The Heavenly Road: God Hunters

Chapter 014 Blue Fur Lion (revision)

"Now too?! Are you really sure you want to be my Spirit Animal, Ace?" ask Asta.

"Yes. Now is the right time to do it, after all by establishing a Spirit Agreement Contract with me, you will also get great reciprocity and of course it will have a positive impact on you," Ace explained.

Asta was confused about the intended reciprocal effect, but he could sense that Ace was not joking about this.

"I won't tell you what you'll get other than my Ghost Animal Release technique. You'll find out for yourself after we do the contract," he said again.

Ace began to briefly explain the procedure of performing the Spirit Agreement Contract. Basically, the Spirit Agreement Contract is done by channeling each other's Spirit Essence and engraving it in each other's minds. Then, both write the terms of the contract in one sheet of paper. If both agree to the written terms, the next step is to stamp the blood on each corner by both parties and invite the Heavenly Law to bear witness.

"Although each other had already carved out their Spirit Essence, yet if there was one who disagreed with the terms, then the Spirit Agreement Contract could be canceled. However, if each party requested different terms for the Spirit Agreement Contract, the process could continue without having to repeat the Spirit Essence engraving stage," Ace explained.

Asta nodded in understanding of the explanation, "Alright, then let me try it on you," he told Ace.

"What do you think I am, huh?! You bad boy! The Spirit Agreement contract was not something trivial! If the Spirit Agreement Contract has been created, each of us will continue to be bound to each other until one of us dies or until the deadline set out in the terms of the contract," said Ace while glancing.

"Ahh, I'm sorry. I really don't know about this" Asta apologized.

"The "Contract of the Spirit Covenant is sacred. The Unseen Beasts that had become Spirit Beasts could not all return to being Unseen Beasts. If both parties submitted the terms of the Spirit Treaty Contract for life and then one of them died, then the surviving one would receive a sanction from the Heavenly Law. His cultivation would stop at that stage forever until death. That's why it's so rare for a Conferred Animal or Cultivator to apply for a lifetime Spirit Treaty Contract" Ace explained of the Heavenly Law's suspension.

Once again, Asta nodded his head, understanding. Many new things he knew, one of which was the reason why most of the Unseen Beasts were so arrogant and unwilling to become an Animal Spirit Cultivator, which turned out to have the reason.

"Alright, now I completely understand the reason why the Unseen Beasts hate Cultivators. Even though I haven't met them in person, other than you, I have an idea that their reasons do make sense in this regard," Asta said.

"Hey Nak, just so you know, the one who first discovered this method is your ancestor, the human cultivators. Because we never intended to do this with you, because we believed in our own abilities. But now that times have changed, I, who initially believed in my own abilities, now need you" Ace explained.

Asta smiled at him, feeling that Ace gave him more confidence. From Ace's story, Asta could feel a slight affliction of the Unseen Beasts that there might be some who became Spirit Beasts cultivators by force.

At first, Ace was also only interested in his Spirit Essence and only wanted to utilize Asta for his sake. He intended to only make a temporary Spirit Agreement Contract until his affairs were completed. But after getting to know Asta so far and living with him, Ace changed his mind; he wanted to continue to accompany him to the peak of cultivation.

"Then, when are we going to start?" ask Asta.

"We're from now on" Ace replied.

Flares just smiled at the behavior of the two of them who sometimes get along, sometimes like hostile. But that's precisely why the two are getting closer to each other.

"Don't worry about anything. Teachers will take care of your process" Flares said.

---

Two days had passed since Asta and Ace had successfully executed the Spirit Agreement Contract. Because Ace fooled Asta into keeping the contract paper, Asta was struck by heavenly lightning.

Although they had not yet reached their destination, Flares did not grant Asta the slightest leniency. He then tells Ace to disguise his aura so that they can find the Unseen Beasts who will become Asta's training companions.

After a while, they finally found a rank 4 Blue Feather Lion that would be Asta's training target today.

"Babhhh!" asta's voice was thrown into the tree.

"Teacher! Isn't this an exaggeration?! Although the Spirit Treaty Contract with Ace pushed me to the top of the expert realm, this lion is still too powerful for me, and I'm not sure I can defeat it!" asta protests.

But Flares, who was combing his long hair, did not care and ignored him, while on the other hand, Ace continued to tease him.

"Naughty Boy! Don't you want to know the secret behind the village where you were born? If you want, I can tell you, "Ace said, laughing.

"I knew that a year ago when I overheard a conversation between Kenshin and the others. I heard that place is one of the hidden areas belonging to the True Fire Flame Sect, and something big is going to happen to the village" Asta said without interest.

Ace opened his eyes wide, surprised to think that Asta already knew about it, "Then what great thing would happen? Do you know?" ask Ace again.

However, because it was too fun to serve Ace who continued to invite him to speak, Asta again got an attack from the lion.

