Ascension of the immortal Asura

Luri quickly made his way to the fallen slaver, the scar-faced man, who laid face down on the ground some distance away. His body was mutilated almost beyond recognition, wounds covering his body, most of them charred by Kirii's lightning.

Luri blanched as he noticed the man was missing his head. He had not noticed Kirii severing the man's head, and wondered when that had happened. Luri shook his head and reached down towards the man's right hand, removing his spatial ring.

He quickly inspected it, and took out the ring belonging to him and his sister. A moment later, he returned to the group, and tossed the man's ring to John.

"Here, you should take the spoils of this battle. I'll just take our spatial rings and their contents back," Luri said.

John nodded his head and accepted the ring, then inspected its contents. The scar-faced man was decently wealthy, with medium and high-grade spirit crystals aplenty, scrolls and jade pieces of battle arts and cultivation techniques, and more weapons than could be counted.

While it was a decent sum of wealth, it was relatively minor compared to his own wealth. He still had most of his spirit crystals from selling the tea leaves to the Mystic Trade Hall, and had no real need for the weapons or battle arts contained within. Regardless, it still added to his wealth, and so he had no reason to refuse.

To his side, Luri took out a formation disk from his spatial ring and infused it with his Qi. John eyed the formation, which was both similar and unfamiliar to the formation disks on the Divine Martial Continent. The size and shape were similar, but the runes were different from what he had seen before.

'I'm not an expert in formation runes, so I'm not entirely sure it's that different,' John thought.

"What was that?" John asked Luri, who put the disk away a moment later.

"A message to our father, detailing our location," Luri said, Suri breathing a sigh of relief to the side. "He should be here within a few days. Our Light Dao sect isn't too far, relatively speaking, so he shouldn't take long."

John nodded his head, and then glanced at the nearby forest. He returned his attention to the youths a moment later, and went about setting up a camp for the three of them. They would camp here while they waited for Luri and Suri's father.

Once the makeshift camp was made, John's gaze returned to the nearby Immortal Forest. He had inquired about it during their travels, and had learned that it was a forest teeming with powerful wild beasts, ranging from the Dao Transformation realm to the World Expansion Realm.

The serpent within was the most powerful, its power at the Half-Step Holy Manifestation level, yet it mostly remained dormant during the day and only prowled the forest during the night.

'My beast blood essence is running rather thin, as I didn't get a chance to replenish it after leaving the Divine Source Monastery. Now would be a great time to both replenish my beast blood reserves, as well as get a firm grasp of my Dao Transformation cultivation.'

Plan in mind, John turned to the two youths. He gestured to Kirii, who rested on the ground nearby, eyes closed as he received head pats from Suri.

"I'm going to explore the forest for the next few days," John said, "Kirii will act as your protector in the meantime."

"What? You're going into the Immortal Forest?" Luri exclaimed.

"You can't. It's dangerous, even for you," Suri added, concerned for his safety.

John smiled at their concern for him. The two youths really were too kind for their own good, especially in a bloodthirsty cultivation world. No wonder they had been captured.

'Most likely trusted the wrong people, and found themselves in a bad situation,' he thought, then appeased their fears.

"I'll be fine," he reassured them, "I'll only stay for a few days. A week at most, if something catches my interest. Just wait for me if your father arrives before I come back, alright?"

The two youths nodded their heads, acknowledging him, but the concerned look on their faces said they didn't think it was a good plan. John said some words to Kirii, who was more than happy to stay and guard the two youths, no doubt loving the head pats he was receiving.

A short moment later, John vanished into the nearby forest, one teeming with towering trees and powerful beasts. It was exactly the type of place he could go wild and let off some steam.

…

Boom!

The ground shattered beneath John's feet, his arms raised above his head, hands grasped around a sharp spike that had pierce towards his head. A green ooze coated the spike, a nauseating smell coming from it. The spiked object struggled to push forward towards him, a sharp hiss following shortly after.

The spike withdrew away from John, who lowered his hands as he stared at the bizarre beast before him. The beast looked like a scorpion, with many carapace-like legs, a carapace body, and a long-spiked tail with a sharp barb on the end. However, the bizarre part was the creatures face, which was more snake-like than scorpion-like.

A hissing tongue snaked out and danced in the air as the creature stared at John, slightly more wary after he blocked its blow. Its power was at the Late Dao Transformation Realm, although the barbed spike coated with powerful venom made it a bit more dangerous than a normal beast.

John smiled, his aura exploding outwards with powerful vigor. This thrill of battle invigorated him, made him feel alive. To him, the thrill of battle was the most wonderful sensation in the world, one that he could not get enough of. It was as if every cell in his body was screaming for more; more battle, more destruction, more slaughter.

'I'm no doubt being influenced by the Asura and Dragon blood coursing within my body,' John acknowledged. He had always loved the thrill of battle, but it seemed as though battle lust had grown steadily with his cultivation, becoming stronger by the day.

The creature's tail pierced towards him again, the speed of the tail so fast that it appeared like a blur, even to John. Thanks to his incredible instincts, he could still react to it, and dashed to the side just in time.

The tail slammed against the ground, shattering the earth for thousands of yards. The massive trees nearby trembled violently, large leaves as big as houses shaking free and falling down below. A leaf fell between the creature and John for a singular moment. One of the creature's massive claws slashed through the leaf, towards where John had been.

It's claw slammed against the ground, destroying it completely. It withdrew its claw, noticing that John's body was not there. It hissed loudly as a crunching sound filled the air, John's fist, coated with lightning slamming into the creature's back. Space shimmered behind him as it reformed, his sudden appearance above the creature thanks to his increasingly proficient grasp of the Dao of Space.

The creature's carapace cracked from the blow, then shattered completely. Blood and guts flowed out to the sides as the creature slumped to the ground, dead from the lightning rampaging within its body.

John stood atop the creature's corpse, a satisfied look on his face. His essence Qi sucked out what blood was within the corpse, storing it in his palace realm. A satisfied look appeared on his face as he inspected his surroundings.

The land was fractured and destroyed, with massive trees toppled, charred, and ruined. Eleven creatures similar to the one he had just slain were splayed out amidst the destroyed land, their bodies broken open, blood sucked dry.

John took in the sight of the victorious battlefield for a moment, at which point a loud roar boomed out in the distance. A smile appeared on his face as he quickly collected the corpses of the creatures he had killed, then sped towards the sound, no doubt a new battle to enjoy.