Time seemed to slow down considerably in that moment. With a cold and emotionless face, Yasha took action, his fist mercilessly closing in on Alice’s face. While all of this happened, Yasha had no idea what he did and he had no control over his actions.
His body was like a marionette, while the Asura blood was the puppeteer, orchestrating every move and action. Contrary to the experiments in the Fallen Snow Mountain Range, Yasha did not loose control entirely though, as he could feel at least something. He was not unconscious and oblivious to his surroundings like the last times.
With the Asura blood in charge, more and more changes inside of his body took place, ravaging not only his physical form, but also his soul.
The soul was a mysterious concept. Nobody really knew much about it and even Dantian Grade experts only touched the surface of the mysteries related to souls.
Soul defined a life and made it special. Without a soul, humans and other living beings would only be puppets.
Every living creature possessed a soul and it varied from individual to individual. It was said that most humans possessed a formless, white or translucent soul after birth.
Some rare exceptions appeared, possessing a clear form right after birth or being a radiant golden color instead, but those were legends and stories of the past.
However, one such variation was currently appearing in Yasha’s soul, as it wasn’t the typical translucent fog. In the colorless mist, glaring dots of scarlet-black pierced the tranquility and corroded the serene white. The black spots moved though the white soul and slowly spread out like a parasite, infecting its host.
Yasha felt nothing of those horrendous changes. Right now, the only things he felt were darkness and coldness. Struggling to open his eyes, he found himself in what looked like chamber of some sorts.
Wasn’t I fighting against the girl just now, how did I end up in this place?
Utterly confused, Yasha tried to access the situation around him, but was interrupted by a splitting pain in his head. It felt like someone pierced him with thousands of needle right through his brows.
As a response to the immense pain, Yasha clutched his head — or at least tried to, as his hands went right through his head.
In the same moment, he realized that he was not standing, but was hovering instead. Just as confused as before, he flew ahead, like a confused soul, who lost its way.
Wha-
What is that now?!
Not coming far, Yasha felt like he was thrown into an icy pit, completely terrified by what he saw. With a trembling body he came closer to the edge of the chamber and saw a person cowering in the corner of the dark room.
The person was shivering and was mumbling some unidentifiable words. In addition to that, the person was clenching its fists so hard that the nails were burrowing deep into the flesh. The blood dripping on the ground was as black as the surrounding darkness, barely visible.
It was clear that the person was scared tremendously. The most terrifying thing though was the familiarity the first time Yasha noticed the person. The longer he stared at the person, the worse it got.
Hesitating, Yasha finally came closer and could make out some more details. The person had pale white skin, snow-white hair and was about the same stature as Yasha. It bore a striking resemblance to Yasha.
This can’t be!
Even though Yasha did not want to admit it, realization slowly dawned upon him. This pitiful person on the ground did not only look like Yasha, it was Yasha.
What sort of sick dream or whatever is this now? Why can I see myself cowering in the corner? Ever since the day I decided to follow the voice, my life has been turned upside down. I really can’t follow what is happening anymore…?
With that, Yasha just stood in front of “himself” with an unnatural pale face. Despite his already white skin, one could see that Yasha was even more pale right now.
Countless thoughts ran though his mind, but he was unable to find an answer and was unsure what to do.
---
On stage ten, the scene was completely different. While Yasha was in that chamber, he had no clue of what was occurring outside. He was unable to break out of the dark room, so he had no direct influence on what he did in the battle and could only passively resist his erupting blood thirst.
Yasha’s fist moved slowly and looked like it would take a long time before it reached its goal, but in reality, it contained unstoppable might and crossed the distance in an instant.
Crack.
The ugly sound of broken bones spread out. Alice flew back, but she did not scream out of pain. She just flew of the stage and crashed right into the wall of the arena, still petrified by her fear.
One punch!
It did not look very powerful, but it contained an unimaginable power. The unconscious Alice laid in the crater she created and blood flowed in huge, red rivers out of her mouth and other wounds on her bodies.
In nearly the same moment, a quick shadow flew down to Alice. It was a middle-aged woman with a piercingly cold expression.
