High above the mortal plane, past the turbulent spatial storms that separated the lower worlds from the divine, stood the grand, imposing halls of the Asura God Palace.
Unlike the lush, vibrant gardens belonging to the Goddess of Life or the tranquil, mist-covered pavilions of the elemental deities, the domain of the Divine Realm's chief enforcer was a stark, austere fortress built from dark crimson stone and polished black blood-jade. Massive pillars carved with ancient reliefs of divine punishment held up a vaulted ceiling where red lightning occasionally crackled across the rafters. There were no ornate decorations or delicate furnishings here. Everything in the hall radiated a heavy, suffocating aura of rigid law, unyielding authority, and cold slaughter.
At the far end of the central hall sat a broad seat carved from a single block of blood-stained divine obsidian. Yet, the master of the palace was not sitting on it.
The Asura God paced back and forth across the polished floor, his heavy crimson boots clicking against the stone in an agitated rhythm. He rubbed his temples with a gauntleted hand, letting out a long, irritable breath that caused the crimson braziers lining the hall to flare and hiss.
"What a mess," the Asura God muttered to himself, his deep, metallic voice echoing off the empty walls. "What an utter, humiliating mess."
He was still fuming over his recent run-in with the Goddess of Life and the Destruction Godking. Being caught red-handed while occupying his High Priest's body to strike at the Rakshasa Goddess's inheritor had been awkward enough, but having the Destruction Godking call him out in front of the Sea God and the Rakshasa Goddess for his earlier interference with Hypros's inheritor had truly stung his pride. He had been forced to back down, put on a polite face, and agree to a strict pact of non-interference just to avoid sparking a catastrophic clash between Godkings.
And what had happened the moment he pulled his divine consciousness back to the Divine Realm?
With a flick of his wrist, the Asura God summoned a broad, shimmering mirror of condensed blood-light in the center of the hall. The surface of the mirror rippled, displaying a clear view of the raging storms off the southern coast of the Douluo Planet.
Down there, tossing amidst the dark waves, was a battered wooden ship heading toward Sea God Island.
The Asura God stared at the occupants of that ship, and the vein on his forehead throbbed.
His High Priest was slumped against the mast, looking like a dried-up corpse after detonating his hundred-thousand-year Spirit Ring just to break through the Angel God's High Priest's barrier and run for his life. Right next to him was the mortal whom Hypros had chosen to inherit the Slaughter God's position, covered in rotting, necrotic burns from the Rakshasa Goddess's inheritor and missing his own hundred-thousand-year Spirit Ring after blowing it up to escape. Alongside them sat a one-armed Super Douluo, a handful of bruised, terrified sect elders, and the Sea God's High Priestess, who looked as though a stiff breeze could knock her over while mourning the five sacred pillars she had left behind in enemy hands.
'I passed down my secret sword techniques to my High Priest and had Hypros stuff his best slaughter arts into that other mortal's head before leaving,' the Asura God thought, crossing his arms as he glared at the viewing mirror. 'And the best they could manage with all that divine insight was blowing up their own foundations to run away faster? Pathetic!'
He let out a harsh snort, though deep down he knew he couldn't put all the blame on his High Priest.
The Asura God waved his hand, shifting the perspective of the blood-light mirror away from the ocean and sweeping it across the mainland of the Douluo Continent.
As a Godking, he could not care less about the millions of mortal soldiers who had died at the border passes, nor did he care whether the Heaven Dou Empire or the Star Luo Empire sat on the mortal throne. Dynasties rose and fell like autumn leaves; in the grand scheme of the Divine Realm, mortal politics were beneath his notice. He did not even bother remembering the mortal names of the humans down there.
What he did care about were the God Inheritors walking that continent. And right now, the balance of those inheritors was tilting so heavily against his faction that it gave him a splitting headache.
The mirror zoomed in on the towering golden cathedral at the heart of the Spirit Hall.
Deep within a sacred, sun-drenched chamber, a young woman with six radiant wings was meditating beneath a massive statue of the Seraphim. Standing beside her was the Angel God's High Priest, who had already returned from the battlefield and recovered his composure.
