Till the End of Time: Asura Blood Saga

The judge continued with his words, “Due to those unexpected events during the first round, more people were eliminated as planned. That’s why the next two rounds will be slightly adjusted. Round two will only continue with those, who managed to stay on their respective stage. All others are eliminated.”

These words immediately caused a huge uproar. On many stages, only two or three were left standing, whereas on some stages, no cultivator was left at all.

In other words, this mysterious black clothed youth has eliminated even people from other stages. That was an unprecedented feat, as no one was able to accomplish in the entire history of the kingdom’s tournament.

How many absolute geniuses have emerged victorious in this important tournament? But how many were able to achieve the same result as the youth? Not one.

Also, people only noticed just now that the black clothed youth probably had some kind of weapon wrapped in black linen on his back, which meant that he has not used his entire strength… This fact caused many to gasp.

The cold voice of the judge then resounded again, “Before you can return to the quarters, I will first announce the results of the first round.”

“On stage one, Eleanor of the Moon Flower Sect, Egil of the Mirasma Swamp and Leighn of the Darwa Family will advance to the second round.”

This announcement caused another commotion, as the identity of the powerful girl in the flower dress was exposed.

The words “Moon Flower Sect” were like a thunderclap in the ears of the crowd. The Moon Flower Sect was renown throughout the kingdom and the performance of Arslan earlier, only solidified the rumors.

The Moon Flower Sect really deserved the name of one of the most powerful sects in the Azure Dragon Kingdom. The other two names were not known to many, but they remained standing throughout the ages, which proved their strength.

“On stage two, Lentz of the Hunlua Clan and Dhaya of the Holy Moon Sect will advance.”

As Lentz was mentioned, Dyetz, who had returned to his seat, naturally revealed a splendid smile. Every time he looked at his son, he felt incomparable proud.

He looked forward to the performance of his son and wanted to see how far he could go in this tournament. He hoped for his son to enter the Azure Dragon Sect. But to achieve this, Lentz had to his show his brilliance. Only like this could he get the attention of the sect.

As for the Holy Moon Sect it was only a middle-class force like the Hunlua Clan and not many actually looked favorably upon Dhaya. Most predicted that she would be eliminated in the rounds to come.

“On stage three, Levi of the Azure Dragon Sect, Senno from the Earth Tomb Sect and Ruxia a rogue cultivator will advance.”

Levi was of course no stranger to everyone, as he was a prodigy of the Azure Dragon Sect. That fact alone caused him to be famous. As for the other two, no one really cared, as Levi’s reputation was too bright and overshadowed them completely.

“On stage four, Amber of the Ascending Heaven School, Akura of the Titan Clan and Nilan a wandering swordsman will advance.”

Amber was another of the prodigies and was already quite famous. She was a super gorgeous girl and executed a special charisma, which made her easy to approach, even though she possessed such a lofty status.

Nilan on the other was a nobody compared to Amber and stood wholly in her shadow. The only thing known about him was that he was pursuing the path of a swordsman.

“On stage five, Areth of the Nameless Sect, Sorom of the Hundred Insect Nest and Sasara of the Heaven Charm Sect will advance.”

After Areth’s name was spoken, the crowd broke out into discussion again. Areth’s performance was also extraordinary, yet very mysterious and even a lot more demonic than Yasha. He used no weapon and instead relied on his powerful spells to defeat his enemies without any problems.

Spells were similar to techniques, yet vastly different. Spells were also sometimes called Secret Techniques and were a sub-category of techniques.

Most spells were a lot more difficult to comprehend, because one needed great comprehension of laws to cast spells. It was common knowledge, that the higher the cultivation base was, the more spells the cultivator would use.

That was normal, because high level cultivators relied on their comprehension of the Heavenly Dao to advance. Because of that, spells were even rarer than normal techniques.

Of course, that did not mean, that spells were superior to usual techniques, as there were also countless powerful techniques in the world.

“On stage six, Jiule of the Demon Slayer Sword Sect and Gorea of the Blood Gore Sect will advance.”