That woman naturally was Aurelia, the master of Alice and an elder of the Soaring Sword Sect. She hurriedly extended her hand and touch-ed Alice’s chest. An invisible, gentle stream of powerful spiritual energy entered her body and the bleeding immediately stopped.
However, after Aurelia released her awareness to check Alice’s wounds, her expression turned increasingly uglier. She could see the devastation inside the Alice’s body. Many meridians, veins, organs and bones were broken.
She also noticed some thin, black threads that were still coursing through her meridians, leaving behind absolute wreckage wherever they went.
Seeing those black threads, even she herself felt frightened quite a bit. There was something mysterious about those threads, while containing a hidden force that caused her to tremble.
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Those threads were like poison coursing through Alice and if they would have been only slightly stronger, even she would have difficulty dealing with those threads.
Aurelia had the faint premonition, that it contained secrets, dark and forbidden secrets. Still trembling a bit, she led her spiritual energy through Alice’s meridians, cleansing her from the weird black threads.
As her spiritual energy touched the black threads, she was even more shocked, as the threads actually converged and began to take form. It was clear, that they would not allow Aurelia to erase them without fighting.
How overbearing, what kind of energy is that? I have never heard of or seen something like that before. Just who is this black clothed youth to possess such strength and spiritual energy at his age…? Aurelia was shocked, but managed to calm down shortly after.
No matter what strange techniques this evil brat had, she would kill him today to avenge her disciple and to avoid future trouble. Such a youth should not be allowed grow.
She did not know why, but the moment she first saw this youth erupting with power beyond her understanding, she got the feeling that she should eliminate that brat.
Those remnants of black energy were naturally Yasha’s dark spiritual energy, which contained a minuscule amount of his blood’s power.
His Asura blood and dark spiritual energy possessed a natural, lethal force on other cultivators and were extremely tyrannical. Even the smallest amount of his spiritual energy could a kill a cultivator of the same level, should it be able to enter circulatory system of the cultivator.
Although Alice was not dead, she was at death’s door. A little more force in Yasha’s fist and Alice would have died. Aurelia had not often witnessed such cruelness and viciousness during fights of the younger generation.
After she injected her spiritual energy into the body of Alice and stabilized her, she slowly turned to Yasha, who stood on the devastated stage. He looked emotionless and stood straight like a sword.
There was no shred of panic, regret or apology. But if you looked closely inside of his intense, blood-red eyes, you would also see excruciating pain and struggle. However, it was almost impossible to see that, as it was covered by a murderous aura.
Aurelia did not see those emotions in Yasha, she only saw him as an emotionless demon who hurt her disciple. Not batting an eye, she unleashed her full cultivation.
As her spiritual energy erupted without holding back, another mysterious force permeated the surroundings. That strange, formless power was the force of heaven and earth. The force she used was a law of the universe, which meant, that she was actually a Dantian Grade expert, experts that already started to explore and seek the laws of the world!
The stronger the cultivator, the more important the laws were. Normally, a cultivator would start seeking and comprehending the laws of the world at the Dantian Grade. That was also the reason why they were so powerful.
Between the Energy Overflow Stage and the Dantian Grade was only one step, but that step was as high as a mountain. Most cultivators failed to cross this mountain.
With the help of the laws, Dantian Grade cultivators could transform their spiritual energy according to the law they comprehended and they could even use laws to influence heaven and earth. They were the real masters of the Azure Dragon Kingdom.
And right now, such an expert wanted to kill Yasha. Her spiritual energy spread out like a tidal wave and crushed the other arenas to dust. In her anger she did not care about the other participants getting hurt and immediately focused her mountain like pressure on Yasha, who still did not awake.
Her spiritual energy did not possess the usual white color, but it possessed more of a green tone. This represented the law she cultivated. In addition to her powerful law, her aura also contained a merciless sharpness, which could only be executed by swords, showing that she was not only adapt at using a law, but that she was also a genius on the sword path.