'The Angel God's inheritor is already diving into her Seventh Trial,' the Asura God observed, his crimson eyes narrowing as he studied the dense golden aura swirling around the girl. 'Now that her High Priest is back to guide her, she is learning how to refine and wield true Angelic Divine Energy, and she has begun attuning her soul to the Angelic Divine Sword.'
The Angel God was a First-Class God of the highest caliber, fueled by the pure faith energy of believers across the continent. With the Heaven Dou Empire and the Spirit Hall securing control over the Star Luo Empire's territories, the flow of faith energy pouring into the Spirit Hall was growing larger by the day. At this rate, the girl would breeze through her Seventh and Eighth Trials and step into the realm of a First-Class God before long.
Still, the Angel God was at least a somewhat predictable peer. The Asura God's scowl deepened as he shifted the mirror northward, peering through the dark, swirling purple miasma hiding the Supreme Pontiff.
"That venomous spider," the Asura God growled under his breath.
The Rakshasa Goddess's inheritor was currently hunting down the rogue fallen Spirit Masters who had escaped from Slaughter City, tossing them by the hundreds into that subterranean prison beneath the northern snowlands. The Asura God could feel the sheer, nauseating thickness of the resentment, terror, and despair rising from that underground pit where the captured nobles, sect elders, and royals of the Star Luo Empire had been locked away.
All of that dark faith and malice was being funneled straight into the Rakshasa Goddess's divine core and shared with her inheritor.
'She is only half a step away from triggering her Ninth Trial,' the Asura God thought, his fingers tapping against his armored bicep. 'Her dual spider martial spirits have already merged with primordial dark laws thanks to that surge of Primal Genesis Energy she received during the battle. The moment she finishes rounding up those fallen Spirit Masters and digests this latest wave of despair, she will begin her final ascension.'
Once the Rakshasa Goddess's inheritor passed her Ninth Trial, she would become a full-fledged First-Class God while still standing on the Douluo Planet. Because of the strict pact enforced by the Life Godking and the Destruction Godking, no deity from the Divine Realm would be allowed to descend and interfere with her. A true First-Class God walking unchecked on the mortal plane would be an unstoppable disaster for his side. She could stroll right up to Sea God Island, slice the island in half with her divine scythe, and butcher his inheritor before the boy even finished his trials!
And yet, as dangerous as the Rakshasa Goddess's inheritor was, she still wasn't the biggest thorn in the Asura God's side.
With a heavy grimace, the Asura God moved the mirror over the grand imperial palace of the Star Luo Empire, where a handsome young man with icy blue eyes was lounging comfortably in the royal gardens, surrounded by gorgeous women while the entire continent bowed to his rule.
The inheritor of the Goddess of Life.
Just looking at that young man's relaxed, smug expression made the Asura God want to draw his sword and cleave a mountain in half.
'How did the Goddess of Life even find a freak like this?' the Asura God wondered, his thoughts churning with frustration. 'He possesses a God-Ranked martial spirit that devours and refines bloodlines, carries the Seed of Life holding her Godking inheritance right in his spiritual sea, and spends his spare time building those absurd Offensive Spirit Tools that turn mortal warfare into a one-sided slaughter!'
The Asura God was not blind. During the recent standoff in the sky above the battlefield, he had seen how that young man's clone had casually tossed a beam of pure Primal Genesis Energy into the Rakshasa Goddess's inheritor, elevating her dark elements to the divine level. The guy wasn't just cultivating his own Godking inheritance; he was actively funding and accelerating the ascensions of both the Rakshasa Goddess's inheritor and the Angel God's inheritor! Worse, he had both of them eating out of the palm of his hand!
'If the three of them ascend together—a Godking inheritor backed by two peak First-Class Gods—what is my inheritor supposed to do?' the Asura God asked himself, resuming his pacing across the blood-jade floor.
He turned his gaze back to the storm-tossed ship in the southern ocean, focusing on the young man standing at the prow with long, black-and-blue hair and the Sea God Trident in his grip.
