CH.1
It was raining quite heavily in a dense forest. If one looked at the vegetation of this forest then he or she could easily tell that this was not a forest of Earth but of a foreign world. The shortest trees in this forest were about a few hundred meters in height while the tallest were around a few kilometers in height which gave the forest an ancient atmosphere as if it had existed for eternity. This forest was named Eternal forest by the inhabitants of the world in which it existed. Eternal forest existed in a world called Grandura and it was a higher world. The different worlds of the universe were graded as lower, middle, higher and Divine. The worlds were graded on the basis of concentration and purity of a special kind of energy which was present in all worlds. This energy was called Elemental energy. Our Earth also had it but in almost negligible concentration which made Earth a lower world. Since Grandura was a higher world meant that the concentration of elemental energy was quite high in it. The inhabitants of a world with a higher concentration of elemental energy, which included beasts and different kind’s humanoid races, practiced the art of Cultivation. A living being could gain unfathomable strength and powers by practicing the art of cultivation. The art of cultivation helps a being to overcome the limitation of its body. In the worlds that had elemental energy, personal strength determined everything for a living being including life and death matters.
The beings that practiced the art of cultivation would continuously try to break through the limits of their bodies in order to gain more strength and powers. These limits were known as Realms of Martial path. The martial path was considered endless i.e. there was no fixed number of realms in it. Most living beings would start from the mortal realm of the martial path which was the lowest realm of martial path. A mortal realm being would advance to immortal realm of martial path after breaking through the limits of its body. The being would become immortal after stepping into the immortal realm of the martial path. It would forever possess a youthful appearance and could live forever provided it was not killed by someone.
The mortal realm and immortal realm both had multiple sub-realms. All the sub-realms were further divided into three stages i.e. early, mid and late. The sub-realms of mortal realms were awakening realm, condensation realm, mortal elite realm, mortal lord realm, mortal king realm, mortal emperor realm, mortal sage realm, mortal saint realm. After each breakthrough to a higher sub-realm of the mortal realm, the strength of a being would increase by leaps and bounds and its lifespan would also increase by a thousand years. The increase in life span allowed a mortal realm being to possess youth full appearance even if it was thousands of years old. A late mortal saint realm being would step into the immortal realm after attaining a breakthrough. The multiple sub-realms of immortal realms were immortal elite realm, immortal lord realm, immortal king realm, immortal emperor realm, immortal sage realm, immortal saint realm.
On Grandura, a martial artist or any being could only walk the martial path up to a certain realm i.e. immortal realm. If it wishes to advance beyond immortal realm then he or she would have to ascend to a Divine world as Grandura lacked cultivation resources required for cultivating to the higher realms of the martial path.
Eternal forest was one of the most beautiful forests of the Grandura but the beings that lurked in it had turned it into one of the forbidden zones of Grandura. Since the life on this planet evolved in the presence of elemental energy, it turned out to be completely different from Earth. In this world, even rats and insects were as big as human beings. So, the size of other beings could be imagined. This world had every kind of creature a human being on earth could imagine right from Dragons to undead creatures.
Every year millions of people would venture into the Eternal forest for various reasons. The ones that entered this forest were not normal people. They all practiced the art of cultivation. Such people were known as martial artists on Grandura. Today was no different as quite a few people had entered it even though it was still raining. A middle-aged man and a teenager had also to the Eternal forest today. They walked at a steady pace as they moved deeper into the forest. The middle-aged man and teenager were completely dry even though it was raining quite heavily. The raindrops would change directions under some mysterious force the moment they came near their bodies. If this deed was done by a human on earth, then people would have given that human the status of God and worshiped it but on Grandura anyone could do this as long as they practice the art of cultivation.
“Grandfather, what will be the cultivation level of the elemental beasts that I need to kill?” The teenager asked with a lot of enthusiasm. He was walking just a few steps behind the middle-aged man. His name was Ryan. He had come to the Eternal forest for the first time to hunt elemental beasts. All beasts that were able to practice the art of cultivation were known as elemental beasts. On Grandura, all the teenagers would go to a forest with the elders of their families when they step into the mortal elite realm so that they could hunt elemental beasts. This was an important day for them as it would mark the start of their life as martial artists. So, Ryan’s enthusiasm could be understood.
