A Fool's Sacrifice

Yi Chao cleared his throat with a cough and pointed to the blue spear with white ribbon attached to its shaft. "That is a very good weapon for those who can use spears. It's called Thunder God's Spear and it can convert Spirit Energy to a powerful thunder. I don't know if little master can use it yet but it's among the best weapons here. Even if you can't use it now, you will surely be able to use it in the future!"

Asura came in front of the spear and slid his finger over its shaft. There were cloud markings along the shaft and white ribbon slightly fluttered with movement. When he touched the spear, he didn't feel any feedback and was surprised.

Asura: 'No spirituality? Hm...'

Asura turned to Yi Chao and asked, "Are there any weapons here that have developed spirituality?"

Yi Chao looked at Asura and once again reinforced his belief that this guy was from the Heavens. "Uhm... little master, spirituality in weapons is extremely rare. These are all grade six weapons. Weapons are split in grades one to ten, according to the material and quality of Spirit Energy they were made with. For a weapon to develop spirituality, it needs to surpass grade ten weapons, that's why they are rare..."

Asura listened to the explanation and asked once again, this time in a deeper tone of voice and with a sly smile, "But are there any?"

Yi Chao felt a shiver crawl up his spine. True, he had never mentioned that there weren't any, just that they were rare. "T-there is... one. But it's a Cursed Weapon. I wouldn't advise thinking about it."

Asura: "What's that?"

Yi Chao: "..."

*Sigh...*

Yi Chao hit his cheeks with his hands and took a deep breath before he started speaking again. From Asura's eyes, he could see intense curiosity. When he confirmed the existence of a weapon with spirituality, he was already doomed to satisfy this curiosity.

Yi Chao: "Cursed Weapons aren't made by any race, they are born from natural events. The reason why we call them Cursed is because those who use them without their recognition end up suffering strange and quite gruesome fates. Many even get consumed by the Spirit inside the weapon and become mindless or insane. Their condition then mimics the one as if they were cursed by a strong curse. That's why Cursed Weapons are generally avoided. If you aren't sure you can control a Cursed Weapon, you must never try to use one otherwise it would consume you."

Asura: "Great. I want to try!"

Yi Chao: "Er...." *sigh*, "Follow me."

The three followed Yi Chao to the center of the storage room with an empty space. After Yi Chao finished playing around with hundreds of different glowing symbols, the ground started shaking and a massive square-shaped pillar started protruding from the ground. After it fully came out and stopped, Yi Chao cut his finger and smeared a drop of blood on the skull-shaped symbol decorated by chains. After it came in contact with blood, the eyes in the skull glowed crimson and four *Clang~*s resounded from the corners.

Yi Chao turned around and said, "Little Saintess, please step back. I can't protect all of you from this thing, I can only protect little master. Whatever you do, don't touch anything without my approval, otherwise your lives may be in danger. That's all from me! Little master, come here."

Asura came next to Yi Chao and a half-transparent barrier started rising from the floor, enclosing the two of them and the pillar inside, isolated from Xia and old man. Yi Chao took a deep breath and pushed the blood-eyed skull. After he did that, the four sides of the pillar started gradually separating from the central part and fell with a strong "Bang!"

Asura's eyes immediately went wide as his mind came under a spiritual attack as soon as he saw what was embedded in a main platform. It was a black scythe with crimson patterns spreading along its body, pulsating with light as if there was a heart somewhere inside it. It radiated a strong and sharp aura of slaughter as if it wanted to take every life in the world.

The scythe's Spiritual Will seemed to sense an easy pray and a small blood-red coiling dragon shot out from it as it lost all aura. The coiling dragon plunged into Asura's forehead in a blink of an eye, not emanating any sound as it pierced through the air.

Asura's breathing became irregular as excitement started rapidly surging inside his heart as soon as he felt the blood-red coiling dragon entering his Soul World.

A very funny scene was unfolding in Asura's Soul World.

Blood-colored coiling dragon was suspended in his Soul World, trembling under the oppression from the Dragon Soul. Its head drooped low as soon as it met the Dragon Soul's eyes, especially when it gazed at the third eye. It was trembling like a small kitten in an unfamiliar environment with its small eyes closed. The small snake-like dragon suddenly felt a pat on its head and opened its terrified eyes.

There, it saw a girl that seemed like a Goddess herself. Her black hair accentuated her lovely eyes similar to the Dragon Soul with only individual colors swapped. White fox stood on her shoulder, gazing down at the dragon with slight curiosity. This blood-colored dragon had never witnessed a such a scene. It even seemed as if this little dragon was just a baby that instinctively wanted to feed off of Asura's Soul. However, when it saw the contents of his Soul World, It gave up any ideas of resistance and only marveled at the world it found itself in, deeply awed from all of it and even harboring a faint desire of belonging here.

