Chapter 139: Asura Transformation
The world was being consumed by a gray-white spider web hell.
From Tsuchigumo's six arms, hundreds of threads shot out in every direction. The moment they touched the ground, the rich soil turned a lifeless gray, hardening into stone slabs. Plants, vibrant only a second before, lost all vitality upon contact, their branches and leaves frozen in their final, reaching postures, transformed into ghastly white sculptures.
The blight spread for miles, then dozens of miles, until its influence covered a range of hundreds of miles. The entire world, it seemed, was being devoured by Tsuchigumo's Yao Qi.
This was the domain of a great demon who had surpassed thirteen transformations to reach the Gaseous Transformation level—a power that didn't just exist in the world but actively rewrote it.
Witnessing such an astonishing and horrifying scene, Kikyo's brow furrowed. The dust and debris kicked up by the petrification obscured her vision, and she couldn't find a clean opening to aim. The very air, thick with swirling dust and howling winds, seemed to conspire against her. Everything the Yao Qi touched became an obstacle, a shield for the monster at its center.
Hikaru, meanwhile, danced on a small patch of land that had not yet turned to stone. He held Muramasa horizontally before him, its blade sheathed in crackling thunder.
He was moving. Always moving. He didn't dare stop. The second he paused, the ground beneath his feet would become another gray slab in the demon's growing mosaic.
But dodging wasn't the real problem. The problem was that he couldn't cut it.
He brought Muramasa down in a vicious arc, striking Tsuchigumo's middle arm. Thunder exploded in a burst of violent purple light, leaving a scorched mark upon the demon's crimson skin.
And that was all.
In the blink of an eye, newborn Yao Qi flooded the mark, filling it in completely. Not even a scar remained. It looked like he had landed a blow, but in reality, he had accomplished nothing. This was the nature of a Gaseous Transformation great demon—its very essence was a phenomenon. Physical damage was repaired automatically at a material level, like the surface of water parting for a stone before smoothly closing over it. This wasn't healing; it was the world simply returning to its altered state.
In stark contrast to Hikaru's futile efforts, Kikyo's arrow finally found its moment. It streaked through a gap in the chaos and struck Tsuchigumo squarely in the right shoulder.
Pristine white spiritual power erupted against the grayish-white skin. The force of purification explored deep into the layers of Yao Qi, stripping them away from the point of contact. A fist-sized depression appeared on the demon's shoulder, revealing the world's true, uncorrupted nature beneath—like tearing fabric to expose the raw, natural color underneath.
For a great demon, this was almost equivalent to having its very shell pierced.
It was effective. Incredibly effective.
Spiritual power was the natural counter to Yao Qi. Even demonic energy at the Gaseous Transformation level would be purified and dissolved in the face of spiritual power that was strong enough.
And Kikyo's spiritual power was more than strong enough. She had long since reached a level where she could effortlessly crush any demon below the rank of a great demon. Even a peak demon like Kidomaru wouldn't dare to face her arrows head-on. Any existence that was not a true great demon would die if hit. A mere graze would mean mutilation. The recent confirmation of her bond with Hikaru, and the peace of mind that followed, had only spurred her power to greater heights.
Even a wild and belligerent great demon like Tsuchigumo couldn't—and wouldn't want to—take one of her Sacred Arrows directly. It was forced to use its own Yao Qi as a shield, knowing it would still be injured.
But for Hikaru, it was demon against demon, Yao Qi against Yao Qi. There was no inherent suppression. In fact, due to the vast disparity in their levels, his own Yao Qi was being actively suppressed by Tsuchigumo's. His thunder could inflict physical damage, but that damage was instantly repaired by the Gaseous Transformation phenomenon. His Bone Spikes could penetrate the skin, but any part that entered the demon's body would be swallowed by the petrification effect. His blood mist, the moment it neared Tsuchigumo, would lose all activity and turn to gray dust, eroded by the demon's oppressive aura.
He was a demon, and that was precisely the problem.
Still, the fact that he could achieve this much with Yao Qi that hadn't even reached the level of a high-level demon truly made Tsuchigumo look at him with new eyes. As a true millennial great demon that had survived since before the Heian period, it had never seen such a strange little demon.
"Interesting, brat," Tsuchigumo's voice rumbled.
