Chapter 107: Ascension

Chapter 107: Ascension

Word count = 3107 on 11/5/2023

(Here we are boyzzz [and ladies]. We in the end game now)

It has been 8 months since Xue Tie has returned to his empire from the Sea God island. He had first satisfied his wife and then imparted a sizable heritage to Du Lie, the 2nd pope of his Blood Hall organization. There had been a few other major changes during this time.

The first is that a suitable number of blood beasts had been born after Xue Tie imparted his personal experiences and notes regarding the blood beast experiment. Combined with mixing lower level beasts into the enclosure, it has been found that the blood beasts can in fact reproduce, be it real beasts or with other blood beasts. The various beasts have different birth cycles so only a few new animals have been born. Studies have shown that they have a much stronger body from birth and all seem to have a natural affinity for blood along with whatever other elements they are naturally attuned to. Another thing is that even a child of a blood beast and another blood beast gives rise to a pure beast. How that works, the scientists on his team have been racking their heads over it.

Xue Tie likes the look of it but he worries about later generations of these newborn beasts if they can keep accumulating the various affinities then wouldn't that mean that god level beasts would be born in his backyard? He hopes that they only keep a few affinities, even if the others are just buried underneath, it would prevent any form of rioting from them. Xue Tie's thoughts were focused on the future where maps have been redrawn multiple times and technology constantly grew. He can't say with certainty that his empire would survive and has been thinking of the continued life of humans should his empire fall or be unable to properly maintain the safety of the people should the enclosure fall at any time.

His solution was continued observation and should the following generation also retain all affinities and potential then it could be introduced to the people or at least the empire's army as spirit rings.

Yes, the final tests on blood beasts had commenced and it was found that they can indeed provide soul rings. Though the first generation rings were much weaker than conventional rings. It's the equivalent of killing a 10k year old beast and only getting a 1k year old ring. Granted the test is still semi inconclusive due to the lack of age in many of these beasts. Tests to see if refinement actually changes their age have led to inconclusive results as some blood beasts respond better to it than others and have had ring growth within a certain species while others don't experience this ring growth..

Of course all of Xue Tie's hopes were based on the fact that the enclosure is not found and the viewer doesnt realize that this is a spirit beast farm. This is not the case, as Star Luo spies in their grievance had infiltrated his empire and found the enclosure. Nearly died to the beasts and then promptly informed the world about it. Xue Tie was forced to inform the world that yes, he is breeding beasts for the future generation of humans as the current consumption. This would only continue to grow in the future, and as such, would lead to the beasts extinction and the weakening of humans due to the lack of spirit rings. His unique phrasing and seemingly humanistic goals caused many human ideologists to cry tears of joy and some even volunteered or tried to sponsor such a project ...."For the good of humanity".

Xue Tie personally finds them kinda cringe.

Overall, the blood beast experiment is still ongoing and will take many more years before the final results can be realized, Xue Tie himself is no longer needed to maintain it at all. Which is a good thing as it would delay his personal progress to continue watching over it himself.

The second thing that happened in this 8 months of time, Xue Tie having given over his trident, the overall strength of his empire and the Blood Hall had risen to grand proportions as black rings are somewhat now the norm of his people.

There was a minor rebellion of people in his organization as various gangs and other 'enthusiastic' evil spirit masters tried to take over to get all the benefits for themselves. What they didn't know is that to even apply for ring ascension. They had to become official members and be given the organization tattoo. The design of which was created long ago [1] (pic at end for those that forgot design) and has finally come into play now. In truth, Xue Tie had enabled his scientific researchers to create a specific compound that is related to spirit power, making it so that this tattoo works akin to a brand when the appropriate action is done by someone who has a control device.

As such, when these 'idiots' rose up to try to take over, their tattoos promptly melted an arm or leg, as for those who got it on their chest, they barely survived with massive burns. Granted for the lost body parts, it's only what is below it that fell, so the tattoo itself still remains on their bodies should a second instance of insubordination arise.

In the meantime, these first few folks were consigned to jail time and usage of hypnosis spirit masters were used to make them more manageable. By swiftly taking these people down, the organization ensured the news of the tattoo didn't leak out for copycats or to prevent panic amongst the more regular folk as not everyone nowadays is a refugee from Slaughter City. There are actual good people amongst the members now which slowly shifts the moral compass of the organization to be more helpful and serve as Xue Tie's empire's hidden bastion.

