Insufficient balance

  My grandfather was one of the strongest warriors in the Beastman tribe, Bimon Army. Ninety years ago, he killed a dragon with his bare hands and got the glorious title of First Brave Warrior of the Beastmen and First Brave Warrior of Bimon. He was over five meters tall, and at that time, there were few opponents on the entire continent.

  To resist the human's powerfulness, the Beastman tribe and the Demon tribe carried out a series of intermarriages. My grandfather was one of them in these political marriages. Through intermarriage, he married the daughter of a concubine of the demon emperor, who is my grandmother.

  My grandmother is also the person closest to me in this world, if she were still alive. She should be eighty-five years old this year and is the best person to me. At the age of sixteen, she married my grandfather who was over forty years old, and she often told me that she was a political sacrifice.

  Obviously, marrying into a beastman's country wasn't her choice, but fortunately she did come, because if not for her, where would I have come from?

  My father was the only son of his grandfather, inheriting his excellent genes. He is over 1.7 meters tall and even now, his arm is thicker than my waist.

  At the age of eighteen, his father had already fought against the beastmen and was invincible. He had a violent and cruel personality, with extraordinary strength, and was the current number one warrior in Bimon, the captain of the Bimon army, and the true king of Bimon. Under his leadership, the beastmen had never suffered any losses in battles over the past few decades, so among the beastmen, his father's reputation was no less than that of the Beast Emperor.

  Due to his noble status, he naturally had countless concubines, and I was born to him and a human woman he had abducted. Among his four sons, I was the youngest, and also once the son he liked the least.

  My mother was a very pathetic woman, no one knew her origin, although she was less than forty years old, but looked incredibly old, wrinkles and white hair that shouldn't have appeared yet were already familiar to her.

  She must have been a beauty when she was young, only her outline can tell. She hates her father and dislikes him as well, similarly, she also hates me because I am the son born under her father's violence.

  She never really received her father's favor and suffered from the exclusion and bullying of other concubines.

  It wasn't until four years ago when I made a fortune that my mother finally had a house of her own. She rarely speaks, and every time I see the cold look in her eyes, I feel a chill in my heart.

  I, sixteen years old, a hybrid of the three tribes: beast, demon and human. I am two meters tall, with human features being the most prominent on me. To others, I am absolutely a handsome young man, if not for my body that is stronger than a Bamont giant beast and the divine power that I was born with, no one would believe that I am a beastman.

  I hate my father for making my mother suffer so much; I hate my father, if it weren't for him, my grandmother would not have died either. Although Grandma's death brought me today's glory, I don't need it, I just want that grandma who hurt me, loved me, and pitied me.

  Four years ago, I was bullied by everyone, no one treated me well, and behind my father's back, they all scolded me as a bastard. Except for my older brother who could still treat me normally, everyone said I was the worst son of my father.

  My life was worse than some servants, at that time, only my grandmother would care about me, often making delicious food for me and accompanying me, it was her who left a warmth in my young heart.

  Grandma's death was the greatest pain in my life, that day...

  "Lei Xiang, come, grandma has made your favorite braised chicken wings for you." A gentle voice came from beside my ear.

  "I'm coming." I rushed into the kitchen, and a strong meaty aroma hit me in the face. "Grandma, I love you to death."

  "Silly boy, eat quickly." Along with the smile, the wrinkles on Grandma's face piled up together, and the marks of the years were revealed so clearly on her body.

  I grabbed a chicken wing and ran quickly out of the house, eating while jumping around in the yard.

  Because she liked quietness, grandma didn't live with our family and I had no one to take care of me, so I followed her out.

  It's hard to find a place like this in the land of beastmen, where the weak are preyed upon by the strong, and every beastman can become the prey of another.

  Of course, no beastman would be stupid enough to come near my house to find food, so it's so quiet here.

  A thick voice sounded behind me: "Lei Xiang, where is your grandma?"

  As I heard the voice, my whole body trembled. Five tall figures stood behind me, blocking out the bright sunlight. In the center was Father. It turned out he had come to see Grandma, and he brought four Moonguard guards with him.