Its top two arms suddenly retracted. Enduring the searing pain in the shoulder torn by Kikyo's Sacred Arrow, it clenched its ten fingers into massive fists.
Then, it smashed them down.
No silk was spat. No Yao Qi was released. This was pure, unadulterated physical violence.
Before the fists even arrived, the very force of their descent cracked the ground, shattering it into dust. The resulting shockwave lifted Hikaru off his feet. He flipped through the air, pushing his Thunder Muscle to its absolute limit, and barely managed to stabilize his body mid-flight.
But Tsuchigumo's second punch was already chasing him. The middle two arms flanked him from the sides, one from the left and one from the right, in a pincer attack. The motion was outrageously fluid. The coordination of the six arms didn't look like a single creature's movements at all, but rather like six independent beings attacking simultaneously, each with its own rhythm and angle.
The left fist struck directly. The right palm slapped horizontally. And the bottom two arms raised their knees in unison—
It even threw a kick.
That thick leg, with its inverted knee joint, whipped out like a battering ram, carrying enough power to crush a fortress wall as it swept toward Hikaru's waist.
'Too strong,' Hikaru thought, a cold dread washing over him.
It wasn't a matter of speed—Tsuchigumo was actually slightly slower than Kidomaru had been inside his own domain. The issue was the sheer breadth of its attack. Six arms and two legs, eight points of attack operating simultaneously, covering every conceivable angle. There were no blind spots.
Even while punching and kicking, it perfectly dodged the Sacred Arrows that Kikyo was continuously raining down. Every arrow seemed to graze past its skin, deflected by a subtle shift of its massive frame. It lacked extreme speed, yet its evasive movements were shockingly precise.
'Isn't this guy supposed to be a brawler? How is it so good at dodging!?'
Hikaru cursed inwardly as he barely managed to block the kick with a hastily formed Bone Spike. The impact smashed him from the side, sending him skipping across the ground like a stone on water. He bounced four or five times before sliding to a halt.
Dead-gray blood, the blood of an Oni, seeped from the corner of his mouth. His ribs were cracked, and his Bone Soul Transformation was automatically working to repair them, but the rate of healing couldn't keep up with the damage he was taking.
Hikaru shakily pushed himself to his feet, using Muramasa as a crutch. Beneath his demon mask, he gritted his teeth, and the blade in his hand trembled with the strain. The air around him was as viscous as drying cement. The Gaseous Transformation Yao Qi radiating from Tsuchigumo, the phenomenal domain of a great demon of thirteen transformations, was crushing him from every angle.
One of Tsuchigumo's massive palms took the opportunity to slap down from above.
Hikaru raised his blade to block. He activated his Bone Soul Transformation to its fullest, and layers upon layers of bone shields materialized above his head.
But the moment the palm made contact, the bone shields shattered one by one as if they were made of paper. That overwhelming, irresistible monstrous force traveled down the length of his blade. Hikaru's legs instantly sank into the ground up to his knees, and the air was forcibly squeezed from his lungs.
"Too weak!" Tsuchigumo lowered its head, its huge bone-plated face coming close to Hikaru's. Its dark green eye slits were filled with a mixture of disappointment and tyranny. "Brat, is this the extent of your capacity? A piece of trash who can't even breathe in my presence… do you deserve to stand before me?"
It increased the pressure, yet its other limbs were still moving, deflecting Kikyo's arrows. Hikaru could hear the frantic twang of her bowstring, a sound laced with urgency and worry. He could also hear the sickening crack of his own arm bones beginning to splinter under the immense weight.
He was going to die. He was really going to die. This great spider wasn't playing around; it truly intended to crush him like an ant.
The scent of death rushed toward him—intense, foul, yet… extremely familiar.
Hikaru raised his head. There was no fear in his crimson demon pupils. He was a man who had already died once; how could he fear death again?
In that instant, under infinite pressure, he had a sudden realization, an epiphany. In this desperate situation, he had finally touched upon the location of his 'opportunity'.
Deep within his chest, something felt like it was coming loose. It wasn't a bone, not a wound. It was something deeper. It was the paper-thin membrane he had deliberately preserved for so long.
The door to his Materialization, which had long since reached its absolute critical point, finally split open on its own under the extreme external pressure.
The Spirit-Tracking Archer Transformation trembled. The power that fused the Nekomata Claws and the Archer Transformation was overflowing, like a bag stuffed too full that had finally burst at the seams.
