Reaper of the Martial World

Book 1: Chapter 35: You Must Survive

Dyon’s mind was working on overdrive. He had just realized something that made this situation a lot more dangerous than he assumed, it was likely that if he spent too much to get out of this one that he’d die even if he managed to survive.

‘How laughable, I revealed my cards to the big sects and the God Clans because I thought this world would be worth the risk. When I compared the information I knew about this world with my master’s memory, I deduced that it must be the legacy world of an expert that surpassed doa formation. But…’

Unfortunately for Dyon, the only thing that was true was the power of the owner of this world. If Dyon was right… this wasn’t a legacy world at all. And now, all of those who had followed him in were infected with a demonic qi that was supposedly meant to help them with the coming trials. But, if Dyon was correct… all that meant was that they’d have no chance to resist when the time came.

Dyon’s eyes sharpened, ‘you think it’s that easy to use me, hm? I don’t know why you’ve set up this farce, but I promise you that playing with me won’t be easy.’

Dyon knew that even though these were his enemies, he would have to work with them if any of them wanted to leave alive. That meant he’d need to find the first opportunity possible to wash them over with celestial will and remove the demonic qi.

BANG!

The doors closed behind them. They found themselves in a room that looked more like a control center. There was an array formation and a clear place of deposit for energy stones.

‘this… the tower is a device? Can it move?…’

“As you can see, this entire tower is actually the legacy I’ve chosen to leave behind. It’s known as the Netherworld Tower. It’s a Supreme Treasure surpassing transcendent treasures. As my successor, you’d be able to use your blood to form a contract with it once I officially pass on. You’ll have to become stronger to open the floors all the way to the top, but, as long as you have the enough transcendent stones, the speed you reach will be incomparable to anything else. It will also provide you with a base level of defense that can also be boosted with transcendent stones. Other than that, all of my life’s techniques, treasures and thoughts on cultivation can be found as long as you have the strength to ascend the top.”

“Senior, I’m not sure of how long it has been since you created this legacy world, but transcendent stones are incomparably rare. Is it possible to power this tower with doa stones instead?”

The figure tossed a look of Dyon assumed was disdain since he couldn’t see the expert’s face, “you can power the tower with any kind of stones as long as you have enough. If you want to waste millions of doa stones just to move a small distance, it would be nothing but a waste. If you want to be my successor yet can’t even get transcendent stones, then why would I even choose you?”

Dyon smiled, nodding.

“dumbass,” muttered Ace.

Dyon seemed unbothered. Only he knew the reason he asked the question.

“I’m actually interested in your story senior. I know you’re an unparalleled expert, but I want to know your story so that I can properly represent you as your successor,” Dyon said politely.

Dyon was smirking on the inside, ‘this guy sure is a good actor. Why is he telling us about a treasure he has no intention of giving us? There must be a reason he needs to maintain a façade even against people so much weaker than him.’

The other geniuses were interested as well, but Niveus seemed to sense that something was off with the way Dyon was acting. But, sending secret messages in the presence of such an expert was impossible.

“Ai, I’m the Sage of the Demon Empire. I was an expert body cultivator and my understanding of the demonic and destructive was unparalleled. I’ve created many techniques in my life, but, among my most prideful would be my Blood Sacrifice technique,” the expert smirked, proud that his technique could maintain its place in history despite its simple name – a testament to its power.

The geniuses who knew of the technique trembled to think the creator of such a powerful technique was right in front of them.

Dyon’s eyes narrowed when he heard this, ‘no wonder they were able to open this world after sacrificing a few thousand students. I was confused before. Although many students had died, in the face of hundreds of years of accumulating energy, some 3^rd and 4^th foundation layer students should have been a drop in the bucket… it seems that the world itself resonated with the technique, making it willing to open itself up.’

“I reached a transcendent realm of cultivation. However, my life came to an when end my life span had reached its final day…”

A silence pervaded the room.

“enough! Let’s begin with the test. The remaining candidate will have the opportunity to completely fuse with my soul, giving you all the memories of my life. This will make your future cultivation smoother.”

