Pov: Ryuk
Flexing all four of my hands, a sharp smile appeared on my face as I walked up the stone stairs toward the exit.
It was time to see what this Fallen Heartland looked like—and test the true power of Morven's masterpiece.
The stone staircase was long and winding, covered in thick moss and dry vines that had crept in from the surface over the decades. When I reached the top, a heavy boulder blocked the entrance from the inside, held in place by an old rusty iron mechanism.
Putting all four of my palms against the rough stone, I exerted my strength and pushed.
Rumble...
With the raw power of ten adult men coursing through my muscles, the massive boulder shifted aside, letting a blinding beam of sunlight pierce into the dark tunnel. I squinted my eyes for a second to adjust to the brightness before stepping out into the open air.
What greeted me was a sight completely different from the outskirts of Ashborn City.
In front of me was an endless, towering forest of giant trees with bark as black as coal and leaves that shone with a deep, dark purple hue. The trees were so massive that some of their trunks were as wide as the shabby huts back in Town 16. The air here was thick and heavy, filled with the smell of wild vegetation and an ancient, untamed aura.
This was the Blackwood Forest, located on the outer edge of the Fallen Heartlands.
Looking back at the cave entrance, I pushed the boulder back into place so no wild beasts would wander down into Morven's laboratory and disturb his final resting place. Then, checking the black compass ring on my finger to make sure it was pointing toward the hidden cave, I walked deeper into the forest.
I needed targets to grind the proficiency of my Four-Armed Asura Combat Technique.
In my previous body, I had to spend hours punching the air under a tree at night just to gain a few dozen proficiency points. But according to the system, fighting real life-and-death battles alongside the guidance of the Beacon of Truth was the fastest way to master a martial technique.
I didn't have to search for long.
After walking for barely ten minutes through the dense purple undergrowth, my ears twitched. The senses of this Asura body were far sharper than a normal human's—I could clearly hear the sound of heavy breathing and claws scraping against bark from fifty meters away.
Before I could even use Dominion Scan, three massive black shadows dropped down from the high branches above, surrounding me in a triangle formation!
Thud! Thud! Thud!
They looked like giant panthers, each nearly two meters long, with six legs and bone spikes protruding along their spines. Dark red saliva dripped from their fangs, and their eyes were completely bloodshot, filled with the familiar madness of the world's corruption.
I immediately activated Dominion Scan on the one in front of me.
[Six-Legged Bone Panther (Corrupted Beast — Peak Grade 1)] [Description: A fierce predator of the Blackwood Forest infected by ancient corruption. Possesses speed and claw strength capable of tearing a normal Grade 1 Martial Artist to shreds.]
Three Peak Grade 1 corrupted beasts right off the bat!
If I were still in my old body, even if I had broken into Grade 1, running into three of these monsters at the same time would have meant instant death.
ROOOAAR!
The three bone panthers didn't waste a second. Driven by their hunger for human flesh, all three of them lunged at me simultaneously from three different angles—one aiming for my throat from the front, one swiping at my back, and the third going for my legs!
In that split second, my heart didn't panic. Instead, the Beacon of Truth inside my chest flared up, and dozens of golden threads of light appeared in my vision, mapping out the exact trajectories of all three beasts.
"Come on!" I shouted, my blood boiling with excitement.
Following the golden lines of light, I didn't dodge backward. Instead, I stepped fiercely into the ground, pivoting my waist like a coiled spring!
My upper two arms shot forward, grabbing the front panther right by its open upper and lower jaws, stopping its bite inches away from my face! At the exact same time, without even looking behind me, my lower two arms swung backward in a brutal double-hammer strike, slamming straight into the skull of the second panther lunging at my back!
CRACK!
A sickening sound of shattering bone echoed through the woods as the second panther was smashed into the dirt, blood spurting from its nose.
Meanwhile, for the third panther swiping at my legs, I lifted my right leg and executed a heavy axe kick from the Four-Armed Asura Combat Technique, stomping its spine straight into the ground!
All three attacks were blocked and countered in a single breath!
This was the terrifying advantage of Morven's four-armed vessel. While a normal martial artist only had two hands and had to choose between attacking or defending when surrounded, I could fight in two directions at once without leaving a single blind spot!
The panther held in my upper two hands struggled violently, its six clawed legs kicking at my chest, trying to rip my coat apart. However, the Grade 3 Shadow Python leather coat absorbed the scratches easily.
Flexing the muscles in my upper right and left arms, I pulled my hands apart with all my strength!
RIP—!
With a fountain of dark, corrupted blood, the bone panther's jaw was torn completely in half! I threw its lifeless corpse aside and immediately turned my attention to the remaining two panthers that were scrambling to get back up.
Not giving them a chance to recover, I rushed forward.
The golden threads of the Beacon of Truth danced wildly before my eyes. I didn't use raw, clumsy brute force anymore; instead, I poured every bit of focus into executing the stances of the Four-Armed Asura Combat Technique.
Upper left fist—feint to the eyes! Lower left fist—crushing blow to the ribs! Upper right elbow—smash the neck! Lower right hand—claw strike straight through the throat!
BANG! BANG! BANG!
My four arms moved like a blur of phantom shadows, striking with the weight of heavy iron hammers. Within three minutes of brutal close-quarters combat, the last two Peak Grade 1 bone panthers collapsed into bloody heaps on the forest floor, twitching once before dying completely.
Standing among thethree corpses, I let out a long breath of hot white steam. My chest heaved slightly, and my knuckles were stained with dark beast blood, but there wasn't a single scratch on my body.
Just then, a string of system notifications chimed in my head:
"HOST HAS EXECUTED FOUR-ARMED ASURA COMBAT TECHNIQUE IN LIVE COMBAT." "BEACON OF TRUTH GUIDANCE BONUS APPLIED." "PROFICIENCY INCREASED BY +140!" "CURRENT MASTERY: FOUR-ARMED ASURA COMBAT TECHNIQUE {BEGINNER} (150/500)."
"140 points from a single fight!" My eyes widened in pleasant surprise.
Back in Town 16, practicing against the air for an entire hour barely gave me 50 or 60 points. Real combat against strong corrupted beasts really was the fastest shortcut! At this rate, I only needed to hunt ten more beasts of this level today, and my technique would break right into the Adept and Pro stages.
Looking down at the three dead panthers, I noticed that their blood was dark and smelled foul due to the corruption, meaning their meat couldn't be eaten without purification. However, using Dominion Scan, I saw something glowing faintly inside their chests.
[Grade 1 Corrupted Beast Core (x3): Contains impure martial energy and vitality. Useless to normal humans, but can be refined by alchemy or absorbed via the Sigil of Evolution.]
Using the sharp, blade-like nails on my lower right hand, I sliced open the chests of the three panthers and dug out three walnut-sized, dark red crystals. After wiping the blood off on the grass, I tossed them into my Emperor's Storage for later use.
Wiping the sweat from my forehead with my upper arm, I looked deeper into the dark, endless expanse of the Blackwood Forest. In the distance, the roars of even stronger beasts echoed through the purple canopy.
"Ten more fights," I muttered, a fierce grin spreading across my face as I dashed deeper into the shadows of the trees. "By tonight, I will step into the Grade 1 Martial Artist realm!"