I found myself in one of the larger rooms within Astra’s old immortal cave. We had decided to use it as a makeshift training hall. Like the rest of the immortal cave, the walls, floor, and ceiling were carved from rough gray stone. Light crystals embedded in the ceiling provided us with plenty of illumination. The room was large and spacious, giving us plenty of room to move around in, which was why we picked it as a training hall in the first place.
My older sister stood a few feet away, watching me with an expression on her face that was equal parts amused and exasperated. When I asked her about it, she told me that she found my excitement endearing. That made me blush, but also put a big smile on my face.
A week had passed since I formed my dantian and broke through to the Qi Condensation realm. Right after I formed my dantian, Astra appeared out of nowhere and pulled me into a tight hug. It turned out that she had been watching over me the entire time, ready to intervene if necessary.
After she released me from the hug, Astra congratulated me for becoming a divine demon, and then proceeded to scold me for my recklessness. Running down the mountain like that, while the sun was setting, was stupid. What if I had tripped and broken my neck? I accepted her scolding without a word, since she was right. I had been reckless. Besides, her scolding just showed me how much she cared about me.
As she scolded me, Astra examined me for any potential flaws in my cultivation base. Thankfully, there were none. I then spent the next week consolidating and stabilizing my realm, while also resting and recovering. Two months of constant pain and restless sleep had taken their toll on my body. As a cultivator, my health recovered faster than a mortal’s would, but it still took time. After all, I was at the first small realm of the Qi Condensation realm. That barely put me above the best of mortals.
Despite this, I couldn’t help but feel impatient. There was so much to do, so much to learn, before the Dawn and Dusk Sect’s next entrance exam. I wanted to learn as much as possible before then. Spending an entire week just resting felt wasteful to me.
To prevent me from cultivating or training before I was ready, Astra offered me a deal. If I promised to settle down for a week, she would teach me martial arts. With some reluctance, I agreed. And after a week of waiting, the day had finally arrived.
“Well, well,” Astra said, raising an eyebrow at me. “Someone is excited.”
I shrugged, before grinning at her.
“I can’t help it,” I said. “I finally get to learn proper martial arts. Of course I’m excited. Wouldn’t you be if you were in my shoes?”
Astra shook her head.
“While I despise your kin in Clan Wind Dance, and want to see them all burn for the way they treated you, I have to admit that the Dancing Wind Blade fighting style is a proper martial art,” Astra said. “However, you’re ill-suited towards it. You have mediocre talent with the sword, and that’s if I’m being generous. You practiced the basics of the Dancing Wind Blade fighting style for years, and only reached an average level of skill.”
A part of me wanted to take offense at that, since it took me years of grueling hard work to reach that point. However, I had to admit that she was right. I never had much talent for the sword, though I excelled at the dancing part of the Dancing Wind Blade fighting style.
“Do you know what kind of fighting style would suit me, Big Sis?” I asked her.
I didn’t know myself, since I spent all of my time on Mt. Wind Dance trying and failing with the sword. It never occurred to me to try another kind of weapon or martial art. Not that it would have mattered if I had. Clan Wind Dance were renowned sword dancers. If I had picked a different weapon, they would have never let me cultivate.
Not that they ended up letting me cultivate anyway.
“I have some idea,” Astra said with a thoughtful expression on her face. “Though I still plan on being thorough. We’ll test your talent with a variety of weapons and fighting styles, before finding the one that suits you best.”
I tilted my head to the side and gave her a questioning look.
“Why bother?” I asked. “Just teach me the martial arts of Flame Fiend Hall. That’s the one I plan on joining.”
Astra shook her head.
“It’s better to find out what suits you best rather than try to force you to adopt a fighting style that you’re no good with,” Astra said. “You don’t have to join Flame Fiend Hall. As a divine demon, you can join any of the halls.” She snorted. “They’ll certainly do everything in their power to entice you. I advise you to utilize that to your advantage.”
