As the outside world was in turmoil over what had happened, the main culprit was sitting cross legged, chained down. Although, on the outside there weren’t any changes any more, inside his mind, an intense fight over dominance was currently under way. There were two orbs of light inside Curo’s, blank white mind space. One of the light orbs was black while the other was white. As the two continuously clashed with one another, at times, the white one grew bigger while the black one shrank, at times it was the other way around.

An unknown amount of time passed during this incredible tug of war between the two orbs but suddenly, the black orb seemed to grow twice the previous size as it tried to swallow the white orb in one gulp. However, just as the white orb shrank to the size of a grain of sand, seven other orbs of light appeared next to it and pushed the black orb back.

After a brief scuffle, the black orb was pushed back and a cold harrumph sounded out in the now quiet mind space and the black orb disappeared from the mind space. Then suddenly, all seven of those white orbs took a human shape. They all wore different coloured robes and looked almost transparent but still visible. They all looked different but at the same time, they all looked the same.

They all looked liked Curo. Suddenly, in unison, the seven surrounded the grain of sand sized white orb and raised their hand towards it. As they grew more and more transparent, the grain sized orb grew to the size it was before. The human like figures however turned even more transparent and now, only their hand and head was still somewhat visible but the rest of their bodies were completely transparent. Then, when the hands and head also turned completely transparent, the orb of light grew in size until it was about as big as the black orb had been.

The orb then took on a human shape as the last one of the faces disappeared with a smile. This shape was completely solid, unlike the other seven orbs had been. The shape looked like a one on one copy of Curo. Curo stood in the blank white space with a dazed expression. Inside his head, countless new memories appeared, with the memories, came all the emotions. Rage, happiness, guilt, grief, peace, tranquility….

As Curo went through all of these emotions, time slowly passed and what seemed like an eternity later, Curo opened his eyes. In his eyes, there was anger, then sadness and finally helplessness. He then let out a deep sigh as he had a sorrowful look on his face, “First paves the path, Second to Seventh fortify the path and Eight reinforces Ninth.”

His head then dropped down as he looked at his solid form. “Ninth is the end. By thwarting the Bloodline from consuming our Soul eight times, Ninth will be able to consume the Bloodline, finally completely subduing it and ending the Curse of the Thirteenth Asura.” Even though he said that to himself, he was still filled with unwillingness, just as those before him.

From the memories, he had learned a lot about the world, the Ancient Bloodlines and of the circumstances of the Bloodline. The Three Ancient Bloodlines were extremely special, they didn’t only belong to ones blood but also the Soul.

Each of the Three Ancient Bloodlines had Thirteen Bloodline Souls that had the pure Bloodline. All of the offspring of these people only held the Blood but not the Soul. Due to that, they could not fully bring out the potential of their Bloodlines. They were stronger than most other Bloodline Experts and those that did not own a Bloodline but they would never be able to reach the same heights or strength the Thirteen Ancestors could.

Besides that information, Curo also learned of “The Curse of the Thirteenth Asura” from those memories. “The Curse of the Thirteenth Asura” was something that wasn’t unique to their Realm but rather, all of the Realms in the vast Endless Plane were struggling or had struggled with this Curse. Each Realm gave birth to Three Ancient Bloodlines that were to govern and protect the Realm.

They were the favoured children of the Realm and due to that, they held the most power in the Realm but at the same time, the most responsibilities. If other native born experts could migrate to other Realms and train and live there with no problems, the holders of the Three Ancient Bloodlines could not. They could only train in their native Realm and so, it was their obligation to keep it safe from invaders.

Not every Realm was peaceful, some were more powerful than others and since they were more powerful, they used that power to try and take over other Realms to gain slaves, more resources and so on. Once all of the Three Mandates of the Realm fell into outsiders hands, the Realm could be completely subjugated.

The Three Mandates were held by the First of the Three Ancient Bloodlines of a Realm. When Curo learned of all this, he had been dumbfounded by this. But, when he learned of “The Curse”, he had been devastated.

All of the Realms had or are struggling with their Thirteenth Asura to awaken their Bloodline. Each Bloodline was different and there was no set way to subjugate the Bloodline, so each Realms Experts had to experiment on their own. His Realms Thirteenth Asura, that was him, had once met an extremely mysterious prophet that told him, “First lays down the path, Second to Seventh fortify it, Eight reinforces the Ninth.” This had stumped all the Experts of the Realm when they tried to decipher the meaning behind this.

Once the Thirteenth Asura manages to subjugate their Bloodline, their entire Realm will be considered as an Upper Realm. The higher a Realm was, the more benefits the Realm gave to it’s inhabitants. So it was obvious that the Thirteen of the Ancient Bloodlines did all in their power to upgrade their Realm to a higher Realm. Currently, due to their own strength and due to the Stability of their Realm, they were considered as an upper Mid Tier Realm.