Jiule was also expected to advance to the next round, as his nickname “Vanquisher of Demons” was not given to him without reason, whereas Gorea was an infamous drunkard that sowed chaos wherever he went.

On stages seven to nine, unfortunately not one cultivator managed to hold on.

When the judge came to stage ten, he hesitated. Previously, he witnessed Yasha’s might and felt threatened for a second by the latter. This caused him to feel extremely bitter and his mood turned complicated as a result.

He was at the Energy Overflow stage, yet he was scared by a young guy. So naturally, the judge was deeply ashamed. He hoped to find out the identity of the black clothed youth at least, but when he heard the words of Old Dragon Dairo, he became even more bitter, because even Old Dragon Dairo had no idea who that youth could be.

Dairo had never seen the youngster before and was also walking in the dark regarding the youth’s origins. So, not even this little wish of his was fulfilled.

In the end he had no other choice and announced the result of the last stage. Stage ten.

“On stage ten… only the black clothed youth will advance.”

After his words left his mouth, the spectators were immediately disappointed. That was because the identity of the black clothed youth was not revealed. Yasha’s performance was never seen before and the curiosity of the crowd already reached a limit.

To Yasha, the gossip meant nothing at all. He had other, more pressing matters which bothered him. The last battle clearly showed him who the real master of this body was and the answer was not a good one.

Yasha felt like a vessel, a vessel for the Asura blood. He had little to no control over his body.

Whenever a dire situation occurred, whenever he was in danger, the Asura Blood would always take the lead and transform his body into a battlefield. The fight against Alice made that more than clear once again.

Yasha sighed. He couldn’t help but gaze at the sky, lost in thought. What I have down wrong to deserve this…? All I want is to find out about my past and cultivate in peace…

Even though Yasha knew that ruminating about all what happened did not help him in any way, he still muddled over it.

He knew he should not be weak, as that would just feed the unrelenting Asura blood in his veins. But the memories of the dark room were still fresh and caused him to shiver uncontrollably every time.

Being inside the eerie room, the silence and coldness slowly creeping up his body and enveloping him. He had been afraid of the loneliness, the helplessness, the absolute despair. Who would not be impacted by watching yourself suffer in such an atmosphere? And to feel everything yourself felt that time?

The judge saw the absent minded Yasha and frowned. He thought about saying something, but he quickly extinguished that thought and continued his speech, “You can rest for the next round. The next round will consist of three groups.”

“The first and second group will have six persons in it and the third will have five people participating. The two best in each group will then move on to the final round.”

“The next round will start tomorrow at sunrise. The remaining participants are not allowed to the leave the arena. You will each get a resting room. There will be someone to escort you to your rooms. And I will only say this one time: Do not cause trouble or you will be immediately disqualified!”

Not bothering to say much more or to stay any longer, the judge turned and moved up to the VIP area.

The remaining participants stood in the arena and looked at each other in disarray. Why did they have to stay in the arena and were not allowed to leave? This was the first time in the kingdom’s tournament, that such a rule was established.

The only reason they could think of was Yasha. Because many had the same thought, the majority looked at Yasha, who was standing alone, separated from the rest of the group.

They did not have to wait long, before some well-dressed servants came to pick them up, person by person.

As the servants came closer, Yasha train of thought was interrupted, because he had a peculiar feeling while he watched the group approached them. He could not understand what it was, but there was something off of these servants.

They looked like they had no cultivation at all, but Yasha knew that this was false. They definitely had deep cultivation bases, so why would they be reduced to slaves?

Moreover, the group of servants all looked very similar to each other. They wore similar white robes, had a similar stature and were all male. They had average looks and all possessed a similar bearing. And it was this similarity which made Yasha think deeply about them.

He looked around him to see, if anyone else had noticed something off, but he was quickly disappointed. Nobody seemed to care about the persons to pick them up. They just simply stood on their place and conversed nicely with each other.

Yasha shook his head. Maybe I am just too paranoid…

After the servants arrived, they just bowed deeply and humbly asked for their respective master. The geniuses calmly accepted and followed them, so one after the other quietly left.

