The Plan

Shen Shu is a member of the Asura race, and the Asura King?!

This was the first thought that popped into Xu Qi'an's mind.

If Shenshu is a member of the Asura race, then the only one who fits his identity is probably the legendary Asura King who was sealed and suppressed beneath Mount Aranta by the Buddha with the Demon-Sealing Nail.

However, according to legend, that Asura King had already died and vanished.

As for whether it could be another member of the Asura clan, Xu Qi'an thought it was impossible. The reason was simple: after the Asura King died, the one who inherited the title of "Asura" was the Asura King's youngest son.

This shows that Asura is the strongest warrior of the Asura race.

Based on this, if Shen Shu is a member of the Asura race, then as a half-step Martial God, he can only be the Asura King.

"Shen Shu is the Asura King, and the Asura King and the Lord of Kingdom of Ten Thousand Demons are lovers. The Nine-Tailed Fox is the Asura King's daughter, and she and Asura are siblings," Xu Qi'an muttered to himself.

This is interesting!

However, many questions remain unanswered, the most important being the timeline.

According to Xu Qi'an's understanding, the Asura clan's submission to Buddhist School was at least a thousand years ago, or even longer, while the Sixty-Year Demon Purge took place five hundred years ago.

In other words, the Asura King should have perished a thousand years ago, so the fact that Shen Shu was the Asura King is a bit suspicious.

Imagine if the Asura King converted to Buddhist School; Buddhist School would surely publicize it widely, record it in Buddhist scriptures, and proclaim it to believers worldwide, thereby establishing the prestige of Buddhist School.

Instead of proclaiming that the Asura King was destroyed by the compassionate Buddha.

"By the way, the deal—Shenshu and Buddha had a secret deal."

Xu Qi'an's heart stirred, and he vaguely grasped something, but time did not allow him to think too much, as the aura emanating from Asura became increasingly terrifying.

This cast a shadow over the entire Nanfa Temple.

Standing nine feet tall, with jet-black skin, bulging muscles, and prominent brow bones, Asura's ugly appearance made him seem like a war god emerging from hell.

Beneath his prominent brow bone, his sharp eyes gleamed with a scarlet light.

Xu Qi'an saw bloodlust, brutality, and a fighting spirit in those eyes.

The Asura race are born warriors.

"Amitabha!"

Not to mention Xu Qi'an, even the monks of Nanfa Temple were somewhat unaccustomed to Asuluo's current state.

They stopped forming a battle formation and retreated while chanting Buddhist mantras.

When Asura goes into a berserk state, his most prominent characteristic is that he becomes completely ruthless and indifferent to even his own family.

Xu Qi'an held the Taiping Blade, focused and on guard, while glancing up at the sky where Sun Xuanji's second cannon shot was beginning to gather.

If Shenshu is the Asura King, does Asura know about this? If he doesn't, perhaps I can take this opportunity to turn him against me. Xu Qi'an's heart stirred, and he transmitted his voice:

Do you know who is sealed inside the tower?

"The Demonic Monk!"

Asuro responded to him, his voice no longer youthful and deep, but filled with a cold indifference that looked down on everything.

"What if I told you that he was your father, the Asura King, the previous Asura?"

Xu Qi'an transmitted his voice.

"So what? Once Buddhist School, all worldly desires are emptied."

Asuro said calmly.

A mere grudge for killing one's father. Seeing Asuluo like this, Xu Qi'an recalled the words spoken by the peerless beauty, Bodhisattva Liuli, when she arrived in the capital from the Western Regions to assist Xu Pingfeng in capturing him.

Once Buddhist School, you renounce all worldly desires!

A chill ran through him.

If the Bodhisattva Lapis Lazuli had actually succeeded, his situation wouldn't have been much better than Asura's.

"Clank."

Asura flicked out jet-black claws from his fingers, gleaming with dark light, and his figure vanished as if teleported, appearing before Xu Qi'an.