“Same as yours.” Ryan's grandfather said as he scanned the surrounding area with his soul sense for any anomalies. His name was Oscar. Soul-sense was a basic ability which was all kinds of beings possessed from mortal lord realm onwards. It worked like radar and allowed beings to have a better understanding of their surroundings. It also helped them in detecting anomalies within a certain range around them. A being could avoid sneak attacks if its soul sense was active at that moment. So, its significance could be understood.
“Ok,” Ryan said as he followed his grandfather. His eyes were filled with fighting spirit but the fighting spirit soon disappeared from his eyes as he looked at different marvels of nature around him. This was his first time in the Eternal forest so its beauty was bound to captivate him. Oscar didn’t mind it and would just smile from time to time as he watched his grandson’s astonished expressions every time he saw something new.
Members of many humanoid races in the worlds that had ample amount of elemental energy were born with martial spirits. These humanoid races were known as spirit humanoid races and its members were known as spirit humanoids. Human race was also a spirit humanoid race. So, what were martial spirits? Well, no one knew the exact answer but it was something that every spirit humanoid had and if not for them then the spirit humanoids would have never been able to practice the art of cultivation. A martial spirit acted like a medium between the spirit humanoid and the elemental energy in his surroundings. The martial spirits could resemble the shape of anything that existed in the universe. Some resembled elemental beasts while some were in the shape of weapons. All martial spirit possessed an attribute or multiple attributes. Their attributes could be fire, water, earth, wind, Thunder, light, darkness, etc. A martial spirit could only act as a medium between the martial artist and the elemental energy of the same attribute as itself. Just like martial spirits, elemental energy also had various attributes. Thus, a martial artist of spirit humanoid race could only absorb the elemental energy of the same attribute as its martial spirit.
Spirit humanoids had a special place in their soul where their martial spirit resided. This place was known as soul world. Another important thing existed inside their soul worlds except for their martial spirits and that was a crystalline core. This crystalline core was at the center of the soul world. This crystalline core was known as soul core. The soul core was formed by a martial artist in condensation realm of the mortal realm. It was the second most important realm after awakening realm.
In awakening realm, a young child of spirit humanoid race would awaken the slumbering martial spirit in its soul world. It was the first step for all spirit humanoids that wish to become martial artists. Most spirit humanoids were able to awaken their martial spirits without any problem but some were unable to awaken their martial spirits throughout their entire lives. The shape and the attribute of the martial spirit of the child could only be known after the child awakens its martial spirit. The child of spirit humanoid race would step into the condensation realm after successfully awakening its martial spirit. Now, the child of the spirit humanoid race could start forming a soul core inside its soul world. The child would advance to the mortal elite realm once its soul core was completely formed inside its soul world. A child of spirit humanoid race could only call itself a real martial artist by stepping into mortal elite realm. The awakening realm and condensation realm were also known as foundation realms. If a child was unable to overcome these two realms then it could never become a martial artist.
Spirit humanoid martial artists require a special energy in order to utilize the strength and power that they had gained by practicing the art of cultivation. This energy was known as spirit power and it was produced by their soul cores. The soul cores would convert elemental energy absorbed by the spirit humanoid martial artists into spirit power. The soul cores acted like generators as well as reservoirs of spirit power. So, its importance could be imagined for spirit humanoids. The entire cultivation of a spirit humanoid martial artist was concentrated inside its soul core. So, the cultivation level of a spirit humanoid martial artist was actually the cultivation level of its soul core. It was not the martial artist that advances to the higher realm of martial path but its soul core. The capacity of the soul core to hold spirit power increases exponentially every time it advances to a higher realm. The advancement of the soul core would lead to increase in the bodily toughness of the spirit humanoid martial artist. The quality of the spirit power produced also undergoes a qualitative change. The spirit power would become many folds purer than before which increase the combat prowess of the martial artist.
A martial artist would have to gain insights in the elemental laws of the attribute of his martial spirit and understand them to a certain level before he could attain a breakthrough to the next sub realm or realm of martial path. The speed of breakthrough to higher sub realms or realm of martial path directly depended on the insight and understanding of a martial artist into the elemental laws. A martial artist with higher insights and understanding of elemental laws would advance to higher sub realms or realm of martial path at a much faster pace as compared to a martial artist with fewer insights and lesser understanding in elemental laws. Their combat prowess would also vary due to it. Martial artists with higher understanding and insights into elemental laws would have a higher combat prowess as compared to martial artists with lower understanding and insights into elemental laws. The martial spirits were also capable of gaining insights and understanding the elemental laws. The insights and understanding of elemental laws gained by a martial spirit were automatically gained by the martial artist. Thus, increasing the overall speed at which the martial artists would gain insights and understanding into the elemental laws.