The Thunder Muscle roared. The thunder, born from the fusion of the thunder horn and the Sharp Body Transformation, began to spread outward along his bones, no longer content to remain between muscle and skin.
The Bone Soul Transformation grew. The ability to manipulate bone, a power gained from the fusion of Hiraikotsu, was no longer limited to his own body but was extending and spreading outward.
The three transformations that had reached their limits were, at this moment, simultaneously bursting through the dam.
It wasn't him pushing them. It was the battle itself that had become the final straw. It was the induction of nearing death. Tsuchigumo's Yao Qi pressure, the erosion of its domain, the crushing force of its physical attacks—pressure from all directions that exceeded his limits had finally shattered that internal membrane from the outside.
Like the crushing pressure of the deep sea imploding a bottle.
The opportunity he had waited so long for was exactly this. Not a breakthrough achieved through quiet meditation in a safe environment, but letting his body choose its own path of evolution on the battlefield, between life and death, under extreme duress.
Such a qualitative change would not be gentle. It would be violent. It would be a chain reaction… a cascading surge.
—The Seventh Transformation.
Crack, crack, crack.
The sound of shattering bone rang out. All two hundred and six bones in his body developed spiderweb-like cracks in the same instant. From his skull to his toes, from his spine to his knuckles, every bone was like porcelain cracking from within.
Then, rebirth.
What seeped from the cracks was not bone marrow, but thunder.
Purple electric arcs surged from the fissures, pouring into the shattered gaps, linking the once-separate Thunder Muscle and Bone Soul Transformation at the most fundamental level. Thunder no longer flowed only between muscle and skin. It seeped into the bone marrow. It seeped into the very substance of the bone itself.
Inside every re-healed bone, an extra layer of purple patterns appeared, like a mineral vein embedded in rock—no, the mineral vein itself had become part of the rock.
Bone was thunder, and thunder was bone. The boundaries between them had collapsed.
His power was no longer stored in six separate bags. It was a monstrous flood bursting its dam and converging into a single, raging ocean.
This was Materialization. Physical Transformation changed usage, but Materialization changed existence itself.
And the first answer to this new existence was that his basic attributes were being rewritten. The concentration of his Yao Qi surged. The demonic power that had been bound within his six transformations, each fighting its own battle, converged in the instant the three overloaded abilities burst. The total amount didn't increase, but its density rose sharply—like scattered sparks being compressed into a single, scorching piece of magma.
The speed he could previously only reach by pushing himself to the limit was now his normal state, achieved with every breath. The thunder that he once had to deliberately channel now moved with his thoughts, requiring no conscious effort. This was the essence of Materialization: a change from a temporary state to a permanent one.
This was Hikaru's Seventh Transformation… Reforging.
Shattering everything he possessed, fusing it, and re-condensing it at a higher density. It wasn't about gaining a new ability, but allowing his existing abilities to transform from something he could use into something that was simply a part of him.
His physical appearance remained unchanged. But his legs, which had been pressed into the ground up to his knees, at that moment—held firm.
Tsuchigumo's palm pressure remained, and that overwhelming, monstrous strength still channeled through the blade. But the force being transmitted down his body no longer caused him to sink.
Purple electric arcs climbed from his knees, along his leg bones, shot through his spine, and reached the arms supporting Muramasa. His entire skeleton felt like an electrified metal frame, its rigidity suddenly soaring.
It wasn't that his strength had increased. It was that the vessel containing his strength had hardened.
But this was not the end. The threshold of the Seventh Transformation had only just been cracked. The changes unleashed by the overloaded 'quantity' of his power went far beyond a single instance.
—The Eighth Transformation.
If Hikaru's Seventh Transformation was an inward reforging, then the Eighth Transformation was an outward overflow.
Yao Qi began to seep out from his body. This wasn't the active release of blood mist, thunder, or Bone Spikes he had commanded in previous battles. This was different. The Yao Qi oozed from his pores, spilled from the gaps in his bones, and diffused from the very walls of his blood vessels.
It was uncontrolled. Or rather, it no longer needed to be controlled. The Yao Qi had become so abundant that his body could no longer contain it. The Seventh Transformation had recast his interior and compressed its density, but the aftershocks of that compression needed an outlet. The body was a finite vessel, and the concentration of his Materialized Yao Qi had already exceeded its limits.
