Chapter 36: A step forward (2)

Kira yanked his eyes open and found himself in a completely dark room void of any form of light. For the first time all his life, his head felt clear and no foreign thought popped up on it own, he was temporarily free of all forms of worry, and for the first time since his father died, he felt at peace.

"So this is the result of combining two top tier cultivation materials… Hehehe… this made all the trouble we went through definitely worth it"

Kira was no stranger to the effects of the Cryan soul orb and the fantasy leaf. As a billionaire who also takes interest in empowering himself, he and the other three have taken time to go through details on most of the cultivation materials that can be found in the continent. But this knowledge didn't prevent him from being stunned by the magical effects, knowing and feeling are two different things.

Xiu!

Not daring to waste any more time, Kira decided to make use of this rare opportunity to refine his martial arts. Unlike his father who valued the blood flames more and placed it above the serpent martial art style, Kira was different. He believed that a strong body and mind will definitely lead to a well developed superpower. In his opinion, special abilities and one's physical body should be developed hand in hand to achieve maximum growth.

His hands moved slowly but smoothly as he stood on his toes. Each movement was slow and carried no force but it still brought along with it the hissing sound and a piercing sound, allowing his palms to cut through the air effortlessly.

The serpent martial arts technique is one that focuses on swift and sure kill attacks. It allows the user to gather venom in their body all the way to their hands, to improve the lethality of their attacks with the use of a special training technique called accumulation. In the past, Kira's grandfather had reached a profound realm in this martial art style that he was nicknamed the Purple serpent fist by fellow palace masters of different training halls. After using the accumulation technique to gather more venom into his palms for more than half a century, his fists permanently turned purple in color and it is said that even a casual touch could poison anyone. His venomous strikes were so lethal, that anything caught in its way dies just a few seconds after taking a hit.

Unfortunately, Kira's grandfather died in the bloody war half a century ago, defeated by an A-rated guardian who also lost his life due to the poison. Their training hall was destroyed and all the techniques, history, and relevant family artifacts, with only his father as the sole survivor.

Since his father was never interested in martial art, his knowledge of their family martial art was greatly limited and through the little knowledge the man possessed, he could only reach the level of yellow belt martial art practitioners.

Satisfied with his current power output and flexibility, Kira sat in a cross-legged position as he began using the accumulation secret technique to gather venom into his hands. Since his knowledge of the high-level serpent techniques is limited, preventing him from achieving a breakthrough in this aspect, he decided to focus on strengthening the venom in his hands to make his strikes more lethal.

...........................

Zero dived deeper into the darkness and the only thought in his mind was the voice that showed him how to become stronger. The voice that revealed to him the secrets of Akila's ability and thought him how to use the same technique to strengthen his body while healing his weak body. Even though he suffered more than the others in their battle against one-eyed spider monkey, he didn't regret his choice of joining the battle. If given another chance to rewrite the events of the past, Zero was quite sure he will repeat his actions. Before he lost consciousness after the battle, he called out to the voice and it answered.

"Show yourself if you are there…" Zero called out with a set of knitted eyebrows and clutched fists while staring deep into the darkness.

Swoosh!

A cold breeze blew by him in this dark world and a figure appeared behind him. It had the shape of a bird with a single big round eye with no mouth, making it look like a cyclops, its wings were considerably smaller than its body, making it hard to believe that such a beast will be able to fly even though it's a bird type magic beast.

"You! Dusk Demon!!!" Zero was momentarily stunned. His eyes let out purple light and three-layered turtle shelled dome appeared around him.

"Don't be ridiculous… Don't tell me it never occurred to you that I am the voice in your head, or were you expecting someone else?" The dusk demon ignored Zero's response and spoke casually.

"I… I had my doubts… But yes, I suspected you were the one… But how?" Zero seemed a bit confused but he didn't dare let down his guard.

"What do you mean by that? I possess the highest mastery over the psychic element… consciousness transmission is not entirely impossible…" The dusk demon's voice harbored some traces of pride and disdain but its face showed no emotions.

"This… Why did you help me overcome my weakness? Why did you choose me?" Zero asked with a straight face.