With a wave of his hands, they disappeared from the control room and entered another.

“this is one of the training rooms within the tower. The first test was a measure your intelligence and your strength. You needed to not only kill the creatures, but also understand the reason why it would be best if you didn’t avoid too many of them just so you could reach the tower faster. This one, however, will test your comprehension abilities towards martial techniques.”

Massive obsidian stones sat in the middle of the room.

“This will be the final test. Each stone contains the same technique. Whoever reaches small success of its first stage fastest will not only attain my blood essence, but also gain the right to fuse with me soul. The blood essence of a body cultivation expert like me should be something you all dream of. Think of it as a last gift for my successor.”

A flash of lightning his Dyon as he heard this, ‘he… he needs a body!’

The other geniuses had already reached their own obsidian stones and sat in front of them. Dyon had no choice but to take a deep breath and sit in front of his. Placing his hand on it, a flash bang went off in his head as he delved into the technique.

‘let me slow down my comprehension and think… he’s clearly doing his very best to have us lower our guard, this can only mean that its much harder to attack a soul and possess than it is to defend. I don’t want to have to use my trump card here. How laughable would it be if a world I chose to go into is the one that forces my master’s remnant soul to save me…’

Dyon shook his head and decided to see if the technique in the obsidian stone was of any use. With a thought, the technique fully imprinted into Dyon mind and he removed his hand to meditate on it.

‘This… higher levels of this technique even require understanding domains and doas… What a high level technique, definitely divine.’

It was a body cultivation type technique called: Demon Emperor’s Will. It had 3 stages split into 3 levels of understanding much like Dyon’s celestial movement technique. Except, this technique allowed you to multiply the power of your body and impose your will on the space around you.

‘it’s so taxing on the body… but it provides a 2x physical strength increase at the first stage small success. I need to take this opportunity to learn it,’ thought Dyon seriously.

The figure watched this seen with a sly smile covered by his hood, ‘I appreciate your hard work. As soon as I understand which of you has the most potential, we’ll know exactly who will have the privilege of ruling the worlds with me, HAHAHA’

‘How domineering…’ Thought Dyon.

A demon stands above all. Laughing in the face of pain. Slaughtering in the face of peace. Raping in the face of love. Dominating in the face of oppression….

As Dyon began to read and comprehend these words, a blood thirsty aura began to cover him.

The figure’s eyes widened, ‘he’s already taken the first step in understanding the technique?… he shouldn’t have such an advantage… even if the others have only understood artificial wills, it should still help them much more… what a genius’

A grin appeared on the face of the figure, ’if I had this level of comprehension in my past life, I would have long since crushed my enemies beneath my feet… I appreciate your efforts.’

**

The days passed in silence, until finally on the third…

BOOM!

Dyon felt his body expand several sizes. He felt his muscles tearing apart and his bones tearing apart.

“ROOOAAAARRR,” a demonic roar filled the training room.

Dyon couldn’t let this continue, so he immediately stopped stimulating the technique, unwilling to continue torturing his body. He fell onto his back, breathing heavy.

“HAHAHA, it seems I’ve found my successor!”

The other geniuses awakened from their meditation with incredulous expressions on their faces. They knew very well how hard it was to practice that technique. They had expected to spend months here, but, in just 3 days Dyon had already broken through to small success of the first stage.

‘freak!’

The red-haired young man from the flame blade sect looked on at this scene with a look of anger on his face.

Dyon chuckled, wondering how they’d feel if they knew he only took so long because he was memorizing the rest of the technique first.

‘the others aren’t bad talents either… I guess I’ll keep them here as slaves. They can become my new demon generals.’

With a flash, they appeared in another room. It seemed completely vacant except for one coffin at the end of the room, elevated on a set of stairs.

“This is my resting place and also the most central part of this tower. You won’t be able to come here freely until you become more powerful, my successor, but, I want you to know what you have to look forward to. Come, I’ll give you my blood essence now. With it, your comprehension of demonic wills will increase by leaps and bounds.”

The geniuses clenched their fists as they watched Dyon make his way up the stairs with the figure.

