Flipping to the first page of Asura Tactics, a pair of blood-red eyes seemed to jump out from the page. A humanoid illustration of an Asura standing upright with its upper body bared, revealing taut muscles, and a head of white hair.
Studying the humanoid Asura illustration, a sensation of being in hell crept up his skin, mad slaughter and an endless sea of bodies awash Huang Xiaolong’s senses, and his eyes turned blood-red; confused and in pain, Huang Xiaolong starts to lose his consciousness in the blood-thirst frenzy when suddenly behind him the double-headed serpent martial spirit appeared roaring towards the sky – a roar so thunderous that it shook the heaven. The red bloodlust slowly faded from his eyes as he regained his conscious. Waking up, his heart pounded like it was going to burst out from his chest.
At this time, the humanoid Asura illustration flew out from the book page, in a bright flash, it entered between Huang Xiaolong’s eyebrows. Inside mind emerged the details of a cultivation technique.
The first layer of Asura Tactics.
“The Origin of Hell, the beginning of evil......” reciting the first layer of Asura Tactics’s battle qi cultivation technique, Huang Xiaolong found it deeply profound and mysterious.
In Martial Spirit World, battle qi cultivation techniques were categorized into four ranks, namely Heaven, Earth, Mysterious, and Yellow and each rank was further divided into different grades; low, mid and high-level.
“I wonder what rank is Asura Tactics cultivation technique?”
After a while, Huang Xiaolong turned to the second page. On it, there was another humanoid illustration of Asura, but this one was slightly different. On the second illustration of Asura’s back was a pair of devilish black wings that spread open, exuding a domineering aura and a taste for massacre.
Same as the previous page’s experience, when he turned to the second page, an atmosphere that seemed originated from hell surrounded Huang Xiaolong and his double-headed serpent martial spirit once again appeared behind him, suppressing the blood-thirsty desire deluding Huang Xiaolong’s consciousness and the second layer of Asura Tactics was successfully imprinted inside his mind.
The third page, fourth page, fifth page...
Huang Xiaolong turned the pages one by one, with every page turned, inside his mind emerged another upper layer of Asura Tactics cultivation technique. As his page turning speed was slow, it took him more than two hours before he manage to reach the last page.
One last page, instead of an illustration, a line of flamboyant calligraphy filled the page.
“Encumbered with Hell’s aura of slaughter, the one receiving Asura Tactics is accepted as my pro-disciple, governing over Asura’s Gate. When Asura appears, invincible throughout the world!”
This line of words was left behind by the First Sovereign of Asura’s Gate, Ren Wokuang.
When Asura appears, invincible throughout the world!
Huang Xiaolong was stunned! This Asura Gate’s First Sovereign, Ren Wokuang was a little too mad, right? Between heaven and earth, who dared to declare themselves as invincible throughout the world, but this Ren Wokuang wrote after practicing Asura Tactics, he will be invincible against all?!
A simple line of words, but it was extremely arrogant and domineering!
At this time, a piece of paper fell out from the spine of the book. Apart from the piece of paper there was also a dark-colored ring. Surprised, Huang Xiaolong picked up both items from the ground.
From the explanation written on the paper, he got to know that the ring was called the Asura ring, and the two sharp black blades hanging on the wall were called the Blades of Asura.
What Huang Xiaolong did not expect was, the Asura ring was actually a spatial ring that only existed in legends; according to his father, in the whole of Luo Tong Kingdom, only the Emperor had one, even his grandfather Huang Qide didn’t own one!
The appearance of a spatial ring could cause bloody contention.
Moments later, suppressing the excitement in his heart, Huang Xiaolong did according to the instruction stated, pricked his finger and dripped a drop of blood onto the Asura ring.
When the drop of fresh blood fell, a bright light burst out from the dark-colored ring as it floated up and slipped onto Huang Xiaolong’s ring finger on his left hand by itself; then it seemed to submerged into his body, disappearing from view. When Huang Xiaolong thought of it, it appeared again on his ring finger.
Sensing the large space within Asura ring, Huang Xiaolong was delighted – it was more than a few hundred cubic meters wide and with this Asura Ring it would be more convenient for him to carry things around without having to worry about others finding out.