Martial spirits were of various shapes and each shape had its advantages. A martial artist whose martial spirit resembled an elemental beast, elemental bird, etc. would have a chance to gain the innate abilities of that corresponding elemental beast, elemental birds, etc. The innate abilities were not that easy to gain. All the innate abilities possessed by a martial spirit were sealed by the heavenly law. The martial artists could only gain these innate abilities by breaking the seals placed on their martial spirits. One of the easiest ways to gain innate abilities was by possessing a higher understanding of elemental laws than the required threshold while attaining a breakthrough to next sub realm or realm of the martial path. In such a situation, one of the many seals placed on the martial spirits to seal its innate abilities would automatically break and the martial artist would be able to gain an innate ability. The innate ability gained by the martial artists would be a random one. It could be a powerful innate ability or a useless one. It all depended on the luck of the martial artist. This method was not that popular as not everyone was extremely good at gaining insights and understanding into elemental laws. Other methods required a martial artist to forcefully break seals placed on their martial spirits by using external force. The external force could be created by absorbing heavenly treasures, pills or anything when consumed or absorbed would break the seals placed on the martial spirits.
Martial artists that possessed martial spirits in the shape of weapons could wield them like a normal weapon or fuse their martial spirits with weapons of similar shape. This would turn the normal weapon with which the martial spirit had fused into a life weapon. The strength and power of the life weapon would grow alongside the martial artist. The martial artists that had weapon shaped martial spirits would have a very high talent in wielding weapons that their martial spirits resembled due to which they were able to comprehend the weapon intent with extreme ease as compared to martial artists that possessed non-weapon shaped martial spirits. The Martial artists that were able to comprehend weapon intent were many times more terrifying than those who were unable to do so. If a martial artist fuses the weapon intent comprehended by him in his attacks then the attack power of his attacks would rise exponentially.
In extremely rare cases, a martial artist would have its martial spirit in the shape of a humanoid. Martial artists that possessed humanoid martial spirits were able to gain insight into elemental laws at extremely high speed as compared to martial artists with non-humanoid martial spirit. Certain types of humanoid martial spirits were able to increase the weapon-wielding capabilities of the martial artists just like a weapon shaped martial spirits. Martial artists that possessed such humanoid martial spirits were also able to comprehended weapon intent with extreme ease just like martial artists that possessed weapon shaped martial spirits.
Oscar had detected numerous elemental beasts with his soul sense but none of them were suitable opponents for Ryan. These elemental beasts were either many times stronger than Ryan or just too weak. Such elemental beasts were of no use to them. Oscar and Ryan had to move around a lot in the Eternal forest to find a suitable elemental beast for Ryan. The rain had also stopped in the meantime.
Oscar footsteps suddenly stopped, as he pointed towards a particular bush and said, “Ryan there is a horned viper resting under that bush. Its cultivation level is similar to yours and even its attribute is similar to your martial spirit. Do you wish to fight it?”
“Yes,” Ryan readily agreed as he was pumped with fighting spirit.
Horned vipers were normal elemental beasts which looked no different from the ones on Earth except for a few differences. They had black scales covering their entire bodies. They had a sharp horn in the middle of their forehead. Horned vipers were generally two to three meters in length and as thick as the calf of an adult human. They were poison attribute elemental beasts. Even a mortal lord realm martial artist would have a hard time to detoxifying its body after getting poisoned by it. The horn on their forehead was as toxic as the fangs in their mouth. They used their horn for headbutting their enemies during fights.
Elemental beasts were of three types. They were Normal Elemental beasts, Ancient Elemental beasts, and Divine Elemental beasts. The Ancient elemental beasts and Divine elemental were many times more powerful than a normal elemental beast. They could easily rip them apart with extreme ease. All the three type had individuals with varying degrees of bloodline purity like the horned viper found by Oscar. It had mid-grade bloodline purity. The talent and potential of an elemental beast were determined by the purity of its bloodline. An elemental beast with higher bloodline purity would have higher talent as well as higher number of innate abilities as compared to the elemental beast of the same species with lower bloodline purity. The bloodline purity was graded as low, mid, high and original. The elemental beast could increase their bloodline purity by cultivating to higher realms and with each breakthrough, their bloodline purity would increase a little bit. They could also increase their bloodline purity by devouring heavenly treasures. If an elemental beast had original grade bloodline purity then it would mean that it was a pure-blooded individual of its species. It would possess all the innate abilities of its species as well as possess a very high potential and talent. If an elemental beast was able to increase its bloodline purity to original grade then its talent and potential would get a huge boost and it would also gain all the innate abilities of its species that it lacked previously.
