The word executed a supreme arrogance and a strong desire to be free of all shackles. Aside of those words, the book only showed blurry images, culminating in three stages, Dance with Sword, Dance of Life and the Unfettered Sword.

The sword art was exceptionally hard to train, as it depended on the trainee’s insight and expertise with the sword. It was required for the practitioner to have a deep understanding of the sword.

However, should one be able to master this sword art, the trainee was blessed with unmatched offensive power. With the first level alone, one would be able to sweep through those of the same level.

Actually, this sword art should be on a higher level than the first floor, because it was so powerful, but because nobody used Life Sword, it was put on the first floor in hopes that maybe someday a prodigy on the sword path would emerge in the Hunlua Clan.

Truthfully, this was just wishful thinking, as since the establishment of the Hunlua Clan, only a handful was able to train it.

Yasha kept the manual in his hands and decisively turned to the exit, “I will take this sword art, I feel like it is made for me“.

In the end, even though he had already decided on a technique, he still found another technique that caught his eyes on his way out of the Hall of Scriptures.

It was a movement technique called Floating Steps. The beginning stages of the technique were fairly easy too learn, but Yasha was interested in the final step. Because if one was able to reach perfection in the Floating Steps, it was possible to walk in the air, in other words, one was able to fly for short distances.

That was a huge thing, because according to the old legends, only immortals were able to fly freely through the heavens. Yasha had always dreamed of becoming an immortal and couldn’t help but daydream a bit. What a feeling that must be, to fly freely through the world?

Quickly coming back to reality, Yasha continued on his way out. What he needed now wasn’t a movement technique. He needed a way to utilize his understanding of the sword. He could come back later to take Floating Steps with him, if he got an opportunity to do so.

But then again, he already had a movement technique out of Way of the Asura, so he did not really need a movement technique. Not wasting much more time, he left the Hall of Scriptures.

When he arrived outside, he was greeted by the last rays of the sun. Yasha enjoyed the warmth of the sun in the ice-cold winter, but was also shocked. It was was actually evening again! A strong sense of urgency flooded through him as he quickened his steps.

Unknowingly, he spent a whole day in the Hall of Scriptures and Weapon Pavilion. Only two days were left until the kingdom’s tournament! And there were many things he had to do before the tournament: cultivating, learning Asura’s Shadow Assault and Life Sword and he also had to familiarize himself with Destiny Devourer, since it was the first real sword Yasha wielded.

——

In the morning, one day later in the Fallen Snow Mountain Range

The first rays illuminated the forest and a lonely figure could be seen, practicing a beautiful looking sword art.

A huge black sword moved through the air in a lively manner. It moved like an enormous dragon, full of vitality.

Right now, Yasha skillfully executed the first stage of Life Sword, Dance with Sword. All of his thoughts were focused on the sword in his hands. One by one the cryptic and blurry images in the manual of Life Sword appeared in his head. Not needing to dwell on how to move his body or how to circulate his energy, the entirety of his sword insights came to show.

Gradually, large beads of sweat ran dripped of Yasha’s face, but with his newly acquired cultivation, he could force his body and mind to continue.

Getting better and better, Yasha actually managed to successfully learn the first stage of Life Sword in only one day. During his training, Yasha felt like he was in a constant rush, his body nearly moving on its own, imitating the pictures of the manual and already starting to make it its own.

Since the sword art did not contain a description on how to circulate the spiritual energy through the meridians, the practitioner had to explore it slowly by mimicking the images.

Yasha though had seemingly seen through the first stage right from the start. The moment he started practicing, he knew exactly what to do. He found it incredible himself, but quickly focused on his training. Even though he could already execute the technique with a thought, he was far from mastering it.

Thus, Yasha continued his absolutely beautiful dance with his sword. Sometimes his presence even vanished, replaced by a piercing and sharp sword aura. Destiny Devourer responded with a light humming, dancing together with Yasha. At that moment they seemed to fuse together.

The magnificent dance came to an end after roughly fifteen minutes. The dance finished with Yasha sheathing Destiny Devourer in a fluent manner.

Breathing out, Yasha opened his eyes and sat down again on the huge rock.

That was so delightful. I finally was able to practice to my heart’s content. Haha, that felt way too good. And that Life Sword is so profound... Who could have imagined that the Hunlua Clan possessed such a sword art. Who could have created such a sword skill?

Still, ruminating about the magnanimousness of the sword art, Yasha started to adjusted his breathing according to Way of the Asura. Although he would have loved to continue practicing Life Sword, he knew that he had to cultivate his spiritual energy too.

Having only started cultivating with 16, he had a huge disadvantage compared to those who started training in martial arts and energy techniques since they could walk.

During the last night, he had already reached the third Energy Gathering stage, but his cultivation started to slow down considerably after he reached the third stage. He realized that his body was like an enormous black hole, sucking in all the energy he absorbed, barely leaving anything to be absorbed by his meridians, so it was difficult for him to advance.

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At the same time, he also realized that because his body “stole” most of the spiritual energy, his already shockingly powerful body was strengthened even more. Which meant that he currently trained his body and energy cultivation at the same time. That was a huge advantage, but also put Yasha in a tough spot.

I can already start to feel that it takes an enormous amount of energy for me to reach another breakthrough, if this continues, it will take me ages to reach the Energy Tempering stage.

Yasha sighed, but quickly shook his head. Compared to what he had experienced last night, this was but a small problem. Thinking about last night caused him to shudder.

It all started while he began to train the first technique of Way of the Asura, Asura’s Shadow Assault. In order to activate this technique, he had to stimulate his Asura blood. But this was the crux of the problem, as the moment he actively stimulated his blood, his mind got assaulted by all sorts of negative emotions that urged him to kill and fight everything in the vicinity, corroding his will and reasoning.

