Ascension of the immortal Asura

"But….Alliance Head. Surely this isn't the wisest path forward," the nearby elder spoke up, expressing his disapproval of what was happening.

"Then what would the wisest path forward be?" the Alliance Head asked curiously.

"Perhaps…perhaps it would be best to accept the offer from Daoist Bloodflame," the elder suggested. "Allowing this to happen could lead to grave consequences."

"Is that so? And what do you think, Daoist Bloodflame?" the Alliance Head asked loudly towards the distant man, who's name was Daoist Bloodflame, a high-ranking member of the Forbidden Alliance.

"Your subordinate is correct," Daoist Bloodflame replied coldly, incensed at everything that had happened so far. "If you do not hand over our youths, the consequences will be too great for your Alliance to bear," he threatened.

"Consequences? You clearly intended on wiping out all our disciples within the realm, which is nothing less than a declaration of war. Had your plan succeeded, our Alliance would have been crippled for thousands of years to come, but it seems as though fate is quite unpredictable, and the opposite seems to have occurred," the Alliance Head replied calmly, yet with a slight undertone of amusement in his voice as he smiled lightly at Daoist Bloodflame.

"Are you declaring war then?" Daoist Bloodflame replied coldly, his eyes narrowed with murderous intent.

"I've heard some rumors as of late," the Alliance Head said as he stared at Daoist Bloodflame and the other powerful cultivators behind him, which contained Humans, Monsters, and Barbarians. "It seems as though some unfortunate losses occurred for all three of your powers recently."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Daoist Bloodflame replied calmly, however the miniscule facial twitches on some of the cultivators behind him did not go unnoticed by the Alliance Head.

"Is that so? Then I suppose the news I've received of one of your Ancient Elders perishing is not true. Some of the rumors even included the Monster King and one of the Barbarian Warchiefs meeting an untimely demise. A pity that the rumors are apparently false though. That would have been very good news for us," the Alliance Head mused out loud, his words clearly mocking Daoist Bloodflames lie.

Daoist Bloodflames mouth twitched slightly upon hearing the Alliance Head's mocking words

"As you said, nothing but rumors," Daoist Bloodflame replied, although internally he was incensed. The news of those three dying had been kept quite secretive, as it was a massive blow to the combat prowess of all three powers. However, it had been leaked, revealing that the Honorable Alliance had quite an impressive ability to obtain secretive information, through spies or some other method.

"You can leave now. I have matters to take care of," the Alliance Head said dismissively, as if the conversation had been concluded. Daoist Bloodflames face darkened upon hearing this.

"I already told you the consequences will be too much for your Alliance to bear if you do not-" Daoist Bloodflame said, but his words cut off as the Alliance Head's gaze narrowed, as if he were done dealing with pleasantries.

"It seems as though our Alliance has been too peaceful and accommodating over the last few thousand years," the Alliance Head said coldly as he began to slowly walk in the direction of the enemy cultivators. "It's been quite some time since I last fought, but perhaps it's time to shake off the rust and let this old body of mine taste battle once more!"

Daoist Bloodflames expression quickly changed from cold anger to slight fear, as if fighting the Alliance Head was not something he was willing to entertain. He grit his teeth in frustration and eventually scoffed as he began to retreat.

"Tch, you will come to regret this decision," he growled before speeding off into the distance, followed by the other cultivators behind him. Everyone gathered watched in shock as the enemy force left just like that, unwilling to fight the Alliance Head at all.

Even John raised an eyebrow in surprise at how the events had unfolded, and his opinion of the elderly Alliance head rose quite a bit, as he was much more to John's liking than the elder he had dealt with before.

As the enemy force left, the enemy youths cried out with desperate pleas for help, which fell on deaf ears. The vengeful youths continued on with their acts of retaliation, and soon none of the enemy youths remained in this world.

As that happened, the Alliance Head watched the enemy force leave, and then turned around to face the thousands of youths who stared at him with varying expressions. His cold expression instantly softened, and he now appeared like a genial old man who was completely harmless.

"Now that that's dealt with, we can proceed with the closing of the realm ranking event," he said.

"Closing of the realm rankings? What's that?" several of the youths asked, having never heard of it before. Even John was curious about this, as he had never heard of such a thing being mentioned before.

The elderly Alliance Head smiled slightly at their question, and pointed towards the two massive dragon statues guarding the entrance of the realm. Two beams of Qi pierced out from his fingers onto the statues, which began to tremble as if activated by his Qi.

Two beams of bright light then shot out of each statue towards the other, colliding in the air between them. The beams of light quickly expanded, forming a massive screen of light a hundred yards tall and wide.

The screen of light quickly began to change as one hundred names quickly appeared on there, with numbers next to each one.

"These are the top one hundred names when it comes to the amount of Jade Marks received within the realm," the Alliance Head explained. "While the Jade Dragon Empire might have used this list for something else, we use this list to rank our disciples."

Upon hearing this, an excited buzz instantly spread through the crowd of youths. Being a high ranked genius of the Honorable Alliance would bring many benefits and rewards, and each youth began to scour the list for their name.

However, their scouring stopped as they all stared at the top of the list, almost unable to believe their eyes.

Rank Three : Igris Proudlan : Six Thousand Jade Marks

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Rank Two : Luth Chaster : Seven Thousand Jade Marks

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Rank One : John Fenix : One Hundred and Seventeen Thousand Jade Marks!