Normal elemental beasts could also possess the bloodline of ancient beasts or divine beasts in low concentrations in their bodies. These elemental beasts were not considered as real descendants of the Ancient beasts or Divine beasts whose bloodline they possessed as the bloodline they possessed was in extremely low concentrations. These elemental beasts could evolve into the ancient beast or divine beast whose bloodline they possessed by increasing the concentration of the bloodline in their bodies to a certain level. If they were able to increase the bloodline concentration in their body then they would evolve into an ancient beast or divine beast with low-grade bloodline purity.
A smile appeared Oscar face’s hearing Ryan’s confident reply. He flicked his hand following which a large energy barrier was erected around the bush. Oscar did so to make sure that the horned viper had no chance to escape during its fight with Ryan. He wanted to use this horned viper to temper Ryan. He was ok Ryan losing as that would teach him the importance of strength. Oscar signaled Ryan to get going. Ryan seeing his grandfather’s signal entered the barrier and approached the bush in a carefree manner.
In the meantime, the horned viper which was resting under the bush opened its eyes as it sensed Ryan approaching near its resting place just like a gullible deer fawn. The horned viper was able to gauge Ryan’s strength and knew that they had similar cultivation level. The horned viper decided to launch a surprise attack on Ryan the moment he got into its range. The horned viper didn’t wish to expend a lot of energy and wished to finish off Ryan with a single attack.
The horned viper’s head shot out of the bush with lightning speed as Ryan entered its range. The horned viper’s mouth was wide open. Its black fangs were completely visible at this moment. The moment the horned viper launched its attack, Ryan’s entire body was covered in the green colored poisonous aura. The next moment, his body turned into a blur as he dodged the incoming bite attack of the horned viper by hair’s breadth. His poisonous aura was similar to that of a savage beast. He had just now used a movement based martial skill know as shadow steps. The green aura was created due to Ryan using his poison attribute spirit power. Whenever a martial artist uses his spirit power he or she would be covered in an aura of similar attribute. The poisonous aura of Ryan looked like a green fog. Since ancient times, most martial artists were unable to unseal the innate abilities of their martial spirits which led to a situation where martial artists lacked powerful moves and skills to attack their enemies. Such a situation led to the creation of martial skills. Martial skills were nothing but the clever use of elemental laws. In terms of power, some of the martial skills could compete with the innate abilities of dragons and phoenixes. So, their prowess could be imagined. The shadow steps martial skill was a neutral martial skill which meant that it didn’t require the martial artist to possess a martial spirit of a particular attribute. It could be practiced by anyone irrespective of the attribute of his or her martial spirit. Martial skills in Grandura were divided into two broad types. They were mortal martial skills and immortal martial skills. Both mortal martial skills and immortal martial skills were graded as low, mid and high. They were grade on the basis of their ability to increase the combat prowess of the martial artist. The shadow steps martial skill was a high-grade mortal martial skill as it increased the speed of the martial artist exponentially.
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The horned viper was dumbstruck by Ryan’s speed but it quickly regained its composure. Its head changed direction at a lightning speed and was again aiming for Ryan. Ryan again used shadow steps martial skill to dodge the bite attack of the horned viper but this time he launched a counter-attack. He unsheathed his dagger that was tied to his waist and stabbed it into the neck of the Horned viper. The dagger was also covered in the green poisonous aura that was similar to the poisonous aura that shrouded him. It was due to Ryan channeling his poison attribute spirit power into the dagger. When the dagger struck the neck of the horned viper, it failed to even leave a mark on the tough body of the horned viper. Ryan seeing this quickly retreated. He looked at his dagger whose blade had developed numerous cracks after his previous exchange with horned viper.
