Once Russel slept off, Li Kai got busy again.
This time, his trail of thought was on how to regain his peak.
Li Kai knew that this would be a herculean task as he wasn't familiar with the rules of this world.
Heck! Li Kai didn't even know the name of the world, not to mention which continent he was on.
All he knew was that he was in a place called Blue Wind Town.
Even an image of what the place looked like was non-existent.
"It's a pity I'm blind. Anyway, what do I need to be worried about?" Li Kai reasoned.
"I could easily turn a mortal into a heaven-defying cultivation genius back in the world of Forsaken Saints," he thought.
"With a few heavenly resources… Tsk! I don't even know if those exist in this world. How, then, do I get back to my peak?" Li Kai asked himself in frustration.
"Hmmm. What to do? What to do?" Li Kai deliberated.
"Ahh!"
"Found it! Why don't I just try my old cultivation technique? By midnight, it is the ample time to cultivate."
"Hehe," Li Kai laughed.
With a plan at hand, all that was left for him to do was wait until midnight.
***
Midnight
Settling into a meditative position, he prepared to cultivate.
"Why isn't it working?" Li Kai thought.
"I've tried cultivating a dozen times already!"
"I clearly felt some energy, but it just vanished… Ahh, what have I done to deserve such misfortune?" Li Kai asked himself, getting really frustrated at this point.
"Could it be?... Perhaps that's it. This world… it does not follow the same laws as the one of the Forsaken Saints. Yes! That's definitely the reason," Li Kai said.
Li Kai felt like he had figured out a piece in a complex jigsaw puzzle.
"But this begs the question: How, then, do I overcome the laws of this world so as to cultivate?" Li Kai thought.
Just as he was about to spiral down a similar train of thought, a force propelled Li Kai to close his eyelids shut in the same meditative position he had been sitting in for the past few hours.
Li Kai sat still, free from all sorts of vibrations, like he was in an epiphany of sorts, somewhat like a trance-like state.
It was then he heard the voice of that entity.
"For you to survive in this chaotic cosmos for this long, despite your damaged soul… you are peculiar. I have decided!"
"I hereby grant you the system. Recover quickly, so that I might as well regain my peak."
The words repeated several times in Li Kai's head, like the chants of a sacred sutra, growing louder with each passing minute.
As this continued, Li Kai lost his composure and screamed, clenching his head tightly.
"Ahhhhh!!!"
Yet no one was able to hear him, not even Russel, who lay just beside him.
It was like all this was just in his head.
But it wasn't.
This was reality.
Like the shattering of glass, something snapped inside of Li Kai, and for a moment, he thought it was all over.
The chants stopped.
No cricket noises could be heard; the night was just tranquil, devoid of all noise.
Absolute tranquility. But then…
BOOM!!!
Li Kai's soul was pulled into some sort of alternate reality, sort of like a separate dimension.
Words failed to describe how terrifying this place was.
Chaos ruled!
Below him, all he could see was a raging volcano.
Wailing and cries of dead souls moaned, grinding their teeth in anguish.
Above, chaos was even worse than what he had observed while in the void at the collapse of his world.
All sorts of abnormal phenomena, hard to describe with words, unfolded before Li Kai in this alternate dimension.
This would have been enough to break the mind of ordinary people and permanently destroy their mental fortitude.
Li Kai, sadly, was no ordinary soul, but the soul of a saint sage, the last survivor of the world of Forsaken Saints.
Li Kai's resilience was top-notch, yet this could not stop him from screaming in utter terror and fear.
Yet he didn't break.
***
Back In Reality…
Li Kai sat in a meditative position, completely unaware of what was taking place in the real world.
An inscription slowly materialized on his forehead "Lamed" (ל), the letter L from the Hebrew alphabet, and unique markings of the Asura (not described yet).
The symbol looked very menacing, but no one was observing this change, not even Li Kai himself, as he was in the alternate dimension.
While it could be said that no one was observing Li Kai, the same couldn't be said for the Blue Sky Kingdom and beyond, even reaching the edges of the western continents.
Lights danced in the midnight sky, and the moon turned scarlet red, as if soaked in blood.
The air carried with it an ominous intensity, as if an impending apocalypse was bound to occur.
All the top experts already stationed in the western continent, as well as all mages, no matter their rank, who could feel nen (magical energy), were awakened by this.
Some unlucky commoners who happened not to be asleep at the time saw the sky and screamed in terror, collapsing on the spot.
As for the top mages, they all muttered one word almost simultaneously:
"BLUE SKY KINGDOM."
The king of the Blue Sky Kingdom was in absolute disarray.
The king, at the realm of a magic grandmaster, had his nen control cut off from the moment the phenomenon in the sky began which was a huge deal, extending across the western continent.
He was in deep thought, linking the previous shooting star phenomenon to the scarlet moon, suspecting a connection between the two.
Now he was even more pressured to get to the bottom of whatever was behind this.
The fact that it occurred in his kingdom meant he would definitely have to entertain guests he could not afford to offend.
The phenomenon in the sky that night was later termed "The Scarlet Moon"
A Day Worthy of Remembrance.
And while no damage was caused, all felt the ominous aura brought by the scarlet moon.
***
Back In The Alternate Dimension…
Li Kai screamed, watching all the scenes play out with horror.
It had been over an hour since he appeared in the alternate universe, where he heard the voice of the same entity that had mysteriously saved him when his world was destroyed.
Only this time, the voice was a lot more pronounced, making it impossible to distinguish the gender of the mysterious entity.
As he looked up, trying to find the source, the voice spoke once more:
"THE ASURA SYSTEM IS YOURS!!!"
Just then, he vanished from the alternate dimension.
The scarlet moon disappeared, and an endless buzz of notifications popped up in Li Kai's mind.
[Ding!]
[System Awakening]
[...]
[System Successfully Awakened!]
[System Searching for Host…]
[Host Detected!]
[Host has been chosen!]
[CONGRATULATIONS! HOST HAS OBTAINED THE ASURA SYSTEM]!]