Ascension of the Immortal Asura

The two moons of the Nine-Dao World hung high in the sky, bathing the land in a silvery light. The inhabitants of Jagged Cliff City went about their nightly business, unaware of the hidden shadow lingering nearby. 

Shrouded by his stealth arts, Grandmaster Darkcloud lingered near the orphanage, waiting for his opportunity to infiltrate and learn of the secrets contained within. The night dragged on for several hours before the door to the orphanage opened and the Late World Expansion caretaker stepped out. 

She tapped the formation panel next to the door, which flared with a flash of light as it closed, sealing it off with some sort of formation. She looked about in all directions then left, leaving for some unknown business.

The Grandmaster watched her leave down Cinder Street, then moved. His figure was like a mass of darkness, almost indiscernible from the surrounding darkness, like a shadow at night. 

'Quite a defensive formation for a mere orphanage,' he thought, inspecting the main door. The defensive formation was not one he couldn't break, but it would alert those in control of it that it had been breached. 

After inspecting it, he moved again, searching for any weaknesses in the building's defense. He eventually found one, which was a narrow gap between two formations guarding the orphanage, seemingly created from an addition to the orphanage. Instead of extending the defensive formation after the addition was constructed, a new formation was created for the addition. 

The two formations blended together almost seamlessly, but for someone like the Grandmaster, 'almost' was not nearly good enough. His figure, like smokey darkness, filtered through the crack, entering the building undetected.

He found himself standing in a storage room of some sorts, and quietly made his way out and into the hallway. Silence greeted him, as all the orphans inside were sound asleep. The Grandmaster made his way through the orphanage, searching each room silently.

'Hmm?' he stopped halfway down a hallway, turning towards the wall. He then smiled and slipped through an almost indiscernible crack in the wall, appearing on the other side. A dark stairwell leading down into the earth greeted him, some sort of hidden hallway.

He made his way down the stairs, careful of any hidden traps or formations. A large underground chamber greeted him, one filled with hundreds of shelves and tables, all holding countless books, jade pieces, items, and other objects. He smiled, then got to work.

…

Several hours later, the Grandmaster held a book in his hand, having already read through thousands of books. None had given him the information he wanted, and without someone to point him to the information he desires, he had to manually check each one. His divine sense could have checked all the books in an instant, but that would have been dangerous, and could potentially trigger hidden formations. As such, he opted for the slow but caution method of checking for what he wanted. 

As he picked up the book, titled 'Basic Formation Principles' and flipped open the cover, a small smirk appeared on his face as he read the contents within. The title was a lie for what was contained within; information regarding Azurae.

The Grandmaster flipped through the book, which contained the archives of Azurae's early life. Page after page flipped over, the Grandmaster's eyes growing wider with each page. He finally set the book down, a shocked and grim expression on his face. 

'We have been so blind,' he muttered internally, shaking his head with disbelief. 

Boom!

An explosive sound and blinding light suddenly filled the underground chamber, startling the Grandmaster as he had detected nothing before. He spun around and flared with power, his aura destroying the shelves and tables in the room, erasing it into nothingness. He stared at the chamber stairs that he had come from, eyes narrowing as a figure walked down and into the chamber.

It was a female, appearing to be in her early forties, although her true age was far older than that. She had long green hair which changed to red at the ends, giving her quite a unique look. She wore a dress of similar design, green at the top, fading into red at the skirt. She had an alluring and beautiful face, although her hawk-like eyes stared at the Grandmaster as if he were prey.

Lastly, her cultivation leaked out ever so slightly, revealing it to the Grandmaster, although he already knew of this woman and her cultivation. The Early Holy Manifestation Realm. Although the Grandmaster was incredibly powerful, with his Half-Step Holy Manifestation Realm cultivation, he was no match for this woman in a straight one on one battle. 

"You!" the Grandmaster growled.

"Yes, me!" the woman said, smiling as they stared at the Grandmaster. She looked all around at the destroyed chamber, then back to the Grandmaster. 

"The Shadows of Death truly live up to their reputation," she said, an amused smirk on her face. "I never thought this location would be discovered. Tell me, how did you come to find this place?"

The Grandmaster remained silent, his guard raised to the maximum. Suddenly and without warning, a long-range transmission disk appeared in his hand, which he crushed in an instant after adding his message to it. The energy from the disk flared and raced outwards, then slammed into an invisible nothingness, rebounding back into the room.

The Grandmaster's eyes went wide as he saw this, while the woman's smile deepened.

"This location is protected by the best defensive formations, which included communication blocking formations as well," she said, then took a step forward. "Now, are we going to do this the easy way with you surrendering, or are we going to do this the hard way?"

The Grandmaster remained silent, then his figure flashed into dark mist, moving with incredible speed. The woman sighed.

"The hard way it is!"

…

The night passed by giving rise to the next day. In the Yang-Sphere, there was only bright sunlight, the land illuminated by the artificial sun hanging high in the sky. Per his usual routine, John spent the entire time training with Zuri, honing his new self-created Arts. 

What would have been the round of four tournament day was instead pushed back one day, and a day of mourning for Ishnai, per the Mage-Sovereign's request, was decreed instead. It included a ceremony as well as a burial, the Mage-Sovereign opting to bury the remains of her precious disciple in the lands she had died.

Figuring his presence would be distracting and unwelcomed, John skipped the ceremony, spending the entire day in training instead. He trained straight through the day and into the night, at which point Naelia entered the training grounds, interrupting his training session.

"Is it time already?" John asked after stopping his battle with Zuri, surprised he had lost track of time in such a manner.

"No," Naelia shook her head, "but someone is here to see you."

"Someone's here for me?" John asked, surprised to hear this, as well as curious who it could be. His mind raced with potential options, ranging from Lilian all the way to the Sword-Saint. He followed Naelia out into the Prime Shadow's room, his eyes widening ever so slightly as he saw the person seated on a nearby couch, smiling at him.

His next opponent, and number four Dao Transformation genius of the Nine-Dao World human race. Araxus