After that, he turned around, gazing at the pair of shiny black blades on the wall and with a small leap he took down the pair of blades. The sabers’ bodies seemed to emanate a strange buzz that could penetrate into people’s minds, causing a cold prickly sensation that creeped people out.
Huang Xiaolong examined the Blades of Asura in his hands, noticing on the bodies of the blades a black fiendish current flow faintly, indirectly forming blurred images of terrifying horror.
The longer Huang Xiaolong held the Blades of Asura in hands, the fonder he grew of them.
“Blades of Asura, the blades of slaughter; great, from here onwards you will accompany me to slaughter all my enemies!” Huang Xiaolong said as he caressed the ridge of the sabers. As if able to understand the meaning of his words, the blades issued a cheerful hum.
Seeing this, Huang Xiaolong only grew fonder. Then, using the same method of recognizing owner, he dripped a few drops of blood onto the blades and as the drops of fresh blood meld, a blood-red light burst out from the blades as they hovered in the air, one flew to the left and the other to the right of Huang Xiaolong. On Huang Xiaolong’s arms emerged two tiny tattoo-like Blades of Asura.
Huang Xiaolong placed the piece of paper and Asura Tactics book into the Asura ring for safekeeping and prepared to leave the room, however, he paused just as he reached the door and turned back looking at the jade bed. He took the cold jade bed away too.
Stepping out from the third room, Huang Xiaolong circled once around the cave. After confirming that he did not miss anything he walked to the exit. He did not plan to remove the inlaid Water Dispersing Pearl at the cave’s entrance, for he planned to use the cave in the future for his practice, for the cave’s well-hidden location in the valley. That was the reason why he did not take the Water Dispersing Pearl, there were benefits to keeping this cave.
Emerging from the lake, Huang Xiaolong swam to the side and put on his clothes, transferring the Yang fruits into his ring.
“Hoo Hoo Haa” Exactly at this moment, the little violet monkey had finished absorbing the spiritual energy from the Yang fruit came running towards Huang Xiaolong in a cheerful gait.
Huang Xiaolong noticed that after absorbing two Yang fruits, the Spirit Devourer Violet Monkey’s fur became glossier, and its eyes brighter, however, its body size remained the same.
“Little guy, I have to go back now, I’ll come to see you again.” Huang Xiaolong leaned forwards and said to the little violet monkey.
But, as he turned around to leave, the little violet monkey cried out and in a flash appeared on Huang Xiaolong’s shoulder, perching comfortably.
Huang Xiaolong was dazed for a moment, and jokingly said: “Little guy, don’t tell me that you want to follow me home?”
Stolen novel; please report.
Unexpectedly, the little violet monkey squeaked and nodded its little head.
Huang Xiaolong did not expect that this little violet monkey will be willing to follow him home, after a brief consideration, he said with a smile: “Very well, let’s go.” A boy and a monkey departed from the valley.
Passing through the green turf and the mountains of white bones, Huang Xiaolong wondered to himself “Were all these people killed by Ren Wokuang?”
Leaving the valley, HuangXiaolong did not take any detours, heading straight to Huang Clan Manor.
By the time he reached Huang Clan Manor, it was already noon. Just as he stepped into his small courtyard, he ran into Huang Min, his little sister who had just stepped out from his small courtyard.
“Big Brother, where did you go?” Huang Min asked, but it was only up till here, as her eyes widened in surprise when she saw the little violet monkey on Huang Xiaolong’s shoulder. Clapping her hands gleefully, she almost shouted out loud: “What a cute little monkey! Big brother, where did you buy it from?”
“Buy from where?” Listening to his sister’s gleeful scream, Huang Xiaolong shook his head and laughed, thinking that this Violet Devourer Spirit Monkey is a rare spirit beast, something you can’t buy even if you have lots of money.
“Hoo Hoo Haa!” The little violet monkey squeaked shrilly in protest at Huang Min for calling him ‘little monkey’, startling Huang Min whose hand was reaching out wanting to pet it.
After being startled momentarily, Huang Min widened her eyes and stared angrily at the Violet Devourer Spirit Monkey; it was the beginning of a staring contest between a little monkey and a little girl.
