"spirit power... level 0.5?"
Kong Ming'an was slightly dazed. His vision, which had been blurry, became clear, yet there was a strange, unfamiliar feeling, as if it was not quite right.
He lowered his head, slightly raised his hand, and clasped it. Feeling the tangible touch, his pupils involuntarily trembled slightly.
Am I... reborn? No, not entirely reborn. It should be, Awakening the memories of his previous life?
Kong Ming'an was somewhat bewildered, instinctively beginning to recall, trying to understand his current situation. Subsequently... important pieces of information emerged in his Sea of Consciousness.
Sun Moon Empire... Mingdu... Hall of Worship... Kong Deming... The sole heir of the Kong Family... He was Kong Ming'an, the Hall Master of the Sun Moon Empire's Hall of Worship, Kong Deming's biological grandson.
A... good-for-nothing, who had just awakened level 0.5 Innate spirit power in his own grandfather's laboratory?
Kong Ming'an was in a daze. The memories of his previous life were far more vast than the six years of memories in this life. The process of Awakening his memories was not gentle, leaving him with a splitting headache.
Just then, a broad, thick hand gently rested on his slightly thin shoulder.
"Ming'an."
The authoritative voice seemed to carry an inexplicable power, steadily suppressing his daze.
His chaotic thoughts were pulled back to reality. He slowly raised his head, and his vision focused.
Before him was an old man with white hair and beard, a resolute face, and a serious demeanor.
However, at this moment, those eyes, which should have been authoritative, held a trace of genuine worry and concern.
Kong Deming.
Fragments of memory instantly fell into place at this moment: identity, Bloodline, relationship, all incredibly clear.
The brief daze finally settled, revealing a calm that had shed the panic of a young man.
Feeling the pitifully weak spirit power slowly and sluggishly flowing through his body, Kong Ming'an completely calmed down.
He did not respond to Kong Deming's comforting gaze, nor did he look at the expressions of pity or regret on the faces of the surrounding nine-level Soul Engineers.
His gaze calmly met Kong Deming's eyes, his voice clear and steady.
"Grandpa, I want to try my Spirit again."
A flicker of surprise crossed Kong Deming's eyes. He seemed not to have expected Kong Ming'an to calm down so quickly. His gaze turned into a deeper inquiry and encouragement.
He did not stop him, merely pressing down slightly on his grandson's shoulder with his hand, then slowly retracting it.
Beside them, the black-robed Spirit Master responsible for overseeing the Awakening consciously stepped forward. After Kong Ming'an's hand was placed back on the Awakening crystal ball, spirit power slowly flowed into it.
There was no dazzling burst of light.
There was no powerful spirit power pressure.
Even the most common spirit power fluctuations during Spirit possession were so faint as to be almost imperceptible.
Only above Kong Ming'an's outstretched right palm did the air distort in an extremely peculiar way.
The space there itself seemed to have an invisible pebble thrown into it, rippling out faint, almost imperceptible waves.
The air seemed to become viscous and hot. When light passed through that area, it underwent extremely subtle refraction and deflection.
Making the edges of Kong Ming'an's hand appear somewhat blurry and distorted.
"This...?" The black-robed Spirit Master opened his mouth, his voice inexplicably dry.
As one of the few scholars in the Sun Moon Empire who studied Spirits, in order to obtain more samples, he had helped commoners and nobles of the Empire awaken their Spirits for free for decades. What kind of Spirit had he not seen?
But this Spirit... he had truly never seen it!
The black-robed Spirit Master leaned in slightly, the inquisitive meaning in his eyes undisguised, trying to find any trace of a Spirit within it.
The phantom of a Beast Spirit? The outline of a Tool Spirit? Characteristics of a plant-type? Why was there nothing at all?
The black-robed Spirit Master began to doubt his life.
Beside him, a hint of confusion also unconsciously appeared on Kong Deming's face.
"Ming'an," Kong Deming's voice carried an unprecedented solemnity and inquiry, "What is your Spirit?"
Kong Ming'an's eyes were calm as he slowly closed his five fingers. The faint spatial ripples subsided with it, as if they had never appeared.
""Energy" itself, Grandpa."
His voice was calm and unwavering, clearly echoing in the silent laboratory where a pin drop could be heard.
""Energy"... itself?"
Kong Deming repeated softly, but at a certain moment, his eyes flashed with brilliant light. A tremor and excitement, as if touching an unknown Domain, suddenly arose amidst his confusion.
"Energy"... this concept was too fundamental in the World of Spirit Masters, even more fundamental than the "spirit power" of Spirit Masters.
It was almost equivalent to the Origin of the World, yet it had never been directly defined as a "Spirit."
"Invisible and intangible "Energy"..." Kong Deming murmured, staring intently at Kong Ming'an, as if truly seeing his grandson for the first time.
Kong Ming'an paid no attention to any of this.
His gaze swept over everything around him, looking towards the side of the laboratory, at the row of spirit tool crafting stations that gleamed with the cold, hard luster unique to metal.
Innate spirit power of level 0.5 was a critical weakness in the Douluo World. If he wanted to obtain more resources and grow rapidly, his primary goal was to prove his worth.
The goal was clear, the path distinct.
