Akata was diverting his full attention to the scythe. He decided that he was going to merge his cultivation bases together once all of them were at the same level. Otherwise it would get pretty troublesome once he had to merge all three into one. His Plant and Mortal Realm cultivation bases were the closest together being at the Seventh Rank and Eighth Rank respectively so they could be merged soon. But if he did that then his Demon Realm cultivation base would probably have to surpass those combined cultivation bases in order to merge all three together. Akata didn’t want to go through the trouble of doing all that and just decided to go about it all at the same time. He was already powerful enough without them being merged so he could wait a while longer.

The reason he was focusing on his scythe arts right now was because this was the easiest way for him to comprehend the Outer Elements of Souls and Khaos while also training in the scythe. The Underdark scythe arts that was created by Cultist Soulfire utilized the Soul Element when using the scythe and also had a bit of the Khaos Element mixed in. The more Akata trained in this the more knowledge and understanding he would gain regarding these two elements.

The World Omen of Lord Dullahan was a peerless assassination art. Although it was only the simplified version of the real deal, it was more than formidable enough for Akata to train in. The assassination arts were all encompassing and described many useful tactics and skills for varying situations. As was written in the book, if one wanted to become a peerless assassin then one needed to know how to adapt to any situation. Therefore it discussed different elements to train in, with the basics being the Core Elements of Fire, Water, Wind, Metal, and Wood. For those who could understand, it also went into detail about the Outer Elements, which included the Soul Element and Khaos Element.

With these two being used as guidance, Akata sought to train vigorously in the scythe. The first thing he planned on merging with the Single Existence Art were his insights into the two elements. Once he was able to do that, with just a casual wave of his hand he would be able to attack the soul of any kind of matter, whether alive or not, and utterly obliterate the surrounding essence of the world. Just the thought would drive even immortal figures envious and greedy.

Of course, Akata knew that it would be a long while before he could truly wield that kind of power. But, eventually, he would be able to!

The team rested for a few hours before being filled with various emotions of excitement, curiousness, nervousness, pride, etc. A few months ago, most of them were too scared to even set foot in the Outer Ring of Misty Forest for fear of being killed by a wild beast. Now… they were about to venture into the Inner Ring. Most people in the surrounding sects wouldn’t even think about treading into Misty Forest, it could be seen how much the Red Cloud Sect had changed. They were actually using the dreadful and terror inducing Misty Forest as a training ground! If other sects heard about this they would surely die from bafflement.

“Alright, after we pass through this region of forest we will make it to the Center Circle. We’re almost through with this and once we are, we will surely get top positions within the war.” Akata spoke swiftly and clearly. He might not have noticed but his other groupmates found that his words seemed to flow straight to their ears, almost as if it bypassed the air in between them.

With a few more encouraging words, Akata led the group through the mist to enter the Inner Ring. This was the most dreadful part of Misty Forest. In the Inner Ring they could actually run into beasts that were at the Second Rank if they weren’t careful. Out of everyone who had entered Misty Forest, only Huihe Ji had ever made it to the Inner Ring. This was because he was outlandishly strong. His strength had actually reached the level of the Second Rank. Therefore he could actually contend with the beasts in the Inner Ring by himself. The only other disciple that could maybe do that would be Akata. The gap between First and Second Rank was just too huge afterall.

Akata obviously took the lead and had his nature sense spread out to cover an area of a hundred meters. This kind of distance was still nothing to Akata and it was comfortable for him. This way he could always be in peak condition when facing a foe.

Akata lead the way but he didn’t head directly towards the Center Circle. This was a trial afterall and they had to face beasts and gather materials along the way. Akata’s group took a more snake-like path when traversing the area. Staying away from the stronger beasts, the group would battle the ‘weak’ beasts and then rest to restart the process over again.

Most of the beasts in this region were First Rank 10th Grade beasts and higher. If they battled a group of beasts, Akata would always challenge the leader of the pack by himself. And each time he would only use his scythe and nothing else. He had found that his strength was too much and decided that he would hold back from now on in order to temper himself. But if a beast like the Winged Skyfrog appeared then he would definitely go all out.

Akata’s scythe seemed to directly bypass the air as he swung it about. It would always seem to directly find a way to the opponent without any obstruction at all. That was just what the scythe was. It was a weapon meant to directly attack with a clear path. It would slice through anything just to get to its target.

Ever since Akata gained his other arm back his skill in the scythe had been increasing rapidly. He was extremely familiar with using it with one arm so adding on another one made it much more deadly. Since training in the Red Cloud Formation art meant having to fully understand the body, it made it that much easier to control his body movements perfectly. With perfect body control and clear and concise scythe arts, it could be seen how deadly Akata would be to face.

Every beast that faced him valiantly would meet its demise soon after. They wouldn’t even be able to touch Akata let alone beat him. Akata would fight until he either stopped gaining insights or the insights he gained weren’t sufficient enough. This time, Akata had ran into a Halfstep Second Rank Lunar Bear. It was the leader of about five other Lunar Bears and it was a fierce battle.

