Chapter 7: The Power to Kill
Mu Feng found himself in a strange and surreal world.
A crimson, desolate land stretched endlessly before him, where two armies clashed violently in the skies. The warriors soared like celestial beings, wielding weapons that emitted devastating energies capable of splitting mountains and overturning the heavens.
One army had warriors with white wings, their faces angelic, radiating holy light. The other consisted of beings with blood-red wings, crimson hair, and piercing red eyes. Their fanged mouths and bodies emanated a bloody aura of menace.
The battle between the two armies was cataclysmic, shaking the very fabric of existence.
Amidst the chaos, a stunning woman with crimson wings and clad in blood-red armor fought valiantly. Her blood-red hair flowed like a river of fire, her eyes like tranquil autumn waters, and her skin like freshly fallen snow. Her features were exquisitely sculpted, as though crafted by the most meticulous of artists.
She wielded a blood-red saber, her every swing slicing through hundreds of enemies, reducing them to nothingness.
Her skill drew the attention of a powerful foe—a man wreathed in white flames. Their clash was nothing short of earth-shattering, rending the skies and creating massive black fissures in space.
Despite her formidable prowess, the woman was ultimately struck by a devastating blow, and her body was hurled into the fragmented void, vanishing from sight.
Just as Mu Feng tried to see more, his head throbbed with pain, and the vision dissolved. Replacing it was a flood of incomprehensible knowledge.
The Ancient Asura Sutra
"Forge your path through slaughter, refine the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and absorb the blood and battle auras of all beings. At its peak, destroy the heavens with a wave of your hand, command the universe with a single thought..."
These words and countless other fragments of knowledge overwhelmed Mu Feng's mind, leaving him stunned.
Sitting cross-legged on the ground, Mu Feng spent a long time processing the memories. Eventually, he came across a passage that left him ecstatic: a method to repair broken Yuan meridians by refining blood energy.
These weren't ordinary Yuan meridians, though. The sutra called them Blood Spirit Meridians—a superior form far more resilient and capacious, allowing for faster circulation of Yuan energy.
"Why is this happening? Why do I suddenly have memories of this sutra? What is this world I saw? Are beings as powerful as those in the vision real? And who was that woman?" Mu Feng muttered, trying to make sense of it all.
After a moment of contemplation, he decided to focus on what he could control. Using his mental strength, a vestige of his former Zifu-level cultivation, he examined his body.
To his astonishment, three of his twelve broken Yuan meridians had been restored. They glowed crimson, their surfaces flawless and free of impurities. Within them flowed a milky white Yuan energy, far purer than what he had cultivated with the Iron-Blooded Heart Technique.
"I've recovered three meridians... and I've reached the third level of the Tongmai Realm!" Mu Feng stood up abruptly, excitement brimming in his eyes. The despair he had felt now gave way to a newfound hope.
"Ha ha ha! I knew it—heaven hasn't abandoned me! With my cultivation restored, I can rebuild my strength, avenge my father, and reclaim everything I've lost!"
His youthful joy resurfaced, laughter spilling freely as the burden of despair momentarily lifted from his shoulders.
Mu Feng clenched his fist, channeling Yuan energy into it. A faint white glow enveloped his hand.
"Tongmai Fist!"
He struck the trunk of a massive yellow pear tree at the center of the courtyard.
Boom!
The punch left a fist-sized dent in the tree's trunk, its leaves shaking and falling in a cascade.
Mu Feng marveled at the power of his strike. "Tongmai practitioners gain roughly 200 pounds of strength per meridian. With three meridians restored, I should have around 600 pounds of force, but this feels much stronger—closer to what a fifth-level practitioner could achieve, maybe even a sixth."
The clarity of the Yuan energy, coupled with the superior capacity of his Blood Spirit Meridians, amplified his strength significantly.
"Just how powerful is this Ancient Asura Sutra? Could it be a Mystic-tier technique? Or perhaps... something even higher?"
The Mu family's Iron-Blooded Heart Technique, a Yellow-tier high-grade technique, was their most prized possession. Anything above it, like Mystic-tier techniques, was exceedingly rare. Techniques of Earth or Heaven tier were so valuable that even an entire kingdom couldn't afford one.
But the Asura Sutra came with a price. To fully restore his meridians, it required absorbing blood energy, often through the act of killing.
"This technique demands the blood and life force of others to cultivate... if I were on a battlefield, I could recover all twelve meridians in less than a year. But here, without such a setting, it might take much longer."
Mu Feng furrowed his brows. He knew such methods could easily be branded as heretical, but dismissed the thought. "Techniques are neither righteous nor evil—it's the wielder who defines them. If this path helps me restore my strength and achieve my goals, I'll walk it, no matter what."
Standing in the autumn sunlight, his angular face was illuminated by a radiant glow. Mu Feng raised his fist to the sky and whispered, "Father, don't worry. I, Mu Feng, will not fall. The Mu family will not fall. We are unyielding, proud warriors of iron and blood."
With his determination rekindled, Mu Feng turned toward his room to rest and plan his next steps.
Bang!
Suddenly, the courtyard gate burst open, and a group of unwelcome visitors strode in.