Black-haired Xia smiled and gently rubbed the blood-colored dragon on its head, at the place where two bumps protruded, seemingly a place where its horns will form. She pointed with her finger towards the Dragon Soul silently suspended in space without any activity. "Little dragon, don't be cocky, alright? This big dragon here is the first one to occupy this space. It was here even before this little fox and me but it didn't mind sharing, so don't fear. If you become our friend, you will be able to live with us here, what do you say?"

Little blood-colored dragon immediately nodded its small head. It was somewhere around thirty centimeters long, barely enough to coil around Xia's arm.

The blood-colored dragon closed its black eyes and black-colored emblem appeared on its forehead. Immediately after that, a multicolored radiance shone from the Dragon Soul and green flame branded itself in the center of that emblem, after which the emblem returned to the coiling dragon's head.

When all this ended, little dragon happily coiled around Xia's hand and fell asleep.

-----

In the outside world, Asura held a big scythe in his hands as green flame-shaped mark started gradually submerging inside the scythe's body. He felt closeness coming from the scythe, as if he had spent his entire life with it. The previous aura of slaughter coming from the scythe vanished completely. The scythe turned into a black-red spot of light and shot inside Asura's forehead, similar to what had previously happened with little fox. The only thing that left was Asura's open hand and a smirk on his face.

Asura: 'At least this wasn't hard. I have a way to defend myself now, hehe. Though, I hope that won't happen soon... hm?'

While he was feeling self-satisfied that he obtained this weapon without any trouble, a certain someone finally snapped and rushed towards him. White flames lit up around Tianlong Bai as his hair started rapidly turning gray and falling off. A Sacred White Dragon materialized around his right arm as his body started drying rapidly from the forcible extraction of vitality. The Sacred White Dragon hit the barrier and caused it to shatter as half its power dissipated, but the remaining power was still very overbearing.

At the same time as Tianlong Bai moved, black flames lit up on Xia as she chased after him. She mustered all her power and directed the black flames toward the old man as a mirage of a Black Phoenix appeared behind her. She held nothing back.

*TSSSS...*

*Scree--*

*ROAR!*

Three screeches resounded, first from the air as it was burnt by black flame, second from the Sacred White Dragon with golden eyes and third from the pitch black Phoenix-shaped flame.

Asura only had one thought at this time in his mind, 'Shit!'

The phoenix made of black flames turned into a ray of light and fell on the old man, devouring his dried body almost instantly with not even ashes remaining. Instead of ashes, only a wave of terrifying heat exploded for a split second and there was no more Tianlong Bai in this world. However, the Sacred White Dragon extinguished those flames as soon as it came in contact with them and continued flying towards Asura even without the old man's existence.

*tak*

*splat*

Something resembling a stone tablet fell on the ground - the only thing left from Tianlong Bai's nonexistent corpse. Five drops of blood splattered across its surface, four of which diffused and interconnected with each other, forming a small multicolored streak. The fifth one was vivid green and it didn't mix with the previous four. This was what Asura originally gave to Tianlong Bai in order to make him live.

Tianlong Bai had sacrificed everything he had and poured it into this attack to make sure Asura wouldn't be able to survive. He gave up his life in exchange for another!

Yi Chao immediately reacted and assaulted the Sacred White Dragon flying towards Asura since he was already too late to do anything else. The least he could do was to weaken this attack as much as possible. However, he could only silently pray that Asura would miraculously be able to bear everything else.

Truth be told, the black flames and Yi Chao's grayish-red energy weakened this dragon by a lot and it even started dissipating slightly and becoming see-through, but it still had a considerable amount of energy in it.

Asura felt a terrific feeling creep up his heart as if he was staring death directly into the eyes one more time. He was familiar with this feeling quite a bit but it still made him extremely uncomfortable. The only thing he had time to do was raise his hand and pour all his energy in his hand, hoping to block this attack.

He finally felt how terrible the suppression from Abyss Dragon Suppression Art was. His awareness, thinking, observation abilities, control and even Soul were affected. Although it didn't suppress his cultivation, this was far worse. As if he had tons of money but was unable to spend it at all.

When he least expected it, the Abyss Dragon Suppression Art finally showed signs of activity. The crystal in his heart spewed black energy that rushed out of his hand and started madly twisting the air and space around it. The white dragon suddenly sped up and plunged into the black vortex formed on Asura's hand as both of them disappeared back inside Asura's body.

.

.

.

Everyone was silent.

Tianlong Bai was no more.

Yi Chao's eyes were overflowing with shock and incredulity.

Xia's eyes were filled with awe and relief.

Asura's eyes were filled with shock and disbelief.