Dodge to the Left. Sidestep to the Right. Dancing retreat. Thrust from above. Slashing kick to throat… Seeing Nakshatra’s beautiful figure perform a dance, Heifeng Jiansui’s eyes recorded her as he danced himself.

Nakshatra had already discarded her spear, using only her hands and feet to dance an oppressive, destructive form. Her hand gestures were like seals and her fleet feet kicking out were like spear thrusts. Both of them came together to form a ‘karana’, something similar to the stance of a martial art. And 108 karanas completed the killing form of the world ending Tandava dance.

Every karana caused the speed and ensuing momentum of the dance to rise, increasing the pressure on Heifeng Jiansui. To keep up, Heifeng Jiansui could not dodge anymore in fear of losing his balance.

The Tandava was truly a beautiful yet deadly dance. There was no way to use the Dao in this sacred area of the World Tree. Yet, the dance used Nakshatra’s body to create the power of Destruction.

Heifeng Jiansui long abandoned the habit of dodging, using his sword and body to block all blows. Facing the oppression of the Destruction laws of the Tandava dance, the power of Black Phoenix Undying Ascent surged to keep up, while Heifeng Jiansui derived rapid understanding into the aspect of Undying from his bloodline.

Facing the killing dance of destructive momentum, Heifeng Jiansui focused on undying constancy. The prowess of his Undying Ascent was flawless in defense, while the Tandava fluctuated in its speed, causing brief moments of flaws to arise.

And Heifeng Jiansui had watched her dance all this while, his eyes observing her beautiful figure as he waited for a flaw to appear. The 24th karana, an illusively beautiful twirl where her arms seemed to sway yet remained raised in the air with her left leg raised halfway, her figure relying on a half bent foot.

Having predicted her stance, Heifeng Jiansui’s feet suddenly swept out to strike her remaining foot. As she fell, Heifeng Jiansui pounced like a tiger on her unbalanced figure. Savagely grasping her plentiful breasts, Heifeng Jiansui bashed her head with a headbutt. Violently hitting her without any regard for the oncoming concussion, Heifeng Jiansui savaged her.

Finally, a strange energy ripple shot out from her body shaking Heifeng Jiansui. Taking advantage of it, she pushed Heifeng Jiansui away while retreating herself. Instead of returning to the battle, Heifeng Jiansui took the opportunity to remove his oncoming concussion.

The robes that covered Nakshatra were torn on the chest, revealing parts of her bust but she didn’t seem to care. Raising her two hands forward from her hand, she took up a defensive stance. “You aren’t too bad. Facing the Tandava, you rapidly evolved your self-created technique to match up to mine and even capitalized on a flaw of my dance to disrupt my momentum. All said, the Tandava was a dance and no martial art, killing dance may it be. I… am going all out now.”

From her body, Heifeng Jiansui felt a strange energy revolve. The power of life, ‘prana’ was a power similar yet different from cultivation arts of the Chaosworld. Simplified, it was a power that fused the vitality of ‘blood essence’, subtlety of ‘qi’ and spirituality of the ‘soul’ together.

The prana within her body circulated through three points ‘nadis’ upon her forehead into 7 points on her body called ‘chakras’. They could be compared to the ‘Dantian’ of the human body, though they were more of energy vortices than energy seas.

The power of prana was the power of life. However, it was swiftly being converted into the power of destruction, ‘rudra’. With the rapid conversion, a snakelike figure seemed to awaken from her back. This was the principle of ‘kundalini’.

“Heifeng Jiansui, you must have understood what I am doing through the memories you’ve plundered that time. So, why haven’t you stopped me yet? The only reason is that you don’t feel threatened by my power… I’ll take advantage of this opportunity then.” The deceptively sweet tone from the killing god’s lips caused Heifeng Jiansui’s heartbeat to waver. Even so, he decisively waited for her to complete her technique.

“Come then, if you dare. Rudra Prarthana Yoga… I will make you regret your arrogance.” Four arms sprouted on her core, two gold and two silver. Her feet stepped forward and her stance was stable, easily dealing with the added weight.

Heifeng Jiansui stepped forward to slash her, yet his sword was rapidly struck away by two arms while four attempted an attack on his chest. With a quick maneuver, he dodged while slashing her chest. However, the gold and silver arms were like godforged steel, capable of withering the blow without a scratch.

“Rudra Prarthana… it means prayer of destruction. A killing technique that transforms the gentle, enduring postures of yoga into destructive killing arts.” While wildly attacking Heifeng Jiansui, Nakshatra Shivaputra began explaining the origins of her technique.

