Leon looked at the paper on the ground and shrugged his shoulders. "If it’s about the scholarship, my sister doesn’t need it. I am more than capable of supporting her studies."

The head soldier’s mouth twitched. "Don’t pretend to be ignorant, Leon. Both of us know this scholarship is just a cover. Just close your eyes and accept the reality, and you will be rewarded handsomely. Otherwise..."

"Otherwise what?" Leon interrupted him without any change in his expression.

The head soldier sneered as he looked at the two Iron Realm soldiers beside him. "These are veteran soldiers of the Iron Realm. You might not know, but an Iron Realm cultivator is ten times stronger than a cultivator at the tenth heaven of the Mortal Realm. Are you sure you want to do it the hard way?"

Leon looked at the two soldiers and asked calmly, "You mean, if I don’t agree, they will beat me up into submission?"

The head soldier shook his head and made a throat cutting gesture.

Leon nodded in understanding. If he didn’t agree, these people would kill him outright.

"Since that’s the case, I will try my spear spirit on you guys. After all, just shooting a few rounds at that old tree is not enough to feel the full excitement of holding a gatling gun. Let’s see how it will fare against cultivators at the Iron Realm." Leon mumbled to himself as the spear qi inside his body poured out in front of him and transformed into a massive gatling gun.

The head soldier was stunned for a moment before he asked in astonishment, "What is that? An energy cannon? But where did you pull that out? Do you have a storage treasure?"

"Energy cannon?" Leon shook his head. "This is called a gatling gun, the best among my favourite toys."

One of the guards who had stood silently until now sneered, "Kid, I don’t know where you got the confidence to point an energy cannon at me, but let me make it clear. An energy cannon at the mortal grade can only produce a power of 1 star of mortal grade. Even the basic attributes of an Iron Realm cultivator is 10 star when calculated in mortal grade. So like you said, that thing is just a toy in front of our eyes."

"Is that so?" Leon tilted his head curiously, and the next second,

Bang. Bang. Bang.

The spear qi transformed into dark silver bullets covered in a crimson hue and charged towards the soldiers like crimson fireflies. Even before any of them could react, their bodies turned into bloody fireworks. Even the horses they were riding did not escape, as they fell to the ground with holes all over their bodies.

After fully emptying the round containing 100 bullets, the rotating barrel of the gatling gun slowly stopped.

"Are Iron Realm cultivators that fragile?" Leon mumbled to himself in disbelief.

"They are not weak. It is you who is abnormally strong." Just then, an aged voice came from behind him, and Leon flinched instinctively.

When he turned around, he saw the elder with the wine bottle standing behind him with an excited look on his face, as though what he saw was quite entertaining to him.

Leon looked at the disfigured corpses on the ground, the puddle of blood forming around them, and then back at the old man.

There was not even a slight change in the old man’s facial expression. This level of indifference could only belong to someone who had become numb to taking human life and seeing blood.

The old man also sized up Leon with some surprise. "Don’t you feel anything after killing them? Have you killed humans before?"

Leon shook his head. "I never saw them as human beings."

"Haha." The old man laughed out loud and turned around, walking back inside the mansion. "Make sure to take anything valuable from their bodies. After all, these treasures are of no use to them since they are already dead."

Leon stared at the retreating silhouette of the old man for a long time and finally let out a sigh of relief. "This guy is definitely above the Iron Realm."

Previously, Leon had not even seen when this old guy appeared behind him. The most shocking part was that Leon did not sense any qi fluctuation or even a shred of aura around the old man. It was as though he was just a crazy old man with zero cultivation.

But it was difficult for Leon to believe that an old man who could take out hundreds of cultivation manuals with a wave of his hand, who could give away a storage ring with a basketball court sized space inside, and who could indifferently laugh in front of three gruesomely murdered human beings, was just a normal person.

Shaking his head to clear out the distracting thoughts, Leon walked up to the three corpses and began searching their bodies. As a gangster who had lived the life of a devil once, he was not bothered by the blood and gore scattered before him.

