Ascension of the immortal Asura

Mind still awed by the brief glimpse of the assassination arts power, John stabilized himself within the explosion. It faded away after a short moment, returning the now-charred battlefield to its relative calm. Having been thrown a good distance away from his initial position, he flew back towards the spot of the attack, and landed near the corpse of the Devil that had been used as a target.

That corpse was now half a corpse, with only its legs and lower waist still visible. The top half had been cleanly sliced in half, and then blown away by the explosion that had followed. John stared at the severed corpse, then reached out and touched it.

It felt as hard as the most durable metals he had ever touched. Lightning flickered onto his hand as he tried to damage it, but to no avail. It resisted taking any damage at all, and yet had been sliced cleanly in half by the Prime Shadow.

"The power of a Holy Manifestation cultivator is something else," he mumbled softly.

"Gahaha, it's not that impressive," a rambunctious laughter came from the Prime Shadow, who had suddenly appeared nearby. John turned to look at the man, amusement and surprise appearing on his face.

The Prime Shadows hair was frazzled up in a mess, no longer neat and tidy as it had been before. Even his pointed beard was now a frazzled mess, making the Prime Shadow look more like a homeless beggar than a Holy Manifestation powerhouse. The Prime Shadow noticed John's peculiar gaze, then laughed again.

"Gaha, this assassination art is quite unruly," he laughed, Qi flaring for a moment, instantly fixing his hair and beard into a neat and orderly fashion. John stared at the man for a moment, then returned his gaze to the devil corpse.

"What was that assassination art?" he asked, still awed by what he had seen. In fact, he hadn't really seen anything, as it was too fast to see. The Prime Shadow had disappeared, then a short while later, the devil corpse had been cleaved in two, instantly followed by a powerful explosion.

"Was that a weapon art that hit the target, or did you move that fast yourself?" John asked.

"Of course it was me," the Prime Shadow said, "why else would my hair become such a mess."

John's eyes flicked to the Prime Shadow's hair for a moment, which was now neat and orderly.

"I don't understand anything that happened," he said, frowning. "All I know is that my instincts kicked in after the art had already landed on the corpse, which is the first time it's ever been late like that."

The Prime Shadow smiled, inspected the bisected Devil corpse, then turned to John.

"Let's break what you saw down piece by piece. Perhaps you can figure out some parts of what happened by talking things over."

John nodded, then repeated what he had seen, which wasn't much at all.

"Let's ignore the disappearing part for now," the Prime Shadow said, then pointed to his now-neat hair. "You noticed my hair was a mess after I used the assassination art. Why is that?"

"Your hair? Why is that important," John asked, tilting his head to the side.

"Then let's take a step back from that subject, and talk about flying," the Prime Shadow said.

"What about it?" John asked curiously.

"How does a cultivator fly?" the Prime Shadow asked.

John didn't know why the Prime Shadow was asking such an obvious question, but played along, as he knew the Prime Shadow had a reason for bringing up the subject.

"Well, there's a few ways," John said, thinking the question over. "When I first started to fly, I used my Qi as a propulsion mechanism, pushing me through the sky. However, after reaching the Heaven Tribulation Realm, I started wrapping my body in Qi instead, and then used my control over that Qi to pull myself in whatever direction I wanted to go."

Wrapping one's body with Qi to fly was not only more efficient, but also allowed the cultivator to ignore the effects of the air for the most part, parting it much easier, and also reducing the effects of wind resistance. With Qi around one's body, it was almost as if the air around them didn't exist.

"That is the order in which most cultivators learn to fly," the Prime Shadow nodded in agreement. "And when you wrap yourself in your Qi to fly, what happens to your hair?"

"My hair? I guess nothing really happens to it, as it's protected by the layer of Qi around my body," John answered.

"Exactly," the Prime Shadow exclaimed, while John realized what the Prime Shadow was getting at.

"So you weren't covered in Qi at all when you moved? Then how did you move at all?" John asked curiously. Without using Qi, the only way to move was through physical power, and while the Prime Shadow was incredibly strong, he was obviously not a body cultivator, so moving that fast with his own physical power was not possible.

"That's one of the secrets of the assassination art," the Prime Shadow said, a wide smile on his face, then asked another question.

"Onto the second topic of discussion. When you or your instincts detect someone who is targeting you, what do you detect?" the Prime Shadow asked.

"Hmmm, their aura, or killing intent," John said after thinking it over.

"Exactly," the Prime Shadow agreed. "Instincts are triggered by the intent of the enemy, usually killing intent, which manifests through the cultivators aura naturally, allowing your instincts to feel it. As for detecting an enemy directly, you normally notice their aura, typically from when they're using a battle art, or using their Qi to move around."

John nodded, although that was all common sense to any cultivator.

"Now, what would happen if someone approached you with no aura at all, using no Qi at all. If you were not looking at them, and your divine sense was not spread out, would you be able to notice them at all before they reached you?"

"I guess not," John replied.

"Exactly, at the speed cultivators move, even sound is slow in comparison," the Prime Shadow nodded. "In that case, someone moving with no aura at all would arrive at their target with absolutely nothing giving away their position, other than being spotted visually, or detected by divine sense. My master mused over these things, and came up with a battle art that was able to not only fool one's sight and divine sense, but was also able to approach a target without releasing any aura at all. If done perfectly, the art is practically unavoidable by the enemy."

"But how can one move that fast physically without giving away their location?" John asked curiously. "An essence cultivator needs to use Qi to move, which gives off an aura. Even body cultivators use their Qi to augment their speed. So just how did you move that fast, that quickly, without giving off any aura at all?"

The Prime Shadow grinned, then handed John a jade piece that had appeared in his hands.

"Take a look and see for yourself."