In a flash, Xu Qi'an saw Asuluo's ugly face reflected in his pupils. His fighting instincts outpaced his thinking, and he unleashed the Taiping Blade.

"Pfft~"

Dark golden blood splattered as the severed arm fell to the ground along with the Taiping sword.

The power of the slaying-the-thief fruit combined with his Asura physique made the Vajra Divine Skill completely unable to withstand it. Xu Qi'an leaped to the right, braced himself with one arm, and performed a beautiful somersault.

During the process, he picked up his severed arm and used the "Gyokusai" technique to return the injury to Asura and disrupt his offensive rhythm.

A deep claw mark appeared on Asuro's dark right arm, but it failed to tear the arm apart.

He clenched his fist tightly, causing the muscles in his right arm to bulge, and the injury healed instantly.

The return rate of the shattered jade has dropped to less than fifty percent. Xu Qi'an's heart sank, and then he disappeared into the shadows.

Where he had been standing, Asuro's tall figure suddenly appeared, and he threw out his right fist, aiming directly at Xu Qi'an's head.

Xu Qi'an appeared a dozen feet away and slashed out with his Taiping Blade to the right.

Bite!

Sparks flew up and struck Asura in the chest, who had suddenly appeared.

At the same time, Xu Qi'an, who had just unleashed a slash, once again merged into the shadows and disappeared.

He appeared beneath the Sealed Tower. Clang! Sparks flew as Xu Qi'an once again used Shadow Leap to disappear.

In the vast west courtyard, the two fought in a bizarre way, sometimes appearing in the east, sometimes in the south. Sometimes all that could be heard was a "clang" sound, and sparks could be seen flying, but the two could not be seen.

Xu Qi'an was no longer a crude martial artist; he only knew how to work hard. Having mastered the Seven Deadly Gu, he possessed a wide range of flashy skills.

First, he used the "Shifting Stars and Changing Constellations" Law Technique to conceal his presence, and then used shadows to leap and entangle himself. Asura couldn't predict where he would appear, and even with his terrifying speed, he could never anticipate the enemy's moves and was always a step behind.

However, this has a drawback: he has to keep jumping, and if he slows down, for example, if he tries to destroy the sealing tower, he will be caught by Asura.

The sealing tower is shrouded in an array formed by sixty-eight Zen masters, which even he cannot easily destroy.

"Boom!"

A blinding beam of light descended once more, illuminating Nanfa Temple.

Sun Xuanji's second bombardment arrived, but the target was no longer Asura, but the Sealing Tower.

Bang! Bang!

Click!

The golden light enveloping the sealed tower thinned further, tiles shattered, walls cracked, and it suffered immense damage.

The pillar of light vanished instantly, and Sun Xuanji rode the Floating Pagoda into the air, gathering power in preparation for the next strike.

At this moment, the conflicting attributes between the systems became apparent. If it were the Rain Master of the Witch God Cult or Daoist School transcendent being present, Sun Xuanji would definitely not have dared to fly so high. Both of them possess the ability to summon lightning.

However, while the methods of the Buddhist School system are unpredictable, they rarely employ Law Technique to manipulate the power of heaven and earth.

"Two more tries and we'll be able to break through the sealing tower."

Xu Qi'an was secretly encouraged.

If Senior Brother Sun had personally gone to break the formation, it would have been a piece of cake. However, Senior Brother Sun was clearly wary of Asuluo and dared not come down.

The chase continued until the third bombardment was ready, with the cannons spewing out beams of light one meter in diameter, once again bombarding the sealed tower.

Nanfa Temple was once again shrouded in daylight.

At this moment, Xu Qi'an discovered that Asuluo was missing.

He did not pursue Xu Qi'an.

At the same time, Asura appeared on the cannon platform. He avoided the sensing array that Sun Xuanji had set up around the platform and appeared on the platform silently.

