NOVEL WEB Chapter 5: Answers
Inside the darkness, Yasha felt like he was dreaming, although calling it a nightmare was more accurate, as an enormous amount of information flooded into his brain, wreaking havoc.
An amalgamation of images, scriptures, ancient tomes, dialogs and much more, they were like a wildfire that burned themselves into his mind, leaving searing scars. This assault continued for what felt like an eternity and left Yasha with a splitting headache.
Sometimes Yasha felt like he lived the life of someone else, sped up by 100 times, starting as a child all the way until death, constantly swapping from person to person, experiencing life and death countless times.
It was a magical, yet horrendous feeling. There were so much information and emotions that Yasha nearly forgot who he was at times. They kept appearing out of nowhere, constantly filling his mind.
Until finally, the massive flood of information gradually receded, leaving Yasha clutching his head in agony and writhing on the ground. Yasha then opened his eyes. He found himself inside a huge crater in a devastated environment gasping for air, while exclaiming, “What... what happened here?! Why is everything destroyed? Even a nearby mountain crumbled to pieces. Did I leave the Fallen Snow Mountain Range...?”
He quickly crawled out of the hole and scanned his surroundings.
“No, this is clearly the Fallen Snow Mountain Range. Just who or what could cause this kind of damage?” Utterly baffled, Yasha took several glances around until he abruptly looked at himself, directly noticing his pale skin and long snow-white hair.
So everything I experienced really happened. It took some time, but Yasha slowly connected all the dots. Somehow, even though he really had no idea how, it dawned upon him who was responsible for this mess. He was the culprit behind everthing.
Because he was unconscious the whole time, Yasha did not see what took place during his awakening, but being in the center of the crater and with all the strange occurrences from before, he was sure that he was the reason.
Everything felt so surreal. The ancient voice who spoke to him, his near-death experience, the desolate world and the magnificent mountain, the gate and the pressure which nearly crushed him to death, the flood of information which almost blew up his brain and then waking up in this devastation.
Before he tried to sort the chaotic thoughts in his mind, Yasha decided that he should leave first, afraid of unforseen events that. I should not linger around this place any longer. It is only matter of time, before some experts appear. No matter what exactly took place here, one thing is clear: the commotion it caused certainly was not small.
Having thought to this point, Yasha no longer hesitated and started to leave the devastation behind him, entering the thick, snow covered forest again, searching for a suitable and quite place to sort the chatotic thoughts. Conscious of his encounter with the White Shadow Panther earlier, he walked through the forest extremely carefully to avoid being attacked again — even though it was unlikely to run into any demonic beasts after the recent events.
After some time, Yasha spotted a small lake, surrounded by towering trees. The lake itself was not really big, spanning only about 20 to 30 meters. The water was deep blue and some ice covered the surface, with a massive rock in the very center of the lake, providing a small platform. Aside of the giant rock in the middle, countless other, smaller rocks peered out of the water, making it possible to reach the middle.
Yasha checked his surroundings once again and after finding nothing strange or dangerous, he jumped from one small rock to the other before finally reaching the biggest one.
Immediately sitting down, Yasha began meditating and took on the absolute mess in his mind. The splitting headache from before intensified many times, while some words instantly overshadowed all other information, branding themselves into his very soul.
Asura blood.
Asura Clan.
Dark Spiritual Energy.
Way of the Asura.
Glory of the God of Battle.
More and more questions were finally answered.
The reason for his transformation was the Asura bloodline flowing through his veins. During his fight with the White Shadow Panther, the dormant Asura blood was triggered by his intense hatred for the world, entirely remodeling and transforming his body.
His body alone was now strong enough to fight against Energy Gathering cultivators, which was a wonder. No normal human without cultivation could fight against one that had cultivated. It was the iron rule of the world. But now one appeared.
Yasha even found some information about the strange, desolate world. The lifeless world was actually called Glory of the God of Battle and was the old inheritance ground of the Asura Clan.
Asura clan descendants could can enter this world at their own accord after each major breakthrough. The difficulty of each test rose exponentially with every major breakthrough, having to pass a new, harder trial to receive more of the Asura clan’s inheritance. A test would only end, if the trial taker passed or failed the test, deciding life and death. That was their cruel way of passing down the clan’s teachings.
Every descendant had to go through the trials to inherit the powers of the Asuras. It was harsh test for every one of them.
It was even common for some descendants to die during the tests. The further you went up the mountain, the more difficult it became, but the rewards naturally got better too. Through such a special way of passing their teachings, the Asura Clan ensured their prosperity and it also ensured that they always remained on the same way since their beginnings.
But because of the inheritance ground, the Asura clan never developed to a big clan in terms of people. The Asura Clan of the past had few people, but those people had been a hundred times more powerful than those on the same level.
Then there was the general information about bloodlines. Yasha was not the only one, who had special blood. Countless different bloodlines, strong and weak ones alike, existed in this world, stemming from different sources.
In today’s world, as more and more time passed, ancient bloodlines became thinner and thinner, gradually becoming extinct. Even the Azure Dragon Sect that inherited the divine blood of the Azure Dragon was no exception. Today, they were only a shadow of themselves, becoming increasingly weaker, as they only possessed some drops of the ancient blood and it got a lot more difficult to awaken their bloodline.
Yasha’s case, however, was special. The Asura blood in him, which was dormant his whole life, was too dominant and pure, transforming his entire blood into Asura blood. He was now a pure-blooded Asura, something that should not exist in this world. Even during ancient times, during the Asura Clan’s peak, there was no one that had such pure blood.