They reached a black jade coffin, embroidered in what looked like demonic crystals. The figure tapped the outer layer of the coffin and a massive drop of blood came out. It was pumping with vitality and was a bright crimson red.

“sit.”

Dyon had no choice but to comply. He crossed his legs and slowed his breathing as a searing pain invaded his body.

“AAAAGGGHHHHH”

Dyon felt his bones rearranging and becoming denser. His muscles were ripping themselves apart and reforming, stronger. His eyes were flashing black and crimson colors. His skin was becoming fairer and his features sharpened, enhancing his handsome features.

A ridiculous thought passed through Dyon’s mind, ‘if I wasn’t wearing sweatpants… wouldn’t I be naked by now.’

Unfortunately, the thought did nothing to help with the pain as his body expanded and contracted with no regard for his will. The sword on his back vibrated in excitement, which caught the attention of the figure, but he didn’t think too much about it considering it would be his sword soon. All Dyon could think of was the fact he didn’t want to get freakishly tall, just 2 meters was enough. Anymore and he’d never be able to return to the human world like a normal person.

Hours later, Dyon had integrated less than 1% of the essence blood and the figure felt that that was enough for now.

Sweat covered every inch of Dyon. His skin was reddened from the strain and you could faintly see his muscles still rearranging themselves beneath his skin, giving him a more defined physique.

”I’ve done all I can for you, the rest of the blood with have to be integrated later. The final thing I will do for you, my successor, is to fuse with your soul. Open yourself up and relax. Allow the memories to flow through you.”

Dyon nodded, hiding the feeling of the cold sweat that was permeating his back deep within him, ‘this is the moment of truth…’

The geniuses looked on in envy as the figure slowly morphed into a beam, entering Dyon.

The red-head gripped his ring, ‘this is the best chance I’ll have!’

Niveus was off to the side, biting her lips, ‘why would he bring us here…’. Niveus tried to move but her eyes widened as she found she could no longer attempt to leave.

“What the fuck is going on!” raged Ace.

“Ace, what’s wrong?” questioned Elof.

“Try attacking him!”

Elof furrowed his eyebrows, but then he seemed to realize something. This was the best time to attack Dyon. The soul of the legacy was occupied, and Dyon was focused on integrating the memories. But, when he tried to attack, he shivered.

“I can’t attack!”

“It won’t let us leave either!” said the red-head through gritted teeth.

‘How is this happening…’ thought Niveus. Then, she came to a sudden realization, “THE DEMONIC QI!”

The geniuses turned to look at Niveus, not understanding.

“The demonic qi is controlling our wills. Didn’t you notice how the creatures were distinctly human like? And how they were filled with demonic qi? This so-called Sage of the Demon Empire had no interest in passing on a legacy, he wants slaves. It’s most likely that Dyon is about to lose his body right now…”

The geniuses were in no mood to laugh at Dyon’s misfortune. They were truly in a bad spot. They could only wait for endless slavery or death. How could they fight against such an expert?!

**

Inside Dyon’s body, the soul was calmly fusing with him as though he had no intentions of stealing Dyon’s body.

Dyon smirked, ‘so, how long do you plan on pretending to be a legacy?’

The figure’s soul was startled, but then a hoarse laughter filled the space, ‘HAHAHAHA, you are quite smart. But, that doesn’t matter right now. I’ve already mostly integrated with you, I just need to not erase my will and your body will be mine!’

‘oh? Is that so? It’s a shame you’ve fallen so far from your peak.’

‘what is that supposed to mean?’

‘oh, nothing much. Just that if you were anywhere near your peak, you would have been able to see everything going on in your own legacy world. And you would have noticed that the body you’re trying to take over not only has Celestial Deer essence blood, it also has celestial will!’

The figure shivered, ‘impossible! How could you have such an affinity for the demonic with such a high affinity for the celestial!’

‘it’s simple really. I had a good master and she used the last of her will to balance not only her essence blood, but also her husband’s demon qilin essence blood within me.’

The figure was trembling in agitation. What kind of shit luck was this?!

‘so what?! Your celestial will is only comparable to an ant’s in front of me? You think you can fight against my demonic doa?!’

