The Fallen Vampire

They are profound, delicate, and unshakable methods of utilizing qi through different methods than simple body or breathing arts.

In terms of sheer difficulty, they are comparable to highest level pill making or array formation in terms of precision required to make them work properly.

Even after she\'d had hers for years, upon years, she still was nowhere close to even 50% understanding.

She figured that she should spare them the unnecessary headache and false hope that would come with giving up her most prized technique, since it would clearly go far beyond their understanding.

But as she looked at the fluffy ears on top of Taira\'s head and stared at the happy go lucky human girl beside him, she realized that maybe they would not be quite so inept as her.

After all, she was a human chosen by the gods and he was the union of two of the most powerful fallen races to ever exist.

So maybe if it was these two… they could ascend to more unseen heights than even her.

"Well if it\'s what you two want… Just don\'t rush to understand it, alright..? Take as much time as you need, and break it down piece by piece."

Ayame touched Taira and Vermeil in the middle of their foreheads and a small golden light passed from her to them.

\'Jesus..\'

\'What the fuck is this..?\'

While the two of them were trying to wrap their minds around this new technique, a small spark of blue fire came to life on Taira\'s forehead and passed over to the body of the werewolf queen before she knew what was happening.

A deeply sensual and loud moan escaped her lips as she felt cool and holy relief run through her like a river.

She had been living with boiling pain in her body for over two hundred years.

It had become her new normal after day in and day out, and by now she hardly noticed it anymore.

But as she felt the sensation of true bliss spreading to every corner of her being, she couldn\'t even begin to understand just how she had ever managed to survive in such a miserable state for all of these years.

\'T-That fire... if course it\'s... Wait..\'

When Ayame finally realized exactly what kind of sound she had just made, she quickly covered her mouth in embarrassment as her cheeks turned bright red.

Without exception, every one of her daughter\'s family were now staring at her strangely.

"I… B-Bye.!"

Ayame disappeared from the bridge so quickly that no one even saw her running away.

Taira felt several small gazes boring into his back and immediately knew just what he\'d gotten himself into.

"…I swear I didn\'t do anything to her."

"Manwhore..."

"I\'ll kill you and her…"

"Cheating on me right after we had our first kiss… Men are the same in every world."

"You\'ve never had relationship before, so how would you know?"

"Hey! We\'re supposed to be focusing on him, not me!"

- 3 Days Later

Within the grounds of the Drifting Snowfall Sect, there were quite a lot of amenities and special features that made this place a cultivator\'s literal wet dream.

There was an indoor garden that grew all kinds of special medicinal herbs and flowers that could be used in the adjacent alchemy lab to make pills for any number of different purposes.

There were also two separate libraries in different parts of the compound, and Aveena informed them that one was sort of like a public library for sect members and the other was Setsuka\'s private collection.

Sect members who showed stellar achievements were gifted a special book from her shelves that would supposedly enhance their prowess by leaps and bounds.

In addition, there were two separate kinds of facilities for those who had more practical learning needs.

One was a building with several impenetrable rooms inside where sect members could enter seclusion for as long as they may have needed.

Basic amenities were included like a bathroom and a place to rest, while a massive jar of grain balls sat in the corner.

While dry and unflavorful, these balls could keep a body sustained for a four days for every one consumed.

Although understandably, a great many of the members did not enjoy eating these grain balls for any possible reason, even if it was to help advance their own strength.

The second set of grounds were an enclosed training ground where one was free to either spar with another sect member or with the dummies stationed along the walls.

However, these dummies were different from normal ones in that they did not simply stand still and let themselves be struck.

They were fully functional combat automations that were designed to use a surplus of different styles and constantly adapt to external movement and stimuli.

They were divided into five different classes- white, green, yellow, red, and black.

White were typically used by initiates when they first joined the sect so that they could get accustomed to hand to hand combat at young ages.

Green were reserved for cultivators in the mortal realm, yellow for the beast and overlord realm, red for the venerable and sovereign realm, and as for the black... no one really knew.

No one had ever used them before, and because of that there was a bit of a fable going around that they could even beat down cultivators in the primordial realm.

