Ascension of the Immortal Asura

After figuring out the order of what to focus on, John fully calmed his mind as he linked his divine sense to his spatial realm and the massive palace within. He had figured very early on that doing so would put him in a perfect meditative trance, enhancing his meditation sessions greatly.

A perfect meditative trance was something cultivators could only dream of, and most only experienced it a handful of times in their lives. However, John was able to call upon such a state whenever he wanted, which was just another testament to the heaven-defying nature of his Dantian-Artifact inheritance.

His mind fell into a perfectly calm and focused state as he did so, and the memories of his journey through the Jade Dragon Realm flooded back into his mind. His battles through the realm and against heavenly tribulation opponents, powerful beasts and even demons, his harrowing journey through the Dao Transformation Realm, battle against Asuros…

All of these memories flooded into his mind as each and every single battle was replayed repeatedly. As he focused on these battles, it felt as if he were truly back in time, participating in those battles once more.

The feeling of his Qi rushing through his meridians, his body and weapons unleashing devastating attacks, the Dao's infused in his battle arts, his breakthroughs of insight as his instincts were pushed to their very limits.

All these memories, feelings, and insights flooded back into his mind, while his mind and soul worked arduously to digest and comprehend. These increasing insights and comprehensions allowed John to increasingly alter the very nature of his Qi bit by bit, becoming more and more profound as the insights to the next realm were slowly revealed to him.

His Qi began to circulate within his dantian and meridians with ever increasing intensity, becoming more and more enhanced with each circulation. His body began to thrum with increasing power as his Qi began to gradually shift and accumulate back into his dantian, attempting to push it over the edge to the next realm.

This process increased for quite some time as John also drew on the excess Qi he had absorbed from the Jade Dragon Blood, which was one of the reasons he was able to attempt this process at the time. Breaking through to the next realm required not only comprehensions to alter the very nature of one's Qi, but also a vast energy source to push the dantian to the next level.

The Jade Dragon blood that he had absorbed had a monstrous amount of Qi that he was unable to process yet, and a breakthrough was the perfect time to put it to use.

He had just broken through to the Early Heaven Tribulation Realm roughly two months ago, and had immediately stepped into the Mid Heaven Tribulation Realm right after. Such quick successive breakthroughs was beyond risky as it could create foundational instability and flaws, and even John had expected to have to wait at least half a year to attempt to break through to the Late Heaven Tribulation Realm.

However, he had constantly battled on the edge of death multiple times afterwards, with the powerful beasts and Demon in the Dao Transformation Realm, and Asuros shortly afterwards. These battles had firmed his comprehensions to a level far beyond what was required to break through, which minimized the risks of foundational flaws already. While normal cultivators might not be able to absorb all the comprehensions effectively, John's monstrous talent and soul allowed him to fully grasp and comprehend everything that was available to him.

Secondly, the Jade Dragon inheritance of blood and bone had also transformed his body to another level entirely, enhancing it greatly and washing away any source of foundational flaws from breaking through too quickly once again.

Lastly, his Primordial Extermination Lightning cultivation technique was profound beyond compare, which allowed him to cultivate at a very rapid pace while also minimizing the risk of flaws.

With all three of these things combined, breaking through once again was something that was possible, but only to someone as monstrous as John. Both essence Qi and body Qi surged through his meridians and dantian, as John pressed both over the edge.

Ever since ascending to the Heaven Tribulation Realm, his essence cultivation and body cultivation seemed to become much more intricately linked, making it much harder for him to push his body cultivation forward alone like he had done previously.

Thrum!

Thrum!

Thurm!

Thrumming sounds continued to boom from his body like a purring beast, and sometime later, a muffled boom exploded from within, at which point the thrumming died down and silence returned to the room once more.

John's eyes calmly opened and his divine sense flared as he methodically inspected his body, and a small yet satisfied smile appeared on his face shortly after as his cultivation for both essence and body had been successfully pushed to the Late Heaven Tribulation realm with zero foundational flaws whatsoever.

Each breakthrough was normally a moment for jubilant celebration, but John's eyes closed once more as his mind returned to its meditative state, as his work was not yet done.

His thoughts shifted to the final temples of the realm, and the inheritances he had received within.

"Dragon Blood…Dragon Bones…A Draconic Transformation…" he mused.

The conversation with the ancient Jade Dragon spirit also flooded into his mind, being replayed over and over.

"Power!"

"Strength!"

"We Jade Dragons…are the Dragons of pure physical might…the strongest of all Dragons!"

These words echoed like a drum in his mind, while the feelings of absorbing the dragon blood and dragon bone returned again as well. John had already stepped into the Dao Adept stage for Power, Destruction, and Annihilation, which was the second stage in terms of Dao comprehensions. His Lightning Dao comprehensions at this point had been the furthest along, seemingly almost ready to break through to the next level, but needed just a bit more insight. Now however, his Dao of Power had surged to the same comprehension level, as if ready to transform once again.

Lilian had explained that the Dao Adept stage was when one roughly comprehended five percent of the Dao, and at that level his comprehensions had transformed to a higher level…the Dao Adept stage.

However, even though he had been at the Dao Adept stage at the time for the Dao of Power, the Dao of Power within the dragon blood and bones had almost been too much to bear.

The overwhelming Dao of Power had been prevalent and almost overwhelming when he had absorbed both, and when he had activated the Dragon-God Shift for the first time, that Dao of Power had surged through his body again.

All these events had been like a hammer slamming down on a Dao of Power nail, driving the comprehensions of the Dao deeper and deeper into his mind, etching it on his soul. The Dao of Power in his mind seemed hazy, as if he were looking through a thick fog to see the truth on the other side.

Like his Qi revolutions shortly before, these Dao of Power comprehensions surged through his mind like an ever revolving cycle, each passing further reinforcing the comprehensions of the previous stage and building on top of it.

Each passing seemed to push his comprehensions deeper into the fog, closer and closer to the truth lingering just beyond. This loop continued over and over an unknown amount of times, when all of a sudden the building comprehensions seemed to finally become clear as the fog was brushed aside, revealing the truth of the Dao of Power to John.

At the same time, a heavenly aura flared from his body for a moment, as if the heavens itself had opened up for a brief instant before fading away, while a monstrously powerful aura of the Dao of Power flared from his body for an instant before being withdrawn within once more.

John's eyes calmly opened once more as he inspected his breakthrough, which flooded his body with incredible power.

"I have stepped over the threshold and into the next Dao comprehension stage for the Dao of Power," he mused softly.…"the Dao Expert stage."