Cade glanced to his left, where from the direction of the landing site a white-robed elder with a long gray beard was approaching, supporting himself with an elegant wooden cane. His grandfatherly, affable appearance and a broad, kind smile stood in stark contrast to his emotional fluctuations.

  Deception. Greed. Confidence. Poorly masked bloodlust. Is he in the middle of True Core? No—the peak of the early stage.

  The Asura frowned briefly. I see. This old bastard used cultivation furnaces to reach his current rank but ultimately failed to break through. No wonder his life signature and cultivation don’t align.

  Suddenly, an idea sparked in his mind, and his lips stretched into a devious grin.

  “Senior Elfbane?!” Cade’s voice boomed through the air, charged with a surge of blood qi. “How bold of you to visit Oasis! Truly, Senior is a dragon among men—utterly fearless!” He broke into loud, deliberately exaggerated laughter, further drawing the attention of everyone in the vicinity.

  Raz of the Bonebreaker tribe, better known as Elfbane, was a notorious beastborn killer and rapist who preyed on elven women. Only a rough sketch of him existed. He appeared mostly human, possessed an early True Core cultivation, and was rumored to sport a long, graying beard. Wanted posters bearing his likeness were plastered all over Oasis. While this old man didn’t perfectly match the description, the elves were so determined to capture Elfbane that it was unlikely they’d let him go without confirming his identity beyond any doubt.

  The white-robed man stopped instantly, the benevolent smile disappearing from his face.

  While Cade was expecting some sort of reaction from the Tower Oasis City Watch, he did not expect anything like what came next.

  The heads of the six guards at the Treasure Emporium—four of them elves—swiveled as one toward the old man, their faces twisting into hateful grimaces.

  “Elfbane?!”

  “Bastard, I knew I'd seen your bearded mug somewhere!”

  “Get him, boys!”

  Their raspy yells cut through the background noise of the trade ring as all four lithe silhouettes shot towards the white-robed elder.

  Cade could now clearly hear the piercing whistles of the City Watch coming from the distance. The old man’s expression turned from a slight frown into terror, his emotional fluctuations spiking with momentary panic. In that sliver of time, the elder made the worst possible decision—he took out his speeder—a gorgeous elven model, to make matters worse.

  The Asura realized his gamble had paid off. Whoever this old man was, his conscience definitely wasn’t clear. He very obviously didn’t want to have anything to do with the Oasis officials.

  Time to be on my way, Cade chuckled merrily. At this moment, not a single soul was paying attention to him as the four elven guards took out their own fliers and shot after the escaping man.

  However, his good mood vanished almost instantly when he saw the white-robed elder’s speeder flash, then disappear with a thunderous boom. A shockwave of pressurized air slammed into everything nearby, kicking up clouds of dust and leaving behind a lingering stench of heated repulsion ore.

  What the hell?! Cade stood beside his speeder, black robes billowing, watching the four guards scramble in the air—zipping in random directions as they struggled to navigate the disrupted traffic without crashing into anyone.

  Several people were knocked to the ground. Low-rank cultivators clutched their ears while mortals screamed in pain—their ears and noses bleeding, some collapsing unconscious where they stood.

  Almost immediately, a squadron of City Watch speeders blasted off in the direction the old man had vanished.

  Shit, that escalated quickly, Cade thought, mounting his own speeder and carefully joining the traffic above. His current plan was to fly into the depths of the Well of the Ancients and only then ingest the drop of hydra blood. He couldn’t afford to take the slightest risk. Nobody could even catch a sniff of him using a shapeshifting technique. Secure cultivation chambers inside the Sword Dao’s inner court protected the disciples' privacy, but there were still elders with soul sense.

  But first, let’s check for any freeloaders...

  He peeled away from the main flow of traffic, his eyes scanning the city below for a secluded spot. A few minutes later, Cade directed his Arrow towards a long, narrow alley. Other than having no windows, there was nothing special about it—it was all the same bone-colored stone as everywhere else. He stored his speeder mid-air and dropped down from a few hundred feet, stopping his descent right before touching the pavement. His silhouette momentarily flashed bright crimson, expelling accumulated energy thanks to the bloodseeker's incredible qi-dissipating laws.

