Ascension of the Immortal Asura



Crystal blue eyes stared at the formation screen depicting John's actions. There was a slight hint of amusement in those eyes, which shifted as someone spoke up.

"This boy is an absolute disgrace to this tournament," the Sword-Saint said, his teeth bared slightly with anger and disgust. He was staring into the labyrinth directly, the walls and formations unable to stop his Holy Manifestation gaze.

His narrowed eyes were locked onto John as he moved through the labyrinth. Lilian gave the Sword-Saint a quick glance, then returned her focus to the screen in front of her.

The two of them were in the Sword-Saint's luxurious room at the top of the stadium. These rooms were the most exclusive, and were used only by the most powerful and important cultivators of the human race, such as the Sword-Saint or the Prime Shadow. The wide room had a large floor to ceiling window that gave unobstructed viewing of the arena far below.

The Sword-Saint's gaze shifted upwards, looking to a room on the opposite side of the hundred-mile wide stadium. The room was on the same level as his, and within it were several people, including someone the Sword-Saint felt nothing but hatred for at the moment.

The Prime Shadow, conversing with the Yang-Sovereign, paused, then shifted his gaze, locking with the Sword-Saint across the hundred-mile gap between them. The Sword-Saint frowned, then averted his eyes. He was already angered that the Yang-Sovereign had chosen to watch the trial with the Prime Shadow, and would not give the Prime Shadow anything else to feel good about.

"I find his actions rather amusing," Lilian chimed up, a small smile on the corner of her mouth. 

The Sword-Saint gave her a quick glance, then looked back towards the labyrinth far below.

"He's nothing but a fraudulent disgrace," the Sword-Saint said coldly. "Compared to Ji'Han, he's the exact opposite. Right now, Ji'Han is deep in cultivation, using every single opportunity to raise his strength. On the other hand, this boy is treating this tournament as if it's nothing but a game. He's lucky Ji'Han opted to focus on his cultivation instead of joining this trial, or his end would have already come."

The Sword-Saint sighed upon saying that, as he had tried to convince Ji'Han to end this fraudulent display immediately, but Ji'Han had for some reason refused. 

"This…boy…is nothing but a crude youth who cares nothing for carrying himself with dignity or grace. He is a beggar compared to a king when it comes to how he and Ji'Han carry themselves," the Sword-Saint continued. 

"The only thing that matters in this world is strength," Lilian said, eyes glued to the screen before her. "It doesn't matter how uncouth someone is, or how dignified they are. In the end, the strong wins, and the weak perishes."

A black pill with white and gray lines on the surface suddenly appeared in her hand, one brimming with potent death energy. She popped the pill into her mouth, a satisfied look on her face. Her aura flared for a moment, which she contained quickly.

"Another Netherdeath Cultivation Pill?" the Sword-Saint said. "You are quite fond of those."

"They suit me quite well," Lilian said, eyes closing for a moment as she focused on absorbing the potent energy of the pill. The pill was a cultivation pill that was best used by those who had a grasp of the Dao of Death, which was perfect for Lilian. Her cultivation had been rapidly rising over the last few months while under the 'care' of the Sword-Saint, who had showered her with resources.

"They are quite hard to find, and also quite expensive," the Sword-Saint said, giving her a quick glance. "But for my future daughter-in-law, it is a worthwhile expense. The higher your cultivation and talent when you and Ji'Han marry, the more talented the son you give him will be. Ji'Han's heir will no doubt be a talent as heaven-defying as him, perhaps even greater."

The Sword-Saint's anger had faded away, a prideful look on his face as he thought of his future grandson. Lilian's amused smile from John's display faded away, her face going emotionless. She glanced at the Sword-Saint, her smile returning a moment later. Her smile this time was not of amusement, but was a colder, more sinister smile instead. 

Her smile vanished before the Sword-Saint noticed it, her gaze returning to the formation screen hovering before her.

…

John walked through another long hallway, which was filled with traps capable of injuring someone if they did not have good senses and instincts. Occasionally he saw some injured participants lying on the ground, wounded from one of these traps. While dangerous to others, to him, the traps were mere trifles, and he made his way through the hallway without issue. 

The hallway led to a massive room, far larger than he had found in the labyrinth thus far. The room was over a dozen miles wide, several miles long, and several miles tall. The room already had hundreds of trial participants in it, revealing to John that his progress had been rather mediocre thus far. 