In the beginning this was not really a problem, but the negative emotions became stronger each time he stimulated his Asura blood, putting him in a tough spot.

He had to stimulate his blood in order to use the technique, but that meant he continuously walked on a tight rope between madness and retaining his sanity.

There was that one moment last night, where he tried to fight those emotions for too long and overstimulated the Asura blood. He lost his reasoning and sense of self and roamed the Fallen Snow Mountain Range slaughtering every demonic beast beast in the vicinity.

During this rampage, he had no control over his actions, a slave to his desires. The only things he had in his mind were to kill and slaughter every living being, accompanied by a shocking rage that made him pale every time he thought back to it.

Would he have met a human, Yasha was sure that he would have even killed that human, completely without a reason. At that time, he was no longer a human, resembling a bloodthirsty beast instead.

The most depressing part was that he only started to regain his sanity, after he had exhausted his entire energy and body strength. Only then did he gradually come back to his senses. He did not manage to regain control over his body from his own strength.

The last night made Yasha realize a bitter truth: The Asura blood in him might not be a good thing. The earlier ecstasy from finally being able to cultivate, already took a big hit and even he even started to fear his own powers.

What if he went on a rampage in a city? Slaughtering countless innocent people?

What if he lost his sanity for ever?

From what he learned by himself in that little time, the negative side effects far outweighed the positive effects.

One of the few positive trades of the Asura blood though was his abnormal regenrative ability. Even thought he had expanded all of his energy during his rampage, his body and energy regenerated at a frightening speed.

After a few hours, he had already recovered completely and could train and cultivate without a problem.

Last night made him also realize that he did not really know anything about the Asura blood nor bloodlines in general.

Was it normal for bloodline bearers to have such severe side effects? What did it really mean to possess Asura blood? How did it compare to other bloodlines? Was he really a descendant of that seemingly supreme clan? Why hadn’t he heard about it, if it was that famous?

Considering all those unknown factors, Yasha decided that it would be best to not use the Asura blood for the moment, focusing on cultivating, while leaving the Asura blood aside. That also meant that he couldn’t use Asura’s Shadow Assault.

However, that was a sacrifice that he would gladly make. He did not want to end up like yesterday ever again. He could not bear to kill innocent people in his madness. He would not live such a life. So, he swore to himself not to use the Asura Blood, until he could control it.

The sad truth, however, was that together with his rising cultivation and strength, his Asura blood also became more active, giving him a hard time fending of all the dark thoughts and urges.

Sometimes even while not actively stimulating his blood, it reacted by itself, forcing Yasha to fight an inner war from time to time. One false step meant, that he would lose his human nature.

And this was only one night. He had the premonition that it would only get worse in the future, making him feel helpless.

Why was it that there was always something bad happening around? How could every good occurrence be accompanied by an even worse occurrence?

Even now, he constantly had to be on guard, as his Asura blood may break out of control at any moment. The Asura blood was simply too strong—or at least he did not know of a way to control it, if there even was a way.

Pushing aside all of these depressing thoughts, Yasha returned to his cultivation and absorbed more dark spiritual energy, slowly strengthening his cultivation and body, while also being on guard against his own blood.

———

Dawn, somewhere in the Fallen Snow Mountain Range

It was the evening before the kingdom’s tournament and not every clan or sect which wanted to participate had arrived yet. As a result, many caravans made their way through the Fallen Snow Mountain Range in order to arrive at the Hunlua Clan. Some clans and sects even had to travel for a several weeks.

From that it was easy to imagine how big the Azure Dragon Kingdom was and how difficult it was to cross the whole kingdom.

Right now, a small group of ten people was making its way through the forest. The ten persons wore full-body armors and were evenly spread around a carriage, clearly acting as guards.

They all gave of solemn and battle hardened auras, further cementing their power. An insane amount of power was hidden in their bodies, ready to erupt at any time. They surprisingly were all peak Energy Tempering cultivators.

The inside of the carriage was small, but it was decorated lovingly. It was filled with smooth pillows in all sorts of colors. A young girl with peerless looks was sitting leisurely on the pillows. She wore a tight white dress, underlining her near-perfect body and revealed her pale white skin in many places.

In contrast to the white dress, long, dark hair was falling down her back like a waterfall, complementing her beauty. She just looked absolutely stunning.

But she was not alone. She was accompanied by two pretty maids who were sitting in front of the beautiful girl and a black clothed man that sat alone in the corner. His aura was completely restrained making it impossible see what level the man had reached.

One of the maids looked at the peerless girl and and couldn’t help but ask a question she had since they embarked on this journey, “Young miss, why did you insist on participating in this barbaric tournament? It is only a tournament, where some brainless brutes are fighting against each other... “

The white dressed girl was caught off-guard and laughed, “Haha, why did you ask me such a thing? You should be careful of saying this. Some of those geniuses have a strange temper and may erupt at any time. But that aside, this year is different. Master also mentioned that many hidden geniuses are going to participate, so it is only natural that I also take part.“

“You are right young miss, but still...“

“Speak no more. To say the truth, I just wanna experience the outside world a bit. Who knows when master is letting me out again, if I miss out this chance?“

After the maid heard the young miss speak of her master, she swallowed the words she originally wanted to say and kept quiet.

Since even the master had approved, there really had to be something special about this tournament.

Suddenly the carriage came to a stop near a small lake with rocks in it and at the same time the black clothed man stood up and bowed in front of the beautiful girl, “Young miss, we reached the lake the master mentioned. We should set up our camp here and rest.“

The young miss simply nodded and stood up.

The guards and the maids quickly started to set up the camp and the beautiful girl also left the carriage and moved to the lake, but stopped as she spotted a dark clothed figure in the middle of the lake, who sat on a huge rock.

Who was that person and why would he be here alone?