Long ago, when the Asura God first noticed this boy's unique talent and mental resilience, he had struck a quiet understanding with the Sea God. A single First-Class God position like the Sea God's was strong, certainly, and would allow the boy to bring fresh blood into the Divine Realm. But the Asura God had wanted to retire and pass on his own heavy mantle as well. Thus, the grand plan for a Dual-God inheritance had been born. By letting the boy use the Sea God's trials to build an unbreakable foundation and ascend as the Sea God first, and simultaneously cultivating his killing intent so he could inherit the Asura Godking position afterward, the boy was supposed to become an unprecedented powerhouse holding two divine thrones.
In theory, it was a brilliant plan.
In practice, looking at the current state of the board, the Asura God felt a deep sense of doubt creeping into his chest.
First, there was the issue of the mainland's loss. Fortunately, neither the Sea God's inheritance nor the Asura God's inheritance relied on gathering faith energy from the human empires on the Douluo Continent. The Sea God had spent tens of thousands of years accumulating a massive, bottomless ocean of pure faith energy from the countless Sea Spirit Beasts across the vast seas and the devoted islanders living on Sea God Island. That accumulated reserve was more than enough to propel the boy straight into the Sea God's seat. Meanwhile, the Asura God's own power was rooted in the cosmic laws of slaughter, judgment, and order, needing zero mortal prayers to function.
So, the Goddess of Life's inheritor conquering the Star Luo Empire and uniting the continent under the Heaven Dou Empire's banner wouldn't starve the boy of the energy needed to become a God.
'The real problem is the boy himself,' the Asura God thought, squinting at the young man on the ship deck. 'He is simply too weak right now, and frankly, he lacks the cunning to deal with that monster on the mainland.'
Every time the Asura God had watched his inheritor clash with or scheme against the Goddess of Life's inheritor over the years, his inheritor had been outplayed, humiliated, and stripped of everything he cared about. His mother had been taken and turned into a willing companion for the enemy. The women who were supposed to be tied to his fate had all fallen into the enemy's bed. His sect had been crushed, his teachers ruined, and the empire backing him had folded in three weeks flat.
Even now, standing on that ship as a Level 94 Titled Douluo after spending weeks in the deep ocean trenches replacing his first two Spirit Rings, the boy was letting his rage cloud his judgment, roaring vows of vengeance at the storm clouds while his enemies calmly consolidated an entire continent's worth of resources.
'Unless my inheritor can actually kill the Goddess of Life's inheritor and uproot his factions on the mainland, hiding on Sea God Island is just delaying the inevitable,' the Asura God mused grimly. 'Once the Goddess of Life's inheritor finishes digesting the continent's resources and pushes the Rakshasa Goddess's inheritor through her Ninth Trial, they won't just sit on the shore. They will march right across the ocean, wipe out the Sea Spirit Beasts, and sink Sea God Island to the bottom of the abyss, cutting off the Sea God's faith energy at the source!'
"I need to speed things up," the Asura God muttered, stopping in front of the blood-light mirror. "Hypros is already pushing that older mortal through the Slaughter God trials as fast as his meridians can handle, using the resentment from his broken sect to fuel his progress. Still, Hypros is only a Second-Class God. Even if the father ascends as the new God of Slaughter, a Second-Class deity won't last ten breaths against the Rakshasa Goddess's inheritor, let alone someone holding the Seed of Life."
Everything still came down to the Dual-God inheritance. If his inheritor only ascended as the Sea God, a single First-Class God position would be crushed by the combined might of the mainland's inheritors. The boy had to inherit the Asura Godking position alongside the Sea God position, and he had to do it before the enemy finished their preparations.
Which brought the Asura God right back to the biggest technical hurdle blocking the Dual-God plan.
'How is his body supposed to hold both divine positions without blowing itself to pieces?' the Asura God thought, frowning deeply.
The Sea God's Divine Energy was vast, rolling, and rhythmic, carrying the boundless life and pressure of the ocean. In contrast, Asura Divine Energy was pure, condensed killing intent and sharp, merciless law—like a million razors scraping through the veins. Even if a mortal cultivated to the ninety-ninth rank and reshaped their body into a divine vessel during their ascension, trying to house two conflicting divine cores inside a single spiritual sea was suicide. The moment the boy tried to switch from the Sea God's power to the Asura God's power in combat, the violent clash of divine attributes would tear his soul in half.