“Hissss” The horned viper made an angry noise as it slithered towards Ryan at an extremely fast speed. Ryan sighed as the aura around his body started to increase. The green aura of his started to resemble more and more like that of a savage beast and the air surrounding him also became extremely toxic. The green aura of his then transformed into a green serpent that was around one meter in length and as thick as a human arm. The green serpent floated above Ryan’s head. This was Ryan’s martial spirit. All martial spirits possessed the ability to fly irrespective of whether the beings they resemble possessed the ability to fly or not. The green serpent martial spirit coiled around Ryan body. The horned viper that was slithering towards Ryan at an extremely fast pace stopped in its path as it saw the green serpent martial spirit. Ryan’s martial spirit resembled an elemental beast known as Emerald viper. Emerald viper was an Ancient elemental beast. This beast was known for its toxicity and bodily toughness. Even a dragon would have a hard time injuring him. This Ancient beast was famous for being able to easily kill Divine beasts with the help of its poisons. This ancient beast was generally found in Divine worlds but its descendants with low and mid-grade bloodline purity could be found in higher worlds like Grandura.
Martial artists could conjure their martial spirits from early elite realm onwards. The conjured martial spirits could fight alongside them. The conjured martial spirits looked exactly like the real thing. The bodies of the conjured martial spirits were made up of aura. Their aura bodies of martial spirits had toughness and strength similar to the bodies of the beings they resembled. A considerable amount of spirit power was consumed, each time a martial artist conjured his or her martial spirit in the real world. Whenever a martial artist would conjure his or her martial spirit in the real world, all of his stats would get a massive boost and his combat prowess would go up. No matter how many times the martial spirit’s aura body got destroyed during a fight, the martial spirit could be conjured again as long as the martial artist had enough spirit power. Martial spirits were immortal as long as their hosts were alive. A conjured martial spirit could only use its body and innate abilities that were unsealed by the martial artists for combat. This was also one of the reasons why most martial artists wished to unseal the innate abilities of their martial spirits even though they could use martial skills as an alternative. The combat strength of their martial spirits directly depended on the number of innate abilities that they had unsealed. A martial spirit that had a large number of its innate abilities unsealed would be far more powerful and terrifying during a fight than a martial spirit that had fewer innate abilities unsealed.
The horned viper being a normal elemental beast would but naturally fear an Ancient elemental beast. It immediately changed its direction and fled in a direction opposite to Ryan but he was soon stopped by the energy barrier that was erected by Oscar earlier. It repeatedly attacked the barrier to crack it open but nothing worked on the barrier. Ryan sneered upon seeing this scene.
“Dargar, use emerald fog,” Ryan said with a big smile on his face. Dargar opened its mouth and spat out a cloud of green fog which completely filled the barrier. When the emerald fog dissipated the horned viper had turned into a pile of bones while the area inside the barrier was no different from a barren land. Not even a blade of grass survived due to the toxicity of emerald fog. The ‘Emerald fog’ was the trademark innate ability of Emerald viper. This fog was highly toxic and was deadly to beings that were in the same realm as the emerald viper as even antidotes wouldn’t work on them and only death awaited them. This was the specialty of this innate ability. Even beings with cultivation level above the emerald viper by a sub-realm would need to take antidote after getting infected by emerald fog otherwise even they would end up dead after some time. This fact alone spoke a lot about the toxicity of Emerald fog. Ryan had gained this innate ability when he had stepped into the early mortal elite realm. Every martial artist would gain an innate ability after stepping into the early mortal elite realm unconditionally. This was one of the strongest innate abilities of emerald vipers. Ryan was lucky to gain it with such ease.
Ryan approached the bones of horned viper as he picked up a fist-sized black crystal orb that was lying amongst them. This crystal orb was known as Elemental Core. It was the powerhouse of an elemental beast. Every beast elemental beast possessed one. The elemental cores performed functions similar to soul cores of spirit humanoid races. The entire cultivation of elemental beasts was concentrated inside their elemental cores. These elemental cores could be used for cultivation or alchemy as they contained a large quantity of elemental energy. The quality of elemental energy contained in it directly depends on the cultivation level of the elemental beast. The quality of elemental energy contained inside the core of horned viper was quite low as it was only a mortal elite beast realm elemental beast. The speed of the cultivation reduces upon using low-quality elemental energy. So, it was of not much use for Ryan.