He scanned the room, taking note of what was going on. The other end of the massive room was covered from edge to edge with double-sided stone doors. The doors were hundreds of yards tall and wide, and were glowing with intricate formation runes. 

Each door segment seemed to be divided by a defensive formation of some sorts, making the space before each door somewhat isolated from the other doors. Before each of the doors stood a participant, their robes an array of different colors, indicating they came from a variety of sects. The only similarity was that they were each unleashing attacks at the door, seemingly with their full power. 

Battle arts exploded against the doors, drowning the area before the door with calamitous power. The formation screens on either side of the participants flared to life, shielding the nearby participants from the battle arts the others were using.

John looked on curiously at what was going on, then shifted his eyes to the right side of the room. There, a young woman unleashed a rather impressive battle art, one brimming with profound, arcane energy. The battle art slammed into the door, which shook for a brief moment, then slowly started to part open.

The girl, teeth gritted, continued to unleash her attack, which seemed to have been a channeled attack. Clearly, she was from a Mage-Dao subsect. The struggle lasted for a short while before the door parted a few feet open. The girl immediately undid her battle art, then rushed forward, slipping through the gap in the door a moment before it slammed closed.

"I see," John said to himself. "This is an attack power test. Only those with strong enough attacks can open the doors and proceed onwards. Now this is my kind of trial."

He started walking over towards the opposite end of the room, not in a rush to claim one of the doors. From what he could tell, this was a rather difficult test for most, as he had only seen a few doors open in the minutes he had been in the room. Most failed and had to retreat to recover their Qi before attempting again.

He stood patiently for a few minutes before a youth walked away from the door, unable to open it. His battle art had been relatively impressive, but his Qi quality and quantity had not been enough to force the door open. The youth gave John a tired glance as he walked by, then sat on the ground a distance away, closing his eyes and focusing on recovering his Qi.

As he arrived a few hundred yards from the door, John noticed that he had stepped through an invisible formation energy.

"Most likely marking the area in which I need to attack from," John mused. The defensive formations were in place to limit the blasts of the battle arts, otherwise the entire room would be drowned in the collective power of hundreds of battle arts going off at the same time.

As he approached, the millions watching John felt different emotions. Some were curious if he would be able to pass this test, which was the hardest one he had faced thus far. Others were angry at him for his actions towards Gerid and the others, and were hoping for his failure. Most hoped for his failure, and were looking forward to him embarrassing himself here.

While his combat instincts had been relatively impressive in his previous battles, he had not revealed anything incredible either. Many figured this trial would be his end, where the farce of this number one ranked genius would be revealed. 

John walked up to the door and stopped right before it. He raised his hand and touched the stone surface, fingers trailing over some of the carved formation runes.

"Seems like a pretty heavy door," he said to himself. "And these formation runes are adding to the difficulty, making it much harder than one would expect. That girl from before was just barely able to get the door open despite that pretty powerful battle art, so I should need to use a bit of my power it seems."

John had no idea the crowd was not only watching, but listening to him as well. 

"A bit of your power? Who the hell does this kid think he is?"

"Even your full power won't get you through that door, you fraudulent clown!"

"Stop stalling! Just reveal to the world that you're nothing but a cheater!"

The crowd erupted with taunts and jabs upon hearing John's words.

Ignorant of their eyes and words, John nodded to himself, then took a step backwards. His face tensed up for a moment as he activated the full might of his body limiters, and even sent a surge of his Dragon-God Shift to his legs for good measure, ensuring he did not fail this trial the first time around and embarrass the Prime Shadow.

Power coursing through his legs, John raised his right leg, then sent out a flat-footed kick on the door with the strongest physical might he could muster in this state of his.

Boom!

The door flew open with powerful violence, as if a monstrous storm had blown them open. The entire room shook violently from the collision, as if an earthquake had hit it. Even the defensive formations were not able to neutralize all of the vibrations, which shook the other participants, catching their attention immediately.

The doors trembled as if they were about to break off at any moment, barely to resist the might of John's kick.

John nodded his head with satisfaction, then undid his body limiters and Dragon-God Shift, returning to his normal state.

"That was much easier than I thought it'd be. I guess I overdid it a little," he said, then walked through the wide-open door into the trial beyond.