He even casually cleaned the blood from his hands with the water from the bottle tied around the waist of one of the soldiers before walking inside the mansion, holding three storage rings he had looted from them in his hand.

When he returned in front of the wall painting, the old man was still there as usual, staring at the painting as if deep in thought.

"Senior, I got these three storage rings from them." Leon presented the three storage rings in front of the old man respectfully.

"Just some worthless stuff. I would not even bother to bend down to pick them up if I saw them lying on the floor." The old man waved his hand dismissively and turned to look at Leon with shining eyes. "Tell me, kid, how did you transform your spear qi into an energy cannon, and what type of energy cannon is that? Why have I not seen one like that before?"

Leon scratched his head in embarrassment. "It is called a gatling gun. Just a random idea I came up with."

"Huh?" The old man looked at Leon with a questioning gaze.

With a sigh, Leon began telling him the story of how he had deduced and developed a completely new cultivation technique, using the technique described on the wall painting as the base and four 10 star cultivation techniques as supplements.

The old man looked speechlessly at the hammer spirit which looked like a rhino, the blade spirit which looked like an eagle, the whip spirit which looked like a serpent vine, and finally at the gatling gun Leon was holding with both hands.

"You mean, you comprehended all four 10 star cultivation techniques I gave you to perfection and even had the time to merge them with the technique displayed on the wall? Most outrageously, you even created an entirely new cultivation technique out of it, all this in just a few days?"

Leon thought about it and nodded. "Actually, if it was not for my ability to create dreams where I can experiment with various combinations of qi circulation pathways without worrying about my real body exploding, I would not have been able to derive it so quickly. All in all, it is thanks to my broken bloodline technique."

The old man shook his head speechlessly. "Don’t be so humble. Although the Chaos Dragon Emperor bloodline of the Skywalkers is one of the best emperor level bloodlines, even your first ancestor who bonded with the bloodline heart artifact of the Chaos Dragon is not as talented as you when it comes to comprehension."

Leon’s face stiffened when he heard the old man mention his roots so casually.

Seeing the cautious expression on the young man’s face, the old man chuckled. "Don’t worry. I have no interest in selling you out to them. In fact, in the future, if they come to find trouble with you, just mention that you are the direct disciple of Silas Ravenscar. They will not dare lay a finger on you openly, at least."

Leon stared at the old man blankly.

The old man frowned. "What? Not willing?"

Leon came back to his senses and hurriedly knelt down on one knee as he performed a knightly bow to the old man. This was the highest form of respect in this land, and he replied in a clear voice, "I am willing. Please accept me, Master."

The old man stroked his beard and smiled. "Don’t be in a hurry to give me an answer. There are several conditions that come with having me as your master. First, hear them out."

With a wave of the old man’s hand, Leon was lifted to his feet, and he began stating the conditions.

"First, the cultivation techniques, spells, battle arts, anything that I teach you, you are not allowed to teach to outsiders without my permission. Of course, if you can get permission from any of the elders at the same generation as me or higher in seniority than me from our Asura Heart lineage, you can freely teach it to outsiders.

"Second, if you are bullied, our brothers from the Asura Heart lineage will stand up for you. At the same time, if you see one of us getting bullied, never hesitate to stand up for them. This is the brotherhood on which the Asura Heart lineage stands proudly.

"Third, you must enroll in the Asura Devil Army and use your abilities to battle demons and evil cultivators who threaten the safety of our family members at home.

"Fourth, never use your power to bully the weak. Instead, use your strength to help others. If you find yourself in trouble due to this, just notify your senior brothers, and they will back you up. If even they cannot handle the enemy you provoked, then their senior brothers will step in. So never be afraid of causing trouble as long as you have an explanation.

"Fifth, never step into the path of evil cultivation and never stand against humanity. If you ever betray humanity, it will be we who will first raise our swords against you."

After the old man finished the explanation, he sighed. "Don’t make a hasty decision. Think about it slowly and consider every aspect thoroughly. After all, joining the Asura Devil Army alone is a ticket to death for most people, since we directly engage with evil cultivators and demon beasts at the border."