  After landing softly on the ground, the Asura took off his robe. He generally tried to avoid having his physique exposed publicly. It appeared extreme even for a body cultivator—in particular his rippling upper back and thick neck muscles that didn’t quite seem to belong on a human body. It would immediately bring unwanted attention. In addition, his muscles had very deep, sharp serrations, which in combination with his paper-thin skin were bound to attract attention.

  He started searching through his clothes, patting down every inch.

  Where are you, little bastard… There!

  A small black pin was attached near the bottom hem of his black robe, no more than a fifth of an inch long—a scarab. Now he understood why they were called that: they closely resembled the tiny desert beetles found everywhere. It wasn’t uncommon for someone to walk around with a small scarab hitching a free ride on their robe.

  Cade dropped the fake beetle to the ground and crushed it beneath his heel. It had likely been planted by one of the outer disciples guarding the monastery—he was wearing fresh robes and hadn’t passed anyone else on his way out this early. At that hour, the monastery was nearly deserted. Aside from the guards, no one knew he was leaving. For the old man to track him there, a corrupt guard was the only sensible explanation.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Let’s see how this fossil manages to follow me now.

  He despised anyone who used people as cultivation furnaces. Just the thought made him recall the sights from the Kettle slave market—the desperate wailing of those poor souls sold like cattle was etched into his soul. However, while he felt confident in facing the elder, it was always better to have more tools available. He was sure the old man would find a way to come after him sooner or later.

  He clearly wants information; otherwise, he wouldn’t have approached me inside the city. He must have been sent by the Duke.

  Cade wrapped the robe around himself and walked toward the nearest landing site. The last thing he needed was a bored City Watch officer wasting his time over mounting a speeder in an unauthorized location.

  Keeping an eye on his surroundings through his life sense, Cade flew north-west towards the Well of the Ancients, soon arriving at its huge opening. It was a much shorter ride than from the Sword Dao Monastery, and during this time his sixth sense stayed at a consistently low level. It was easy to forget the warning was even there, which told him that his attempt at disappearing was successful—at least for now.

  He decided to use one of the lower caverns, one that was fairly deep. He didn’t know how long this process would take, but the Book of Life said it would last many hours, possibly days, depending on how complex the laws contained inside the blood were. It could be said that learning the War Form was a small rebirth in its own right.

  The cave he ended up choosing was near the bottom. To others, at such height the Well would still appear as a dark, endless pit—but Cade’s eyes could pierce through the endless gloom to perceive the ground. It was covered with thousands of skeletons and dozens of bodies in various stages of decomposition. Arthur and Roland were somewhere down there, two youngsters who had never been taught that when you insist on courting death, sooner or later you’ll meet the reaper in person.

  Cade sighed and flew deeper into the cave, eventually reaching a small side chamber. There, he removed his robes and undergarments, then settled into a cross-legged position. Setting a full jug of blood essence on the ground, he pulled out a tiny crystal vial containing a drop of hydra blood. It looked like any other blood through the bottle’s clear glass. Not wanting to waste a single drop, he swallowed the vial whole and activated the initial Asura War Form diagram. Moments later, he exhaled a cloud of black smoke—everything the voracious heart hadn’t converted to energy from the glass and cork.

  When the transformation began in earnest, it greatly deepened Cade’s understanding of torment. The pain matched, or even exceeded, that which he felt during his first day in the coffin during the conversion. Every particle of his body was set ablaze. Searing hot needles stabbed into his bones, and his blood felt like boiling lava, flooding his veins with liquid flame. Every beat of his heart was torture, spreading pain and suffering into the far corners of his flesh. His muscles were being torn down and rebuilt in an endless loop, his ears bled profusely, and his eyes felt as if they were being fried in scalding oil. It was an experience that would either utterly break someone or see them reforged.