Basik Bufmann and Sumting Wong led the group to face four of the Lunar Bears while Akata took on the leader and the second strongest by himself! The leader was at the Halfstep Second Rank while the second strongest was at the Great Circle of the First Rank. It was a very tough fight for Akata as their use of gravity weighed down on Akata and made attacking very slow and difficult.

‘They keep pushing me back and their strikes are really heavy. If this keeps up I’ll have to increase my strength a bit.’ Akata immediately shook his head resolutely. ‘Impossible. I can’t just increase my strength when I find a real foe. I just have to endure.’

Bang. Bang. Bang.

Claw strikes kept hammering down on Akata’s scythe as he stood there. The other group members were handling the four other Lunar Bears and if any of the two Akata were facing joined in the fray then some of the members would surely be killed. Because of this Akata decided to handle these two until the group finished with the four.

‘These strikes are heavy and are overwhelming me. I have to hold on otherwise these bears will find an opportunity to break free from me and help out the others. My defense is severely lacking and their gravity control is only making it worse. It’s like the area is under their control. Like they can bend space work for them.’

Akata’s eyes widened with a sudden burst of comprehension. Have the area work for me! This is what Akata thought in his mind as jubilation crept up inside of his body. Akata immediately switched stances and held the scythe out in front of him. With a simple twirl the area around him started to vibrate slightly. The scythe started to glow with a violet light and the vibrating intensified greatly. Suddenly, Akata’s body started to glow with the light as well!

Khaotic Diffusion Lock! This was the second stance of the Underdark scythe art. It allowed one, through the use of the Khaos Element, to freely control the area around them to a certain extent. With Akata’s current cultivation he couldn’t do much, but using the air around him to take the blunt of the attacks and lessing the gravity on him was of no problem at all! With the overwhelming strikes of the Lunar Bears disappearing, they no longer held much of an advantage over Akata now.

“HAHA!!” Laughed Akata. ‘I’ve comprehended a skill related to the Khaos Element. And I even found out a whole new realm related to the scythe! Wonderful truly wonderful!” Akata was so happy that he actually blurted out his last sentence. Up until now, Akata hadn’t been able to unleash anything related to the Khaos Element which greatly reduced his comprehension towards it. Now that he had a skill to go with the element, he finally found some ground to comprehend and train in it. This would greatly boost his efforts in his comprehension.

Not only had he comprehended a skill relating to the Khaos Element he had also learned a of new side to using the scythe. Originally, he had thought that the scythe was only used for attacking, but now he found out that it was just as effective in defending, if not better! This brought a whole new understanding to Akata and made way for much more improvement in the scythe. Not only that, but the insights he would gain would be much more well rounded and useful in more situations.

Before, Akata had only trained in the assassination art World Omen of Lord Dullahan. This was an art that was meant for quick stealth kills and even faster getaways. Therefore, there was no need for defensive arts. Especially in the simplistic version of the text. Maybe in the full version you could find a few but even then it would be rare.

As for the Underdark scythe arts, they were created by a demon. The demon race was known for being ruthless and extreme and hardly ever came up with defensive stances. In fact, Cultist Soulfire wasn’t even that well versed in the Outer Element of Khaos. That’s why all he knew about it was its defensive capabilities, Otherwise he would have forsaken that defensive art for a few offensive ones. Given his nature, that defensive art was the only one that he created and it was only for the sake of tying down a foe to better attack them.

Akata could be seen as extremely lucky to have even gotten a single defensive art related to the scythe from his two scythe arts. And he even got something related to the Khaos Element as well. His luck truly was too good. How could he not be happy right now.

With the Khaotic Diffusion Lock helping him out, Akata was able to easily tie down the Lunar Bears until the group finished killing the other ‘weaker’ bears. After they were done, they all teamed up against the Lunar Bear at the Great Circle of the First Rank while Akata took on the Halfstep Second Rank Lunar Bear.

Now that he was only facing one bear, Akata could fully take advantage of his scythe arts. He slashed violently towards the bear sending an arc of scythe light towards it. This light seemed to be attracted to the soul of the Lunar Bear as it aimed straight for it. This was the first stance of the Underdark scythe art, Soul Swipe.

The Lunar Bear trembled and was dazed briefly. It raised its head to stare at Akata only to see that he had disappeared. Suddenly all the hair on its back stood on end as it felt a fatal danger coming near it. It looked in the sky to see a black light appear swiftly and watched as a person rapidly descended from it. It was clearly Akata executing the second stance of the World Omen of Lord Dullahan, Silent Meteor Kill.

The bear raised its claws and the gravity around it increased by twofold. It brought a heavy pressure upon the descending Akata. Akata, who had just comprehended some of the mysteries regarding the Khaos Element used the second stance of the Underdark scythe arts, Khaotic Diffusion Lock. The effects of the amplified gravity was cancelled out and the area around Akata seemed to want to help him. His speed abruptly increased to the point not even the Lunar Bear could follow it. The next moment the bear saw the world spin as its head landed on the ground. It was still conscious and aware as it saw its body topple to the ground as well, then it blacked out.