Chapter 199 : Understanding the Asura in Depth
Chapter 199: Understanding the Asura in Depth
Du Yiluo leaned sideways against the roadside fence, grinning broadly and revealing two rows of dazzlingly white teeth.
“That’s right—death and rebirth. We Asura have no such thing as the aging of the physical body determining our lifespan. What decides our life or death is the battle intent within us. As long as the desire and impulse to fight remain in the heart, we can continue living indefinitely. Even if we die, we can be reborn in the Asura Realm.”
“So strong? Then if the battle intent disappears… you would die?”
“Yes. If battle intent fades, we gradually grow weaker and older, until in the end we completely lose the will to fight and truly die. Don’t you cultivators have the saying about the Five Declines of Heaven and Man? One of them is called the decline of the Dao Heart, right? The fading of battle intent is the Asura version of the decline of the Dao Heart. But unlike you, who might still endure it and get through, once an Asura’s battle intent begins to fade, there is no turning back. We can only wait for death.”
The Nine-Xia Realm where Long Tao lived had always been relatively peaceful. And peaceful places naturally had no Asura appearing in them. So his understanding of this race had always been superficial—just a rough idea.
Only after meeting Du Yiluo did he realize that this race was actually quite interesting.
“Then what does that have to do with your appearance?” He pulled the topic back again.
“This is the key part. Every time we revive, our appearance changes. And the direction of the change reflects our inner primal impulses and instincts. We Asura are born containing an enormous amount of killing intent and battle intent, so every time a male Asura resurrects, he rushes toward becoming more vicious and more hideous. Because a ferocious, terrifying appearance is itself a weapon—it can seize the initiative on the battlefield and frighten the enemy before the fight even begins. This is basically an instinct carved into the bones of most living beings. When people see something ugly and fierce, they instinctively feel intimidated.”
This explanation made Long Tao pause to think for a while. The more he considered it, the more reasonable it seemed. In his previous life, he had watched some science programs.
Various primitive tribes and ancient civilizations often used ugly and ferocious masks, and experts explained them the same way—fierce appearances naturally carried intimidation. Who would have thought that the Asura race had carved this principle directly into their cycle of rebirth?
“Wait!” Long Tao suddenly reacted. “Then by that reasoning, shouldn’t female Asura also all be very ugly? After all, you should also love fighting, right?”
At this moment, Du Yiluo’s face rarely turned slightly red. Her gaze wandered awkwardly as she said,
“Well… it’s true that female Asura also love battle. But… we love beauty even more. Every female Asura, at the moment of rebirth, finds that the impulse to pursue beauty ultimately overwhelms the instinct for battle. The result is that every time we revive, we become even more beautiful.”
Seeing the slightly speechless look on Long Tao’s face, she continued,
“Because most Asura—even those who haven’t joined any legion—have died several times more or less. So over a long period of time, in the Asura Realm, practically every female Asura is a beauty! Alright… that’s the fundamental reason. Satisfied? Does that answer your question?”
“You women really are…”
“Alright, alright! But don’t underestimate us—on the battlefield we never make mistakes. Wait… what kind of look is that? I know! You must be thinking that when I first started out, I was very ugly or something.”
“No, no. How would I dare?” Long Tao hurriedly denied it, shaking his head.
“Hmph! You definitely thought that. Let me tell you, my original appearance wasn’t bad either. Of course I couldn’t compare with someone like True Person Mingzhu, but in your human world I would still count as fairly attractive.”
Seeing Du Yiluo’s rare anxious expression, Long Tao actually believed her a bit.
This must be what it felt like to be falsely accused. At the same time, since they were chatting so deeply, he could not resist asking further.
“By the way, you call yourself the Minor Vice Commander of the Blood-Pattern Legion. Is that legion powerful?” He paused and added apologetically, “It might sound a bit disrespectful, but I really haven’t heard of it.”
Unexpectedly, Du Yiluo was not angry at all. Instead, she spoke as if it were perfectly natural.
