Chapter 162: The Asura King
"Forget it! When we reach the bridge, we'll cross it, and when we hit the mountain, there will be a way! Even if the Dragon Clan is a lean camel that's bigger than a horse, I'm no clay figurine either. If they tick off this Daoist, I'll invite the Primeval Lord of Heaven to wipe them out. Heh, when the master has work, the disciple does the toil; now that the disciple is in trouble, the master cannot just stand by and watch, right?" Qingxu laughed cunningly to himself, unable to help but sigh inwardly at the benefits of having a powerful backer.
Bathed in auspicious clouds and multicolored rays of light, carrying an exotic fragrance that assaulted the senses, Qingxu and little Kunlun rode the mists toward Wanqiu on the shores of the East Sea. Along the way, no blind-eyed troublemakers crossed their path, leaving little Kunlun—who had been full of high spirits and eager to stretch his muscles—utterly depressed and disappointed.
With time on his hands, Qingxu turned his mind's attention to the heavenly treasures within Ao Bei's Sumeru Mustard Seed spatial dimension, examining the five supreme innate spiritual treasures first.
Heavenly Punishment Blade: Medium-grade Innate Spiritual Treasure! (Thirty-four layers of innate restrictions)
Nine Dragons Seal: Top-grade Innate Spiritual Treasure! (Fortieth layer of innate restrictions)
Void Gleam Needle: Low-grade Innate Spiritual Treasure! (Seventeenth layer of innate restrictions)
Mystic Dragon Atlas: Low-grade Innate Spiritual Treasure! (Twenty-fourth layer of innate restrictions)
Mountains and Rivers Precious Pearl: Low-grade Innate Spiritual Treasure! (Fourteenth layer of innate restrictions)
Because he had yet to refine them, Qingxu could only ascertain the names of these five innate spiritual treasures. As for their specific utilities, he remained largely unaware. However, once Ao Bei regained consciousness, he could directly probe the depths of the spiritual treasures through him.
After a brief glance at the dozens of acquired spiritual treasures, Qingxu lost interest. Times were different now; with his abundance of spiritual treasures, his horizons had broadened considerably. Ao Bei's acquired spiritual treasures were mostly no less impressive than his own Moye Sword or Five-Fire Seven-Fowl Fan, constituting quite a fortune indeed. Yet, Qingxu was blessed with profound opportunities and lacked no innate spiritual treasures. These acquired spiritual treasures were, on one hand, inferior in power to innate spiritual treasures, and on the other hand, unable to be used to entrust the three corpses or comprehend the profound Dao. They were truly insipid—flavorless to eat, yet a pity to discard.
"I am still far too poor! Previously, the treasures of the brothers Ao Fei and Ao Yun had made me exceptionally excited, but compared to this Ao Bei, it's no different than a beggar looking at a wealthy tycoon. Alas! What a headache; figuring out how to squander these heavenly treasures is probably going to cost me quite some effort."
Squeak, squeak, squeak...
Just as Qingxu was calculating how to utilize Ao Bei's private stash, thousands of squeaking sounds suddenly entered his ears, resembling the cries of mice. He immediately raised his gaze to look far into the distance, only to see groups of colorful, bizarrely shaped rats scampering frantically across the beach ahead. Most of these rats were the size of calves, with fierce, angry glares, baring their fangs and brandishing their claws, their eyes glowing blood-red and exuding a ferocious, cruel aura.
"A rat tide? Goodness gracious, this is truly extraordinary. A rough glance right now reveals no fewer than several tens of thousands of rats, and stretching endlessly as they are, I estimate there must be at least one hundred thousand rats in this tide." Qingxu clicked his tongue, shaking his head and muttering to himself.
The varieties of rats within this tide were numerous, numbering over a hundred distinct kinds. The weakest among these rats possessed strength around the early Golden Core stage, and many had reached the Spirit Transformation realm. The rat kings, acting as leaders and chieftains, had even cultivated to the peak of the Spirit Transformation realm. Given this sheer volume, their collective strength could be considered somewhat terrifying. Ordinary Earth Immortals confronting them would mostly face grim prospects, and even Heavenly Immortals would find themselves bound hand and foot, perhaps ending up in a wretched state if they were careless.
