaled that of Rank 2 Human Class Martial Soul.
He took out the Qi Condensation Elixir his father had given to him and prepared to enter the Qi Cultivation Realm.
At the beginning of the martial arts journey, one must complete Lv 9 Body Tempering Realm. Then, one could awaken the Martial Soul to absorb Spiritual Qi, refine genuine Qi, and enter the Qi Cultivation Realm.
Only after entering the Qi Cultivation Realm would one be considered a true martial artist.
As soon as he swallowed the Qi Condensation Elixir, its effects immediately surged throughout his body.
Su Mo hurriedly ushered its powers into his elixir field and started to refine genuine Qi.
Time slowly passed. After four hours, Su Mo abruptly opened his eyes, and a sliver of light flashed in his eyes.
At this moment, a mass of vaporous genuine Qi had gathered in his elixir field.
The Qi Condensation Elixir was proven to be worthy and had helped him enter Lv 1 Qi Cultivation Realm.