With much difficulty, some time later, Huang Xiaolong managed to escape from Huang Min and, looking back towards Huang Min’s departing silhouette, he breathed out a heavy sigh of relief.
Back in his room, removing the little monkey from his shoulder, he took out the cold jade bed from the Asura Ring’s space, and sat cross-legged atop it, starting his first practice according to Asura Tactics first layer.
Shortly after running the Asura Tactics technique, a nefarious cold chill broke out as if it came from the deepest nether of hell, shrouding Huang Xiaolong within. This spiritual energy was continuously being swallowed by his double-headed serpent martial spirit and then channeled into Huang Xiaolong’s meridians.
As the nefarious frigid cold entered Huang Xiaolong’s body, he couldn’t help but shiver, feeling like he was being buried under a thousand feet glacier. Huang Xiaolong’s heart tightened, quickly forging his mind and will, he persisted in running Asura Tactics to refine the cold frigid energy.
This frigid energy moved extremely slow alongside Huang Xiaolong’s meridians, every inch it passed, his blood felt like it was about to freeze up.
Gritting his teeth, Huang Xiaolong persevered; running the Asura Tactics’ first layer cultivation technique, repeating it over and over. After a long time, the frigid cold sensation lessened and the energy inside his body was refined into pure battle qi.
The moment the cold frigid energy successfully converted into battle qi, Huang Xiaolong realized that it only took half an hour’s time. Compared to the Xuan Qin cultivation technique, the results were ten times better!
This discovery was much to Huang Xiaolong’s liking: “Looks like what the note says is true. Although the netherworld’s spiritual energy is hard to refine, once successful, the benefits are huge!”
The note kept in the spine of Asura Tactics book stated that practicing the Asura Tactics was akin to building a connection with the netherworld’s spiritual energy that tempers the physique. That frigid cold air was, without a doubt, the so-called netherworld’s spiritual energy.
Netherworld spiritual energy was one of the superior energies between heaven and earth, the higher the quality of spiritual energy was, the better it was to temper the physical body, and the converted battle qi was much purer and more powerful.
This was the gap between cultivation techniques.
The higher the rank of a cultivation technique, the quality of spiritual energy absorbed is higher, the converted battle qi is stronger. In the Martial Spirit World, the ones practicing high-rank cultivation techniques were capable of jumping levels to challenge stronger opponents, it was due to this factor.
Martial spirits determine a person’s strength and future achievements, and the quality of cultivation technique was equally important.
Time flies and soon one month passed.
In this one month’s time, apart from practicing, Huang Xiaolong still practiced. The only difference was, instead of the XuanQin cultivation technique given to him by Huang Peng, Huang Xiaolong switched to practicing the Asura Tactics and the Body Metamorphose Scripture.
After replacing his cultivation technique, Huang Xiaolong’s practice speed increased tremendously. One month after returning from the valley, he had reached the peak of late-Second Order, anytime soon he would be able to breakthrough to Third Order warrior.
In the bewitching darkness of the night, silvery moonlight streamed down.
Huang Xiaolong sat cross-legged on the cold jade bed, spiritual energy from the netherworld poured down from the void and was devoured by the double-headed serpent martial spirit with its jaws wide open.
The battle qi within Huang Xiaolong’s body kept swirling violently like raging waves crashing, the same way he felt when he was in peak-First Order breaking through to Second Order.
However, breaking through to Third Order warrior was much harder, the resistance barrier was thicker but Huang Xiaolong persisted. His battle qi continued to crash against the barrier, not knowing how much time had lapsed, suddenly a minute crack appeared in the third-order barrier.
Aware that the third-order barrier was loosening, Huang Xiaolong felt excited and pushed against the barrier more aggressively as the barrier’s minute crack grew bigger when, finally, a sound of explosion resounded inside his body.
Like a flash flood, battle qi rushed into the third layer meridians in triumph!
Third Order! Finally, he broke through to the Third Order warrior.
Huang Xiaolong opened his eyes, unable to hide the jubilation in his heart.
Once breaking through Third-Order, the Fourth Order wasn’t far away!