Speaking of Slaughter city, Xue Tie originally had his own father become the newest Slaughter King but after so long. The other minor clans had proven their worth to be trustworthy and his mothers native clan was remade into the Slaughter Clan and established as its worthy monarchs. Of course still subordinate to Xue Tie and his empire. At most, Slaughter City has become a separate organization from the Blood hall to become a nesting ground for evil spirit masters. The four clans working together have created a suitable environment for black hearted fellows to thrive…in a more manageable fashion as Xue Tie was actually pretty annoyed with SL3 for letting evil spirit masters grow so out of control. You would think they would be long exterminated at some point for all their offenses but he partially blames this on Huo Yuhao who didn't manage his spirit Pagoda well and let it be completely taken over to essentially control the federation at that time.

Now though, he has effectively become the god of all evil spirit masters as his legends in Slaughter city have spread. The first being his little escapade when he first arrived and casually killing hundreds of people in one day and then escaping with his life. The other being taking down the original Slaughter king and wresting control of the city from a known god, the Asura God.

The final thing that happened was that Xue Tie was able to find a worthy successor to his empire's throne. His former students: Shu Xin (the original fire/poison user) and Qi Ming (bat martial spirit user, aka batman) had worked together on a genius they had found whilst traveling around, they might have settled down but they still pay homage to Xue Tie by watching over his companies and businesses on his behalf. The student is a young girl named Shi Mei, who was the hate born child of two evil spirit masters that was currently living in the streets. She had purposely evaded detection from the various orphanages that Xue Tie had built to clean up the cities he sponsored. She had a unique martial spirit in the form of a rusty fan. It seems to be a unique martial spirit as she confidently calls it the rotten fan. It was later discovered that she was actually a distant relative of the ancient Xue Clan when it was forced to scatter during the initial pre-divine conflicts hundreds of years ago.

She was 14 when both Shu Xin and Qi Ming had found her, they were awestruck at the girl and her intellect. As such, they had been raising and training her as an adoptive child. She was shown the wonder of the world and naturally pays homage to Xue Tie as uncle or grand master since he is the teacher of her two teachers. Even Xue Tie had praised her quite a bit and offered to give her the crown. Though he didn't tell her but instead told his two students of his thoughts and thus a plan to help her turn into a proper empress was born.

The Shi mei or if she followed her original clan name, Xue Mei [2] is now 16 years old, coming onto 17 when she was informed that she is worthy of the throne if she so desired it. She accepts the responsibility but only if her teachers continue to guide her. The duo have no reason to decline and accept the position of Vice Prime ministers of the Empyrean Empire, at least until Shi Mei could stand on her own as an empress before they take up the role of Elders in the Blood Hall whilst having their own families.

In a hidden abode within an underground cave. An early middle aged looking man with red hair and brown eyes is found meditating. Dark storm clouds hover over this hidden abode, thunder rumbling and rain falling over this region of land. The meditating person suddenly opens their eyes with a golden light in his eyes which then dissipates as a pair of angelic wings sprout on his back. The wings then turn black due to the energy type of the man.

He spreads his wings and exits the abode into the open space. His eyes gazing up into the sky.

(A/N: Here is where I would have typically ended this chapter as a cliffhanger-kun but i owe yall a bit for not posting yesterday- up to here is 1885 words, including author's message at end)

This floating person is naturally Xue Tie who has finally reached 'spirit rank 100'. He is now considered a God officer and must ascend to the divine realm to become a proper god as otherwise he would just be a 'wild god' with no divine property. Yet his breakthrough was quite different as he had long discarded the traditional human path and instead cultivated the beast path as that even provided him the blessing of the original Dragon God who had cursed humans with heavy limits as long as they consume spirit beasts and their rings. He too was cursed but he weakened this curse by voluntarily giving up his rings. If anything, the curse is just the hidden accumulation of resentment from all the beasts he killed but since they were already merged into his DeathCore. This weakened the resistance to his ascension.

The final part needed for him to have properly ascended was to connect his own death energy into the concept of death created by the planet, serving as its representative and acquiring the divine throne of death that originally belonged to the first death god.

Yet every time he is close to achieving this, he finds the karma and faith of the food god and even minor interference from the Rakshasa god and their subordinate gods interfering with his meditation. This is why it has taken him 8 months to reach this point, otherwise he would have only needed a day. While they might have halted his immediate progress, this instead turned his one and done progress into a load bar as he gathered up the affinity and progress over the course of time. With his final connection reaching the throne, the 1 million year old beast tribulation has arrived since he is not walking the natural path of humans. This tribulation was originally formed by the Asura god and many other human gods to suppress beasts but this is an automated system created by them long ago. As such, it's an emotionless program being run by a computer who simply uses 'if-else' programming terminology.