Yasha gazed at the dispersing crowd of geniuses with interest. Some acted like arrogant kings and did not have the servants in their eyes, whereas some were extremely modest, even though they knew that those were only servants. However, the servants showed no different reactions at all. They calmly fulfilled their duty.

After some time, only Yasha was left standing in the arena, everyone else already left for their quarters.

Because the servant did not know Yasha’s name, he just walked to Yasha and spoke in a monotone, flat voice, “This young prodigy must be the mysterious black clothed youth, right?”

The servant acted very respectfully, but Yasha couldn’t shake off his uneasiness, so he simply answered with a simple, “Yes.” The servant nodded and looked like he did not mind Yasha’s obvious distance. He said, “Young master please follow me.”

With the servant in the lead, Yasha followed. Unconsciously, his right hand gripped Destiny Devourer’s handle, ready to attack should something unexpected happen. However, on the way though the huge arena, nothing happened and Yasha was led to his room.

“Tomorrow morning I will come again and pick you up, so please be ready.” With these words the servant bowed again and excused himself.

After entering the room, Yasha looked around him. There was nothing special here. A small, clean bed and table with a fitting chair. The room itself was quiet small and reminded him of his home.

After checking if everything was alright, he sat down on the bed, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then, thinking about his behavior, he ridiculed himself for being overly paranoid.

However, after his awakening, excluding the meeting with Arslan and Eleanor, nothing really good happened. That’s why he was so careful with the servant, since his intuition and Asura blood showed a strange reaction to the servants.

He thought for a bit about it and then he abruptly opened his eyes, as if he was struck by lightning.

Puppets! Those were no human beings, they were puppets! This also explains why they look and act so similar to each other, they have the same origin, and this also explains why it was impossible to see through their cultivation.

Yasha had once read about puppets. In the Old Times, cultivation reached a peak and innovations also reached a peak, some factions emerged that not cultivated their own body, energy and soul. They instead reached immortality through cultivating and creating puppets, thus they were called puppet masters.

Puppet masters could not be judged by normal means, because their strength came primarily from their puppets and how many they could control at the same time. Puppet masters were mysterious and very powerful. But after the peak of the ancient era, many powerful sects and family clans ceased to exist and vanished in the river of time.

And so was the lineage of puppet masters. With their methods to craft puppets lost and their inheritance cut off, puppet cultivation was gradually forgotten and became a broken and incomplete path.

Nowadays, only remnants of the once immensely powerful puppet masters remained. If one was lucky enough to find a puppet and the method to control them, you would not have to fear someone at the same level — if the puppet’s level was high enough.

Yasha was immensely surprised about that revelation and could not help but wonder which power they came from. Even though he did not know at which level the puppets were at, the sheer number was definitely worth more than the whole Hunlua Clan.

And he also marveled about the supreme handicraft of the puppets. They really acted and looked like humans and he barely noticed a difference. How did ancient cultivators craft puppets, which acted like they were real humans, like they really possessed souls? And would there even be a difference between puppets and humans if puppets had souls?

He forced himself to stop thinking further about that topic. Now was not the right time for such distracting thoughts. That’s why he closed his eyes and entered a meditative state.

Yasha knew that he would not be able to sleep, because he would end up ruminating about the dark room, so he directly abandoned this thought and instead chose to calm his mind using breathing techniques.

With evening approaching, the first day of the kingdom’s tournament slowly came to an end. And with it, the first day of the historical tournament.

Since the establishment of the Azure Dragon Kingdom, nobody was able to do what Yasha had done today, even though the Azure Dragon Kingdom lost its former glory a long time ago. Yasha was the first who eliminated others who were not on his stage. Such a feat was simply mind-boggling.

After such a day, the excited crowd cooled down and left the arena. Many were a bit frustrated, because they wanted to see the next round immediately. However, they couldn’t change the rules of the tournament and thus had to wait until tomorrow, which would be a super interesting day.

With Yasha, the dark horse, who caused an immense uproar, many could not wait for tomorrow’s matches. Additionally, they would finally be able to witness the true battles between the six prodigies.

Tomorrow was the day, where the ultimate genius of the younger generation of the Azure Dragon Kingdom would be revealed.