“Long back, I was an orphan girl whose bloodline was exterminated by an enraged Guru. Even though he was sparing my life, considering killing a female child a stain on his reputation, I would have preferred being killed back then. I was sold into slavery and due to my white face and good lineage, I was promptly given away to a brothel to be trained as a whore. From the brothel dances to please men and the gentle yoga to maintain figure, I channeled my hate and killing desire to create this form that twists the foundation of gentleness into destructive rage.” Saying this, her attacks grew more and more brutal, using close combat techniques like elbow and knee strikes to attack.

“This killing technique… with it, I escaped the brothel without losing my purity. I gathered information on that Guru who exterminated my family like chickens and dogs and pursued strength to kill him. I joined the Shivaparvati Mandala and learnt my blood heritage. After I gained the ancestral techniques of Shiva, I fused them with it to refine this art, forming the six arms. After which, I cultivated to a realm where the Guru was like an ant before crushing him. But of course, it was soon left in the dust… I never expected to use this again.” Nakshatra Shivaputra had a nostalgic expression on her face. Her killing intent did not dull, becoming stronger, almost solidifying!

But the information about Rudra Prarthana Yoga was relieving. A technique formed during her mortal days could not be too complicated. Even after later modifications, it was abandoned soon after all.

But the biggest problem was the energy circulation structure through which the rudra energy was revolving.

The qi energy circulation system comprised of various acupoints and energy circulation channels, 12 ordinary meridians and 8 extraordinary meridians. The Eight Gates of Life and the bones, flesh and blood could be joined to this system as well.

However, the prana energy cultivation system was more complicated. The 7 ‘chakras’ were like dantians, but the energy vortexes they formed made them more unpredictable. As for the ‘nadis’… they threw everything haywire. There were 14 great nadi among which 3 were supreme. But this was only the well-known ones. In truth, there were around 72,000-144,000 nadi which could all carry prana energy. They were like acupoints, but more complicated. As for the kundalini, that was like another world away from the energy channel structure…

Even so, Heifeng Jiansui utilized Black Phoenix Undying Ascent to parry and defend against her blows while using the knowledge he had gleaned to quickly calculate a weakness in her technique. Slowly but surely, her technique was overwhelming him. If he didn’t break it quickly, he would have no option but to use the World Sprouts…

While battling against the world destroying beauty, he was utterly dominated in strength. Fist strikes, palm strikes, finger strikes, claw strikes, elbow strikes, shoulder smashes, headbutts and bites, knee strikes, slash kicks, foot as palm strikes, even her hair were used to kill! In terms of using the mortal body as a weapon, Nakshatra Shivaputra had reached the apex!

While desperately defending, he suddenly gained an insight. Heifeng Jiansui slashed out at her throat with a two-handed sword strike. After his blow was predictably parried by two golden palms, he suddenly abandoned his sword and clawed at her face. Four palms struck at him, but contorting his body, he took the absolute minimum damage while inching closer to her. Ten fingers struck her on ten points on her face.

It was hardly a blow, more of a press. Even so, the four arms disappeared in a blink. A vicious expression flashed on Heifeng Jiansui’s face as he wrapped his two arms around her soft neck and began strangling her.

“The reason I won… was because your technique relies on the nadi. The three supreme and 7 of the great nadi are located on the face. The moment I touched your face, the rudra energy was interrupted in circulation and turned into destructive force killing you from the inside. All I am doing… is accelerating the process.” Heifeng Jiansui felt obligated to give an explanation before killing her.

“…Well… done.” Strangely, he received praise for his victory. Heifeng Jiansui couldn’t help but raise his guard, increasing the crushing grip.

Only that kept him aware of the nine pointed star between her eyes opening up. An aura of destruction, wild and desolate, emitted causing him to immediately retreat.

“As I was saying, well done. You are quite strong in power and wisdom, even unraveling my techniques which should be entirely foreign to you twice. I have tested you twice, and you have passed with flying colors. This third test… if you pass it, the fate between us will be consummated. If you pass that is…” Completely ignoring his throttling, Nakshatra began praising him.

“This is the power of my bloodline, atavism from the God of Destruction Shiva. The third eye: godly and mysterious, capable of seeing through the Three Realms, capable of the ultimate destruction, capable of burning even Desire to ash and giving rise to pure bliss. If you bear my gaze, yours will be the ultimate evil, unconquerable by the yajna-fire that burns through even gods.” Saying this, the third eye that had opened up flashed, nine stars forming into a killing array.

“Turning prana in the unformed circle of kundalini, transforming life into death, summoning the power of Shiva and calling the pure destruction of Rudra! All gods are Rudra, everyone and everything is Rudra, and Rudra is the principle found in all things, their highest goal, the innermost essence of all reality that is visible or invisible! With my third eye, I condemn you to ultimate Rudra, summoning the ultimate bliss!” The incantation completed, the pure violet light of destruction flashed from her eye.

Heifeng Jiansui immediately summoned the power of the five World Sprouts with him to defend. A five shaded tree formed before him to defend from the violet light of extermination.