Fell Demon.

The North Pole. Several months later.

During his stay, he killed many beasts and while scanning their rings Nexus already could give hypothesis for aging. Contrary to his expectations, the process of aging wasn't something easy like in the novel. It's not enough to supply the ring with life energy, but one needs to know the sequence in which the pattern is going to grow.

Nexus required scans of many spirit beast rings and preferably different in the age of the same species for the purity of calculation. Aiden for example has Snow Glazed Lotus as his first. He thought it would be enough to find the same lotus with higher age and copy its ring to his. Apparently, it doesn't work that way. One can't just cut the grown tree and plant it on a young sapling and expect it to be all good and lanky.

So, the sequence is a must, as it is one of the fundamental laws of the Douluo Dalu world.

During hunting, Aiden pulverized soul rings to extract pure energy and store it in the special space of Lonzaik where it can be preserved. If Nexus hypothesis is correct, it can later use this synergy of life force and spirit energy as fuel for the aging process. No waste there.

Another progress he made was in his combat and body training. He used very basic sword art and every day performed it whenever he could until his hands were drenched in the blood even though he used soft gloves.

He felt something intangible on the blade of his sword every time he took it. Whatever it was, this thing helped him to sharpen the cutting edge, and sometimes he even thought he saw a slight golden glow, but it disappeared the moment he tried to concentrate on it.

His mark stayed purple, but he could create another one of the same color and further enhanced his body. Now, even only in his fourth year of life, his body is capable to withstand the second ring of purple color. As for total years, it would be about five to six thousand on all rings combined. It's only that it took a significant amount of time to conjure a mark. Just a second one took about three months.

But the biggest surprise gave him a very unexpected thing that he tried as a hobby.

Cooking.

It was one of the days when he was fiddling with barbecue and Nexus after analyzing the process asked to do something unexpected for an experiment purpose. He suggested using the aura of martial spirits to try to suppress ingredients.

Who would have thought that using aura will preserve the special property of the food – namely life force and spirit power! Dishes he cooked after that with these ingredients not only were amazing in taste, they helped cultivation! Nexus thus created another folder for research – dishes, ingredients, spirit plants, and method of aura cooking.

'As for my lightning and ice manipulation… well, I don't burn food anymore and that's when my taste buds were finally satisfied. Perhaps I was too hasty to prize myself as a talented cook, but I was eating meat raw for weeks!'

= Aiden, I detect unusual movements outside.

A kid looking only six was sleeping just a fraction of a moment ago and now he already on his feet with the sword in hand and ring with spirits integrated. If anyone saw how fast he became battle-ready they would gasp in shock.

"How far?"

= Blocking cave entrance. And that thing… it feels weird.

"Weird is too broad of a definition of characteristics. You don't use this word to describe anything. Can you be more precise?" – he held the sword in a backhanded way parallel to his body and skimped as lightly as possible to the exit, but the moment his eyes registered that thing his body on reflex leaned to the wall, hiding in the shadow of ice cavity. – "No shit it's so weird!"

= I told you so.

"Is it accusation?"

= Just confirming there is no error in my judgment.

"Smooth talker as always." – Aiden watched a gigantic creature stomping in his trap. It wasn't injured, just irritated like hell. – "Wait… this is unreasonable. This thing looks nothing like a spirit beast… if you ask it… I would say it is a demon."

The resemblance was striking. Four huge legs as thick as a pillar of Greek amphitheater, with rear ones being bent backward in the knees. Hide instead of fur and some bone armor on the joints, it looked ferocious war machine, birthed for slaughter.

But the real gruesome view started with the torso and further up.

In terms of body composition, it resembled a centaur of enormous proportions. Within its human-like arms, this thing was holding a damn halberd. Just a cutting edge of it was longer than Aiden's height. A flat face without a nose with two horns was the epitome of demonic visage.

"That thing is as huge as a mammoth! How do I kill it?" – Aiden really felt unprecedented fear in front of that creature. But he forced out calmness, regardless.

Panic won't save his life, and that demon is yet to notice him.

= Aiden, I might have found the source of that thing and believe me… you won't like it.

The more Nexus interacted with his host, the more human-like it becomes. It was learning all the time because there is one thing that separated him from regular AI. It was sentient, like any living.

"Shoot it." – Aiden sighed.

= Record from the history of cultivation world prior to the emergence of spirit masters has information about it… and these things were the ones who destroyed it.

"Nexus… that wasn't in a novel at all." – here Aiden straightforward brain short-circuited.

= Neither you are in a novel. For your reference, this universe wasn't created for you, but found! Surprisingly, most of the story is according to the destiny of this world and its dwellers.

"So here I have some enormous world-destroying threat and no one gives a damn?" – bitterly laughed Aiden.

= They might care, but they have no idea. The North Pole is a forgotten realm with just a couple of tribes of only several hundred people each. You are from another world and there you lived in the multi-million megapolis. Furthermore, you know the destiny of this world and its broadness. Aiden, you need to understand how exceptional your point of view is and how broad of a vision you have in comparison to others. This universe is way larger than you think, and the god realm they think of as myth is just a world of immortal cultivators who are not even close to actual godhood.