There was only one known method in the Divine Realm to bypass this fatal flaw.
'He needs a living sword sheath,' the Asura God thought, his eyes glinting with sharp calculation. 'A separate, living vessel linked directly to his soul and heart. Someone who can house the Asura Demon Sword's overflowing killing intent within their own body, acting as a spiritual scabbard. When he fights as the Sea God, the sheath holds my divine power dormant; when he draws the sword to fight as the Asura God, the sheath absorbs the backlash and Harmonizes the transition.'
It was a delicate, demanding arrangement. To serve as the living sheath for the Asura Demon Sword, the vessel needed two very specific qualities. First, they needed a physical body and spiritual foundation tough enough to endure divine killing intent without disintegrating. Second, and far more importantly, there had to be a deep, genuine emotional bond of mutual acceptance between the wielder and the sheath. If the wielder did not truly accept the sheath into his heart, their spiritual fluctuations would reject each other during the heat of battle, causing the sword to backfire and cleave the wielder's own soul.
"Originally, this wouldn't have been an issue," the Asura God grumbled, rubbing his forehead again.
Years ago, when he first laid out this plan, there had been a tailor-made candidate sitting right next to his inheritor: that hundred-thousand-year soft-boned rabbit Spirit Beast who had transformed into a human girl. She had grown up with the boy, shared a life-and-death bond with him, and possessed an immortal-herb-refined body that could have easily been molded into a gentle, devoted sheath to calm his killing intent.
And where was that rabbit Spirit Beast now?
Locked away in the private chambers of the Goddess of Life's inheritor, utterly broken and serving that bastard hand and foot!
'Fine, the rabbit is gone,' the Asura God thought, turning his attention back to the ship in the viewing mirror to look for a backup candidate. 'Surely there is another talented young woman around him whom he cares for or can develop a bond with during the remaining trials?'
He scanned the ship from bow to stern with his mental force.
There was his High Priest—an old man well over a century old.
There was the boy's father—a middle-aged brute covered in scars.
There was the boy's uncle—a middle-aged man missing an arm.
There was the Sea God's High Priestess—an elderly woman whose soul was permanently bound to the Sea God's island monument and who loved the boy's great-grandfather.
And then there were a dozen burly, unwashed sect elders and male disciples who smelled of sweat, seawater, and dried blood.
Not a single young woman was on that boat. In fact, ever since the boy had lost every beautiful female acquaintance he ever had to the Goddess of Life's inheritor, his social circle had consisted almost exclusively of bitter old men and deep-sea fish!
The Asura God stared at the mirror in dead silence for a long moment.
'Am I really expecting him to merge with a muscular sect elder to hold my sword?' the Asura God thought, a muscle twitching near his eye. 'Even if I didn't care how ridiculous that looked, none of those mortals have the spiritual compatibility or the emotional resonance required to act as his sheath!'
He couldn't plucked a random mortal girl from Sea God Island, either. Ordinary human Spirit Masters on the island worshipped the Sea God; their bodies were attuned to gentle water energy. The moment he injected his tyrannical Asura killing intent into a regular island girl to turn her into a sheath, she would pop like a blood balloon.
"If there are no suitable human women left around him, and ordinary mortals can't handle my killing intent..." the Asura God murmured, his gaze slowly drifting away from the southern ocean and turning toward a dark, forgotten corner of the mainland. "...then I will just have to forge a woman out of something that has already survived my killing intent for thousands of years."
With a wave of his hand, the blood-light mirror shifted its view, plunging deep underground beneath a barren mountain range to show the ruined, desolate expanse of Slaughter City.
Ever since his High Priest had woken up, shattered the foundational seals of the city, and let the fallen Spirit Masters run wild across the Heaven Dou Empire to serve as a distraction before the war, Slaughter City had become a ghost town. The grand outer arenas were empty, the stone streets littered with debris.
The Asura God bypassed the outer city and pushed his mental force straight down into the deep, winding chasm of Hell Road.