‘Don’t be silly, I would never deem to. Originally, I was planning on using the remnant soul my master left me…’

‘remnant soul?… NO!’

Dyon laughed, ‘there’s no need to be so anxious. I won’t even need to use it. I realized as you were integrating with me that you’re not even really alive. You’re using a demonic technique to keep yourself together. I don’t need to fight you directly, I just need to use my celestial will to cleanse your technique which is clearly already fading. Otherwise, why would you allow such weak people to be able to find your world? You must have been disappointed when they still took an extra 500 years to open it, huh?’

The soul trembled in anger as it began to feel itself being slowly enveloped in celestial will.

‘WAIT! STOP! If you destroy me now, those kids outside will immediately attack you! You may be a genius, but you’re still too weak to face them! You need me!’

‘I’m fully aware that you’re controlling them with demonic qi. But, unfortunately, I’m not in the business of allowing those who try to possess me live. You can die now…’

BOOM!

An explosion occurred in Dyon’s mind as he wiped the will of the Sage of the Demon Empire, leaving only a sliver. But, this had an unexpected result.

The world trembled, the tower creaked, and the geniuses began feeling as though they were being pulled out of the world.

“Huh, what?”

“What’s going on?”

“I thought we were stuck here?!”

“Quick! We can attack now!” Raged Ace with a demonic look on his face.

The red-haired young man smirked. He pulled out an odd treasure. It looked like a regular cube, but it reflected absolutely no light. It slowly opened up in time for Dyon’s eyes to fall on it.

Dyon looked up at the red-head, narrowing his eyes, “Chenglei!”

The red-head chuckled, “you’re quite smart. To be able to outdo such an expert. I’d thank you for saving all of our lives, but I’d prefer it if you died. In your next life, you must really learn who you can and can’t offend.”

The red-head slowly morphed into a tall and sharp Asian young man. His black eyes shone with killing intent as the stared intently at Dyon.

The cube slowly separated into 4 equal parts, opening to reveal an incomparably bright orb.

SSSHHLIIIINGGG

A beam of unfathomable power charged towards Dyon. Even among the destruction of the world and the sneers of the geniuses or even the pounding of his own heart, there was no sound to be heard. There was only the beam and death. Only despair and resentment. Only killing intent and the end of everything.

Dyon smiled bitterly, ‘to really be forced to this extent…’

BOOM!

A celestial being appeared before Dyon, defending against the beam, “Dyon! I can’t block it all! Prepare yourself!”

Dyon gritted his teeth, ashamed. He had to use his master’s last bit of will to defend against a boy not much older than him!

“AAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!” Dyon felt his inner organs tearing apart as portions of the beam passed his masters weakening defenses. No matter what he tried, he couldn’t mend them back together.

Dyon grit his teeth, watching the strong back of his master fight to protect his life, ‘this is the last of her power… the last piece of her in this world… and yet it’ll disappear like this?…’

The beam slowly weakened. The geniuses smirked, only Niveus stood there, pale faced.

‘Master… I’m sorry for being so useless…’

Dyon felt a warm smile in his consciousness, ‘I never expected you to take me as your master… But, consider this as my last gift to my first disciple… I never wanted you to represent the Celestial Deer Clan and face the world, but… I felt an indescribable happiness when I felt your resolve… thank you little one…’

‘Master! No! He must have something here that could preserve his soul!’

A beautiful face turned to Dyon, shaking her head, ‘I can’t use such evil techniques just to maintain my life… I’ll entrust the rest to you…’

The beam of light slowly disappeared. Fading with it was the last smile of Dyon’s master.

“You cowardly men! He just saved out lives! You disgusting pieces of trash!”

“Don’t be like that Niveus,” Elof said with a smirk, “he didn’t do it to save you, he did it to save himself. Although, I should thank him very much.”

“You –You disgust me!”

The smiles on the geniuses’ faces froze as they heard a cough.

Dyon clutched his stomach, coughing up blood. He tried to use his aurora flame to heal himself again, but it just wasn’t working, ‘is this because of the device?…’ suddenly a thought flashed across Dyon’s mind, ‘is it because of the sage demon essence blood?…’

Dyon had no time to think, he had to immediately get himself out of this situation.