"If you want to tell me, tell me quickly, don't trouble me!" yell Asta.

"Defeat the Blue Feather Lion first, only then will I tell you," said Ace.

Hearing that, Asta felt annoyed, "Then you should just keep it to yourself! Don't bother me!" his shout, which was only met with Ace's laughter.

Asta hurriedly avoided. Unexpectedly, it turns out that the lion is able to release a blue fire cannon from his mouth.

"Damn..!! I underestimated!" asta muttered softly seeing her clothes burning slightly.

"Quick defeat the lion. We don't have to waste time here. We have to leave!" ace interrupted him again.

Listening to her impatient cry, Asta turned around to yell at her, "Then you go down and face her!" annoyed screams.

Ace laughed out loud seeing Asta provoked by emotion. Instead of stopping, Ace again interrupted his concentration.

"Where is the ability of someone who claims to be a genius? Looking for the weakness of a rank 4 lion alone was incapable, then at what part could it be called that genius. Ahahaha!" satirize Ace to him.

Asta nodded slowly, "I'm sorry. My time to play with you is over. You saw it, right? His fucking mouth won't stop as long as his wish isn't fulfilled" Asta told the lion, insinuating Ace.

Asta lunged for an attack, using a punch reinforced by the Heaven's Path Compounding Art. But no one can get about it. His nimble movements made it a little difficult to hit.

Seeing that all his efforts were in vain, the Blue Feather Lion smirked arrogantly, underestimating him. However, on the contrary for the lion, landing his attack is not difficult.

"Damn it! Are you underestimating me?!" asta shouted annoyed at feeling underestimated. Moreover, Ace laughed wryly at seeing it all.

Despite being aware that her attacks seemed futile, Asta did not lose his spirit. He tried to perform a spirit release to strengthen his attack power as well as increase his speed by using heavenly resources.

In the end, over time, Asta also managed to get a chance to launch his punch. However, when his fist hit the lion's skin, his hand seemed to hit steel. Even with the fire of his spirit essence, the lion's skin and fur did not burn at all.

Asta gulped his own saliva unconsciously watching the toughness of the lion. A blow that in the past can cause a fire explosion, not even an effect at all.

"It! Absolutely impossible! At the very least, I can create an explosion area with this reinforcement, but for him it's some kind of pat?! Awesome body endurance!" Inner Asta, seeing his attack was completely ineffective, even if he hit it.

The lion grew increasingly arrogant and felt invincible with his endurance. Asta was overwhelmed by it because not only was his attack strong, his defense was no less formidable.

"If it continues like that, you'll never be able to beat him. It could be, you're the one who will be defeated by him," continued to sneer at Ace at him.

Then the choice Asta could take was to take the difficult step, which was to directly learn the control of the aura in one move successfully to hold it for a moment and deliver a fatal blow by imposing adding potential to his spirit control. Or take the risk by forcing the potential control of his spirit from the beginning, then as quickly as possible finish him off, but with the side effects if it fails, Asta can be killed because after forcing himself, he said, surely his heavenly source was instantly drained dry.

However, according to him, the second option that came to mind was quite a high risk for him to be killed, while the first option, if Asta failed to learn the control of the aura in one move, was high risk, at least Asta will not run out of heavenly resources. So, he chose the first option.

Asta recalled the second page of the Dark Fire God Book he had recently studied, which was a record of understanding aura control.

"Black God Heavenly Art! Dark Fire God Area."

Asta released waves of aura into the surroundings, creating an area that could increase his own strength. Despite this, Asta did not actually create his own area because his understanding of the heavenly arts in the second page was still insufficient.

The Blue Feather Lion did not let it go, it then roared loudly, creating waves of energy that broke the aura that Asta had just tried to create. Not only that, the roar of the lion threw Asta far back, and the birds and other animals scattered everywhere.

Asta spewed blood from his mouth, "Uhuk! Uhuk! This bastard is hiding his true abilities," Asta murmured softly.

The attack not only destroyed the area that Asta created, but also disrupted the sea of heavenly resources to make him lose control of the release of spirits and body platters.

His plan was completely failed. To stabilize the source ocean again, it takes a few minutes. Even so, losing just one second for a Cultivator could be the deciding between life and death in a fight.

"Because I see you're overwhelmed by it, I'll give you a little direction" Ace said, laughing at his disdain.

"Five minutes. That's the time you need to stabilize your ocean of resources. When the time is up, immediately do the release of spirit animals," he said.

"You crazy?!" Shouted Asta while trying desperately to avoid the lion.

"Five minutes is not long, but look at my condition now. Even if I manage to hold on for that long, forcing myself to perform the release of spirit beasts would be like looking to die."

"With you or him dead, it depends on how well you use your powers" Ace said, then laughed again.