Kong Ming'an stepped forward, walking directly to the nearest spirit tool crafting station.
Kong Deming, beside him, merely watched in silence, his eyes holding a thoughtful expectation and scrutiny.
Standing before the crafting station, Kong Ming'an did not hesitate for a moment, picking up a basic first-level spirit tool core base plate.
This was a pale green metal plate, about half the size of a palm, with a surface as smooth as a mirror.
As his fingertips touched the cold metal, the foundational knowledge of spirit tools, which this life's Kong Ming'an had begun learning very early, surfaced in his mind.
Pausing slightly, he picked up the finest spirit tool carving knife beside him.
Subsequently, his weak spirit power of level 0.5 began to flow extremely slowly and with great difficulty.
The speed was agonizingly slow; each push felt as laborious as wading through a swamp.
However, just as this faint spirit power was struggling to inject into the tip of the carving knife, and was about to touch the surface of the base plate—
A fleeting, extremely subtle fluctuation seemed to pass through the depths of Kong Ming'an's always calm and unperturbed eyes, so fast that one might think it was an illusion.
The next moment, an anomaly occurred.
The instant the tip of the carving knife touched the metal base plate, there was no spirit power glow, which usually appeared when a Soul Engineer activated a spirit tool core.
The hard metal surface softened and indented in an extremely peculiar way, as if the knife tip was not touching metal, but some kind of fluid that could be shaped by will.
There was no harsh scraping sound, no metal shavings flying.
Driven by Kong Ming'an's terrifyingly steady wrist, the carving knife glided across the metal base plate like flowing clouds and water, without the slightest pause.
Despite the spirit power being so sluggish and weak as to be despair-inducing, in Kong Ming'an's hand, it seemed to be imbued with an indescribable "penetrative" and "molding" quality.
It was no longer merely the power driving the carving knife; it was more like an invisible key, directly acting on the Energy structure that constituted the metal itself, easily taming and reshaping it.
The process of engraving spirit tool circuits, which should have been a difficult Fusion of spirit power, mental force, and precise craftsmanship, now displayed a nearly eerie fluidity and coherence under his hands.
It was as if the invisible "Energy" Spirit had some kind of Origin resonance with the material Energy that constituted the spirit tool.
Time flowed in absolute silence.
In the air, there was only the extremely faint rustling sound of the carving knife tip gliding across the metal base plate, and Kong Ming'an's steady yet weak breathing.
The last arc perfectly closed.
Kong Ming'an put down the carving knife, his fingertips trembling slightly.
...That was a sign that his spirit power was almost exhausted to its limit.
A fine layer of sweat beaded on his forehead, his face was slightly pale, but his eyes were brighter than ever before.
With a somewhat casual gesture, he injected his last trace of spirit power into the spirit tool core in his hand.
The next moment... "Buzz—"
An extremely faint, yet clearly audible resonance sounded.
It was not a dazzling bright light, but a stable, soft, light blue halo that pulsed slightly like breathing, illuminating all the delicate patterns on the spirit tool core!
It succeeded!
A standard first-level spirit tool core was successfully activated in the hands of a young man who had just awakened his Spirit and had only 0.5 levels of Innate spirit power!
Dead silence.
In the laboratory, the nine-level Soul Engineers, who had originally been spectators and were still pondering what words to use to comfort their superior, fell into dead silence.
No... huh?
How could this be possible?!
0.5 levels of spirit power... it was barely enough to even operate a spirit tool, let alone support the precise engraving and activation of an entire core circuit?!
The group of nine-level Soul Engineers, who had seen many grand spectacles, all fell silent at this moment.
At this moment, Kong Deming had already stepped forward, his movements so fast they created a faint gust of wind.
He completely ignored the first-level core emitting a stable blue light. His eyes, which perceived the essence of all things, like the most precise spirit tool scanner, were fixed on the spirit power circuit Kong Ming'an had just engraved.
His gaze swept over the circuit's grooves, which were so smooth they looked like natural formations rather than engravings, over the strange shimmering light faintly flowing within the grooves, over the seamless connection between the spirit power circuit and the base plate, as if they were one... ""Energy"..."
Kong Deming's voice was low, carrying a hint of what seemed like an uncharacteristic surprise. His fingertips hovered above the core, trembling slightly.
"...So it can be interpreted this way?"
He sighed softly, and after a long while, he took a deep breath and turned to look at Kong Ming'an.
At this moment, Kong Deming's eyes no longer held the worry and concern of an elder for a Junior's future. Instead, they burned with the fervor of someone who had discovered a new continent.
With a hint of solemnity and seriousness, Kong Deming slowly said:
"Ming'an, what do you need?"
He did not respond immediately.
He ignored the burning, inquisitive gaze in Kong Deming's eyes, and he ignored the shock that erupted from the surrounding silence, threatening to overwhelm him.
He merely watched the slowly operating spirit tool core in Kong Deming's hand, as if utterly exhausted.
The soft yet stable blue light illuminated his face, which was slightly pale from spirit power depletion, yet unusually calm.
Against the backdrop of that pale blue halo, the corner of his mouth curved into a relaxed smile.
Well... it wasn't a completely disastrous start, was it?