“Dargar, return for now,” Ryan said as he recalled back Dargar to his soul world. The savage beast like poisonous aura that covered Ryan’s body disappeared along with the return of Dargar to his soul world. Ryan sent his consciousness into the elemental core and scanned the elemental core. Ryan was trying to find poison elemental law fragment inside the elemental core, though the chance of finding it was extremely low as the horned viper’s cultivation level was quite low. He sighed upon not finding any Elemental law fragment. The Elemental law fragments would be created when an elemental beast gained insight in elemental laws. Each insight in elemental laws would lead to the creation of Elemental law fragment. Most of the times the Elemental law fragments would disappear with the death of elemental beast but the chances of it not disappearing would increase with the increase in the cultivation level of Elemental beasts. By absorbing these elemental law fragments, one could quickly increase his or her insights and understanding into elemental laws.
“Grandfather I would like to hunt a few more elemental beasts to gain more fighting experience,” Ryan spoke with a smile on his face. The matter of not finding Elemental law fragment was quickly forgotten by him. This was his first time hunting elemental beasts and he had already killed one without any major help from his grandfather.
“Ok, then let’s head a little deeper into the forest to find some more mortal elite realm elemental beasts,” Oscar said as he started moving deeper inside the Eternal forest. Ryan quickly followed his grandfather.
A voice resounded in his mind in Ryan’s mind as he was following his Grandfather.
“Ryan, what about me?” The voice was filled with murderous intent.
“How can I absorb the souls of dead elemental beasts in front of grandfather?” Ryan responded hurriedly to the mysterious entity to which the voice belonged. He knew that this guy lacked patience when it came to collecting souls.
“If you are unable to collect souls of dead or death elemental energy then we won't be able to cultivate death laws.” The mysterious entity said in a sullen manner.
“I will try to collect souls of the dead elemental beasts when grandfather is not watching over me.” Ryan tried to reason with the mysterious entity.
“Ok.” The voice resounded once more following which it was complete silence. Ryan hurried his pace to keep up with his grandfather. Ryan could help but sigh. He was a dual martial spirits holder and yet he couldn’t tell his family or anyone about it. The reason was that his second martial spirit was a taboo martial spirit. Generally, people with taboo martial spirit were hated by people around them and had to live in solitude for the rest of their life. Ryan didn’t wish for something like that happening to him. So, he hid this fact from his family. His second martial spirit was an Asura martial spirit. It was death attribute humanoid martial spirit but a taboo martial spirit.
Asuras were demonic beings with six hands, out of which four would wield weapons. The four hands of Asuras would wield identical weapons. Asura Martial spirit was capable of increasing the talent of a martial artist in wielding the weapon that it held in its four hands. Ryan’s Asura martial spirit held swords in four of his hands which meant Ryan would have an exceptional talent in using swords. Asuras could only be found in Divine worlds. They were one of the most powerful existences that could be found on Divine worlds. They were born with a cultivation level of early immortal elite realm which spoke a lot about their tyrannical strength. In folklores, Asuras were depicted as harbingers of death. It was said that even Gods feared them and would run away in fear. They were also known as ‘God Slayers’.
The easiest way to collect death elemental energy for gaining insights and understanding into death elemental laws was by making the death attribute martial spirit devour a large number of souls of the dead. The death attribute martial spirit would convert the souls of the dead into death elemental energy. This death elemental energy could be used for cultivation purpose as it was quite pure and thus didn’t affect the cultivation speed of the martial artist. Ryan wanted to cultivate death laws but he lacked the necessary resources to cultivate it. This was his biggest obstacle. His family could provide him with the necessary resources but he had no intention to let them know about his taboo martial spirit. He intended to cultivate death laws without anyone knowing about it. He finally had a family which he lacked in his former life, so he had no intention to give them a reason to hate him.
Ryan came to the world of Grandura fifteen years ago. He was originally from Earth where he used to be a contract killer but due to certain circumstance, he died a painful death and ended up reincarnating on Grandura. He was a little bit shocked with his sudden death and rebirth into a completely new and different world. He quickly accepted the reality. He had a happy childhood. He was named Ryan in this life by Oscar. He had a loving and caring family which he lacked in his former life but happy times didn't last for long. His father and uncle mysteriously died one day when he was eight years old following which his aunt disappeared and had yet to return. Ryan’s uncle and aunt had one kid whose name was Blake. Ryan’s aunt left Blake in the care of Ryan's Mother. The name of Ryan’s mother was Emilia. Blake was seven at that time. Emilia made sure Blake had everything he needed while he grew up. She made sure he never missed his parents.