He also finally found out why he was unable to cultivate. The reason for that was very simple: the Asura blood was so overbearing and special that even in its dormant state, it needed a special way of cultivating. Without the Asura clan’s cultivation technique, Yasha had no way of cultivating.
Normally, a person started by absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and guiding it towards the meridians. This was called the Energy Gathering Stage and that was the way everybody started cultivating.
But then again, because of the Asura blood, what he needed wasn’t the normal spiritual energy. The Asura Clan did not cultivate “normal” spiritual energy, they cultivated the polar opposite of spiritual energy, the part which was inconceivable for other cultivators: dark spiritual energy.
Yasha found this part particularly interesting, but to his disappointment, he could not access any more information regarding this topic. He felt that there was more to it, but those memories were shrouded in a thick fog, preventing him from peering further into those secrets.
Not dwelling much on this topic, Yasha continued to explore what the words Asura Clan meant. Similar to the dark spiritual energy, most of the information about the Asura Clan were blurry, so he couldn’t see through them, leaving only some basics.
The Asura Clan. Once the strongest clan in the wide, vast world, it suddenly vanished without a trace and was erased out of history. Leaving behind only ruins and some rumors about its magnificent feats of past ages.
They were feared for their blood thirst and madness. They were born fighters and always fought until the very end, not giving up at all. During their peak, the words “Asura Clan“ were feared everywhere and were not used lightly, out of fear they would incite the wrath of the Asuras.
The last huge chunk of information was about the core cultivation technique of the Asura Clan, Way of the Asura. It was a technique that enabled the Asura Clan to make the most of their special blood and in essence, it was the perfect manual to complement their frenzied hunger for battle.
Aside of cultivation methods and secrets, it taught the person the best and most simple way to kill their opponent. Once you unleashed a technique of the Way of the Asura, someone had to die — either the enemy or you. To sum it up, it was the perfect technique for battling. Not more and not less.
Way of the Asura was divided into five main techniques, of which only one was available for Yasha at the moment. It was a movement skill named “Asura’s Shadow Assault“. It enabled the practitioner to move around the battlefield like a shadow. When mastered, one could abruptly change directions during a battle without loosing momentum or speed. It was miraculous movement skill and one reason why the Asura Clan was unchallenged in terms of battle.
Weirdly, Yasha did not find anything about the other abilities, or specialties of the Asura blood. It was common for even weak bloodlines to grant the bearer some special skills, but he could not find anything about it, leaving Yasha no choice but to find out himself.
Going through all this, Yasha found it inconceivable and he could barely believe it. All his life he was considered trash, a complete waste. And now, he possessed such a strong bloodline? He also realized that his origins appeared to be somewhat special and more questions regarding his origins popped up in his head: How did he get the Asura blood? Why did it only awaken now? Why would his parents or clan leave him behind? Why did the Asura Clan suddenly vanish? He felt like that for every answer he got, one more question appeared. But this only motivated him further to reclaim his lost memories.
Even if only 1/100 of this is true, I now have a chance to fulfill my promise and participate in the kingdoms tournament. I did not go through all this suffering in vain. After this I can finally leave behind the Hunlua Clan to roam the world. A bright smile gradually appeared on Yasha’s and the more he thought about the future and that he could now cultivate, he was overcome by happiness.
Not wasting any more time, he immediately gathered his focus and adjusted his breathing according to the Way of the Asura.
As always, he felt the spiritual energy around him, but this time he felt also felt something intertwined with the spiritual energy. This must be the dark spiritual energy mentioned in the Way of the Asura. According to the manual, I have to continue with my breathing and I need to somehow stimulate my Asura blood. But how do I do it…?
The only time he used the Asura blood was during his awakening, but he did not do anything himself, it was more like a protective mechanism of his body in reaction to his impeding death. To his delight, he did not need to think long, as the more he concentrated on his blood, the more active it became.
As if responding to his stimulated blood, the dark spiritual energy was attracted and Yasha felt how it slowly entered his meridians in small streams. An invisible whirlpool gradually appeared around him, as he absorbed more and more spiritual energy.
And this time, Yasha could feel that the spiritual energy stayed in his meridians and did not disappear. Immersed in the feeling of absorbing spiritual energy and guiding it through his meridians, Yasha soon entered a deep meditative state.
With each successful circulation, Yasha noticed that he grew stronger. He could feel his body being strengthened and the dark spiritual energy inside filled him with immense strength.
After a few hours, Yasha jumped up in joy and he broke into laughter, “I finally entered the first Energy Gathering stage. I don’t care if I have a bad talent or not, I will take part in the tournament no matter what and then I am free to go wherever I want!“
Successfully becoming a cultivator filled Yasha with uncontrollable happiness. Becoming a cultivator meant that he could finally start to unravel his past. Only by stepping onto the path towards immortality and the dao could he become strong enough to confront his past. And today he finally made the first step towards his goal.
After calming down, Yasha thought about his next step and muttered some words while looking around, “I still have some days until the kingdom’s tournament starts. Until it starts though, I have to use my time wisely. Now, that I entered the first Energy Gathering Stage, I am allowed to choose a weapon from the Weapon Pavilion and a technique from the Scripture Hall. And I should start to look into the movement technique of the Way of the Asura, while continuing to cultivate every day.”
Taking one last glance, he rapidly moved through the Fallen Star Mountain Range, ready to take on the world with his newfound confidence.