Because the city above was abandoned and no new sinners were being slaughtered to replenish the reserves, the massive lake of boiling blood at the bottom of Hell Road had shrunk considerably, leaving behind cracked, crustyflats of dried crimson mud. The air down there was still thick with ancient, poisonous killing intent, though it was slowly dissipating without a ruler to maintain it.
Hanging upside down from a jagged stalactite near the middle of the narrow stone path was a massive, winged silhouette wrapped in dark golden membranes.
It was the Dark Golden Three-Headed Bat King.
When his inheritor had walked Hell Road years ago, he had used clever tricks and external tools to slip past the trials rather than completely eradicating the ancient creatures living in the chasm's depths. This vicious, mutated Spirit Beast—which had mutated over millennia from bathing in the Asura God's leaked killing intent and drinking the blood vapors of the lake—was still alive, slumbering in the dark and waiting for prey that no longer came.
The Asura God studied the creature closely.
'It has soaked in the aura of Hell Road for nearly ten thousand years,' the Asura God mused, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. 'Its flesh, its meridians, and its bloodline are thoroughly saturated with my killing intent. It won't explode if I pour Asura Divine Energy into it. In fact, its tough, mutated body is tough enough to serve as a vessel for the Asura Demon Sword's aura right away.'
Of course, there was one glaring problem: it was a hideous, three-headed giant bat covered in coarse dark-golden fur and oozing toxic saliva.
Even if he wiped its mind and turned it into a docile pet, a beast could not act as a spiritual sword sheath for a human inheritor. The meridians had to match the human form to link with the boy's spiritual sea, and the boy had to bond with her emotionally—as a man bonds with a woman—so their souls could intertwine during the Dual-God transition.
"I can reshape its flesh into a human woman using a strand of divine origin," the Asura God said aloud, weighing the idea. "Since it hasn't reached the hundred-thousand-year threshold on its own, forcibly compressing its three-headed bat body into a human shell won't be as clean or pretty as a natural Spirit Beast transformation. Still... it will have all the right parts."
He paused, imagining what the resulting woman would look like once he mashed three bat heads and a pair of leathery golden wings into a human frame.
A rare, awkward flicker of guilt pricked at the Asura God's ancient heart.
His inheritor had already lost his mother, his childhood sweetheart, his sect's glory, and his homeland to the Goddess of Life's inheritor. While that enemy was currently sitting in a palace garden enjoying the company of the most stunning women on the continent, his own inheritor was going to be stuck on a rock in the ocean, forced to open his heart and soul to a remodeled, three-headed mutated bat from Hell Road just to survive!
'Well... a true warrior chasing the peak of the divine path shouldn't be picky about appearances,' the Asura God told himself, clearing his throat and quickly brushing the guilt aside. 'Looks are fleeting anyway! Once he convinces himself to love her and accepts her into his heart, she will be a very sturdy, reliable sheath. He should be grateful I am going out of my way to craft him a companion at all!'
Without giving himself time to second-guess the aesthetics of his plan, the Asura God raised his right hand. Since he was altering a creature inside his own left-behind trial ground in Slaughter City rather than interfering with any mortals or inheritors on the battlefield, this little bit of divine handiwork wouldn't violate his pact with the Life Godking and Destruction Godking.
A thin, concentrated thread of dark red divine light shot down from his palm, piercing through the blood-light mirror and descending invisibly into the subterranean chasm of Hell Road.
Down in the stifling darkness of the chasm, the slumbering Dark Golden Three-Headed Bat King suddenly snapped all six of its blood-red eyes open. Its sharp ears twitched as an overwhelming, suffocating pressure dropped from the cavern ceiling, pressing the remaining puddles of the blood lake flat against the stone.
SCREEECH!
The bat king spread its ten-meter-wide, dark golden leathery wings in sheer panic, all three of its hideous, fanged heads opening their jaws to unleash a desperate sonic blast at the unseen intruder.
Before the sound could even leave its throats, the thread of dark red divine light wrapped around the creature like an unbreakable iron net.
"Be quiet and hold still," the Asura God's voice echoed coldly inside the cavern.
