The soft, glowing presence of the system interface materialized within Ethan's consciousness, flickering like a distant star in the vast night. Words and icons hovered gently, shimmering with promise and purpose.
Mission 1:
Maintain absolute silence for one full year.
Failure: The opportunity is lost, and potential remains untapped.
Success: The rewards will reshape your destiny.
Ethan's eyes, tiny yet sharp with quiet resolve, fixated on the system panel. As he stared, the interface unfolded further, revealing the fruits of his perseverance:
Reward for Completing Mission 1:
A fragment of a Destroying Spirit Power—a soul-stirring force of the celestial (preliminary) rank, capable of obliterating obstacles and enemies alike.A Soul Slashing Sword, also of celestial (preliminary) rank, crafted from the essence of shattered spirits, its edge humming with lethal potential.
A faint, almost imperceptible surge of energy, hinting at immense power lying just beyond reach.
He hesitated briefly, then reached out—though his tiny hand was only a whisper of movement—trying to envision the next step. But as soon as he prepared to check the subsequent mission, a system prompt shimmered into view, as if summoned by the very act of curiosity:
System Notification:
"To view the next system level, please complete the current mission."
Ethan's gaze lingered on the prompt. The path was clear—one step at a time. But the weight of those rewards pulsed through his tiny frame with an unspoken promise: show patience, endure silence, and the true power would awaken.
He drew a deep breath, silently promising himself that this was only the beginning—a journey marked not by noise, but by quiet strength.
After Aurora gently picked Ethan up from the cradle, her eyes lingering on his small face with a mixture of tenderness and resolve. She whispered softly, "Sleep well, my son," then carefully laid him into his bed, tucking him in as if shielding him from the world's harshness.
Meanwhile, Anthony, her husband and Ethan's father, silently watched her from the doorway. His sharp eyes traced Ethan's peaceful features one last time.
Deep in thought, he considered how to increase his son's future potential—how, even if Ethan had no spirit talent now, he would still rise above the rest. For Ethan, no talent would be enough to hold him back.
No matter how impossible it seemed to cultivate without spirit energy, Anthony believed in shaping a future where his son would stand unchallenged, unrivaled, and invincible. No bully, no rival—none would dare cross a man of Ethan's caliber, even if his spirit talent was nonexistent.
With one last glance, Anthony turned and left, his mind heavy with plans of relentless discipline and future cultivation methods. Aurora watched him go, then turned her gaze back to Ethan—her small, fragile child.
She gently picked Ethan up and carefully laid him onto the bed. As she left the room, she curled up on her own bed nearby, closing her eyes with a faint sigh. The chamber faded into calm silence.
No one paid attention to Ethan; no one sensed the subtle shifts in the quiet room—everything appeared normal, ordinary.
But Ethan was far from ordinary.
In an instant, a searing pain exploded across his body, as if every nerve had been set ablaze simultaneously. His small frame jolted uncontrollably, veins bulging, muscles spasming. The pain was sharp, relentless—each second feeling like an eternity of torment.
Suddenly, a mechanical voice echoed within his mind, clear and unwavering:
"A starter gift is prepared for the host. Distributing now. Begin to transform the host's physique."
Before Ethan could comprehend what was happening, a searing light enveloped him. His entire body began to glow—vivid emerald green—radiating with an intensity that seemed to outshine the darkness of the room.
His body floated gently, unrestrained, suspended in the air as green tendrils of energy spiraled wildly around him. Jolts of power coursed through his limbs, and he spasmed from here to there, unable to control the overwhelming force of his transformation. The glow was so fierce that no eye could stare directly at it without being blinded.
The sound? It was censored, blocked out by the system's soundwave shield—no noise reached the outside world, only the violent flickering of his body and the unconcealed chaos within.
Ethan's mind raced—the pain, the chaos, the uncertainty—all of it fueled his resolve. If the system's reward for staying silent a whole year was this generous, then he would willingly endure any hell if it meant earning what awaited him.
To him, he was nothing but a quiet, ordinary person—a heir of one of the Drake family's branches, an unseen figure in the grand, brutal world where strength defined everything. Time? It passed in the blink of an eye when the system's missions were completed. He believed with unwavering confidence that the rewards would never let him down.
"I will stay silent for as long as I need," Ethan thought fiercely. "Even for my whole life if that's what it takes. Because the system's rewards are real, and they never fail..."
As the green glow intensified, a strange, formidable force surged from within his tiny body. He felt himself rising, gently at first, then more vehemently. His body began to emit a radiant green light so powerful that it blocked out all else—a cosmic brilliance that engulfed him in a shroud of mystery and dread.
For a moment, Ethan worried he might wake his mother with the glow, exposing everything. But the system, ever attentive, secretly concealed his condition—hiding his spirit body, his abnormal energy signature, and even his breath so that no detection, not even through Spirit Power, could uncover him.
It was then—deep within that luminous chaos—that Ethan's consciousness sank into darkness.
He found himself in a vast, desolate void—a place of chaos and ruin where terrible phenomena unfolded. Earth trembled violently; the skies roared with thunder and lightning. Explosions shattered the calm, and the world seemed to be tearing itself apart. Boom, boom, boom—violent shockwaves rippled through the void, and the very fabric of reality trembled as if the end of the world was approaching.
Ethan gazed out in horror, his small body trembling with the raw force of the chaos. This is hell, he thought grimly, yet beneath that fear, a faint ember of resolve burned—more determined than ever to survive whatever storm awaited on the other side.
In the very heart of the cosmos, at the core of everything—where the primal spirit energy of the world converged—lay the Spirit Core of the world. A shimmering, pulsating sphere of divine energy, it radiated immense power, the foundation of all spiritual life in the world.
Suddenly, the Spirit Core trembled violently. Its once steady glow flickered erratically, and waves of spirit energy surged chaotically outward, disturbing the natural harmony of the world. The tranquil flow of essence, the delicate balance of heaven and earth—everything twisted and fractured under the core's unrest.
The heavens roared as lightning fractured the sky, and earth-shaking tremors spread across the land. Storm clouds gathered in blackened swirls, deafening thunderclaps crashing in rapid succession. The entire world seemed to shudder with an impossible force, as if reality itself was splintering apart.
Amidst this chaos, Ethan's tiny body involuntarily twitched. His consciousness waned, overwhelmed by the violent currents ripping through the spiritual fabric of the universe. His eyelids fluttered closed, and with a faint, shuddering breath, he passed out, slipping back into the calm of his bed.
Silence returned to the chamber—save for the faint hum of the system, which now spoke without emotion:
"The Spirit God Body has been fully integrated into the host. You are now the vessel of unparalleled potential. Congratulations on this monumental achievement."
The message echoed softly, as if delivered from a distant galaxy, its words resonating within Ethan's unconscious mind. The green glow, which had once blazed with ferocious intensity, gradually dimmed into a faint shimmer—a mere whisper of the chaos that had just unfolded.
Inside the quiet room, Ethan's small form remained undisturbed amidst the tranquil silence. The storm outside had subsided; the world's chaos had paused as the core's disturbance faded into history. Yet, beneath this calm exterior, the true transformation had been completed—a mysterious force now woven into Ethan's body, hidden from the world but forever altering his destiny.