The Purity of Qi in the air, the various natural oddities that formed, they were several times better than lover Mid Tier Realms. Although the Realm didn’t have a consciousness, it had a Will. The strength of this Will was what gave the benefits to the Realm but also, it was what made the Rules of the Realm. Although the Heavenly Emperor had created a set of Heavenly Laws that everyone under the Heavens had to follow, they could not conflict the Rules of the Realm.

For example, this Realm banned all Buddhist Cultivation so, everybody could either train in the Dao, Body or Soul. In accordance to this Rule, the Heavenly Emperor created a Law that banned Cultivators from harming Mortals. If a Cultivator harmed Mortals, they would accumulate Sin Karma. The more Sin Karma one had, the harder it was for one to train and the more ferocious ones Tribulations to Ascend were. This was how the Righteous Dao and Devilish Dao factions were born.

This was to keep people that had wicked hearts from growing strong enough to cause problems for the Realm. If someone with a wicked heart and a strong cultivation base were to collude with some other Realms Experts to harm the Realm, it would cause endless problems. Thinking of this Curo sighed as he thought to his own fate.

He was the Eight of the Thirteenth Asura’s Lives. The First to Seventh Life had all sealed a portion of their Personas into the Soul. This was to pour all of the strength into the Eight Life. Now that they had poured all of the strength into him, Curo was also sealed into this space, like the Seven Lives before him. He had a bit over a month before his Life Flame was extinguished by the Realm and his Soul would enter the Cycle of Reincarnation to begin again. This time, he will not have any memories.

All of the memories are held by a Soul’s Persona, once a Persona dissipated, it could never be regained. The Soul could hold only one Persona and for a person to be reborn, they will have their Persona wiped out as their Soul enters a new body. By growing, the Soul will nurture another Persona. How this Persona will be, it will completely depend on the environment the person grew up in.

There have been times when one was a Saint in one life but a Demon in another. Souls were extremely mysterious things as they could not be seen, felt or touched. Each person had one but they could not make any contact with it. There were some special people that could see and distinguish a persons Soul even after Reincarnation but those experts counted on a single hand. Currently, this Realm held only one such person: The First Asura.

It took some time for Curo to accept the fact that his life was now over. He had at most a month to live before the Realm forcefully extinguished his Life Flame and wiped out the remainder of his Persona that wasn’t sealed inside his Soul. Curo let out a deep sigh as he closed his eyes in the white blank space and opened them again in the outside world. With a thought all of the chains that had been binding him disappeared.

When he lowered the Formations around him, he looked at a certain corner and said, “Bring me to First. I have failed to subjugate the Bloodline.” The seemingly empty corner then warped as an old man with long grey hair walked towards Curo. He didn’t seem surprised at all by Curo finding him. Instead, he raised a bony hand in front of him and without another word slashed down.

A crack in space appeared and without wasting any time, Curo collected his Spatial Mansion and walked into the crack. Before entering, he stopped for a moment and then turned to the old man and said, “It is nice seeing you again Second. However, my life will not last long, so I am afraid that this will be the last time we will see each other.” The old man just sighed and gestured with his hand for Curo to go through the crack. Curo didn’t say anything more and walked in the space crack. He felt a bit nauseous as he arrived on the other side.

When he looked up, he saw a both familiar and stranger figure in front of him sitting on a throne. The man gave one glance to Curo before sighing, “You failed as well….” Curo then crossed his hands on his chest as he said, “First paves the path, Second to Seventh fortify the path, Eight reinforces Ninth.” Hearing those words, the man raised his head and looked at the young man in front of him, waiting for an explanation.

Although countless years have passed since the prophet said those words, they still hadn’t figured out the true meaning behind those words. They had tried all sorts of methods that had anything to with those words. First Asura created a cultivation Art, Second to Seventh had improved it and Eigth had helped Ninth with reinforcing this Art to help Thirteenth when the time came for the Bloodline to Awaken but every method had failed.

Curo then said, “These words not to you but for me. The Thirteenth Asura has to complete the Cycle of birth and rebirth 9 times to be able to subjugate the bloodline. As you know, I am the Eight Life.” He then continued, “First created a method to seal a portion of a Persona deep into the Soul to bypass the Reincarnation. Second to Seventh all left a portion of their Personas that helped reinforce the portion of my Persona that was sealed.”

The man’s eyes turned big as he wanted to ask something but before he could, Curo said coldly, “In a month, I will die, one way or another. Then, my Persona will be wiped and only the Sealed portion will remain. When the time comes for the Ninth Life to subjugate the Bloodline, I will be there to wear down the Bloodline enough for Ninth to be able to do it.”