Martial God Asura

“Taowu?”

Daoist Seventh Dragon began writing in the air with his spirit power, forming the two characters ‘梼杌 (Taowu)’.

“Milord, does your name consist of these two characters?” Daoist Seventh Dragon asked.

“Indeed,” Taowu replied.

“Could you be Lord Taowu, one of the most vicious world spirits in the Ancient Era?” Daoist Seventh Dragon gasped in shock.

Daoist Eighth Dragon and Daoist Ninth Dragon also widened their eyes in shock as they suddenly remembered something.

“Hoh! You have heard of me?” Taowu asked in surprise.

“Milord, we, nine brothers, were only able to achieve our current heights thanks to a legacy from the Ancient Era. The legacy also contains records of you, milord. You were one of the strongest world spirits in the Ancient Era. Also…”

Daoist Seventh Dragon’s words trailed off at that point.

“Also what? I bet I don’t have a good reputation, right? It matters not. Why else do you think I was sealed here?” Taowu replied with a chuckle.

Instead of being embarrassed, he took pride in his own history.

“Could it be… the world spirit who was sealed in the demon coffin is you, milord?”

As the three daoists came to a realization, the fear on their faces deepened. They finally understood just what kind of being they were in the presence of, and that knowledge left them more frightened than they had ever been in their entire lives.

“Indeed. I was hot-tempered back then and killed many innocent people. Master sealed me off here and constructed a massive formation to rid me of my bloodthirst,” Taowu said before he looked at the three daoists with narrowed eyes.

“Milord, we were ignorant to have dared cross you. Please forgive us!”

Daoist Seventh Dragon immediately kneeled on the floor, and his other two brothers quickly followed suit. It might have looked pathetic how the three of them trembled nonstop before Taowu, but any other cultivator in their place might have already peed their pants.

“Forgive?”

Taowu’s lips curled into a chilling smile. Killing intent poured out from his body, filling the seemingly boundless void in just an instant. The only areas that weren’t affected by the killing intent were those around Chu Feng and Eggy.

“Is this killing intent?”

Even though the killing intent wasn’t directed toward her, Eggy’s eyes still widened in shock. Through her instincts, she was still able to vividly sense just how overwhelming the killing intent was.

Every being in the world possessed killing intent, but the intensity of which depended on one’s nature and experiences.

A vicious person was bound to have a stronger killing intent than a kind person.

Similarly, a person who massacred millions of people was bound to have a stronger killing intent than a person who hadn’t killed anyone.

Taowu’s killing intent was terrifying in all rights of the word. Eggy couldn’t even begin to imagine just how vicious his nature was or how many people he had killed to date. The sheer number of people he had killed could probably be quantified on the scale of starfields.

There was no doubt that Taowu was a true tyrant, one that stood at the peak of the world.

“Has that fellow really been cleansed of his vicious nature? It doesn’t look like that at all.”

Eggy felt deeply uneasy.

She knew that Taowu was on their side, but she couldn’t help but worry that he would turn against them. Irrationality was a trait usually associated with tyrants, after all.

It was then that Taowu retracted his killing intent.

He had only unleashed his killing intent for a brief moment, but the three daoists were already sweating profusely and screaming their heads out. Their eyeballs were bulging so much that it looked as if they would pop right out. They laid flat on the ground, devoid of any strength at all.

They looked as if they already had a foot in the grave.

And that was caused solely by Taowu’s killing intent. He hadn’t even made a move on them yet. They had been reduced to their current state out of sheer intimidation.

In fact, Taowu could have probably scared them to death if he wanted to. This was the absolute difference in strength that existed between them.

“Milord, please spare our lives! We have gotten arrogant due to our brothers’ strength. We would have never dared to disrespect you no matter how brazen we are if we knew your true identity!”

The three of them wanted to kneel down and beg for mercy, but they didn’t even have the strength to get on their knees at all. They could only helplessly sob and sniffle on the ground while pleading with Taowu.

Even Eggy couldn’t help but scrunch her nose when she looked at them.

The three of them had really peed their pants this time around.

“You’re begging for mercy now? Do you think there’s any meaning in that? You’re exactly the type of people that I look down on. You always act as if you’re bigger than the world, only to fall to your knees and beg for mercy as soon as you find yourselves outmatched! There’s nothing more pathetic than weaklings who only know how to oppress those weaker than them!

“Had it been in the past, I’d have your other six brothers pay for your folly too!” Taowu bellowed.

The three daoists looked despaired.

“You’re lucky that I am a changed world spirit. I don’t plan on easily taking the lives of others anymore, or else I’ll be letting down my master, who painstakingly constructed this formation for me. Know that if I had my way, I’d have killed all of you and those ants from the Situ World Spiritist Clan!” Taowu sneered.

“Thank you for sparing our lives! Thank you for sparing our lives!”

The three daoists immediately thanked Taowu.

“It’s out of my generosity that I have spared your lives today, so get this in your head. This fellow…”

Taowu pointed at Chu Feng.

“This fellow, Chu Feng, is my younger brother. If I ever learn that any mishap has befallen him, I’ll come after you and your brothers,” Taowu said.

“A-ah? Milord, are you going to pin the blame on us if any harm falls upon him? W-what if we aren’t the ones who harmed him?” Daoist Ninth Dragon asked meekly.

“Are my words not clear? It doesn’t matter to me whether you’re the culprits or not. I’ll come after you if any harm befalls Chu Feng. Why? Do you have a problem with that?” Taowu asked.

“O-o-of course not!”

The three daoists shook their heads. Despite their meek attitudes, they were cursing at Taowu in their heads. This was too unreasonable!

“You can get lost now. It annoys me just to see the three of you,” Taowu roared.