The divine light constricted. The bat king's feral consciousness—filled with millennia of bloodlust, hunger, and savage instinct—was instantly scrubbed clean by a single pulse of the Godking's mental force. Its six eyes rolled back, going blank and hollow as its beastly soul was wiped into an empty, obedient slate.
Next came the reshaping.
Crack! Crunch! Squelch!
The sounds echoing through the empty chasm of Hell Road were decidedly unpleasant. The Asura God was a god of war and slaughter, not a delicate artisan like the Goddess of Life. He didn't gently weave flesh; he forged it like a blacksmith hammering hot iron on an anvil.
Under the crushing pressure of the divine light, the bat king's massive, furry torso was squeezed inward, compressing thousands of pounds of mutated muscle and bone into a compact, human-sized frame. The two side heads were forcefully merged into the central skull, the elongated snouts flattening out into a human face while the coarse fur receded into the pores. The massive, leathery wings folded against its back, melting directly into the skin and leaving behind raised, dark-golden wing patterns that wrapped around its shoulders and ribs.
Within a few minutes, the crimson light dissipated, leaving a naked woman hovering just above the stone path of Hell Road.
Back in the Asura God Palace, the Asura God leaned closer to the viewing mirror, squinting at his handiwork.
"Hmm," he muttered, tilting his head. "Could be worse, I suppose."
The woman floating in the chasm certainly had an exaggerated, curvaceous figure, as all that dense bat muscle had to go somewhere, resulting in broad hips and a heavy chest. However, that was where the conventional beauty ended.
Her skin had an unnatural, sickly grayish-gold tint, tough and leathery to the touch, with thick dark-golden veins pulsing visibly along her neck and arms. Because three skulls had been mashed into one, her facial structure was slightly too wide and angular, featuring a pair of overly large, pointed bat ears twitching on the sides of her head. Her mouth was a bit too broad, with four sharp, yellowed fangs poking out over her dark lips, and when her eyes opened, the irises were a jarring, dead crimson with vertical slits that seemed to stare in slightly different directions. Her hair was a stiff, wiry mane of dark brownish-gold that hung down her back like dried moss.
She looked less like a peerless fairy of the cultivation world and more like a terrifying abyssal ghoul that had crawled out of a blood pit and put on a human skin suit.
'It is what is on the inside that counts,' the Asura God thought firmly, nodding to himself. 'Her meridians are wide, her body is packed with ten thousand years of condensed killing intent, and she can absorb the Asura Demon Sword's backlash without blinking. My inheritor is a sensible boy; once he realizes she is the key to holding two divine positions, I am sure he will find a way to look past the ears and the fangs and love her with all his heart.'
With a flick of his finger, the Asura God wove a rough black cloak out of ambient shadow energy and draped it over the bat-woman's leathery body. Then, he sent a final mental imprint directly into her blank, newly formed brain, stamping his inheritor's spiritual aura and the rules of the living sword sheath into her instincts.
"Go to Sea God Island," the Asura God commanded through the link. "Find my inheritor. Stay by his side, protect his life, and help him bear my killing intent. When the time comes for him to draw my power, you will offer your body and soul as his sheath."
Down in Hell Road, the bat-woman let out a low, raspy hiss from between her fangs, her slitted red eyes locking onto the direction of the southern ocean. With a powerful crouch of her thick legs, she kicked off the crumbling stone path, shooting up through the ruined shafts of Slaughter City like a dark golden bat out of hell, heading straight toward the sea to meet her destined lover.
Watching her go, the Asura God dismissed the blood-light mirror and finally sat down on his crimson obsidian throne, letting out a long sigh of relief.
He had done everything he could without breaking the Godkings' pact. Now, it was up to his inheritor to accept his new companion, finish his trials, and somehow find a way to turn the tables on the monster ruling the Douluo Continent.
~~
A/N: Check out my other novels [Heavenly Villain: Stealing Fate, Tempting Beauties].
Also, check out 20 Chapters Ahead for this fanfic on my P.atreon. [Check Out Art Of Characters On My Patreon. It's Free To View btw.]
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