Ascension of the immortal Asura

"Ahhh, oh well. I suppose the headaches to come will also serve as opportunities to raise my strength, and I have no doubt that those who come for me will contain vast sums of wealth. At least I'll be able to quickly increase my wealth when I pillage their mangled corpses," John sighed.

The sun began to rise as John finally reached the edge of the city, and after a quick inspection, left through the massive arched gates at the city's exit. Thousands of people streamed in and out of the city each minute, and John was just another face in the crowd as he left unnoticed.

Sprawling fields, farms, and mountains stretched off into the distance, and he walked a short while away from the city walls before stopping. He waved his right hand before him and his crude flying ship appeared before him, no more than a dozen yards long and half as tall.

Compared to the luxurious flying ships he had flown on in the past, his current ship looked incredibly scrappy, but it was all he needed at the moment to get him towards Five-River Freeport.

"According to this map, Five-River Freeport should take about a week to get to by flying ship. If I were to go as fast as possible it could be much faster, but it's advised that one sticks to the official travel roads, as branching off them could result in running into powerful beasts or bandits. While I'm not too concerned about that, I would rather spend my time focusing on cultivation, so I'll just stick to the roads for now," John said to himself as he walked forward and entered his ship.

The interior of the ship was rather plain, with not many furnishings or decorations. There was a single bedroom, a small meditation room, a room dedicated for storing spirit crystals to power the ship, and a command console of various formations up front, used for steering the ship.

After placing a hefty amount of spirit crystals on the formations in the power room, John walked to the console and injected his Qi into it. The ship quickly took to the sky and shot forward, piercing through the sky like a hawk towards the distant Five-River Freeport.

"Not bad," John mumbled with approval, "it's a bit faster than I had expected."

Flash!

Kirii suddenly appeared next to John as the ship shot forward, his eyes darting around the flying ship.

"Kirii? What's up?" John asked, as it was rare for Kirii to leave his soul-space without reason, as Kirii found it the most comfortable place to rest and sleep. While asking his question, John casually inspected Kirii and noticed that his cultivation had already soared to the Peak of the Heaven Tribulation Realm, and couldn't help but shake his head in frustration at how unfair Kirii's cultivation speed was.

"Ohhhh! What's this?" Kirii's child-like voice sounded out in John's mind, clearly excited.

"A flying ship I just bought," John explained.

"Oh! Oh! Can I fly it?" Kirii asked enthusiastically, causing John to raise an eyebrow.

"I had no idea you found such things so exciting, but I don't see why not," John replied.

He would have had to interrupt his meditation sessions to occasionally adjust the direction of the ship to follow the route towards Five-River Freeport, and so Kirii steering the ship would allow him to focus fully on cultivation.

Upon hearing John's approval, Kirii hastily rushed forward towards the command console and started to probe its mechanisms.

"Woah!" John cried out as the ship suddenly lurched to a stop, then sped up again, then went up and down rapidly like a roller coaster.

"Kirii, stop!" John cried out, afraid he would break the ship, and rushed forward to stop Kirii from doing anything else.

"Ah, sorry, I got carried away," Kirii replied, while John grumbled and rubbed his head that had violently slammed into the ship during one of the rapid directional changes.

"It's fine, just take it easy," John replied, and began to explain the various mechanisms of how to control the ship to Kirii, who listened closely with rapt attention. After explaining how to properly control the ship, John took out the scroll that contained the map of the nearby region, and highlighted the route that they would need to take to get there.

"Remember, follow this route that I've shown you, and don't let us stray off course," John instructed.

"Aye, aye!" Kirii acknowledged, clearly excited to get back to controlling the ship. John gave Kirii a skeptical look, but only shook his head and hoped Kirii would listen.

"These control formations are so awkward to use," Kirii grumbled as he started to fly the ship according to John's instructions.

"That's because it's designed for human use, and not for a Kirin," John explained.

"Ah, is that so? Well I guess I'll just change then," Kirii exclaimed as his Qi flared for a moment, and his appearance instantly changed before John, who couldn't help but widen his eyes in shock as Kirii assumed a human form.

His form had changed into a teenage boy, similar in age and appearance as John. His hair flowed down to his shoulders, and was blue with green highlights at the bottom, like wisps of lightning, while his face was incredibly handsome, almost perfect in appearance. The crystal jewel on Kirii's forehead remained as well, making him look quite exotic yet elegant, like a rich noble of unknown origin. Lastly, Kirii wore a luxurious looking robe of blue and green, no doubt taken from one of the corpses from the Jade Dragon Empire realm.

"Kirii…you can change into a human form?" John asked after recovering from his shock.

"Of course I can. You already know I can shapeshift, so why couldn't I assume human form?" he replied, while he spoke physically for the first time instead of through their soul connection. However, the words were rough and awkward, like he was just learning to speak for the first time.

"If you could shapeshift into a human, why didn't you do so before?" John asked. "And you can actually speak in this form?"

"Why would I have done so? I've never needed to do that, and this form feels incredibly awkward. Seriously, how do you find walking on two feet comfortable?" Kirii grumbled.

John stared at Kirii for quite some time, unable to think of what to say. In the end, he just shook his head in disbelief and grumbled to himself as he walked towards the meditation room.

"Ahhh, whatever. Just make sure to follow the route I showed you, okay?" John said without turning around, entered the meditation room, and closed the door behind him.

"Aye!" Kirii replied excitedly as he turned back towards the control formations, a wide smile on his face as he began to steer the ship forward, which pierced through the sky once more.