"Something's not right. Why do these rats seem to be heading toward Wanqiu?" As they drew closer to the East Sea shore, Qingxu noticed that this rat tide was heading straight for Wanqiu. His relaxed state of mind instantly tightened; anything concerning the human race could not be underestimated.
"No, I absolutely cannot let this rat tide surge into Wanqiu. Otherwise, the simple defensive array I set up earlier won't be able to resist them at all. Once they are allowed to rush into Wanqiu, the human race will suffer heavy casualties, and my karmic fault will be enormous." Thinking thus, a cold flash crossed Qingxu's eyes. He raised his hand to unleash a palm divine thunder technique, casting the Art of Myriad Division. Instantly, a bolt of Jade Clear Divine Thunder transformed into thousands of tiny Jade Clear thunderbolts. Although their power was reduced by over eighty percent, with Qingxu's early Heavenly Immortal cultivation, these divided Jade Clear thunderbolts could still easily obliterate Golden Core realm beings and severely injure those in the Spirit Transformation realm.
Boom! Crackle!
Dazzling, blinding light, erratic electrical currents, and dancing silver snakes filled the air as deafening roars echoed endlessly along the East Sea shore. Calf-sized rats were blasted to pieces by the thunder and lightning, their entrails and blood splashing in a gruesome sight. The chaotic "squeaks" entering his ears were filled with terror, despair, and utter bewilderment...
Under Qingxu's all-out cast of the divided Jade Clear Divine Thunder, at least three to five thousand of the tens of thousands of rats on the East Sea shore perished instantly, with well over ten thousand suffering severe or minor injuries.
Obliterating thousands of living beings in a single stroke—some good and some evil—yielded only virtue (yin and yang) when slaying the wicked. However, exterminating the virtuous brought karmic retribution following closely behind, which was unfair. Yet, possessing the Great Karmic Technique, Qingxu truly did not take this minor portion of karma to heart.
Squeak!
Squeak, squeak, squeak!
Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak...
Having suffered such heavy casualties for no apparent reason, the rat tide plunged into chaos and confusion for a long time before finally calming down. Countless pairs of rat eyes converged upon Qingxu as one. Waves of resentment, hatred, and brutality were displayed without the slightest concealment. Tens of thousands of strands of demonic qi surged upward, blotting out the sun and turning the bright daylight abruptly into a dim, sickly green.
The primordial rat clan possessed innate intelligence of the highest order, yet they had always been timid, cowardly, secretive, and cunning, rarely showing themselves in public. As for a rat tide of this scale, it had not occurred even a few times since the opening of the heavens.
Nor did Qingxu believe his luck was so good that he could simply happen to witness a rat tide.
"Wanqiu? A rat tide? I'm afraid there is a deep mystery hidden within this!" Intuition told Qingxu that this rat tide was no simple matter.
Swish! Swish! Swish!...
One rat after another rode demonic winds on all fours to leap into the air, surrounding him from all ten directions in an all-encompassing encirclement, swarming toward Qingxu to kill him. Calf-sized and numbering thirty to fifty thousand, it was truly terrifying! As far as the eye could see, it was a riot of colors accompanied by a deafening clamor of squeaks.
"Seeking your own destruction!" With a cold sneer at the corner of his mouth, Qingxu took out the Great Luo Blood-Dissolving Asura Sword, transforming it into a mass of innate blood cloud that scattered to envelop the thousands of rats. This instantly wiped out eight or nine-tenths of their number. The remaining stray fish successfully attacked Qingxu, but protected by his Yin-Yang Dao Robe, how could they inflict even the slightest harm? Instead, they were injured internally by the Yin-Yang counter-shock force.
