Chapter 90: Asura and Judgment

The Ancient Path of the Military Dao.

A blood-soaked figure crawled out of the vortex, stumbling and falling headlong into the Frozen Sea.

The bone-chilling cold eroded his entire body. Jian Changsheng endured the pain and the stiffness brought on by the cold, struggling to swim a hundred meters before finally climbing onto a two-meter-long floating ice floe.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

He lay weakly on the ice, his physical strength completely exhausted. A sea breeze blew past, and the moisture on his body froze into shards, stealing the last few traces of his warmth.

Jian Changsheng stared blankly at the black sky and the giant sword drifting away. His scarred, ferocious face was numb.

He had survived.

He didn't know how he had survived... The last thing he remembered was the image of Chen Ling standing before him with a gun. He remembered his heart being pierced through.

Thinking of this, Jian Changsheng subconsciously reached for his chest. The flesh was still intact; there was no gaping hole, and something seemed to be beating inside...

He could feel that with every beat of that heart, killing intent flowed through his veins, as if his entire being had been cleansed.

Also, something else seemed to have appeared within his body... constantly resonating with the black giant sword in the distance.

"That guy... what kind of monster is he?" Jian Changsheng recalled the red-clad figure who had slaughtered his way through the Ancient Path alone, and a lingering fear remained in his heart.

Ever since he had killed Yan Xicai and fought his way through, his spirit had reached an extremely sharp peak. He never expected that Chen Ling would jump out at the end and crush his pride into dust in just a few moves.

Most importantly, even now, he didn't know that person's identity... A Fire-Stealer? An Executor? Or some other shadowy organization?

Jian Changsheng rested for a moment and sat up on the ice. His gaze swept across the endless Frozen Sea, and a terrifying thought suddenly surged into his mind...

How was he supposed to get back?

When they came, they had taken a cruise ship for several hours. Now he had nothing. Was he supposed to paddle the ice floe back with his hands?

Jian Changsheng's expression grew even uglier, because he realized that apart from this option... he really had no other way.

He gritted his teeth, prostrated himself on the ice, and plunged his hands into the seawater. Relying on his astonishing speed and strength, he began to inch toward Winter Harbor.

Jian Changsheng would never have imagined that the once high-spirited [Asura] would now be reduced to a human-powered engine.

He had to speed up...

Before he starved or froze to death.

……

On the way back to District 3, Chen Ling told Han Meng everything that had happened inside the Ancient Path... of course, it was a version he had processed.

Han Meng listened in silence. It wasn't until long after Chen Ling had finished that he asked his first question in a hoarse voice:

"Jiang Qin... how did he die?"

"He was killed by that No. 8 Fire-Stealer." Chen Ling paused for a moment. "I avenged him."

Han Meng looked at the coat Chen Ling was wearing—the one that had originally belonged to No. 8—and a pain he couldn't hide flashed in his eyes. Chen Ling had never seen such loneliness and exhaustion on his face before.

"...Thank you." This time, it was Han Meng thanking Chen Ling.

Chen Ling didn't accept it, because he felt he didn't deserve this thanks... Jiang Qin was already dead, and avenging him didn't change anything. If he had really been capable, he should have saved Jiang Qin too.

As for the others in the Ancient Path, although their deaths were related to him, even if he hadn't stirred up the hatred between the Executors and the Fire-Stealers, they would have fought once the Fire-Stealers had seized the Dao Foundation fragments, not to mention the Thief Saint Bai Ye waiting outside.

From the very beginning, there was no possibility that this group of Executors would leave the Ancient Path alive.

"By the way." Han Meng looked at Chen Ling. "Did you step onto the Military God Dao this time?"

"Yes."

"Which path?"

"[Asura]."

A flash of surprise crossed Han Meng's eyes. He nodded slightly. "[Asura] is good... In all of Aurora City, very few people have stepped onto that path."

"Which path are you on?" Chen Ling asked, playing dumb.

"[Judgment]."

"Is it any different from [Asura]?"

"Of course. [Judgment] pursues ultimate lethality, but once the tier is high, the main body becomes relatively fragile... while [Asura] is the king of close-quarters combat. Although its lethality isn't as high as [Judgment], its survival capability is extremely strong.

Especially the Tier 1 skill [Blood Garment]. You should be able to feel the power it brings you... Unless you're killed in one hit, the more injured you are, the stronger your damage becomes. Once this effect is amplified to the limit, the damage is not inferior to [Judgment]."

Chen Ling nodded thoughtfully.

Now that he possessed the Tier 3 and Tier 4 skills of [Judgment], along with the Tier 1 skill of [Blood Garment]... combining the two, he wondered if that could be considered making up for each other's weaknesses?

"Then, after stepping onto the God Dao, how does one advance?" Chen Ling asked tentatively. "Are there any conditions that need to be met beforehand?"

"Conditions? There's no such thing."

Han Meng explained, "The fourteen God Daos of the world, although different, are essentially the same... They all use spiritual power to drive the ascension. Every ascension, besides gaining different skills, triggers a massive increase in spiritual power.

Ultimately, it comes down to individual talent. Those whose talent is compatible with the God Dao will have faster spiritual growth and faster advancement... If the talent is insufficient, advancement will be very difficult, and one will eventually stop at a certain tier, trapped for life.

Of course, after the fourth tier, advancement becomes increasingly difficult. Sometimes, besides the accumulation of spiritual power, you need a breakthrough opportunity."

As expected, other people's advancement didn't need to be as troublesome as his... Chen Ling sighed in his heart.

Besides the growth of spiritual power, he also needed to complete the performance tasks on the stone steps. If he couldn't complete them, even with high spiritual power, he couldn't enter the next tier. This meant that every step he took would be several times harder than anyone else's.

"Then, how long does it usually take to advance from the first tier to the second?"

"For an ordinary person, about two years. If the talent is good, a little over a year is barely enough..."

"That long??" Chen Ling was shocked. "Then how long did it take you?"

"Six months."

Chen Ling: ...

No wonder people in District 3 said Han Meng was a genius of the Military God Dao... Looking at it this way, the contrast was too obvious.

But Chen Ling felt something was wrong, because he had stepped onto the first tier of the Play God Dao only a week or so ago, and now, his feet were already almost touching the second step...

Chen Ling even felt that in a few days, he should be able to truly step onto the second tier.

Was he naturally gifted?

Or... did the rewards after completing the performances allow him to skip a large amount of time?