The atmosphere of the house brightened up a little when Oscar came home with a new family member. His name was Cris and he was six years old at that time. He was two years younger than Ryan. Ryan was shocked upon knowing more about his new younger brother. He had always believed that his family only comprised of his parents, Uncle, Aunt, Blake and his Grandfather but it turned out that he was completely wrong. His Grandfather and Grandmother had in total eight sons. Ryan's father was the oldest son of his grandfather while Blake’s father was the second oldest son of his grandfather and the new entrant to the family Cris was the son of the third-oldest son of his grandfather. The rest of the family lived with Ryan's Grandmother. Ryan could already guess some reasons for it but was not sure as his grandfather didn’t speak much about it.
When Ryan was ten, he noticed that his mother and grandfather were hiding their identities from the rest of the world. He would see his grandfather and mother take each step cautiously as if scared that they might be found out. Initially, Ryan thought that his grandfather and mother were just taking precautions as this world was fraught with dangers but as time passed Ryan felt that it was a bigger matter which was forcing his grandfather and mother live like this. Ryan had made a silent vow to himself at that time that he would help his grandfather and mother in future when he had sufficient power. He would do everything possible to make their lives’ easy and comfortable. He wanted to keep his family safe from all sort of harms.
By evening, Ryan had already hunted nine early mortal beast elite elemental beasts. He knew he could not spend any more time in the eternal forest as night was fast approaching. This was the most dangerous time to be in the eternal forest as all the powerful predators of the eternal forest would become active at this time.
Ryan was currently fighting his tenth opponent which was a scorpion-tailed mouse. The scorpion tailed mouse was a normal elemental beast. The one Ryan was fighting had a high-grade bloodline purity. Since Ryan was able to easily hunt early mortal elite elemental beast, Oscar decided to increase the difficulty. The Scorpion-tailed mouse had a cultivation level of mid mortal elite realm. It was stronger than the previous elemental beasts that Ryan had hunted. Its body was four meters in length and its tail was six meters in length with a sting at its end. Its tail moved around as if it had its own brain. The size difference between Ryan and scorpion-tailed mouse made Ryan look like a deer in front of a tiger.
Ryan was using shadow steps martial skill to continuously dodge the attacks of the scorpion-tailed mouse. Ryan had attacked the scorpion-tailed mouse a number of times but none of his attacks were effective against the scorpion-tailed mouse. The dagger of his was unable to pierce the thick skin of the scorpion tailed mouse.
Ryan had no choice but to conjure Dargar in the middle of the battle. When Dargar was conjured by Ryan the scorpion-tailed mouse ‘squeaked’ in horror upon seeing him as it tried to flee from the fight. Ryan upon seeing this, smiled as he commanded Dargar to use the emerald fog innate ability. The emerald fog released by Dargar was like a ghost as it chased the fleeing scorpion tailed mouse. This was the specialty of this innate ability. Dargar could control the fog like an extension of its body.
The scorpion-tailed mouse was extremely quick-footed as it tried to escape but Dargar encircled it with its emerald fog on all sides. The scorpion tailed mouse shivered as it saw the emerald fog slowly approaching it. Soon the emerald fog completely enveloped the scorpion-tailed mouse killing it instantly and turning it into a pile of bones.
Ryan approached the pile of bones to collect the elemental core of scorpion tailed mouse. His Asura martial spirit was unable to control itself anymore as it took control of Dargar. The soul of scorpion tailed mouse which was still lingering around the pile of bones was absorbed by Dargar. Ryan was dumbstruck seeing this as he had never expected that his Asura martial spirit could take control of Dargar and absorb the souls of dead creatures in this manner. Ryan quickly recalled Dargar back into his soul world after the soul of the dead elemental beast was absorbed by Dargar.
Ryan sent his consciousness into his soul. Since Ryan was a dual martial spirits holder, so his soul world was also divided into two. One side was Green in color while the other was pitch-black in color. Green side housed Dargar while black side housed his Asura martial spirit. Each side contained a soul core. The green side had poison attribute soul core while the black side had death attribute soul core. Each side acted individually i.e. if Ryan cultivated only poison elemental laws then his death attribute soul core would advance to higher realms of the martial path. Since Ryan had two soul cores which meant he had two cultivation levels. The soul core with higher cultivation level would become his primary soul core and the cultivation level of this soul core would be perceived by others. They wouldn’t be able to perceive the cultivation level of other soul core.
