47 Fighting the Demon and Reveal of the New Techniques (1/2)

When Stigma started battling the beast, he had done nothing but use his bare fist and kicks during each fight. Eventually he started using stances in the martial arts in his previous world to see if he was comfortable in using them, then started doing nothing but sparring until he was use to it.

It had been sixteen hours in total since Stigma entered the realm and he had used about eleven hours in his continuous battles against the beast, so far he had only won a handful of times. Most of the time he was mauled by their fangs, ripped to shreds by their claws, choked by having his lungs crushed, or even crushed under the sheer weight of the beast.

Yet all of those times he realized that the beasts had some form of intelligence, thinking that they were still alive.

When he confronted the Demon about the matter, it only replied that after being absorbed by the skill 'Soul Eater', the soul would go through a process of cleansing. The cleansing process remove all forms of memories and emotions leaving only behind the lingering energy that they have affinity to.

For non cultivators, their strongest emotion before death will remain such as anger or peace, but for low leveled Heavenly Beast they would leave behind their lineage and natural intuition, therefore Stigma was only facing the remnants of the collective basic instincts, such as defending oneself from danger.

Stigma can only nod his head when he heard it, when he first fought the wolf he started by watching the pattern in its movements, thinking that it would show the same movement after each fight.

Contrary to what he thought, the Beast kept on changing it style of movement and attack pattern, causing Stigma to dodge to retreat most of the time.

He finally landed a few blow when it bit into his arm and pinned it down removing any chance to escape, then started choking it in a sleeper hold until he broke its neck, another was when he kept on punching it until he broke the skull.

When he stepped back to take a breath from his first victory, he saw the wolf reappearing again with all its wounds healed, making him leap backwards to see if it would attack but nothing happened.

The Demon then told him that the beast would stop fighting the moment you won by killing it or when Stigma died, and each time he kills a beast here he will lift some of the restriction on the very soul he had soul.

”So in layman's terms, you are trying to tame the Heavenly Beast with their soul, they will immediately submit once you are strong enough to kill it in one blow” The Demon gave out a maniacal grin as he explained, clearly it knew from the start but didn't warn him.

It was Stigma's excitement and rashness that made him immediately fight without listening to the Demon's warning. It didn't really matter to the Demon if Stigma died in this world from time to time, since the energy was circulating through out the room was keeping Stigma's body healed and alive.

It knew fully well that Stigma wasn't aware of the function of the room, from experience Stigma could tell that if he ever got injured his wounds would instantly heal. But such a function doesn't exist, the room was only housing and circulating the Zen energy in its purest form, causing all injuries to be healed since the Zen energy had such properties.

In fact, throughout the entire inner world, any form of energy would immediately be sent to this room since its assigned to be like that from the Demon. That is why he brought Stigma here to do his training since it can both recover his exhaustion and heal his injuries at an alarming pace.

As time passed, the number of times Stigma had won, against a one on one fight, was increasing by a digit. Showing that he was making small progress, so he still had a lot of room for improvement.

Out of all the fights, he had won at least an average of three victories from the Wolf, the Snake, the Stag, the Bear, the Bull, and the Boar. While the Eagle, the Monkey, the Cheetah, the Rabbit, the Rat, and the Goat had caused him to only gain only one victory.

Especially the Rat and the Rabbit were the most difficult one to handle, they looked weak in appearance alone, so he started by charging at them at full force and end it quickly. But yet again the logic he knew was thrown out the window.

As he got closer to one of them, he tried to do an overhead stomp to immediately end the fight, only to find them charging at him the moment he raised his foot. He started moving backwards only to be chased after from behind, then gained multiple cuts from the rat's sharp teeth, while gaining multiple bruises from the rabbit's headbutts and jumping ability.

He finally landed a hit on them the same way he beat the wolf, by grabbing them upon injuring him and started wailing on his attacks. Though when he tried it again, he only realized that the difference in experience was what got those two to the advantage over him, despite the size difference.

So far the experienced gained was a fortune to him and outweighed the losses so he didn't care. In his remaining time, he used about eight hours or so to practice on molding his energy creating his technique he was planning to use. But then remembered something odd as he recalled the events so far.

'...Where the hell is the Grudge energy?'

When the Demon saw Stigma looked at it general direction, it can guess what he was thinking and only laughed and started biting on a piece of bone an attendant brought out while rubbing its cursed throat. So he gave up on the idea for now, since he had another agenda in mind.

After resting for over an hour, he started doing some stretches and warm ups, finally he went towards the Demon who was lying down on a pedestal with a half eaten bone in its mouth.

When the Demon saw Stigma approaching he gave his wide grin and fixed himself. Coughing a few time and looked towards Stigma, due to being on the pedestal he was finally looking at him eye to eye.

”What can I do for you, Dear Sir.”

”How much time do I have left?”

The Demon looked at the hourglass and made an estimate based on eye contact then threw the whole bone inside his mouth and crushed under one bite.

”About seven hours and thirty two minutes in counting, do you want to leave now? Ah by the way, if you leave now all the Zen energy you used as tribute, will be used up and will revert back to zero. I hope you understand, since its not easy cultivating in a realm were all shorts of treasured Energy are owned by someone else, and I have to gain them via payment.”

What the Demon said was true, he was currently caged inside the realm, if he were a mindless Demon then it would unconsciously try to absorb the rich energy around via greed. But the Demon that Stigma was facing had gained intelligence and self awareness, so it was not reckless as to forcibly take the energy, since he would get a strong rebound.

So he decided to use the tribute as payment, and also as a sign of courtesy, since he is 'technically' working for Stigma to maintain his souls absorbed.

”Don't worry once were done, you can have it all. But can you answer my question.”

”But of course...” The Demon continued to display his grin, as if it was expecting something out of the conversation that he was waiting for.

”...If I want to make a breakthrough all the way to the next Tier is it possible?”

The Demon didn't respond but only revealed a widened grin with his tail spun about. Jumping down from the pedestal, he took a stroll then waved his hands signaling all the beings to move away, be it the attendance and the Heavenly Beast Souls made way to create a clear area.