The excess portion could only move outward.
The Bone Soul Transformation was the first to respond. The process of controlling bones—extending, growing, reconstructing—which was previously limited to his own body, now extended outside of it. Bones grew from beneath his feet and emerged from the ground around him., they no longer required his direct connection to continue growing; they bloomed like ghastly flowers under the command of his will alone.
Meanwhile, the Yao Qi seeping from his skin did not diffuse chaotically. The Undead Affinity of his Spirit-Tracking Archer Transformation guided it, forming a thin membrane within a half-inch of his body's surface.
A membrane of perception.
Before Materialization, his Soul-Locking Sure-Hit Hand required a deliberate process of targeting. But now, this layer of Yao Qi shortened that process to near-instinct. Any living being that entered its range would have the location of its soul automatically marked. Any attack, before it even touched him, would be instantly intercepted.
The perception of the Spirit-Tracking Archer Transformation overflowed outward. The substance of the Bone Soul Transformation extended outward. And the electric arcs of the Thunder Muscle jumped and connected between the two.
At this point, the three overloaded transformations were no longer just crammed together. They began to spontaneously cross, overlap, and weave together outside his body.
This was the essence of the Eighth Transformation: overflow. The Yao Qi broke through the boundaries of his flesh, beginning to construct a second layer of existence with his body as the center. The line between inside and outside blurred. The very concept of his "body" began to expand.
The Seventh Transformation turned his interior from six pockets into a river. The Eighth Transformation allowed this river to overflow its banks.
And what came after that… was the Ninth Transformation.
It was to build a new riverbed outside the banks.
The overlapping powers of the three transformations outside his body, at this moment, found their shape.
The Bone Soul Transformation provided the skeleton. The bony structures extending from his shoulders, elbows, and spine were no longer scattered protrusions—they began to connect. Transverse bone bridges grew between the spikes, bone beams were erected upon the bridges, and the beams layered into bone walls.
A complete skeletal structure rose from the ground around him. From feet to knees, from knees to hips, from hips to shoulders, from shoulders to skull. The white skeleton grew like a tower taking shape.
The Thunder Muscle filled this skeleton. Purple thunder surged in from between the bone seams, not as arcs attached to the surface, but as a congealed, substantive force filling the gaps. Thunder and bone interlocked. Each bolt of lightning connected multiple bones, and when it contracted, it drove the movement of the skeleton, just like the pull of real muscles and tendons.
With bone as the frame and thunder as the flesh.
Constructed outside the body—a complete, second body.
Six meters in height.
The perception membrane of the Spirit-Tracking Archer Transformation wrapped around the outermost layer, becoming the skin of this new form. It provided no defense, but it allowed this six-meter-tall existence to possess perception perfectly synchronized with his original body.
What his original body saw, it saw. What his original body felt, it felt. And vice versa.
This was a projection. An amplification. It was projecting his own strength onto a larger scale.
This was the Ninth Transformation. Following the Seventh Transformation's recasting and the Eighth Transformation's overflow, he had created another self outside of himself.
Gathering thunder to form bone, merging into—
The Asura Transformation.
A colossal figure rose from where he stood. Six meters tall. Not enormous. Compared to Tsuchigumo's twelve-meter body, it was almost laughable.
But on that six-meter-tall giant of bone and thunder, the concentration of Yao Qi was no longer something any ordinary demon could compare to.
Hikaru's original body stood in the core of this Bone-Thunder Giant, looking up at the grayish-white behemoth that was still twice its height.
Seeing this, Kikyo finally lowered her bow. She had been about to resume her suppressive fire to keep Tsuchigumo from completely crushing Hikaru. A soft sigh of relief escaped her lips. She did not have many arrows left. She knew he was on the verge of a breakthrough, but if he hadn't made his move then, the shrine maiden would have likely had to charge in and engage the beast in close combat herself.
Behind the gaps in Tsuchigumo's bone-plated face, the green light of its eyes suddenly brightened. All six of its arms stopped their movements simultaneously.
It lowered its head, looking at the brat it had just kicked across the battlefield. It looked at the exoskeleton of bone and thunder now woven around his body.
And then—it laughed. Louder, more unrestrained than before.
"Good! Good! Now you're qualified!"
"Come on, brat!"
"Let me see—if that new shell of yours is hard enough!"
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