  War Form wasn’t just a special shapeshifting form dedicated to battle; it served to fundamentally improve the Asura’s physicality. It was the reason why obtaining powerful blood for each of the stages was so crucial. If he wanted to improve one of the War Form’s aspects in the future, he’d need to go through the same torture all over again.

  His suffering continued for six days as every part of his body was enhanced with the laws of the devil king hydra. Many times he thought he’d pass out and lose control over the insanely complicated diagrams reforming him, but he always somehow managed to stay just barely conscious. There was nobody there to hear him scream his lungs out, and eventually he could scream no more, as his lungs tore to shreds, filling up with blood.

  After what seemed like an eternity of suffering, the pain began to gradually diminish. In that moment, Cade’s last vestiges of strength left him, and he fell backwards. His head slammed into the stone floor with a hollow thud, but by then he was already unconscious.

  As his sense of self returned, Cade forced his eyes open. His whole body felt inflamed, but the pain was a joke compared to what he had experienced during those last six days. He almost immediately started coughing up dark blood, clearing all the waste from his lungs. When he tried lifting himself to all fours, he momentarily froze.

  His arms were covered in thick, dark scales. The low light made it hard to tell their exact color—his night vision rendered everything in shades of gray. But that wasn’t the only change. His hands were bigger than before, claws longer and sharper. Cade slowly stood and surveyed his body, immediately noticing the difference in size. He wasn’t sure if he’d grown taller—if so, only slightly—but he was definitely much thicker. His limbs, chest, and back felt bulkier, and his arms were a couple of inches longer, nearly reaching his knees. He wasn’t as musclebound as the Asura from the training vision, likely because that form was triple-blooded, and only the final stage granted such immense strength.

  He touched his face and noticed his jaw was thicker and more pronounced, along with his forehead. His overall facial structure had changed, though not as drastically as he’d expected. It still felt mostly like him, though feeling his teeth, he realized they were now sharp as daggers—yet not sharp enough to pierce even the thinner scales covering his palm.

  The initial weakness he’d felt after waking was now completely gone. His body still ached all over, but each breath worked in his favor, easing the pain. Cade instinctively circulated his blood qi and nearly collapsed from shock. Moving qi through his channels was effortless—more than that, it felt like his body was using it far more efficiently. The difference was profound.

  He spent the next two hours testing himself as much as possible under the circumstances to get a reasonable idea about the gains he had reaped inside this dark cave. Changing from and into the War Form was surprisingly quick and easy—it barely took two breaths, and the Book of Life said it’d be even quicker in the future. There was no pain either, though overall he felt a little weird.

  As for the War Form’s capabilities, he couldn’t be certain of its full potential without facing a powerful opponent. He could instinctively sense that the defense offered by those midnight scales was on another level. He felt nearly indestructible—though it was likely just the exhilaration of the moment. Additionally, he noticed both his strength and speed were significantly enhanced in this form, even though that wasn’t the primary purpose of a single-blooded transformation.

  Cade chuckled with exhilaration, thoroughly impressed. Darkheart wouldn’t last five breaths against me now.

  There were only two downsides—it looked very much like a demonic technique, and each time he changed into the War Form, it drained nearly three-quarters of his voracious heart. At least sustaining it wasn’t demanding.

  Flying out of the Well, Cade felt like a completely different person. Even when not shapeshifted, he felt stronger, faster, and a lot tougher. His body was full of energy waiting to be unleashed. All of his senses seemed sharper and clearer. He could honestly say the combination of hydra blood and War Form diagrams had reshaped him into a superior lifeform.

  As he continued moving towards Sword Dao, he couldn’t help but think that sacrificing a fortune in spirit crystals for the sake of this ancient drop of blood was the best decision he had ever made.

  Unfortunately, less than 200 miles away from his destination, the pressure from Cade’s sixth sense started building up once again. This utterly baffled him.

  That old bastard must have been waiting for me all this time; he even managed to track me down in the middle of the desert. Did he place a spiritual mark on me?

  Whether that was true no longer mattered. On the horizon, a bright dot streaked through the air, heading straight for him. His life sense revealed two people inside: one radiating anger, the other, very young and in bad shape.