I pouted.
“But I want to join Flame Fiend Hall.”
Over the past week, Astra told me more about the Dawn and Dawn Sect. In addition to Flame Fiend Hall, there were a number of different halls within the sect. They were divided into three different categories: the Dawn Halls, the Dusk Halls, and the neutral halls. The Dawn Halls practiced divine cultivation, while the Dusk Halls practiced demonic cultivation. The neutral halls practiced spiritual cultivation, which made them the most orthodox within the sect. They were also the weakest and least numerous.
Each of the halls had its own mystic arts, martial arts, and special techniques. Flame Fiend Hall specialized in unarmed combat and using Fire mystic arts. That wasn’t why I wanted to join that particular hall, however. After all, I didn’t know if I had any talent for unarmed combat. Instead, I had more personal reasons.
It turned out that all of my kin on my mother’s side had become disciples of Flame Fiend Hall when they joined the Dawn and Dusk Sect. Not only that, but my mother was the current hall master of Flame Fiend Hall. This gave my kin a significant amount of influence within the Dawn and Dusk Sect. As the son of a hall master, I could be considered a young master. I found this amusing.
However, I would have wanted to join Flame Fiend Hall even if my mother wasn’t its master. After finding a family who cared about me, I wanted to stay with them rather than pick another hall.
“Besides, I have Fire spirit roots,” I pointed out. “That means I can learn the mystic arts of Flame Fiend Hall, even if I’m not suited to its martial arts.”
Astra rolled her eyes.
“Flame Fiend Hall specializes in demonic fire-aligned techniques and arts,” she said. “You practice a divine qi refining technique. You can’t learn any of Flame Fiend Hall’s mystic arts.” She paused. “Well, you could but you wouldn’t be able to use any of them.”
I gave her a betrayed look.
“So I have to join one of the Dawn Halls?” I cried out.
Astra snorted.
“Of course not,” she said. “You can’t use any demonic mystic arts and techniques, but martial arts and techniques are another matter. Each of the Dusk Halls has their own form of martial arts. As a demonic physical refiner, you can join any one of them. Plus, the neutral halls are always an option.
I frowned.
“Would I still be able to learn divine mystic arts, even if I end up joining one of the Dusk Halls?” I asked.
Being a divine demon gave me several advantages over other divine cultivators and demonic cultivators. However, those advantages meant nothing if I didn’t make use of them.
Well, technically I wasn’t a divine demon. While I was now a qi refiner, I wasn’t a physical refiner. At least not yet. According to Astra, my demonkin nature made me well suited to practicing Asura Crucible Body cultivation technique. I wouldn’t have any problems in that regard. It was just a matter of time and effort on my part.
“Yes,” Astra said. “The sect’s manual pavilion has all kinds of cultivation techniques, mystic arts, and martial arts. As long as you pay the required contribution points, you can learn any number of them, regardless of which hall you join. However, if you want to learn a specific hall’s mystic arts, you’ll have to get permission from that hall’s master.”
Okay, that wasn’t as bad as I feared.
“Now enough talking,” Astra said, pulling out several weapons racks from her storage ring. Each one held a variety of weapons. “Pick one and we’ll get started.”
With a sigh, I walked over to the nearest rack and picked up a weapon.
----------------------------------------
Several hours later, I stood next to Astra and smirked at her. She scowled back at me.
The two of us had just finished testing out my aptitude with a variety of different weapons. To our surprise, and Astra’s disbelief, I was terrible with all of them. Thanks to my experiences back on Mt. Wind Dance, I had some skill with the sword. However, everything else felt awkward and clunky to me. No matter which one I picked, I felt like a child playing warrior.
For a while, I assumed I had no talent for fighting at all. This worried me. While not all cultivators were warriors, most of them were. Most importantly, the rest of my kin on my mother’s side were warriors. I didn’t want to be the odd one out.
