Ascension of the immortal Asura

The Darkfiend Demon's corpse was massive, making even someone as large as Daoist Eternal Weapon look small. Its body was pitch black in color, as if it had been born from darkness itself. One of its arms still had the scythe-like protrusion on the back of its elbow, and its sharp teeth were bared as if it were eternally snarling. Lastly, its eyes were open yet lifeless, revealing a faded red set of eyes.

Its chest had a large wound at his heart, where John had plunged the scythe-like protrusion into, killing the demon. Its elbow-blade had been the only thing capable of penetrating its defenses, which had luckily been cracked by some previous battle, making it so that John was able to break it off. Otherwise, he would have most likely perished in that battle, unable to wound the demon at all.

"Is there something from this demon's body that you can use as the core?" John asked, revealing why he had taken out the demon's corpse. John figured that since the scythe-like protrusion came from the demon itself, maybe there was something that could be used as the core as well.

In his battle with the demon, while it had been overwhelmingly powerful and strong, it had also been swift and deadly, two aspects that suited a scythe very well.

Daoist Eternal Weapon studied the demon corpse for quite some time, taking great interest in it. As he studied it further, more and more surprise appeared on his face, making John curious as to what could cause that much shock on such an experienced cultivator.

"You said you slew this demon?" Daoist Eternal Weapon eventually turned to John and asked.

"Yes. How else would I have obtained its corpse?" John replied.

Daoist Eternal Weapon sighed deeply and shook his head in disbelief.

"You were incredibly lucky when you fought this demon," he said to John.

"Lucky? I almost died against this thing. How was I lucky?" John rebuked.

"Because…from what I can tell of its corpse…this demon was weakened considerably, probably on the verge of collapse. If you had fought this demon at its peak strength, you would have died before even knowing what happened," Daoist Eternal Weapon explained.

"Ah, that's right. The demon did say that consuming me would restore its strength so it could break out of the realm," John confirmed as he thought back to that battle. "Was it really that strong at its peak?" John asked, as he himself was unable to tell just how strong the demon had been at the height of its power.

"Strong is an understatement," Daoist Eternal Weapon shook his head. "From what I can tell from its corpse, this demon was very young when it had its cultivation suppressed, no more than a few hundred years old at most. It was probably considered a youth of its kind, and yet I can tell that its peak power was above even my own."

"It was even stronger than you? That means?" John asked.

"Yes. This demon was no doubt in the Holy Manifestation realm at the peak of its power!"

"That strong?" John exclaimed, feeling incredibly lucky to have run into the weakened demon instead of it at its full power.

‘Whoever weakened that demon and put it in that trial must have been beyond freakishly strong. I wonder if it was the Jade Dragon Emperor himself?' John mused internally.

"Yes, it was that strong," Daoist Eternal Weapon confirmed. "It was clearly weakened by some means, keeping it on the brink of collapse at a fraction of its full power. Think of it like your own dantian having barely enough Qi to sustain your power at a Core Formation level," Daoist Eternal Weapon explained to John.

"So can we use something from it for the core?" John asked, getting back to the main point.

"We can!" Daoist Eternal Weapon confirmed with a large smile on his face as his hammer suddenly appeared in his hand. Without warning, his hammer came crashing down on the demon's large chest, which was practically shoulder level for Daoist Eternal Weapon despite the fact that the demon was flat on his back.

Boom!

The hammer fell onto the demon's chest with incredible power, sending a shockwave outward that slammed into John and blasted him against the building wall. Before he could recover, another ruinous blast slammed against him as Daoist Eternal Weapon struck down on the demon's chest with incredible power once more.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

The hammer fell continuously, with each powerful blast slamming John against the wall, over and over. Every time he tried to raise his voice to cry out in protest, another blast slammed against him, cutting off his words.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

The hammer continued to fall for nearly a minute before Daoist Eternal Weapon finally stopped. Silence returned to the room as John fell to the floor, slightly bloodied and bruised.

"What the fuck? At least give me a warning next time!" John cried out in angered protest.

Daoist Eternal Weapon shifted his gaze to John, and an apologetic look appeared on his face as he saw John's condition.

"Oh…sorry. I completely forgot you were here," he replied, his words causing John to feel disbelief. It was as if Daoist Eternal Weapon became completely one-minded when it came to his weapon smithing, and forgot everything else once his interest was piqued.

"How do you forget something like that? Ahh, nevermind, it doesn't matter," John grumbled as he stood up from the floor and brushed himself off. He walked over to Daoist Eternal Weapon and gazed at the demon, who now had a massive hole in the center of its chest, created by the hammer strikes from before.

"We got lucky this demon had been starved of energy for who knows how long. If its body was in its peak state, who knows how long it would have taken me to break through its defenses," Daoist Eternal Weapon exclaimed as he reached forward and stuck his hand into the large hole in the demon's chest.

After ruffling through the demon's internals for a short moment, his muscles bulged with power as he pulled his hand out of the hole. John stared at his hand, which grasped a blood red object, perfectly circular in design and two inches across.

An incredibly powerful and sinister aura emanated off the object, which made John feel as though he was back in the presence of that Darkfiend Demon, still alive and at the height of its power.

"This is?" John asked.

"The Darkfiend Demon's core. The source of its ruinous power! I will use this as the core for your scythe!"