Chapter 656 – Asura (1/2)

The Animal realm was also known as the Daemonic Beast realm, the world where all daemons thrived. The word “animal” was a derogatory term. Just like how the dragons and elephants that served as the mounts of gods and buddhas possessed unbelievable powers, once they offended their master, they would be cursed as “animal”.

TL: The Tiryagyoni realm, also known as the Animal realm, is known as the 畜生道 (chùshēngdào) in Chinese. 畜生 is a curse word, which you label other people by. If you remember when Li Qingshan and E Dan first met during the banquet, Li Qingshan called E Dan a mongrel, while E Dan called him an animal. The “Animal” in “Animal realm” falls into the same context in this case as a derogatory word.

The six realms of saṃsāra were further divided into the three higher realms and the three lower realms. The three higher realms were Heaven, Human, and Asura, while the three lower realms were Animal, Hungry Ghost, and Hell. However, while Asura belonged to the higher realms, their karma paled in comparison to Heaven, so they were known as Not-heaven. The suffering in the realm even surpassed that of the Human realm, so it was sometimes listed with the three lower realms, together known as the four lower realms.

Among the six realms of saṃsāra, Li Qingshan had already witnessed the power of the Hungry Ghost realm. A Corpse King who could not even use his full strength had left a devastating impact on the cultivation community of the Ruyi commandery. He did not understand the Asura realm too well right now. He only knew it was a world filled with battle and slaughter.

In his understanding, asura possessed great strength and were classified as supernatural beings, but because they were bellicose and bloodthirsty, they were a form of wicked god. It was rumored that male asura were extremely ugly, while the females were extremely beautiful. They often opposed Śakra, the lord of the deva and the ruler of the Heaven realm, waging constant war. However, defeat was more frequent than victory.

“I’d like to see how asura look like!”

Li Qingshan smiled. Battle-hungry blood flowed through his body. Wasn’t the exact point of cultivating arduously to see things he could not see in the mountain hamlet? He obviously wanted to see this rather mysterious race with his own eyes. And, he was still waiting to give Si Qing and Mo Yu a surprise, so he definitely could not leave here right now.

“Me too.”

Han Tieyi could vaguely feel he was close to breaking through to mid Foundation Establishment. He also desired a battle against the legendary asura.

“You two battle freaks!” Hua Chengzan said helplessly.

Li Qingshan and Han Tieyi smiled at one another. The same light twinkled in their eyes.

The swirl in the sky spun faster and faster, like a strange eye observing the battlefield on the ground.

Suddenly, a figure descended from the very depths of the swirl, quickly falling towards the centre of the battlefield.

“So that’s an asura!”

Li Qingshan’s eyes were extremely sharp, making out the figure with a single glance. He was a male asura, bare-chested with his skin giving off a faint blood-red colour. His body was stocky like he had been carved from red rock, and he wore thigh guards below, depicting vicious faces. He wielded a pair of rod-like maces that shone with a blood-red sheen.

Li Qingshan was rather disappointed, however. He could tell with a single glance that the asura’s strength was basically at the standard of a high level Qi Practitioner. Although the power of asura differed from humans and daemons, he could still roughly tell how powerful they were. This asura definitely had not undergone the first heavenly tribulation. An opponent like that was unable to pique his interest.

However, he also understood that this was probably similar to the Gate of Hungry Ghosts. In the beginning, existences that were too powerful were unable to pass through. An invisible barrier existed between the two worlds.

Unlike the legends, the asura was not particularly ugly. His face was large and square, with a large nose and mouth and a head full of greyish-white hair, which instead made him seem rather dignified. As it seemed, legends really could not be trusted.