However, things took a turn for the better when I tried out the various forms of unarmed combat. Astra insisted on saving them for last. I assumed she did this to annoy me. I went along with it, because her actions wouldn’t change my decision. One way or another, I would join Flame Fiend Hall.
Astra taught me the basic stances for a variety of different unarmed fighting styles. To my surprise, and her amazement, I learned them right away. Fists, palms, fingers. It didn’t matter. I picked up the stances after giving them just a few tries. It took me a little longer to learn the various kicking and grappling stances, but only a little.
While I wouldn’t say I mastered them right away, it was clear that I had great talent for the various forms of unarmed combat, especially when it came to using my hands. Learning this put me in a great mood.
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“I told you we shouldn’t have bothered with any of this,” I said, feeling smug. “We could have saved ourselves a lot of time if you had listened to me.”
“How are you so bad at everything except for unarmed combat?” she demanded. Her golden eyes blazed with annoyance as she returned the weapons to her storage ring. “It defies reason! While most choose to specialize, they at least have some talent with other kinds of weapons. How is it possible that you don’t?” She held up her hands. “I specialize in claw attacks, but even I know how to use a few other weapons.”
I shrugged, before grinning at her.
“I guess it’s in my blood,” I said. “It looks like I’m destined to join Flame Fiend Hall.”
Astra frowned at me, before letting out a long sigh.
“Why are you so insistent on fighting the inevitable?” I asked in a teasing tone.
Astra looked back at me with a serious expression on her face.
“Because I wanted you to have a choice,” she said. “I didn’t want to be like your kin back on Mt. Wind Dance, forcing you to walk a path you weren’t suited for. I wanted to give you the choice I wished someone offered me when I was your age.”
My smirk faded and I studied Astra’s expression. I saw traces of bitterness in her eyes.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
Astra shook her head.
“You don’t have to concern yourself with that,” she said. “It’s an old gripe of mine.” She gave me a wry smile. “I’ll just say that it isn’t easy living in Mother’s shadow. The expectations of others can be a heavy burden. They have certain ideas of who you should be and how you should act. It took me a while to break free from that, to forge my own path, and I don’t want you to go through the same thing.”
It was my first time seeing this side of Astra. However, I could sympathize. While our circumstances were different, I also suffered under the burden of other peoples’ expectations.
I opened my mouth to say something to comfort her, but Astra pressed a finger against my lips to silence me.
“Like I said, you don’t have to concern yourself with that,” she said, giving me a fond smile. “I’m your older sister. It’s my responsibility to look after you, not the other way around.”
I removed her finger from my lips.
“Family takes care of each other, regardless of seniority,” I said. “Or it should. As your younger brother, it’s my responsibility to help support you.”
“Aw!” Astra said, ruffling my hair. “Why are you so cute?”
I pulled away from her and scowled.
“However, it’s fine,” she continued. “I dealt with the worst of it a long time ago.” She scowled. “Except when it comes to a certain few who insist on remaining stubborn.”
I wanted to hear the story behind all of this, but decided against prying. Astra would tell me in her own time, or I would figure it out some other way.
“To get back to the matter at hand,” Astra said, pulling out a manual from her storage ring. “It looks like you’re right. It seems as if you are destined to join Flame Fiend Hall.” She smirked. “Unless you join one of the Dawn Halls to learn their mystic arts.”
I snorted in disbelief. As if that would ever happen.
I took the manual from Astra and studied it. At a cursory glance, it looked like a fist based martial art.
“This is for the Frenzied Fiend fighting style,” Astra explained. “Mother developed it herself. It pairs well with Asura Crucible Body technique. There are several stances that can only be used in conjunction with the innate abilities you gain from Asura Crucible Body.”
“Innate abilities?” I asked with a frown.
“Innate abilities are special techniques that one can gain from practicing certain cultivation techniques,” Astra explained. “They’re what separate top tier cultivation techniques from high tier techniques. While both can help you cultivate faster and go further than low tier or mid tier techniques, only top tier techniques grant their practitioners innate abilities.”