"Well…" - Aiden made a deep calming breath. – "I really don't want to think dude had a reason to send me here, but, somehow, I feel cheated again with this demon out there. It almost like he wants me to clash with these creatures."

= I do not know of His purpose.

There was a tinge of apology in Nexu's voice and Aiden already got used to his sometimes-appearing emotions.

"Well, can you tell me it's strength in this world system?"

= About three thousand years.

Aiden drew a frigid breath. Four years old kid with the level of twenty versus a fricking demon grandpa of who knows how many "great" in front. That creature is as ancient as half the history of human civilization back on Earth. Just seeing it upfront alive and kicking is a marvel in itself.

"I really doubt I have a chance with one ring of a hundred something years old. But why isn't it moving?"

= Maybe it can't. Look closely.

Aiden shifted a bit to have a better look and really found something odd. All over its body were scattered dense arrays of markings, which seem to harm it significantly. They bore into its flesh, forcing it to bleed with striking green blood. And the feeling that blood gave off was very unsettling. It tainted this world's purity with its aura of corruption and foreignness.

"I really don't like this creature." – something snapped inside Aiden and snake spirit in him rose its head, looking at this creature in pure, undaunted rage. It craved battle, unleashing war intent all over the place, making Aiden a little lightheaded and completely evaporating his fear and hesitation.

Kill it. That's not a wish, but a verdict. It is already dead.

Aiden rose a sword and stepped out with clarity and concentration winning over his entire self.

There is only that creature and him.

Demon noticed his presence and said something in a deep and hoarse voice, threatening to crush his eardrums. But when it saw the sword and aura around it, that Aiden could converge only this instant, it raged for real.

It moved only to receive a backlash of the sealing marks, but that was enough to point halberd in direction of approaching child. Spearpoint shined with tainted green. With tremendous heatwave, a fireball as huge as an adult revealed itself to the world.

The sheer temperature of it boiled the air around, turning a colossal amount of snow and ice into the dense mist.

Aiden seeing all this only frowned, making his calculations and swiftly backed away into the cloud trying to lengthen the distance between two to have a dodging chance. The demon roared in anger and moved behind the wall of vapor and snow and then came a shock wave of erupting spell.

This instance all hell broke loose.

With a bang and blistering wind fireball flew in a straight line with breakneck speed, producing booming noise and illuminating everything around.

Aiden focused, he trained in basic swordsmanship, but everything else was taken from Storm Reaper Divine Art. And that is a circulation method of special movement technique. It consumed an astounding amount of energy but was worth it.

Lightning inside his body moved in symbiosis with the inner force of two purple marks, effectively merging into very potent energy, fueling the movement. His body, engulfed in lightning, shifted like a streak of light, dodging the projectile, but the aftermath blast wave still sent him flying through the air right to the demon.

Aiden readied his sword and performed a flip in the air, meeting halberd head-on. His sword, coated in a golden aura, produced sparks while he could fly over the creature using the momentum of their clash and its halberd like a springboard.

Who said the bigger the better?

Sword flashed while he paced its ugly face, severing one of its horns and landing on its back that was covered in line of spikes. The demon finally was enraged and stopped paying attention to sealing markings. With an earth-shattering roar, it moved, brandishing a weapon and throwing Aiden off its back.

Huge edge shined and struck icy cliff, while the child was panting and used lightning shift again, appearing by the side of a creature and slashing out with a simple downward stroke. It looked crude and direct but carried tremendous might.

A true killing move with no flashy techniques.

Golden aura shined and helped with piercing power, caring a wave of suppression and sharpness on it.

The demon roared in pain! It was nearly cleaved through! Markings served a very nasty purpose, they not only hurt it while it moved, but they also devoured fell might, preventing it from coating its body in a protective layer if the energy that even Spirit Master of Aiden level could create, thus limiting its defenses to only body sturdiness.

Well, even like that, while Aiden unleashed his strongest move and poured nearly all his power in the sword, enhancing it with aura, he still failed to kill it. Now it comes to body confrontation.

Realistically, this demon is already dead. Bleeding like this and moving in a rage that consumed its mind it will die soon, but Aiden has a streak of inspiration. Why not use its ring for his second?

He ran to its back, neatly dodging another slash of a giant halberd, but not shards of ice its collision with the ground created. A chunk of it hit him and send flying with a crack in the arm. He just cringed in pain and drew a deep breath, revolving as little inner force as was left to change position again.

He avoided the next strike easier. Now it was a demon that already felt weak. Aiden, using its momentary confusion because of severe blood loss, jumped up to its front leg and brandished his sword at its wrist.

Again, he coated his swift strike in that strange golden aura that had a silver luster during it. Now demon roared more in pain and fear than rage because it suddenly noticed something unbelievable. Its hand dropped to the ground and halberd evaporated in thin air.

It roared something Aiden can't understand and backed away, looking at the aura around the sword in uncontrollable terror.

"I was… right." – Aiden stepped on the creature that fell to the ground already breathing its last breaths. – "You are dead." – the bone sword went in through its chin and inside the brain.