“Once I advance to the Fourth Order, I can start practicing battle skills; and once I reach the Fourth Order, my martial spirit will evolve. At that time, a skill from my martial spirit’s innate talent will appear!” Huang Xiaolong thought inwardly.
At age seven, the martial spirit awakened; however, the awakened martial spirit was just in its infancy. Only when the battle qi reached the Fourth Order would the martial spirit evolve to become stronger, while the owner of the martial spirit would gain the martial spirit’s innate talent, ability or skills.
The higher the grade of the martial spirit, the innate talent after evolving would be more powerful!
But the Fourth Order was only a general indication. People with low-level martial spirits ranging from grade one, two, and three, due to their martial spirits’ natural limitation, more often than not, failed to breakthrough to the Fourth Order and without some fortuitous adventure, breaking through to Fourth Order would be a tedious challenge. That was why people with low-level martial spirits never gained any martial spirit’s innate talent or skill in their lifetime for they were unable to reach the Fourth Order. Thus, their martial spirits were unable to go through evolution.
Getting down from the cold jade bed, Huang Xiaolong stepped out from his room.
At this time of the night, the air was foggy under the moonlight and Huang Xiaolong’s silhouette disappeared in a flash, appearing again in the back mountain. Running the Asura Tactics, his eyes turned a blood-red color and his jet-black hair turned fully white. At the same time, a black aura of slaughter flowed around his body.
This physique was attained after practicing the Asura Tactics – the Body of Asura, but this was only the initial stage transformation. According to the explanation on the piece of note, once Huang Xiaolong mastered the highest level of Asura Tactics, he could transform into a real Asura.
After transforming into the Body of Asura, Huang Xiaolong’s movement under the moonlight was akin to a floating black cloud. Waving his hands out suddenly, a palm carrying traces of frigid air struck towards a huge tree ahead, piercing through the thick tree trunk and coming out from the other end, through a second and a third tree.
On the fourth tree trunk, a child’s palm print dented a few inches into the trunk.
Looking at the palm print on the fourth tree trunk, Huang Xiaolong nodded his head in satisfaction. Entering the Third Order combined with the netherworld battle qi, the damage power of Ethereal Palm had increased about four times and with his current strength, he was capable of killing a late-Third Order warrior.
Of course, after advancing to Third Order and due to the tempering benefits from the netherworld spiritual aura, Huang Xiaolong physique was firmer and stronger.
Spending some time to practice the Body Metamorphose Scripture in the back mountain, Huang Xiaolong only returned to Huang Clan Manor when the sky began to brighten.
Once back in Huang Clan Manor, Huang Xiaolong was called to the Eastern Courtyard hall by Huang Peng.
“Dad, Mom, you were looking for me?” Entering the Eastern Courtyard’s hall, Huang Xiaolong asked as took a seat.
Huang Peng and Su Yan looked complicated and hesitant.
“Yesterday, Huang Wei had broken through to the First Order warrior.” Huang Peng eventually opened his mouth and said.
Only then did Huang Xiaolong understand his parents’ purpose in calling him over. In short, they were still worried about the end of the year’s Clan Assembly.
However, in less than two months’ time, Huang Wei actually advanced to First Order, so fast?! Logically speaking, even though Huang Wei possessed a grade ten martial spirit, the Three-Eyed Black Tiger, it was still impossible to advance to First Order in such short time.
“Father spent a huge sum of money in the county’s auction house to procure a stalk of thousand years Leirion Heart Grass!” Huang Peng went on to say.
A thousand years Leirion Heart Grass!
Huang Xiaolong was shocked and then he sneered; no wonder in less than two months’ time Huang Wei was able to advance to First Order warrior. It was all due to Grandfather Huang Qide spending a huge sum of money to get a thousand-year-old Leirion Heart Grass for Huang Wei’s practice. One stalk of one thousand-year-old Leirion Heart Grass wasn’t something cheap, and it was obvious enough that Grandfather Huang Qide thought of Huang Wei as the future pillar of the Huang Clan Manor. Thus spending all resource and effort to cultivate him, whereas him, though a grandson of the same person, disregarding the Leirion Heart Grass, Huang Xiaolong did not even get a Battle Qi Dan!