I frowned.
“None of the manuals you gave me mentioned any of this.”
“That’s because those are the abridged versions. They’re incomplete. While I’m willing to skirt the rules a bit, even I’m not willing to give the complete versions of our sect’s techniques to outsiders.”
She said that last part while wearing an apologetic smile.
“It’s fine,” I said. “I can just read the complete versions when I join the Dawn and Dusk Sect. What innate abilities do you gain from practicing the techniques you gave me?”
Astra pointed to herself.
“It depends on what level you reach,” she said. “For example, practitioners of Asura Crucible Body technique gain the Demon Form innate ability after reaching the physical refining equivalent of peak Qi Condensation. This ability will give you increased strength and endurance, though it will change your appearance to become more demonic. This innate ability is especially beneficial for demons and demonkin since they gain a bigger increase compared to others.”
I stared at Astra in shock.
“Wait, you’re demonkin too?” I asked.
“I was demonkin,” she said, correcting me. “At this point, I’m no different from an actual demon.” She grinned. “Why? Are you interested in seeing my human form?”
I nodded, curious.
Astra closed her eyes and took a deep breath. A moment later, her body changed. Her pitch black skin became a shade of brown a little darker than my own. The pair of horns protruding from her forehead receded and disappeared. Other than that, nothing else about her changed. Her claws and tails remained, as well as the red markings. When she opened her eyes, I saw that they were still golden.
“What do you think?” she asked, holding her arms out wide.
In this form, it was easier to tell that we were siblings. While there were still significant differences in our appearances, there were enough similarities to tell that we were related.
“The tail and claws weren’t part of your demon form?” I asked.
“My father was beastkin,” Astra said
Ah, that explained it. Spirit beasts were creatures that could use qi and were stronger than their mundane counterparts. Some could even cultivate, though this was rarer still. Most spirit beasts were little more than animals acting on instinct. However, some were born with human-level intelligence, or were fortunate enough to gain human-level intelligence. While I didn’t know much about them beyond that, I knew that spirit beasts gained a human form after cultivating to a certain point.
Beastkin were those born from the union between a spirit beast and a human. Like demonkin, they had characteristics of both but were never fully one or the other. They passed on these characteristics to their own children. In Astra’s case, she inherited her claws and her tail from her father. She inherited everything else from our mother.
Astra took on her demon form once again.
“What other innate abilities do you get from Asura Crucible Body?” I asked.
“Once you reach mid Foundation Establishment, you gain the Three Head, Six Arms innate ability.” Astra grinned. “Let me show you.”
Before I could respond, Astra’s form changed once again. Two extra pairs of arms sprouted from her shoulders. At the same time, her neck bulged before sprouting two extra heads. The sudden and bizarre change caught me off guard, and I took a step back. I found myself both fascinated and horrified by her appearance.
“The benefits of this innate ability should be obvious,” Astra’s right head said.
“After all, six hands are better than two,” her left head said.
“And three heads are better than one,” Astra’s central head said.
All three grinned at me.
“Whether one specializes in martial arts or mystic arts,” all three heads said at the same time. “This innate ability is a force multiplier, allowing one to do more within the same time frame.”
Unease ran down my spine.
“Please turn back,” I said, feeling more than a little uncomfortable. “You look far too bizarre for my tastes.”
Astra snorted, which sounded strange coming from three mouths, but changed back to her usual form.
“You’ll need to get over your squeamishness, little brother,” she said. “The world of cultivation is full of strange and bizarre phenomena. My Three Heads, Six Arms form is rather mild in comparison.”
Rather than reassure me, Astra’s statement just worried me further. I kept this to myself, however. No need to give her more reason to tease me.
“What about the Soul of Divine Fire technique?” I asked. “You haven’t mentioned anything about that one yet.”
Astra frowned at this.