The lightning had been threateningly showing itself as a nice yellow lightning but Xue Tie quickly finds that once again, the additional karma and faith is provided to the tribulation lightning, elevating its prowess from yellow, to blue, to red lightning.

"Heh, how appropriate, the color of blood for my tribulation" Xue Tie muses to himself as he casually awaits the lightning. He plans to undergo this divine tribulation with open arms and a wide smile. He could have easily shred the faith energy and return the tribulation to normal but that would have been boring. He had long surpassed a 1 million year old beast in terms of his body. Back when he faced the sea gods trials, he could have gone toe to toe with one, yet now he is stronger. The divine thrones connection to him, refining his body and making him more compatible with his divine duties but this current situation is unstable which is why Xue Tie plans to let the lightning guide his body to higher peaks.

CLAP

A heavy clap of thunder resounds as the black clouds spread for tens of miles. This final clap was the indicator for the true start of the tribulation.

CLAP THUD CRASH

Xue Tie is struck by a fast red lightning bolt that sends him crashing into the ground. The speed is too fast for Xue Tie to properly evade, not that he would anyways. From the rubble, Xue Tie climbs out with his martial spirit active on his body now. It seems his entire outfit was turned to dust instantly but the lightning itself was only able to leave a small black dot where it connected as his body absorbed the rest of the energy to nurture his divine physique.

Second bolt comes down but Xue Tie is prepared this time ahead and punches out at it which causes him to sink deeper with split skin on his fist which is now bleeding as all the concentration came down at his fist as compared to being struck on his chest and spreading it out to his whole body. He chose to refine his arm from this lightning bolt. The first bolt gave his body the stimulation and now he is confident in taking it all.

The third bolt comes down and he strikes out with his other arm to refine it. Fourth bolt, the area around him seems to undergo some sort of pressure but it's lesser than even the sea gods pyramid and he took that on easily once he underwent his last refinement under his trident. He uses his left leg. Fifth bolt, the pressure spreads out further and harder but Xue Tie is still not worried as he uses his right leg.

Now the next bolt would be most dangerous so far as it would be against his head. Now it has to be noted that each bolt has been stronger than the last. If he got a relatively large scratch on his right arm, his left got a deeper scratch but not enough to see bone. His left leg got bone but his bones are durable beyond belief so the 5th bolt didn't give any different results. This next one might be different as there is a small break for the sky to seemingly roar in rage as the next bolt gathers up. It seems conscious of his efforts to strengthen his body through the tribulation. The red aura from the lightning which causes a sort of dusk like glow throughout the clouds slowly turns dark and then pure black.

The Sixth lightning bolt strikes down and Xue Tie takes a deep breath to prepare himself for the pain as he seems to headbutt this lightning bolt. He is shot far away, causing a trench to be created from his sliding action. Xue Tie is lying down flat on his back but even then the lightning doesnt dissipate, it gathers up even more force for the next bolt. Hints of gold seep into the black lightning as it thunders to shoot down.

Xue Tie on the other hand is simply lying there, a closer look reveals that his entire forehead has been turned to paste, and while his skull is intact if not just darkened, what about the brain behind it.

The thunder still roars before the lightning itself seems to shapeshift into a giant speartip from a trident that comes down upon Xue Tie. The thickness of this makeshift trident is 50 ft wide (roughly 15m wide), reaching down from the sky. It utterly crushes the surrounding desert ground, the hidden abode is destroyed and Xue Tie disappears.

(A/N: I have a question at the end of the authors note below->)[3]

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[1] I believe during volume 2, during the foundations of his organization, I had mentioned that Xue Tie had gone shopping for various supplies when he created his organization. It should have been around chapter 39 maybe, I don't exactly remember but it was the blood drop coated in gold with white wings. Ill repost it here again as Web Novel doesnt allow me to go that far back in my comment notifications to see when I originally posted this picture.

[2] My minor efforts into research had revealed that Mei is supposed to mean 'beautiful' or something like that, so her name unironically means Beautiful Iron/ Iron Beauty…which is ironic since her martial spirit is a rusty fan.

[3] I am actually thinking of continuing this story into sl2 and maybe 3. Are there any recommendations for fanfics or stories that are related to these two eras where the author provides a great amount of detail about the world itself or are just great in general? Also maybe what are some tropes that are disliked in certain stories. I've started rereading sl2 manga so I'd like to have more references if possible before I start.