“You?!!”

‘I don’t have potent enough pills to heal me… and I have to make a contract with this tower so I don’t have time to use the pill condensation technique.. FUCK! I can’t let this trip only yield a masochistic technique. I need this tower to get away too!’

“GET OUT!” Dyon’s voice boomed in anger as the world crashed down around them.

Dyon imposed the last bit of soul of the Sage within his body, tossing everyone but himself out of the tower and teleporting to the control room. Getting there, he wiped the last bit of the Sage’s will before rushing to the center and sitting cross legged, ignoring the trembling world and the pain.

Dyon gritted his teeth, fighting against the pull of the teleport to drop his blood onto the tower’s mechanism. He slowly controlled it to the pattern of the array, ensuring that his blood outlined the entire formation.

**

Outside the blackhole created by the world opening treasure, the geniuses began being teleported out, causing the elders to breathe a sigh of relief.

“Lehabim! Let your master know how it went, HAHAHA,” an elder with fiery red hair let his voice boom.

“A –“ Lehabim couldn’t find the words to let his master know that he hadn’t even qualified for the final trial. And to even further let him know that someone from their sect he had never seen had while he hadn’t? The shame was too much.

“Hashim? What’s wrong?” A dark skinned elder with long dreads looked at Hashim with a questioning look.

“M-master…”

“Well spit it out! Orbis? Knoton? Any of you! Let us know what happened!”

The geniuses could only bitterly smile, “none of us received the inheritance elders… we have no idea who did, we weren’t allowed to participate in the final trial,” Jessica said bitterly.

The elders froze, before smiling bitterly, “it’s only to be expected. How could you compete with God Clan geniuses,” the elder of the Wind Blade Sect laughed trying to lighten the mood.

The geniuses were too ashamed to let their elders know that Dyon had at least made it to the final trial.

Soon, the God Clan geniuses began coming out, with equally as frustrated faces. Causing the elders great confusion.

An elder from the Kami clan looked towards Chenglei in confusion, “Chenglei? When did you go into the world? What happened?”

This elder knew Chenglei because he was often with Akihiko in the past. But, he had always known him to be a calm and calculating boy, not one to show his emotions on his sleeve like this.

“Esteemed elder Kami, we must kill Dyon!”

The elder’s confusion deepened, “we were going to do this anyway, why are you so adamant now?”

“He… He is the sole possessor of the inheritance!”

BOOM!

The elder’s faces paled. The one they had rejected, the one they thought was the weakest among the geniuses, had won the favor of the legacy world? What kind of sick joke was this?

Elder Kami frowned, “what was the inheritance exactly?”

Chenglei clenched his fists, “there was a divine technique, but, it was erased from our memories when we failed to learn it as quickly as Dyon… And, the tower we took the test in is a supreme level treasure with countless treasures!”

Chenglei had wanted his family to secretly hunt Dyon and steal these for themselves. But, everyone that had reached the final trial with him knew, so it would be impossible to keep it a secret.

“And that’s on top of the essence blood of a body cultivation expert that reached a transcendent realm of cultivation!”

The elders trembled as the geniuses clutched their fists in agitation.

Madeleine smiled up in the sky, clenching her tiny fists, ‘I knew you could do it.’

“WHERE IS HE?!” Boomed the elders.

“We… we don’t know,” whispered Chenglei, “he thrust us out of the tower as the world was collapsing.”

Niveus looked down on the angry geniuses with disgust, “I’ve never seen a group of more pathetic individuals. Do you have any idea that Dyon saved all of your lives?!”

The geniuses who hadn’t been in the final trial looked over in confusion.

“Have you ever heard of a legacy world that would be open for days from the outside? Have you ever heard of a legacy world that didn’t give smaller opportunities to the supposed losers of the trial? Experts are incomparably boastful and prideful. How could they only allow 1 person to know the extent of their powers? Especially when they know it would be likely that the genius they chose would hide what they received from the rest of the world in order to maintain a certain level of safety?! You would all have been slaves if Dyon hadn’t defeated the expert!”