  The relationship between Father and Grandma was not good, although they were both in the same guild, Father always looked down on the demon tribe, often saying that only the fallen angel warriors had some skills, while other demons were just mixed-race eaters. Father valued strength the most, so naturally he didn't think much of Grandma who was weak and powerless.

  In the beastmen, women can only be subordinate to men. It's rare for him to understand grandma, how did he come today?

  I whispered: "Grandma is in the house." I was really afraid of Father.

  My father saw me in a cowardly appearance, furious, and slapped the chicken wing in my hand, saying: "What's this like? Is this like my son? I don't have such a timid son."

  Looking at the chicken wings covered with mud, tears flowed out of my eyes involuntarily.

  My father slapped me to the ground and roared: "You only know how to cry, look at you, so thin and weak, just like your dead mother. Your brothers were able to wrestle tigers when they were your age. But you, you can't even kill a chicken." As he spoke, he stamped his foot on the chicken's wing.

  Grandma heard the noise outside and ran out, saw me falling down, and immediately frowned. She helped me up while saying to my father, "What are you doing? It's rare for him to come once, why did you hit Xiao Er?"

  His father snorted and said in a rough voice: "You don't care, come on, take this little beast back and teach him a good lesson."

  Lao Er refers to my second brother. If that's really the case, I'm afraid I'll be skinned alive. My second brother Lei Hu is notorious for his fiery temper.

  Grandma shielded me behind her and said, "Forget it, don't make things difficult for the child."

  My father suddenly grabbed me and threw me to one of his men, saying to my grandmother: "I'll teach my son a lesson, don't you interfere. This time I'm just passing by, if you want to live a few more years, then mind your own business." With that, he turned around and was about to leave.

  Grandma's face was red with anger and she shouted: "Lei Ao, is this how you talk to your mother?"

  As she spoke, Grandma rushed over and grabbed my Pimon's armor, trying to pull me back. But how could her frail body compare to the powerful Pimon beast? The Pimon guardian merely shook itself once, sending her flying out. Poor Grandma landed on a large rock with a thud, and blood spurted from her mouth with a loud "whoosh".

  It was as if a gust of cold wind had passed by, and my heart suddenly became extremely icy, with wave after wave of chilliness sweeping over me.

  I shouted loudly: "Grandma." Under my desperate struggle, the innate divine power finally burst out, and as a twelve-year-old child, I actually broke free from the grasp of a giant beast.

  I rushed to grandma's side, picked up her body and cried out: "Grandma, grandma, how are you? Dad, please save grandma, I beg of you."

  Grandma's face turned pale, grasped my hand and weakly said: "Don't beg him, let's go back to the house."

  That guard who had thrown Grandma down was now on one knee, looking up at Grandma with a mixture of fear and pleading in his eyes. He turned to Father and said, "King Leo, I..."

  His father glanced at his grandmother and said indifferently, "Forget it, if she's dead, then so be it. Living to such an old age can't be considered a premature death anyway. Go back and tell someone to send some money over to bury her."

  In his eyes, Grandma was obviously less important than a Mongol warrior.

  Hatred and anger burned my eyes red, I looked up at the sky and let out a loud roar, all the blood in my body was boiling, I suddenly felt a wave of heat in my brain, like a mad cow rushing towards the murderer who killed my grandmother.

  That Bimon guard was stunned for a moment, then raised his hand to try and block my attack. My eyes turned blood red, and even my originally light green hair turned deep red. I moved at more than five times my normal speed, and with a loud crash, I actually sent the Bimon guard flying out, despite him being over twice as big as me.

  I didn't stop, my body followed the flying enemy and went past him. A small fist, heavily pounded on his belly. The most unexpected thing happened.

  My fist somehow penetrated the incredibly tough skin of Bimon's guard, he let out a loud roar and his two hands came crashing down from top to bottom, I subconsciously raised my other hand.

  In this way, in mid-air, three disproportionately sized hands collided with each other, producing a sound like that of a drum being struck.

  My hand didn't break, and with my weak body I somehow managed to block the blow, but my foot had already sunk deep into the ground.