Given the height of the fortress, even extraordinary martial artists cannot descend silently. The sky is different from the land; there are leverage points. Martial artists can use their terrifying explosive power to teleport over short distances.

There's no foothold at high altitudes, and a martial artist's speed and movement are slow and noisy, so they can't hide from a third-rank Warlock. Not to mention the sensory array radiating from the cannon emplacements.

However, there is one place that the sensing array cannot cover, and that Sun Xuanji cannot detect.

That was the beam of light shooting from the cannon muzzle.

Asuro charged up the cannon platform against the beam of light.

At this moment, his dark skin was covered with burn marks, emitting blue smoke and smelling of burnt meat.

At this moment, he was less than three zhang away from Sun Xuanji.

The Sun Xuanji we see now is the real person, not a puppet or a substitute.

Dead End!

Thud. Asuro threw a punch, like a cannonball, tearing through the air.

On the cannon platform, a clear light array lit up, transforming into a tortoise-shell-shaped defensive formation. But it crumbled into light dust in Asura's domineering punch.

Even Xu Qi'an's Vajra Divine Skill couldn't stop it, let alone a mere protective formation.

Just then, a figure suddenly appeared in front of Sun Xuanji, spreading his arms to meet Asuluo's fist.

Xu Qi'an!

The pitch-black fist pierced through Xu Qi'an's chest in the next moment, instantly turning his heart into minced meat.

At this moment, Sun Xuanji finally made a response. He slid a modified musket out of his sleeve, took a step forward from behind Xu Qi'an, aimed at Asuluo's chest, and pulled the trigger.

The array patterns engraved on the musket lit up instantly, propelling a dark golden nail forward.

The instant Sun Xuanji pulled the trigger, Xu Qi'an activated Jade Shatter, causing a bloody, mangled wound to collapse on Asuluo's chest, shattering his seemingly indestructible body.

"Puff"

The Demon-Sealing Nail pierced Asura's chest.

His sharp gaze wavered slightly as he looked down in astonishment at the dark gold nail embedded in his heart.

The dark skin receded like a tide, revealing its normal color. Asuro staggered backward, clutching his chest, his breath catching in his throat.

It's done

Xu Qi'an and Sun Xuanji both exhaled at the same time.

This was a plan they had discussed beforehand. Facing a second-grade Asura and a third-grade Vajra, Xu Qi'an and Sun Xuanji were not so arrogant as to think they could easily defeat their opponent.

A heated battle won't do; it needs to be combined with some strategy.

The Demon-Sealing Nail is their trump card.

Only this thing can severely injure a martial artist and weaken his combat power; its effectiveness even surpasses that of the National Guardian Sword.

As it turned out, this was indeed the case. If Xu Qi'an were to borrow the Zhenguo Sword again, whether he could defeat the enemy was another matter, but this national treasure of the Great Feng might have to remain in the Southern Frontier forever.

Asura's strength is beyond the capabilities of a third-rank martial artist, and the possibility of his weapon being taken away is extremely high.

In Xu Qi'an and Sun Xuanji's plan, Asuluo would definitely try his best to deal with the third-rank Warlock could easily break the formation, and the Warlock's "weakness" would make the martial artist relax to a certain extent.

Therefore, the Demon-Sealing Nails had to be cast by Sun Xuanji himself.

The only risk is that Senior Brother Sun will also have to bear the risk of his own demise.

However, the Warlock System's teleportation array greatly reduced the risk. After discovering that Asura had disappeared, Xu Qi'an immediately crushed the teleportation jade talisman.

The teleportation point had been set up in advance, right on the cannon platform, in front of where Sun Xuanji was standing.

Despite the pain in his chest, Xu Qi'an grabbed Asuluo by the neck and pulled him off the cannon platform, where they tumbled and fell.

"Senior Brother Sun, break the seal!"

Xu Qi'an roared.

PS: Updated first, revised later.