In the same instant that happened, a powerful voice thundered through the coliseum, followed by the appearance of a middle-aged man, “Hold on Aurelia! What do you think you are doing?! Attacking every participant?”
With the appearance of the middle-aged man, the pressure of Aurelia was canceled and was replaced by a gentle energy instead.
This man was Arslan! He looked at Yasha with a worried gaze, but then turned to Aurelia instead to face her and was immensely surprised.
Since when has she reached the late Dantian Grade? And she even comprehended sword intent at such a young age? If it comes down to a fight, it will be a hard fight. But since when did I, Arslan, back off out of a fight? I will gladly accept her sword! That aside, Yasha, please wake up, or else I can’t keep protecting you…
Sword intent was a realm, which all sword cultivators longed to reach, but only few could achieve. It was the threshold, which separated the ordinary sword cultivators from true sword cultivators.
Sword intent represented a certain comprehension of the sword. One had to understand the sword in order to reach sword intent. But should you be able to achieve that realm, your power would explode.
Sword intent was ethereal, but lethal. It was not spiritual energy. Instead, it was another form of energy, similar to that of the laws, yet different.
However, it was too difficult to comprehend for most people, so it was rarely seen and most did not even understand what was going. Only the powerful experts in the VIP area had shocked expressions.
---
In the dark chamber.
Yasha still stood in the eerie, dark room, trying to keep his calm to find a way out of his current predicament. He was still dazed by what he saw, but he realized that panicking was not the solution to his problem so he tried to focus his thoughts instead.
This place has to be like like that Glory of the God of Battle or it has to be in my mind. Why else would I be able to see myself and to fly through a dark room like that.
It feels more like my soul left my body, watching myself like a third party. But why is all of that happening and how I can leave? I have a bad feeling. If am not able to leave right now, I may never be able to leave ever again…
Yasha pondered and looked at himself in the corner. The more time passed, the stronger his true body trembled and the pain inside his head got stronger. The pain got so strong that it made it hard for him to focus.
There must be a way out, damn it! Why have I even tried to hold back my sword techniques…? I really am too dumb… Only because I can now cultivate, does not mean I am invincible. If I had attacked with my full power, maybe nothing of this would have happened. At least the Asura blood would not have exploded like water that broke through a dam. Yasha sighed. He felt that no matter what he did, he would do the wrong thing.
The Asura blood must be the key for me to get out of here!
This new spark of hope caused Yasha to contemplate even more frantically. All of that had to do with the Asura Blood, so he tried hard to search through the foggy mist inside his head.
This mist contained all the memories he received during the inheritance, but could not access yet, as they were sealed by a strange power.
The answer must be there!
---
As Aurelia watched Arslan descending to the stage, she couldn’t help but get even angrier, “I am not the one who should be questioned here! Look at that demon you shielded!” While shouting, she pointed her slender finger at Yasha, who was still standing on the stage unfazed.
Arslan was unsure of what to do. He clearly saw the struggle and pain in Yasha’s eyes, but his actions proved that he indeed attacked too viciously in such a “friendly” tournament. It was normal for casualties to appear in the kingdom’s tournament — the youth that fought Alice before was a good example.
Arslan did not have to check with his awareness to know that Alice was basically crippled. Only a huge amount of money and medical pills could save her. But it was likely, that she would never reach the same heights she could have reached without getting crippled today. In the past her future attainments were endless. Now, however, she would at most be mediocre.
That was also the reason why Aurelia’s fury was soaring. Not wasting much more words, a beautiful, thin short sword appeared in her hand out of nowhere. The sword hovered above her head and was emitting intense green light. A sharp sword aura spread and everybody could even hear slight crackling sounds in the air.
The Soaring Sword Sect was a powerful ancient sect of the Azure Dragon kingdom and as its name implied, specialized on passing down sword techniques. Sword cultivators were famous for their unmatched offensive strength, techniques and spells.
Watching this, Arslan did not hesitate any longer and also unleashed his power, deciding to think about the consequences later. He couldn’t just watch Aurelia kill Yasha. He did not believe that Yasha was an evil person, so he was going to risk it all to stop Aurelia today!