“That’s because I’m not as familiar with it as I am with Asura Crucible Body,” she admitted. “It’s not one of Flame Fiend Hall’s techniques. It belongs to Celestial Warrior Hall.” She pinched her chin. “I know that the first innate ability you gain is a defensive one, but that’s it. I’ll have to ask around to find out.”
“I’d appreciate it,” I said.
The more I knew about the cultivation techniques that I practiced, the better.
“Now then,” Astra said, taking a stance. “Enough talking. Let us begin.”
I smiled and watched with rapt attention as Astra started teaching me the basic stances of the Frenzied Fiend fighting style.
----------------------------------------
Later on that day, I sat atop the peak of the mountain, reading the manual for the Frenzied Fiend fighting style. A gourd filled with water sat by my side. It was still a few hours before dusk, but I liked it up here. The view, combined with the lack of wind and the even temperature made it a great reading spot; when there was enough light to see by. Since the sky was calm and clear, that wasn’t a problem right now.
As I read the manual, I thought back to Astra’s lessons from earlier. The Frenzied Fiend fighting style vastly differed from the Dancing Wind Blade fighting. The biggest one was that the former was for unarmed combat while the latter required a sword, but there were other differences as well.
The Dancing Wind Blade fighting style focused on agility and precision. Its practitioners danced about, elegant and graceful, avoiding their enemies’ attacks while delivering critical strikes of their own. It was a beautiful but deadly dance.
There was nothing elegant or graceful about the Frenzied Fiend fighting style. Its practitioners focused on overwhelming their opponents to deal devastating blows. As its name suggested, one became akin to a frenzying fiend; aggressive, brutal, and violent.
A part of me wondered what kind of person my mother was, to come up with a fighting style like this. My feelings towards her remained as complicated as ever, but it was clear that she wasn’t someone to be taken lightly. It also disturbed me to realize that I might be more like her than I thought.
When I trained with Astra earlier, I found that the Frenzied Fiend fighting style suited me a lot more than the Dancing Wind Blade fighting style. It felt good, it felt right. When I went through the stances, even just for training, I didn’t feel weak or pathetic. I felt strong and powerful. It was an addictive feeling, and a part of me wondered what it would be like to test myself in actual combat.
While I had trained almost every day for the past several years, and had sparred with Lucius a few times, I had no actual combat experience. Before Astra kidnapped me, I spent my entire life within the bounds of Mt. Wind Dance. I found life there suffocating, but it was also safe.
That was something I needed to discuss with Astra. Training was important, but so was gaining experience. Perhaps I could hunt spirit beasts or demon beasts. Now that I was a cultivator, my chances of surviving an encounter with one were much higher.
The thought filled me with excitement.
Before all that, first I needed to make the Frenzied Demon fighting style my own. While it suited me more than the Dancing Wind Blade fighting style, it wasn’t a perfect fit for me. It focused on aggression and offense with little regard to defense or evasion.
From what I gleaned, its practitioners were supposed to endure enemy attacks rather than avoid or protect against them. Considering that this fighting style was meant for practitioners of Asura Crucible Body technique, that made sense. Demons were stronger and tougher than humans by nature, and physical refiners were stronger and tougher than their qi refiner counterparts. As such, demonic physical refiners were terrifyingly powerful.
However, I found the thought of pure aggression distasteful. Perhaps it was a result of my upbringing, but I preferred a more balanced approach. With that in mind, I thought to combine aspects of the Dancing Wind Blade fighting style with the Frenzied Fiend fighting style. After all, while I had little talent with the sword, I excelled at dancing. That was one of the few things I shared with my kin within Clan Wind Dance.
A fighting style that focused on agility, precision, and aggression. Now that sounded perfect for me. Of course, I was a long way off from developing such a fighting style. After all, I had just started learning the Frenzied Fiend fighting style and my experience with martial arts overall was shallow.
A part of me wondered what to call such a fighting style? Dancing Fiend? Frenzied Wind?
I let out a snort of laughter at the thought, before I continued with my studies.