Spirit Immortal

An hour after Lily disrupted Shin from his beauty sleep; the training room was filled with children from ages seven to fourteen. All eleven of the children assembled were the first generation of orphans adopted by the Frie Clan. The leader of the orphans was undoubtedly Junius who was the oldest. Following Junius, Lily commanded the most respect. Mostly because she was the ’mother’ of the group. Constantly nagging at her juniors and making sure that they follow the rules.

In the orphans, there were currently four people with awakened spirits. Junius and Lily being two of them. One other person who awakened her spirit was Lia. Lia had long dark blue hair which was tied up in a ponytail. Although she was a year older than Shin, she was shorter than him. As someone who was shy and timid, she avoided confrontation and was not particularly capable of defending herself.

The last orphan with an awakened spirit was a tall black haired youth named Ryner. Ryner turned thirteen this year and awakened his spirit at the same time as Lily. Being the opposite of Lia, he tends to be rash when it comes to dealing with the main family members.

"Ella, Emma, are you prepared for next week? I hope you haven’t been lazing off like that slob over there."

Lily questioned two girls who looked the exactly the same other than the small mole on one of their noses while pointing at Shin who was amazingly still asleep.

"Sister Lily!" "Lily!"

The two happily exclaimed as Lily spoke to them.

"I believe we are ready!"

"Yeap! I’m going to awaken a spirit that would shock all of you!"

Ella and Emma respectively answered. With the Day of Spirits beckoning, three children from the orphan division were going to awaken their spirits. Once someone reaches the age of ten, they have to undergo the Spirit Awakening Ceremony to attain an awakened spirit. In the orphan division, three of them just reached ten years of age.

The first being Shin. The other two were the twins, Ella and Emma. As twins, they were the only real family in the orphan division. But like the other orphans, they had no clue who their parents were or where they came from before the Frie Clan saved them.

Ella and Emma both had purple hair and a boyish face. The only way to differentiate them is that Ella’s face was free of blemish while Emma has a small mole on the side of her nose.

"Good good! You guys are the hope of this year’s crop!"

"Wow Lily, you want to forget about Shin’s existence..."

Junius was amazed at how biased Lily was.

Just as Lily was about to issue a rebuttal, a loud bang was heard as the door flew open.

"Alright, all of you to your positions!"

A towering man kicked the door open. Standing at over two meters tall, he had a beard full of red hair but ironically, his head was void of it. His physique would make a bodybuilder cry of shame, and his facial features would make even the most robust babies cry with a wink.

The ten of them who were busy hanging around immediately jerked into their positions and stood still awaiting instruction. Yes, the ten of them.

"Hoh... This boy has the balls to sleep in my class!"

The man who just entered the room noticed the sole boy sleeping at the corner of the room. In fact, he had expected the boy to be there.

"Guess I have to show him my fist!"

The man disappeared from the view of the children and instantly appeared next to Shin. Clenching his fist, he delivered a knockout punch to the sleeping beauty.

"OWWWW!!!!"

Shin was awoken by a sharp pain in his head. The pain slowly turned into a throbbing one as he looked up at the perpetrator with tears in his eyes.

"Wakey wakey!"

"Instructor..."

"Get into position quickly; I have an announcement to make."

Shin looked at his friends as he noticed many of them trying to hide their laughter.

"Couldn’t they wake me up before this monster came? And why are all members of the main family so violent? Ariel, First Elder, and even Instructor. It must be hereditary. The ancestor of the Frie clan must have been the biggest bully in history..."

Shin issued his inner monologue while begrudgingly walking into his position.

"As you all know, next week is the Day of Spirits. So today all those under ten years old are to do self-training while I guide Shin, Ella, and Emma. Lily, you ensure that the four of them continue their training."

"Yes, Instructor!"

Lily and the children under ten replied in unison.

"Shin, Ella, Emma, Junius, Ryner, and Lia!"

"Here!"

"Follow me!"

The bald instructor walked out of the training room and beckoned the six of them to follow.

The instructor walked into the training courtyard and turned to his cute students.

"The Day of Spirits approaches. I can feel the fire spirits jumping with joy."

Letting out a smile, the instructor closed his eyes as he unknowingly let out this statement.

"Shin, what is the Day of Spirits?"

Shin was shocked that the instructor would suddenly ask him a question and was stunned for a short period of time.

"Hmmm?"

The instructor opened one eye and glanced at Shin. Pressuring the later to answer quickly.

"Ermmm, the Day of Spirits is the day where people of age awaken their spirits!"

Shin flusteredly answered. Fearing that a fist would come flying his direction should he delay any further.

"Wrong!"

"What?"

Shin, Ella, and Emma were shocked. If it was not the day to awaken their spirits, then what was it for? The older kids, however, gave a knowing smile as they experienced their instructor’s banter once.

"Hmmm. Where to begin? Since time immemorial, spirits and humans coexisted. However, humans were never able to summon spirits."

"""What?!"""

The three were now so shocked that their mouths opened wide. It was like their entire worldview had changed.

"Don’t interrupt! Anyway, Since time immemorial, spirits and humans coexisted. However, humans were never able to summon spirits."

The older kids listening to the story started to giggle. This instructor memorized the entire script which was prepared for those who were about to undergo their spirit awakening. However, once someone interrupted, he would forget the whole thing and start over.

"It all changed when somewhere down the road, our ancestors began to understand how to harvest the spiritual energy all around us and eventually contracted with spirits."

"As the years went by, humans became more advanced in the way they used spirits. They used Spirits to create fire, manipulate the oceans and even move the earth. And eventually, someone did the impossible. Someone managed to achieve immortality using their spirit!"

Shin, Ella, and Emma were now stunned beyond belief.

"As the first Spirit user achieved immortality, he immediately ascended into the immortal realm. Through his ascension, the immortals in the realm above were pleased and gifted the land that we live in a surge of Spiritual energy."

"Following that, many more people started to be capable of awakening spirits. It didn’t stop there. After the first Spirit Immortal ascended, many more followed his steps. The second, the third and much more ascended and each time a Spirit Immortal reached the heavens, the realm above would repay the land by bestowing it with more spiritual energy. Now, virtually every human can undergo the Spirit Awakening Ceremony."

"The fact that the Day of Spirits is a day for children of age to awaken their spirits is a falsehood. In fact, anyone of any age can awaken their spirit at any given time!"

The three listening to the story was now harbouring their questions. "If that’s the case why must we wait for the Day of Spirits to awaken our spirits?"

"Looking at your faces you guys must be thinking why in that case the clan made you wait until the Day of Spirits to conduct your awakening."

"Well, let me tell you!"

Seeing the cheeky expression of the instructor that said ’Ha! I read your mind’, the older kids who already listened to his story before started feeling nauseous.

"The reason why is because the Day of Spirits was the day when the first Spirit Immortal ascended into the immortal realm! Following his example, many of the subsequent Spirit Immortals chose the Day of Spirits to ascend therefore making the Day of Spirits the one day in the year where spiritual energy is the most abundant and for you weaklings to have the best connection possible to the spirit sleeping inside of you."

"Also, the reason why the Himmel empire decreed that all Spirit Awakenings can only occur when the child has reached the age of ten is that there were instances when clans forced the younger generation to awaken their spirits at a tender age but instead, the children suffered spirit backlash ending their lives."

"Now do you understand the importance of the Day of Spirits?"