An ethereal figure of Ryan appeared in the green side of his soul world. He saw that Dargar had already coughed out the soul of scorpion tailed mouse and the soul had already entered the pitch-black side of his soul world following which the soul of the scorpion-tailed mouse entered his Asura Martial spirit’s mouth. His Asura martial spirit had a jubilant expression on his face after devouring the soul of scorpion tailed mouse.
“Yama can't you control yourself. If Grandfather has noticed you then I will be in deep shit. My mother will spank my butt until they are red as tomatoes.” Ryan said in an angry manner. A pair of red eyes appeared within the black side of Ryan’s soul world. These eyes could give anyone a creepy feeling and most people would avoid looking directly into them as they would feel uneasy and scared.
“Ryan, you need not worry. I didn't leak even a bit of death energy when the soul of that scorpion tailed mouse was absorbed Dargar under my control. So, don’t fret over it.” Yama replied in a nonchalant manner. Even now his voice contained extreme bloodlust and killing intent but Ryan knew that Yama was not doing this intentionally.
“Are you sure? My grandfather is not some weakling.” Ryan asked again to make sure.
“100% guaranteed,” Yama replied as he looked into Ryan’s eyes without blinking.
“Don’t you dare repeat this stunt ever again,” Ryan said as he left his soul world.
“Thanks, Dargar.” Yama said as he smiled at Dargar.
“No need. It is normal to help each other.” Dargar said in manly voice following which he closed his eyes and entered a meditative state. Yama followed the suit. Yama started the process of converting the soul of the dead elemental beast into death elemental energy. Ryan was quite scared of Yama when he had met him for the first but as time passed he started to understand him more and more. Though Yama was a taboo martial spirit, he was not as books described taboo martial spirits. He had a good personality. The best thing about Yama was his knowledge and intelligence. He most of the times had a solution to Ryan’s problems. It was very rare for martial spirits to possess knowledge that exceeded their hosts. Generally, all martial spirits had the same levels of knowledge as their hosts, as they came into the existence at the same time as their host but certain martial spirits possessed sealed memories.
Technically, anyone who possessed a taboo martial spirit would have an unstable mind because of which they would go on a rampage whenever they got angry. The reason for this instability was the baleful aura released by Taboo martial spirits. Baleful aura would make a martial artist aggressive and violent. Thus, people prefer to keep a distance from Taboo martial artists.
Ryan was an exception. He was immune to the baleful aura of Yama due to which he didn’t go berserk and such taboo martial artists were known as stable taboo martial artist. According to Yama, the reason why Ryan was a stable taboo martial artist due to Ryan’s soul being different from other martial artists. Ryan’s soul strength would multiply with each breakthrough made by him in his martial path. Ryan was just an early mortal elite realm martial artist but the strength of his soul was already comparable to early mortal king realm martial artists. The powerful soul of Ryan completely suppressed the effects of Yama’s baleful aura.
The baleful aura was a type of corrupt aura. That was similar to murderous aura but it possessed a special ability. It attacked the minds of both the person who possessed it as well his enemy. It corrupted the mind of the person who possessed it by turning him into bloodthirsty fiend while it attacked the mind and soul of the others. It attacked the mind of the others by inducing fear into it and attacked the soul by slowly corroding their soul. If someone came into the contact of baleful aura for an extended period of time then he might turn into a retard. He might even die due to his soul receiving a lot of damage.
A martial artist could possess a baleful aura by killing a lot of living beings. The more they killed, the stronger their baleful aura would be. They could use this baleful aura to attack the mind and soul of their enemies. In the case of taboo martial artists, their baleful aura would become stronger and stronger with each breakthrough. They didn’t have to go around killing living beings to strengthen their baleful aura.
The entire conversation of Ryan and his marital spirits took only a few seconds in the real world.
“Ryan, we should head back home before it gets dark.” Ryan’s grandfather said as he approached him. His grandfather didn't behave in an odd manner, seeing this Ryan knew that his secret was safe.
“Yes, grandfather.” Ryan smiled back.
Ryan grandfather started to hover in the air. He pointed his finger towards Ryan. Ryan was instantaneously enveloped in black energy. This black energy was darkness attribute spirit power. This darkness attribute spirit power made Ryan hover in the air following which Oscar took off into the sky with Ryan closely following him from behind as he directly headed towards the exit of the eternal forest.