  "Ah! Kill……” With a loud roar, my whole body shook violently, and an astonishing aura burst out from me, blowing the surrounding leaves and grass rustling loudly. With a bang, a hole with a diameter of half a meter was blasted out around the part of the Mongolian guard's torso where I had inserted my fist, and it seemed like he wouldn't survive.

  Fresh blood splattered all over me, internal organs flowed out of the bloody hole, like a rotten watermelon, not a single piece was intact. The towering body of Meng Hu's guard slowly fell backwards, while I stood there motionless, only my hair gradually restored to its original green color.

  All of this happened in an instant, and Father and the other three guards were all stunned by this abnormal change.

  "Father muttered: 'Lei Xiang has gone mad, Lei Xiang has actually gone mad. It's been a hundred years since anyone could go mad.' Even with Father's strength, he couldn't go mad. A mad Bi Meng can quickly increase his power several times over."

  "What about King Leao?" one of the guards asked.

  His father didn't seem to be saddened by the death of his guard, and with an excited expression said: "Take Ray away, he's already fainted. Find a place to bury your companion, and let that old thing fend for herself."

  ……

  I don't know how long it took, but I gradually came back to consciousness.

  "Grandma, grandma, what's wrong with you?" I felt extremely weak and painful all over my body, especially my left hand which was throbbing with intense pain as if it had been split open, lying quietly beside me, unable to exert any strength.

  I found myself in my own room in Father's mansion, I struggled to get up, supported the wall and walked out of the house, outside was pitch black, just like my gloomy mood.

  It's already evening, I don't know how grandma is doing.

  Just as I was about to walk out of the door, a wave of dizziness hit me, and I stumbled and fell to the ground.

  "Lei Xiang, how did you get out of bed? Come on, hurry back to rest." A tall figure walked into the room and scooped me up in one swift motion.

  As I opened my eyes, it was Leilong, the only big brother in Bimengzhong who still had a decent relationship with me.

  "Big brother, I'm begging you, quickly take me to see grandma, she's going to die soon." I said with tears in my voice.

  "Alright, but you must be back before dawn."

  "Alright, alright, let's hurry up." As long as I can go and save grandma, I'm fine with whatever.

  Big Brother's nearly five-meter-tall powerful body picked me up, and it was no different from holding a withered grass root. Soon, we arrived at Grandma's house under the cover of night.

  "Grandma!" I wailed, Grandma was still lying in the same place.

  Big brother put me down, I crawled to grandma's side, hugged her thin upper body, the dew had already soaked through her collar, I shook her: "Grandma, wake up, wake up."

  Grandma's dry, cracked lips moved slightly, her eyes slowly opened, and when she saw me, she smiled faintly. She wanted to reach out and stroke my head, but her weakness prevented her from doing so, and her hand only lifted halfway before falling back down.

  "Child, you've come back to see grandma again. Grandma didn't worry about you for nothing... Cough, cough." Grandma coughed up some bloody phlegm.

  I grasped Grandma's hand and stuck it to my face, crying: "Grandma, don't talk anymore, rest for a while, you'll be fine."

  "Grandma smiled wryly and said: 'Foolish child, Grandma knows her own body best. Help Grandma back to the house.'"

  I don't know where I got the strength from, but I managed to carry Grandma back to the house, stumbling along the way. My elder brother wisely didn't follow me.

  I put grandma on the bed and lay down beside her, panting heavily.

  Grandma gently stroked my head, looking at me with kindness, and said intermittently: "Xiang Er, Grandma... what I worry about most is you. You must promise Grandma to be a strong person and live well. Don't blame your father too much, the Beastman tribe is like this, only valuing strength and having no family affection."

  Tears had soaked through the collar of my clothes, I grasped Grandma's wrinkled hand tightly and sobbed: "Grandma, don't say that, you'll be fine, you must be fine."

  Grandma trembled as she took out a thin booklet from under the pillow and handed it to me, her face flashing with a hint of redness: "This is the treasure of the Demon Clan... the secondary copy of the Tianmo Secret Art... I stole it out back then... for revenge... only those with the bloodline of the Demon Clan's royal family can learn it. You must study hard... once you master it, you can become a Fallen Angel... only the strong can survive... don't let your father know."