The lion jumped at him. Quickly, Asta slid under his feet, avoiding the sharp-fanged lion. When he managed to avoid it, he immediately grabbed the lion's tail and slammed it on the ground several times and threw it.

Not accepting with Asta's treatment, the lion also returned to make a sudden movement to roar. Hurriedly, Asta leapt to the back of the tree where Ace stood.

Not feeling the time of five minutes passed, Asta smiled feeling his heavenly source could be reused.

"Whether you or I lose, the next is the determination of the winner between the two of us" Asta said confidently.

Confidently, Asta jumped behind the lion, grabbed its tail and threw it as far as possible to give it time.

The Blue Feather Lion looked wrathful to the point that its eyes let out a bluish flame. His blue feathers instantly turned into blazing bluish flames. Now, he looked more like a blue fire lion.

"Although it is extremely risky to fatally activate the release of Ace's spirit beast, but if I continue to deal with it half-and-half, I will actually be defeated by it. At least I have to hurry, "inner Asta.

"The Release of the Spirit Wolf God, Heavenly Eyes,"

Asta immediately released his spirit animal technique to face the Blue Feather Lion who was also exerting his full strength.

The release of Spirit Beasts was a technique that could be obtained after a Cultivator formed a Spirit Treaty Contract with an Unseen Beast.

However, to be able to bring out the full potential of the release of spirit beasts, it required high-level spirit control as well as a body body above rank 5. If not, then the potential and time of use of this technique will be limited, and if you force yourself to extend and remove its potential, there will be side effects that must be borne by the user.

Shortly after activating the release of the spirit beast, his eyes transformed into wolf eyes just like Ace had. His sight and movement identification also increased many times over.

As an Ancient Unseen Beast that was renowned for its sense abilities, although Asta had yet to unleash its full potential, it had already gained a significant increase in its strength.

Not only can predict enemy movements and be able to see small gaps, the eyes turned out to have an intimidating effect that can reduce the fighting spirit of the opponent. It was as if Asta felt this eye technique was almost similar to successfully increasing his aura control to a high level. But Asta could not be complacent about the greatness of the eye technique, he was still very aware of the importance of maintaining his life.

"You know the risk, it's 10 minutes or you're going to die" Ace warned.

"Yes, yeah, yeah. I know it. After all, anyone who wants to die is rotting because all his blood and flesh is evaporating," Asta replied, fully understanding the consequences.

"If you want to freely use my abilities, practice vigorously. But before that, defeat this lion first as your first move, Naughty Boy," Ace said once again.

Asta nodded in understanding and began to prepare to withstand the lunge of the lion's claws. On the other hand, Flares also began to pay attention to his student's fight while giving him a little direction. Asta followed every cue that Flares gave in order to rival the lion.

The Blue Feather Lion was getting fiercer after undergoing a transformation. The force of his claw actually created a sharp and powerful wind blade. Plus, the appearance of the blue flame was not just a display, occasionally he launched fireballs from his body while attacking.

But with the strength of his eyes, this was no big deal to him. Avoiding these attacks becomes easier.

When there was a chance, Asta tried to look into the eyes of the lion directly which then made him silent for a moment, "Now it's my turn to attack," he said as he darted rapidly towards the lion.

Asta instantly reactivated the body compound, as well as performing the release of his spirit essence. Unfortunately, his punch once again had no impact on the lion. The lion regained his senses and repeated his roar technique. Hurriedly, Asta took some distance to avoid it.

"What does your skin actually consist of?" said wonder. His skin was as strong as steel. His punch seemed to be muted by the layer of his skin.

Not believing in its durability, Asta also returned to launch a blow. However, with his leisure, the lion let his punch land on his skin. The lion opened its mouth wide and fired a blue fire cannon that shot it far back. Even though Asta had resistance to fire, it remained that an attack relying on a heavenly source would hurt him.

Not stopping there, the lion continued to direct fireballs from his body. Asta got up and ran away to avoid the attack. Without much choice, Asta can only take risks.

"If my punch is still not strong enough, then just add the power," he said.

"The Heavenly Art of the Black God, the Fire of Darkness Soaring Nirvana,"

Asta immediately released his spirit essence with all his might and tried to use the heavenly art recorded on the first page, the element control art to fuse with the fighting technique. His black flames were blazing like his burning spirit.

Once again, Asta directs his intimidation to the lion to make him immediately speechless. Without much ado, he launched a crushing blow that instantly destroyed all defenses as well as his transformation until he was completely defeated.

"I'm sorry, but it's for my practice,"

"Booommm....!!!!" The sound of an explosion created from his punch.

The lion was thrown far back, blood dripping from it dripping onto the ground. The lion no longer stood up and breathed his last breath.

"How, Master?" He said to his teacher with a smile and ended all of his fighting techniques.

"This is my disciple" he said with a smile. No exception Ace who smiled.