The geniuses trembled. They had wanted nothing more than to kill Dyon, but now they knew he was their savior…

“That’s irrelevant!” roared Lehabim, “our sects invested so much to open the world and now only an outsider benefits?!”

“We’ll kill him as soon as he steps out of that world!”

“Right!”

A sinister glare flashed by the eyes of the God Clan Geniuses.

“SURROUND THE EXIT!” roared Elof.

Lehabim, Hashim, the God Clan geniuses and the Storm family geniuses immediately surrounded the exit, all wanting Dyon’s treasures for themselves.

Baal licked his lips, “I haven’t had such a handsome man in a long time, my yin is starting to outweigh my yang, maybe I should take a taste.”

The geniuses around him shivered, but said nothing.

Elof had practically forgotten about the possibility of the Storm family being traitors from his family, all he was worried about was Dyon and the inheritance. How could he be worried about a single technique when the creator of the technique left his everything to someone he hated to his very core.

‘I’ll kill Dyon first, then take care of these traitors.’

Oblivious to his thoughts, the Storm family was thinking along the same lines. They had spent so much effort for a single technique, when the whole collection was before them now. Was this not worth the risk? They were already aware that their seniors were nearby, and a war was inevitable. So, why not benefit some more?

They had been waiting for 10 minutes, yet there was no sign of Dyon. They were beginning to worry that he had found another way to escape. Not to mention, they had just found out that none of their geniuses had sniffed the final trial, let alone won the inheritance. And this was on top of the fact that the kid they wanted nothing more than to kill had been the one to succeed.

There was a formation of people around the exit to the world. Since it hadn’t closed yet, they were certain that Dyon had, at the very least, not actually escaped.

“elders, there’s no need for any of you to act in this situation… Let the younger generation teach him a lesson,” spoke Hashim.

“It’s about time that weak bitch caught a loss,” sneered Lehabim.

The first brother of the Storm family stood back.

“are you not going to participate, first brother?” Asked Baal while licking his lips.

First brother said nothing, choosing instead to look into the sky as though he was calculating something.

“don’t bother him Baal, it’s below first brother to need to gang up on a single kid,” spoke Autumn.

BOOM!

Dyon fell from the rapidly closing black hole, breathing heavily on his hands and knees.

Madeleine looked down at this scene, her heart trembling, “Master… he’s hurt.”

The Sapientia clan elder furrowed her eyebrows, but said nothing.

Sitting up, Dyon rested his back against the furthest edge of the yacht, looking at all of his enemies before him.

Blood seeped past his lips as he smiled, “this is quite a welcoming committee you have here for me”

The crowd was astonished.

“How can he smile in this situation, they clearly want to kill him!”

“The idiot probably thinks they’ll reward him for being the genius that claimed such a powerful inheritance!”

Caedlum stood in the clouds, watching this scene. Much like Dyon, he had realized the purpose of the demonic qi and decided to learn true demonic will as well. The problem was that his comprehension speed was nowhere near as fast as Dyon’s, so, he hadn’t succeeded. It was unfortunate, but now all of the demonic qi was gone.

Oliver was frowning, he wanted to help, but this was a level he just wasn’t at yet.

The geniuses clenched their fists in anger at Dyon’s nonchalant attitude when he was clearly heavily injured.

Chenglei stepped forward, “I don’t know how you survived, but you won’t be getting out of here alive.”

Dyon watched this scene calmly, a funny thought crossing his head when he realized he couldn’t find Tammy, ‘that girl is more interesting than I thought… well, that only helps me’

“one versus 11, huh?…” Dyon slowly stood, a killing intent rolling from him.

He slowly rolled his neck, spitting the blood in his mouth over the yacht railing.

Dyon looked up at the clouds, staring right through them and landing on Madeleine. He smiled a bright smile and winked.

Madeleine trembled, ‘he can see me… and even now he’s telling me not to worry.’

Madeleine held back her tears, clenching her fists. Her master looked on at this scene solemnly.

‘you have to survive,’ they both thought.