  I wailed: "Grandma, Grandma." My voice pierced the roof. I mechanically put the little book into my bosom and fainted.

  When I woke up, I was back in my own room. My elder brother was beside me and said to me when he saw me wake up: "Grandma has been buried, don't worry, come on, have something to eat."

  I now feel that nothing is important anymore, the only thing I relied on in my life has left, and it's just me left, what's the point of anything, my eyes are empty and hollow, staring blankly at the wall.

  A loud noise came from outside. The elder brother frowned and said: "What a loud thunder! It seems that there will be a heavy rain."

  I ignored the injuries on my body and walked out of the door in a daze, with big raindrops pouring down, gradually getting heavier, constantly washing over me. In the blurry rain mist, I seemed to see Grandma's kind face again, and I rushed forward, but ended up empty-handed. My older brother hurriedly picked me up, covered in mud and water, and dragged me back into the room.

  In this way, I muddled through for seven days, and only managed to survive thanks to the food my father forced me to eat.

  Later, I woke up and Grandma's last words became my endless motivation - "You have to promise Grandma... you must become a strong person..." "...only the strong can survive" I must become a strong person, an extraordinary strong person.

  Due to my special ability to go berserk, I gained Father's favor and he personally guided me in my training. I am no longer the naive child I once was, nothing can change my determination to become an unparalleled strongman. From now on, I will deeply hide my hatred in my heart.

  My father passed down to me his most prized possession, the Tian Lei Xiao Jia, a martial art similar to internal energy cultivation, with defense as its main focus. Due to our clan's innate strong physical attack and defense abilities, as well as our high resistance to magic, our ancestors created this Tian Lei Xiao Jia technique to better utilize these advantages. The primary goal of this technique is to regulate the body's functions, making one's defensive capabilities even more perfect. When practiced to a certain level, it can produce a defensive aura similar to an internal energy shield.

  If a human were to cultivate the Heavenly Thunderbolt Armor, it would be at most a second or third-rate technique. But for us Demon Monarchs, it's an entirely different story. Back then, Grandfather relied on the armor's powerful defensive capabilities to withstand the Dragon Knight's single strike and gained the opportunity to kill him and his dragon, establishing an eternal merit.

  The Tianlei Xiajia is divided into three stages. The first stage is from the inside out, and it's similar to practicing general Dou Qi. Through meditation, I strengthened my physique, enhanced my immune system, and gradually changed my body state. According to my father, the first segment of this skill is extremely important - in simple terms, it's a process of rebirth and transformation. This is also the process that took me over four years to complete. When I reached the second year, my innate abilities began to emerge, and although I'm small in stature, my strength was not inferior to anyone of the same age as me, and even surpassed them. Now, with my increased strength after practicing Tianlei Xiajia and undergoing rebirth and transformation, my actual power is on par with several of my older brothers.

  The second stage is to gradually apply the formed energy outside the body, forming a protective cover that can block various attacks. I'm just getting started at this stage.

  The third stage is actually an enhancement of the second stage, and it's just that when the aura reaches a certain level, it can be used to harm enemies. Father has already completed this stage, and with his powerful strength, he can use Thunderbolt Armor to blast away anyone's head within ten meters. Even dragon knights cannot pose a threat to him if they are not numerous enough.

  Due to my rapid progress, I've been promoted by Father to a position equivalent to the Vice Commander of the Mong Military Unit, on par with several older brothers. In reality, it's all just in name only. All the authority lies in the hands of those older brothers, and I'm fine as long as I cultivate every day. As for me, who has no interest in commanding an army, naturally I'd be delighted to have a leisurely life.

  During the day, I insist on practicing Tian Lei Xiao Jia, and at night, it's a good time to practice Tian Mo Jue. Compared to Tian Lei Xiao Jia, Tian Mo Jue is much more difficult to understand. It's hard to decipher. Tian Mo Jue can't be considered purely as martial arts or magic, but rather a combination of the two, a magical martial art.

  The Tianmo Jue is divided into nine levels, also divided into three layers. This means that each layer has three levels, and every time you upgrade a level, it becomes extremely difficult. Of course, the difficulty behind this is the improvement of one's strength. And every time you upgrade a layer, there will be new changes, and a qualitative leap will occur.