While no one had ever been able to confirm that, it was a bit of a fable that helped to motivate the younger recruits to one day become stronger.

Currently, Taira was sitting cross legged on the ground, surrounded by eight yellow dummies.

His body and hair were already thoroughly soaked with sweat, and a faint steam was wafting off his body that made him look like he was cooking from the inside out.

Three days of constant strenuous movement had made the muscles along his body heat up like a furnace, and the short ten second break he was taking for the dummies to regenerate wasn\'t really working to cool him down fast enough.

But then again, he wasn\'t exactly in the state of mind to pay attention to things like that at the moment.

Yasuke : *Metallic humming* "They\'re ready."

Taira felt the smallest gust of wind brush past the skin on his cheeks and his body moved as if it were on autopilot.

Leaping up from his seated position, he rotated his body in the air until his feet where pressed against the ceiling.

Focusing power into his thighs and legs, he springboard off of the ceiling and lunged at the group of puppets assembled on the ground.

Yasuke flew into his hand in the form of a massive seven foot scythe and let out a chorus of excited sounds.

The dummies all held bladed weapons in their hands that had already done a lot more than tickle Taira and he was hoping to completely avoid their reach this time around.

Using Yasuke\'s massive blade, he cut cleanly through the head of one of the dummies before his body had fully touched the ground, and it\'s body slumped over lifelessly.

The rest of the puppets came rushing in to avenge their fallen comrades and thrusted their weapons into the air hoping to impale Taira in the sky.

Moving his body like a serpent, he easily exploited a gap between the dolls and glided into it harmlessly.

Using the egregiously long handle of his weapon, he knocked the legs out from underneath two of them and sent their bodies tumbling unto the floor.

With the ones closest to him down temporarily, he put a short but necessary distance between himself and the rest of them by rolling away at the last moment.

With his back against the wall, Yasuke switched into a shorter sickle and golden chain.

Now came the hard part.

Taira had to unanimously use the two separate halves of his brain and lungs to keep cultivating while in combat, and to properly use his new art.

It would be difficult, but hey, 228th times the charm, right?

"Unseen Asura Art : Chains of Misfortune."

Suddenly the length of Yasuke\'s chains seemed to double, and the dagger at the other end of it\'s body became a scythe of the same size as the main blade.

Taking both weapons into his hands, he hurled them at the approaching dummies and watched as they started to fly.

The sickles flew in two different directions, each moving with the singular purpose of tying up all of the dummies and leaving them immobile.

As the chains wrapped around the bodies of the dummies, the blades were drawn closer and closer in with every rotation.

When they got close enough, the sickles shredded all eight dummies with such ease and precision that it was like watching a surgeon cut butter on an operating table.

At that moment, Taira felt a smaller feeling than a usual breakthrough and he knew that he had successfully ascended to the seventh level of the beast realm.

With the achievement of everything that he was hoping for coming to fruition, Taira let out an exhausted sigh as he dropped to the ground and let his body rest against it.

Even now he could feel his chest cavity filling up with blood from his popped lungs, and he was slowly waiting for them to heal so that he could start things up again.

Even with this monumental success, he still couldn\'t help but be dissatisfied.

An annoying feeling of lacking had begun to take root within his spirit, and weighing heavy on his mind.

The battle with Velreth was only the start of it.

The second part had kicked in when he received that technique from Ayame, and he realized just how high the world could truly get.

He couldn\'t understand any of it.

He felt like he was an infant staring the worlds largest rubix cube while being expected to unlock it.

While colorblind.

And blindfolded.

With his hands tied behind his back.

And his feet bound.

The only bit he could understand, was something that he needed to acquire in order to start on the path to unraveling this puzzle, but he had no idea how to gain it.

\'Just what is a primordial spirit anyway...?\' He wondered exhaustedly.

"Alright, Yasuke... Set them back up again and have them ready to go in thirty seconds."

"Actually, I think you can hold off on that for now."

Taira opened his eyes and rolled over to glance at the door.

There, he found Lucia waiting with her arms folded and the first scowl on her face that he had ever seen.

Yasuke : *Metallic humming* "Ooooh... Master is in trouble..."