Under the melting power of the viscous blood-dissolving force, every single rat enveloped by the innate blood cloud dissolved entirely into pus and blood, merging into the blood cloud and further enhancing its might.
Though tens of thousands of rats were numerous in quantity, their strength was lamentably low. Under the blood-dissolving force controlled with Qingxu's wholehearted focus, in less than half the time it took to burn a single stick of incense, the entire army was wiped out without leaving even a scrap of bone—truly leaving no corpse behind.
Having devoured and melted nearly fifty thousand rats, the blood-dissolving power advanced a step further.
The Great Luo Blood-Dissolving Asura Sword was an extremely malevolent weapon of slaughter, surpassing even the Heavenly Luo Blood-Dissolving Divine Knife from the Investiture of the Gods era. The only thing it lacked was the Twelve Capital Heavenly Gods Fiend Array.
"A sword is a malevolent weapon, focused on slaughter, and pursuing supreme power is the right path. If there is an opportunity in the future, I must still find a way to learn the Twelve Capital Heavenly Gods Fiend Array and the诛仙 Sword Array [Immortal-Slaying Sword Array]. If these two great primordial slaughter arrays can be refined into the Qingming Sword, the future of this sword will be boundless!" This ambition was not entirely impossible for Qingxu. Given his relationship with Xuanming, he had a thirty-percent chance of extracting the Twelve Capital Heavenly Gods Fiend Array. As for the Immortal-Slaying Sword Array, while the Three Pure Ones still maintained deep bonds of affection, he could also make plans for it.
Having cleared nearly fifty thousand rat demons from the East Sea shore, Qingxu did not dare to delay. He immediately set off with little Kunlun toward Wanqiu, only to find groups of rat tides continuing one after another along the way—the largest numbering in the tens of thousands, and the smallest having eight or nine thousand.
Along this journey, Qingxu could be said to be slaughtering in all directions, scattering the blood-dissolving light to devour, dissolve, nourish, and evolve himself.
One stick of incense—slaughtered over one hundred thousand rat demons!
Two sticks of incense—slaughtered over one hundred and fifty thousand rat demons!
Three sticks of incense—slaughtered over one hundred and eighty thousand rat demons!
...
Having reached the pinnacle of slaughter, Qingxu's eyes also turned red. A tangible aura of slaughter coiled around his entire body, carrying a faint blackish-red hue that instilled dread in beholders.
[Slaughter Value at 1%...]
[Slaughter Value full! Activating the Body of the Asura King. Transformed into the Asura King, strength increased to 240%!]
Among the Six Realms, the Asura Realm governed slaughter, possessing unimaginable and terrifying power.
"The Asura King? What is going on here? That fellow Styx hasn't even created the Asura clan yet; could I be considered to have preempted him?" Hearing the prompt from the Investiture System, Qingxu furrowed his brow in a daze. As far as he knew, this Asura clan was only successfully created after the Ancestral Witch Houtu transformed into the Six Paths of Reincarnation, when Styx comprehended the Asura path within the six realms to complete them. Moreover, the Asura King title belonged to Styx himself, seeing as he was the undisputed first king for creating the Asura clan, with several Great Asuras enfeoffed beneath him, such as Pojun, Brahma, and Shiva...
Qingxu had never imagined that going on a killing spree would yield such a miraculous benefit—preempting Styx's position as the Asura King. Didn't this mean that when the Six Paths of Reincarnation emerged in the future, he would be able to control the Asura Path, or at the very least stand toe-to-toe with Styx? Especially since he was the very first Asura King, placing him in an advantageous position!
"The Investiture System is simply too awesome! This Asura body is practically perverted to the extreme! 120% is the ultimate limit of power; pushing it even a fraction higher would cause one to shatter from being unable to bear it, resulting in the destruction of both body and soul. Now, transformed as the Asura King, my power is doubled on top of that ultimate limit. Under such conditions, am I not invincible among those of the same realm?" Qingxu himself was somewhat frightened by this Body of the Asura King.