  According to the book, when you break through the first layer and third level, you can perform the Fallen Angel transformation. After transforming, all aspects of your abilities will double in strength, becoming a two-winged Fallen Angel. This is now the middle power of the demon clan. When you complete the Fallen Angel transformation, the practitioner will gradually become a master of dark magic, and their dark magic cultivation will greatly increase.

  When you practice to the second layer and sixth level, you will transform into a four-winged Fallen Angel. Currently, only the Demon Emperor and his Imperial Guard have this strength in the demon clan.

  The third layer and ninth level is an unattainable level, only the legendary Great Demon God Lucifer has reached it, becoming a six-winged Fallen Angel. The copy that Grandma gave me does not have the cultivation method for the last layer.

  But what makes me feel ashamed is that after four years of practice, I have only just entered the second level. Ever since I practiced Tian Mo Jue, I felt a strong liking for being alone, and I would feel extremely annoyed when seeing crowds of people. Moreover, I liked wearing black-colored clothes. The dark power produced by Tian Mo Jue is indeed very powerful, but every time I try to use it, I feel my heart becoming colder and colder. Now, I can already use some simple dark magic with the help of the dark power, such as "Mist Soul" and "Corrosion". The dark magic power produced by Tian Mo Jue is much more powerful and pure than those practiced by ordinary dark magic practitioners, and it has a lower risk of backfiring (using dark attribute magic can have a backlash). It's just that practicing it is really too tiring (this is my personal experience).

  It's night again, I sit cross-legged on the bed alone, gathering the dark energy within my body. The darkness around me becomes my best friend, constantly providing me with dark energy. I spent two hours running through the icy dark magic power according to the second layer of Tianmo's heart method, feeling a slight improvement.

  Slowly exhaling the turbid air in my body, I got out of bed and looked at the bright moonlight outside the window. I felt a sense of loneliness and was startled in my heart. What's going on? Did I mess up the Tianmo Cultivation today? I thought back and didn't find anything out of place.

  I jumped out of the room and came to the yard, looked around, made sure no one was there, quickly slipped out of the door and came to the open field outside. At home, I was like a bird in a cage, but it's more comfortable outside. The cold night wind with dew gently stroked my collar. The icy and refreshing feeling made me feel exceptionally comfortable. The dark magic inside me naturally circulated.

  I suddenly felt a surge of energy throughout my body, with an uncontainable feeling. I stepped out with my left foot and took a powerful stride forward, then sprang up from the ground with a whoosh. Next, I concentrated all my strength into my right fist and slammed it heavily onto the ground with a loud "thud". The ground within a radius of one meter first showed a network of fine cracks, and then with a deafening "boom", exploded into a hole half a meter deep.

  I borrowed the power of the rebound to float aside, looking at my stunning results, all the unpleasantness seemed to be vented out with this punch, and I felt much more comfortable in my heart. I took a few deep breaths, and the feeling of annoyance had disappeared without knowing when.

  As I turned to walk back, suddenly, my intuition told me there was danger. Since practicing the Tianmo Decision, my senses have become much more acute than before. My subconscious operated the Hundred Pulse Technique, and I clenched my fists. In a low voice, I shouted: "Who's there? Come out!"

  The response to me was a mighty energy, a huge fist with a strong wind slowly growing larger. The energy blew the surrounding grass and trees, making a rustling sound, I felt like a trapped beast, a strong sense of crisis warning me, I sank my waist, grasped my horse's reins, took a step forward with my left foot, and let out a loud "Hey!" as I heavily pounded on my opponent's fist. This was the attacking method taught by my father, he said that with our own powerful strength, we must clash head-on with the enemy to fully exert ourselves, all fancy techniques are nonsense, one strong move can defeat ten clever ones, this is our best way to win.

  One big and one small (the smaller is me, of course) two fists collided in mid-air, a powerful force that could not be resisted came from the other's fist, I retreated 5 steps with a thud, my right hand felt a sharp pain. The opponent did not stop there, immediately after shaking me off, he flew up again and punched another one over.