The surroundings began to distort, reverting back to its original appearance.

“Lord Taowu, t-t-the three of us will be taking our leave now! You must hold to the end of your promise. Please don’t kill us!”

The three daoists didn’t dare to linger in the area out of fear that Taowu would suddenly change his mind. Despite not having any strength to stand on their feet, they still hurriedly crawled their way out of the hall.

Anyone who saw that wouldn’t have been able to believe their eyes. Who could have thought that the renowned Totem’s Nine Daoists would be humiliated like that?

With their departure, the only ones left in the hall were Chu Feng, Taowu, and Eggy.

Eggy looked at Taowu once more and noticed that his facial features had reverted back to his human appearance.

“Are you really the master of this land?” Eggy asked.

“Do I look fake to you? Can’t you sense it?” Taowu asked.

“I’m not related to you in any way. How can I sense who you are?” Eggy asked.

“That’s not what I’m saying. You were already conscious when Chu Feng stepped into this realm, right?” Taowu asked.

“Yes, I was conscious. Ah. If that’s the case, yes, I did sense it.”

Eggy widened her eyes in realization. That was the moment that she sensed that this world contained a treasure that deeply enticed her. It was just that she was still in the midst of her cultivation then, so she was unable to communicate with Chu Feng.

Now that she thought about it, the outpour of gaseous flame started right after Chu Feng stepped into this realm, signaling the opening of the demon coffin.

“This means that you opened the demon coffin for Chu Feng’s sake… Why would you do that?” Eggy asked.

She was already certain at this point that Taowu was indeed the master of the demon coffin, and he had indeed opened the demon coffin for Chu Feng. However, that didn’t make any sense. There was no way Chu Feng could have been acquainted with a being from the Ancient Era like Taowu, so there shouldn’t have been any reason for Taowu to do that for Chu Feng.

“I am a Demon World Spirit. I entered the world of cultivation with the help of my master and acquired the power of the Taowu, which made me stronger than ever. That was also the reason I changed my name to Taowu. It has been too long since then that I can’t even remember my real name now. Afterward, my master acquired the Godsoul, and I fused together with it.

“In a bout of inspiration, I wondered if I could become even stronger if I combined the power of the Taowu together with the Godsoul. Thus, I tried everything that I could do to accomplish that, and I eventually succeeded in combining the two. However, it was also around then that I began succumbing to my vicious nature. Eventually, I caused a huge calamity.

“My master noticed that the cause of my rampage was caused by the contrasting nature of the power of Taowu and the Godsoul. In order to stop the rampages, the two powers would have to be separated from each other.

“It was fortunate that my master is a person of great capability. He constructed this powerful formation to catalyze the separation, but even so, it took a long period of time before the two treasures were fully separated. In the meantime, I fell into a deep sleep.

“By the time I woke up, the era I have lived in had already become so distant that it was deemed as the Ancient Era,” Taowu explained.

“How long has it been since you awoke from your slumber?” Eggy asked.

“Around ten thousand years,” Taowu replied.

“Why don’t you look for your master since you have already awoken from your slumber? Are you unable to leave this place?” Eggy asked.

“My master didn’t trap me here. I was already in full control of the formation when I woke up, and I am able to leave whenever I want. It’s just that the power of the Taowu and the Godsoul have developed conflicting natures after I forcefully merged them back then, such that I am unable to simultaneously keep the two of them in my body. If I leave this place, I’ll have to leave one of the two powers behind.

“My master gave me a choice back then when he first constructed the formation. He asked me whether I want to retain the power of the Taowu or the Godsoul. I had already changed my name to Taowu by that point. No matter how powerful the Godsoul was, I had to choose the power of the Taowu.

“Following that, my master gave me another mission. He constructed many formations in this land and left them to me. He prophesied that a fated one will step upon this land after my awakening. Thus, he ordered me not to leave this place until the Godsoul has been imparted to the fated one.

“The only reason I have stayed here is to wait for the fated one… and I eventually came by you. I didn’t think that I’d have to wait ten thousand years for your arrival. Damn,” Taowu muttered grudgingly.

“You’re saying that the demon coffin opened not for Chu Feng but me?” Eggy asked.

“Of course, it’s for you. Haven’t you realized that the speed at which you assimilated the Asura God-Demon Stone hastened upon your arrival here? I used the energy in the formation my master left me to aid you. Otherwise, it’d have taken you much longer with those small limbs of yours!” Taowu said.

“Is that for real?”

Eggy narrowed her eyes in skepticism.

She had been in Chu Feng’s World Spirit Space all this while, and Taowu was a world spirit himself too. Yet, Taowu was actually able to use his master’s formation to interfere in Chu Feng’s World Spirit Space and hasten the speed of her cultivation?

She might have found it more believable had it been any other world spiritist, but Chu Feng’s World Spirit Space was different from the others. It had been tampered with by his mother.

But at the same time, Eggy wasn’t able to completely refute Taowu’s claim. The rate at which she assimilated the Asura God-Demon Stone did hasten after Chu Feng stepped into this realm.

“It’s only normal for you to doubt me. The current generation of world spiritists is really weak, after all. Honestly speaking, I was perplexed at the start why someone as talented as you would follow such a master. I didn’t think that Chu Feng was worthy of you.

“However, as I interacted with Chu Feng and watched his trials, I realized that he’s more talented than I thought. On top of that, he’s also a loyal person who doesn’t hesitate to stand up for those he cares for. People like him are rare in the world.

“That’s why, I think that you’re the one who isn’t worthy of him now,” Taowu said.

He secretly glanced at Eggy to assess her reaction.

“Hmph.”

Eggy pouted.