“It’s normal that you haven’t heard of it. Our legion isn’t large, and its history is short. Our boss is a newly promoted Asura King. As soon as he became a king, he hurriedly formed his own legion. So our reputation is still quite small.”
“Then… how many legions are there in the Asura Realm?”
“No one dares claim they know that. The Asura Realm is far too vast. For someone like you who was born in a fragment of a world, its territory is unimaginably wide. Just in our region alone, there are at least several hundred legions with recognizable names. Across the entire Asura Realm, no one can clearly count the number of legions.”
“I see… that’s really hard to imagine.” Long Tao sighed. “I’ve only heard of the most famous ones, like Rahu and Ketu…”
“Of course!” At the mention of those two names, Du Yiluo’s eyes instantly lit up. “Top-tier legions like Rahu and Ketu are great existences that small legions like ours can only look up to. To exaggerate a bit, all the forces in your entire Uncircumvented Heaven World combined probably wouldn’t be enough to defeat even one of their legions.”
As she said this, a look of yearning appeared on Du Yiluo’s face.
“My first dream used to be joining the Rahu Legion. Unfortunately, their requirements are too high. They prioritize only those Asura born directly from the Blood Sea. Someone like me, who was born through ordinary parents, was told that my combat experience wasn’t enough. So I could only join a small legion first to accumulate experience. Once I become somewhat famous in the future, then I’ll consider switching legions.”
“Your… life planning is really clear.” Long Tao felt a bit speechless. “If it’s only about satisfying your desire for battle, wouldn’t any legion be the same? As long as there’s fighting.”
“How could it be the same! It’s completely different!” Du Yiluo suddenly became excited. “Small legions don’t have enough fame, so no worlds actively summon them! We can only wait and hope that somewhere on some battlefield, a ‘Shura Battlefield’ naturally forms. Only then can we seize the opportunity to be teleported there and enjoy a good fight.”
“Uh… ‘Shura Battlefield’? I don’t quite understand.” Long Tao realized he had heard another new term.
“Sigh… for us Asura to enter worlds like yours, certain conditions are required. Battle intent, iron-blooded slaughter, and killing aura—none can be missing. When these conditions on a battlefield reach a certain threshold, a special spatial passage may form. We call it a ‘Shura Battlefield.’ Then Asura who sense it can use it as a coordinate and teleport to different worlds to join the battle.”
“Oh. Then what advantages do large legions have?”
“The advantages of large legions are enormous!” Du Yiluo clearly grew enthusiastic. “First, their reputation is huge—their name alone is a banner! When many worlds face great wars, there are always knowledgeable experts among the locals—formation masters, diviners, and the like. They set up formations on the battlefield and deliberately create a ‘Shura Battlefield’ to perform a ‘targeted summoning,’ specifically inviting certain powerful legions to descend! So the bigger the legion, the less they worry about having no battles to fight. People from different worlds might be lining up every day to summon them. Their schedule is incredibly busy! Unlike us, who can only wait for randomly generated ‘wild’ Shura Battlefields.”
Then she seemed to remember something and proudly told Long Tao,
“More than ten years ago, one world was targeted by the Hungry Ghost Path. The locals spent an enormous fortune to summon the Rahu Legion onto their battlefield. Ah… that battle was truly earth-shaking. It’s said the legion fought the Hungry Ghosts in that world for more than ten years. Later, the allied forces even counterattacked directly into the Hungry Ghost Path. I heard the heads of Ghost Immortals were piled up high enough to form towers.”
“More than ten years? That doesn’t sound too unusual.”
Long Tao felt that such a war duration was nothing rare. But Du Yiluo’s next words shattered his common sense.
“Hey, hey! When we Asura say we fought for ten years, we mean fighting every single moment! It’s not like your human wars where most of the time people just stand in formation facing each other in boring standoffs. There’s no rest in between. At every moment someone is dying in battle, and at the same time others are constantly arriving to replenish the ranks.”