Asura seemed to have fallen into a serene state, sitting on the window as he drifted off and found himself inside the mystical spirit palace with the huge black obelisks encroaching on the surroundings.
While Brian was sleeping under the central monolith as usual.
'I still can't read the strange runes... However, they are clearer, and the monolith is finally increasing visibly.'
He stepped closer to the smaller central obelisk, which displayed Asura's status and the one he could summon in the real world.
Now that all four Monoliths were Stage One, he trusted the information on this page more than before.
"It looks like I must endure that pain twice to awaken each monolith."
Asura leaned back, realising that somehow he went from a useless piece of garbage to having a mana capacity beyond the first queen.
Something that made him realise the choice to make his heart and body the core of his cultivation was right.
'What should I make my priority?'
He looked through the lists of each and noticed that they all had a similar choice.
Sadly, the devil monolith's activation chose the heart upgrade because he needed the boost. Otherwise, he would have died when training with Mu Xue and breaking through the First Layer.
Unlike the dragons, evolution thought the devil's heart was more of a universal upgrade.
Devil's Heart - Increases your heart's durability, endurance and capability to manage and control your mana and blood with enhanced capabilities.
Unlike the dragon evolution, this didn't give him another heart but stopped him from suffering a heart attack or failure during his cultivation breakthrough, allowing him to have perfect control over the flow of his
Now, it was flowing through his veins in place of his blood, constantly refined and purified by the four totems and replaced by the devouring totem.
He closed his eyes and began to decide how to evolve each monolith, but not all gave options like Dragon and Devil.
The devour monolith was different, offering him optimisations on how to devour and what the Anima taken would be used for.
⟨Devour Evolution⟩
Force - Devour living targets at twice the speed, but devouring magic particles naturally is much slower.
Efficiency - You can Purify all qi and mana an extra time, allowing your density to be upgraded further. It takes longer to drain something that is living.
Adaptability - You devour the magic particles from the air faster, but the mana gained from devouring living beings decreases slightly.
Quick Dual Cultivation - When cultivating with females, both parties gain a faster transfer rate, but it takes longer to purify and improve the female's mana to a higher level.
Sensual Link - When cultivating with females, it increases the pleasure felt by the female while improving the level of purification, increasing both party's magic density and affinity.
Asura was first interested by the first three as they gave a direct boost to his powers but then noticed each one seemed to have a minor setback, which annoyed him as he looked at the second two before noticing that the Sensual Link didn't have a negative and was more about improving the density and affinity of magic rather than speed or amount.
'Well, it's also interesting to make the pleasure more intense... I wonder how Xavida would react in class.'
The reason he chose this evolution first was the fact he didn't plan to murder too many people, at least not now, and devouring beasts might not always be ideal when he needed their pelts, eyes or magic crystals for money and proof of extermination for the exam.
Making Mu Xue sing in a beautiful voice as she looked at him with dreamy eyes was not the main reason...
Or so he swore in his heart.
The Asura monolith was selfish and didn't give him a choice. There was only one evolution, and it was related to his eyes.
⟨Asura Evolution⟩
The Eyes of Desolation - Allows the user to see through all illusions and resist all charming spells within Two Stages of current cultivation. Able to see the movement of Anima, mana, qi and magic.
"Phew... Once I activate these transformation choices, I might as well die..."
Asura didn't notice that Brian was watching him with a strange smile, seeing him take a strange position as if preparing himself for the pain.
"Okay... Let's go! Evolve me!"
****
Pain exploded throughout Asura's body; his mind trembled as he felt every bone, muscle and organ inside him exploding repeatedly as the mana surged and reformed everything, creating a more efficient version of his body.
He hated that this damn process would repeat because he only changed his eyes and the dual cultivation ability of his devouring bloodline.
The complex veins and systems connecting to his other organs, flesh and muscles in a complex net of black fleshy tubing.
"Haaa...."
He panted heavily, gasping for breath as he leaned against the lavatory wall, looking at his reflection. Yet, this time, Asura was smiling as his eyes didn't change colour or anything.
Still, they were so bright in his reflection that it made him seem more intelligent and handsome, and a mere glance around the sky showed that his spirit palace was saturated with magic as the fire, ice, earth and wind elements all danced through the air and twirled around the four pillars before each one absorbed one element.
Dragon—Fire
Devil—Ice
Devour—Wind
Asura—Earth
The final one seemed to accept the strange black flames that were small in number emitted from the other four pillars after the first elements entered them.
This meant that Asura had five elements, yet the wind and earth elements were the weakest as he hadn't cultivated or used them actively.
'That won't remain true for long.'
He thought to himself while checking his updated status and smiling excitedly.
⁜ Asura Fenix - Status ⁜
Age: 18
Cultivation Technique: ???????????? (Unknown Tier)
Cultivation Level: First Layer of Earth Cycle (Inner Core Formation)
Cultivation Progress: 90%
Magic Density: S
Magic Capacity: SSS
⁜ Elemental Affinity ⁜
Ice: B
Fire: SSS
Wind: F
Earth: G
⁜ Monolith - Status ⁜
Devil: 100/10000 (Stage One)
Dragon: 100/10000 (Stage One)
Asura: 100/10000 (Stage One)
Devour: 100/10000 (Stage One)
????: 100/5000 (Stage Zero)
⁜ Evolution ⁜
Devil: Devil's Heart (Stage One)
Dragon: Black Dragon Scales (Stage One)
Asura: Eyes of Desolation (Stage One)
Devour: Sensual Link (Stage One)
????: None
⁜End Of Status⁜
Asura smiled as he stood from the window, forgetting to say goodbye to Brian in his good mood and rushed back into the bathroom before taking a quick shower, fixing his uniform and leaving the lavatory as the bell rang.
This signalled the end of the day's battles as Mu Xue burst through the door with her eyes fixated on him, a needy and sad look as she jumped into his chest, wrapping her arms and legs around his body before kissing his lips, desperate to cleanse her soul.
The Sensual upgrade worked wonders instantly, as her body trembled lightly in his embrace while her body was filled with pleasant tingles that removed all memories of the disgusting prince in seconds as she pushed him down onto the bed with her momentum.
"Xue'er."
"Asura... Mmm..."
Their tongues intertwined as Mu Xue felt amazing, moaning into his mouth as she felt her body heating up, pressing her chest against his before they pulled apart, a thick strand of their saliva forming a bridge.
"Your kiss... why is it so amazing after a fight?"