Transmigration To Magus World-Chapter 68: Arson and Murder

A woman’s body lay on the ground, her upper torso bare, with a ghastly wound in her chest.

Her heart was crushed; her life was over.

The once-vibrant red of her blood was gradually diluted by the thinning rain, washing away the last bit of warmth from her body.

Repeating the process, Aizen crushed the heart of the second woman as if he were snuffing out a small bird’s life.

Her agonized screams added a chilling, almost poetic touch to this gruesome scene.

It was cold and cruel.

But anyone with ambition in their heart wouldn’t be deterred by such trivial mercy.

Perhaps, when these two women had been laughing smugly by Marco’s side, they never imagined that, in the end, both they and Marco would meet their deaths at the hands of the same seemingly weak, lowly servant.

Killing these two women served Aizen’s purpose of training his Heart-Rending Claw technique, raising its proficiency to eight percent.

According to Aizen’s understanding, once he reached one hundred percent proficiency, he would have fully mastered this technique.

Then he would be able to move on to the more powerful sixth-tier Heart-Splitting Claw.

The Heaven-Destroying Demon Claw was an advanced art of the Demon Clan, surpassing even first-tier techniques.

But learning it required meeting a variety of stringent conditions.

To study the Heaven-Destroying Demon Claw, one first needed to master the four foundational claw techniques of the Clan.

The Heart-Rending Claw was the introductory technique, an eighth-tier skill.

Once he perfected it, he could move on to the Heart-Splitting Claw, a higher-level skill.

Above that was the third-tier Cloud-Tearing Mist-Breaking Claw, and finally the first-tier Sky-Rending Claw.

Only by mastering the Sky-Rending Claw could one qualify to learn the Heaven-Destroying Demon Claw.

Within the Demon Clan, only four techniques bore the title "Heaven-Destroying." Besides the Heaven-Destroying Canon, there were three absolute arts.

Any technique named "Heaven-Destroying" was imbued with the true essence of the demon way, a concept that Aizen could barely comprehend at his current level.

The blade of his Curtana Sword flashed, slicing through blood and limbs in a rain of gore.

The two women’s bodies were hacked into seven or eight pieces, disguising the distinctive wounds on their chests.

To Aizen, this gruesome act of corpse mutilation was as smooth and natural as flowing water. He didn’t consider it an unnecessary act.

If the two bodies weren’t handled properly, any experienced Sorcery expert would immediately deduce that a disciple of the Demon Clan had been here upon seeing the wounds in their chests.

Such a discovery would inevitably draw the attention of righteous Sorcery artists who would likely seek him out in a fit of righteous anger.

No one likes trouble, especially unnecessary trouble.

In the future, he would have dealings with disciples of the Seven Sword Clan, and when that time came, toying with them in a game of slaughter could be interesting.

Leaving behind the shattered remains, Aizen retraced his steps. He knew he couldn’t linger here and had to handle everything quickly before leaving.

Upon returning to the tavern, he went straight to the cellar, where he stomped on a young servant who was just beginning to wake up, killing him instantly.

Aizen’s expression remained indifferent as he changed back into his own clothes.

He gathered his spoils into a bundle, smashed several jars of strong liquor, and poured it over the tables, chairs, walls, and pillars. Finally, he tossed a lit torch onto the drenched wood and alcohol.

"Whoosh!"

The flames roared to life, their fiery tongues dancing like hungry demons, casting flickering shadows across Aizen’s face.

The tavern burned furiously, and though rain fell lightly from outside, it was not enough to quench the blazing inferno.

Aizen bolted out of the tavern, mounted his horse, and galloped away from this blood-soaked ground where seven or eight people had perished.

About ten miles down the road, he came across a large section of the road that had collapsed, just as Blackhearted Hand had mentioned. Rainwater had pooled in the depression, forming a large puddle that severed the road entirely.

At first glance, it was impossible to tell that the collapse had been man-made.

Aizen’s gaze sharpened as he tugged the reins, steering his horse off the road and into the woods to bypass the flooded area.

In the forest, the horse struggled to make headway, frequently pausing as it navigated around large trees and thorny bushes that blocked its path.

Fortunately, the detour was not long, and soon Aizen emerged from the woods, having bypassed the collapsed section of the road.

A little over two hundred miles ahead lay Triesenberg City, a well-known location in the northeast region.

The sky was already nearing dusk, and while the rain had lightened to a fine drizzle, it still clung damply to his clothes, making them uncomfortably sticky. Even at a hard gallop, it would take Aizen at least half a day to reach Triesenberg .

A prized thousand-mile steed could cover that distance in a single day, but this was no such horse, and its speed was naturally much slower.

Estimating that he wouldn’t reach Triesenberg before the city gates closed for the night, Aizen resolved to cover as much ground as possible.

The farther he got from where Marco and the others had died, the better.

By evening, the rain had finally stopped. Breathing in the cool night air filled with the scent of wet earth and grass, Aizen guided his horse off the road and into a small forest.

He tied the reins to a tree, then climbed into the branches to rest, finding a spot sheltered from the wind.

The recent heavy rain had left everything too damp to start a fire, and any flames would likely attract attention from wild animals or passersby.

Aizen planned to spend the night in the tree, without sleeping. He needed to carefully refine and organize the various strands of inner energy within him.

Since beginning his practice of the Devouring Technique, he had killed many people, though he rarely used it to absorb others’ inner energy.

Some Sorcery artists had inner strength that was too weak, and absorbing such feeble energy would only pollute his own, making his inner energy more chaotic and ultimately not worth the trouble.

Additionally, absorbing someone else’s inner strength required time to refine. Absorbing a new strand before refining the previous one would be like overstuffing oneself with food, risking self-destruction.

While the Fusion Technique allowed him to refine others’ inner energy, it was not instantaneous and required time for the energies to merge.

Having a lot of inner strength isn’t always beneficial; sometimes, the abundance of foreign energy within the body requires extra effort to control and can even hinder combat effectiveness. In a battle, this would only create vulnerabilities for enemies to exploit.

Aizen understood this well, so he exercised great restraint in using the Devouring Technique.

People who become mesmerized by the rapid gains in power lack strong resolve.

They become slaves to power, unable to control it, eventually succumbing to its backlash.

Aizen, however, was rational. He refused to be enslaved by power; instead, he would wield it to his advantage.

Currently, he possessed around eighteen years’ worth of inner strength, of which roughly three years had been refined and merged with the ten years of strength he had accumulated on his own.

At this moment, Aizen could fully control about thirteen years’ worth of inner energy.

He intended to use this internal strength to refine and merge the remaining strands of foreign energy over the next two months, gradually making all of it his own.

During this time, he would have to be cautious not to absorb too much more inner strength.

If he absorbed too much—say, around ten years’ worth of foreign inner strength—he would need to divert most of his own energy to suppress it, significantly reducing his combat power.

At present, with only five years’ worth of foreign energy left to refine, his combat abilities remained unaffected. In fact, as he refined the remaining energy, he would grow even stronger.