Ascension of the immortal Asura

Looking upwards at the falling lotus star descended towards him, Ji'Han gripped his sword tightly as his aura and the aura of his sword began to climb. Pure white flames flashed into existence on his sword, glowing brightly like a beacon, while seven white swords formed from his Qi materialized in the air around him.

A moment after appearing, the seven Qi swords began to rotate clockwise, the swords rotating for form a complete circle. As they did so, afterimages of the swords appeared, making each of the seven original swords appear like a shield of seven swords, forty-nine in total, each like a node of swords.

After spinning once, the swords began to emanate a strong aura, one that John instantly recognized.

The Dao of Space!

He leaned forward in his seat, curious as to what ability Ji'Han was going to unleash. A moment later, the seven shields of swords vanished, as if they never existed at all. Bright flashes an instant later revealed that they had moved, suddenly and without warning appearing in various locations around the falling lotus star.

Bang!

The seven sword nodes flared to life, as if formation runes that had been activated. The moment they did so, new swords started to materialize around each of the sword nodes, blinking into existence one after another, branching off from the nodes like cracks in space. While seemingly random at first, it became more and more obvious as more swords appeared that the swords themselves were forming complicated runes made entirely of sword Qi.

In less than a second, seven massive formation runes made of Sword Qi flared to life, branching towards each other like roots, connecting all seven runes like a cocoon of swords. The sight mesmerized the crowd with its beauty, a glowing lotus star enveloped by a network of marble-white sword runes.

Even John couldn't help but be awed by what he was seeing, as well as what Ji'Han was doing. John had very little experience with runes, but he could understand its general purpose after studying it for a second. He instantly could tell that the sword-formed runes now encircling the lotus star were spatial Dao based, forming some sort of spatial seal.

As he came to this conclusion, the sword-rune network fully linked, encircling the lotus star completely. A moment before the lotus star fell onto Ji'Han, the cocoon of sword runes flashed with power, then vanished.

The process happened in an instant, startling the crowd, the announcer, and even John completely. From the start of the sword art to its final activation, the entire process had taken only a second. And yet somehow, the sword art had enveloped the lotus star, and then vanished, taking the lotus star along with it.

What had previously been an arena brimming with the might of a yang-star, was now a completely silent and empty arena devoid of any power.

Boom!

A muffled sound suddenly filled the arena, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. It was as if an explosion a million miles away had happened, and the remnant sounds were flooding the arena.

As the muffled boom filled the arena, space began to ripple and bend in the exact location the lotus star had been sealed. Space itself appeared like it was boiling water, bubbling and churning from a hidden power. After a few seconds of this happening, both the rippling of space and the muffled boom faded away, returning the arena to true calm and silence.

"Wha….what just happened?" Naelia exclaimed, standing up from her seat. "Where did Jaxus' battle art go?"

"Ji'Han sealed it away on the other side of the space, in the chaos of the spatial void," John said, eyes narrowed as he stared at his future opponent.

Ji'Han stood there with calm confidence, as if his sealing of Jaxus' powerful battle art was something completely mundane. When it came to the spatial Dao, John was quite proud of his quick accomplishments in the Dao.

Only Lilian had been more proficient in the Dao, although that was to be expected. However, John finally ran into someone with a much higher comprehension over the Dao of Space; Ji'Han. While he would be able to defend against Jaxus' lotus star attack, he definitely was not capable of sealing it away as Ji'Han had done.

'His spatial Dao comprehensions have definitely reached the Dao Expert Stage, and it's definitely firmly in that stage, far from being at the initial portions of the Dao Expert Stage,' John thought, comparing what he had just seen to his own comprehensions.

In regards to the Dao of Space, Ji'Han's comprehension level could be compared to John's comprehension of the Dao of Lightning, which was his most adept Dao in terms of comprehension level.

"Wow!" Naelia said, eyes wide with awe and wonder. Nearby, Araxus frowned as he watched the battle unfold.

"Well, this is a new battle art I've never seen Ji'Han use before," Araxus said, still frowning. "It's going to be hard for Jaxus to deal with him if his Blooming Lotus, Falling Star battle art can be sealed like that."

John nodded his head in agreement, eagerly watching the battle to see how it would unfold.

"What was that sealing art?" Jaxus asked, pausing to stare at his opponent with a grim expression. "You've never used it before in our battles. Were you holding back in those battles?"

Ji'Han lightly shook his head. "I only recently comprehended this sealing art, The Seal of Sword and Space."

"The Seal of Sword and Space?" Jaxus raised an eyebrow, his expression remaining grim. "I've heard of that before. It's the Sword-Sovereign's ultimate sealing art if I recall correctly. How bothersome," he clicked his tongue in frustration.

Jaxus then closed his eyes as if he suffered a crippling defeat, making some wonder if he was going to give up.

Boom!

Jaxus' aura exploded with incredible power a moment later, dwarfing everything he had revealed thus far as flames of Yang pulsated off his body. His eyes snapped open and began to glow like twin-stars, while thousands of runic patterns of red and orange began to appear on his skin, each glowing brightly with a profound aura. A smug smirk appeared on his face as he stared at Ji'Han, his aura and appearance as if he were a god of fire.

"Then I'll just have to kick it up a notch again," Jaxus roared as he swiped his index finger and pointer finger across the flat of his saber, at which point potent Yang flames exploded to life on his blade.

In an instant, Jaxus transformed himself into a being of pure Yang, brimming with destructive might. The land around him for dozens of miles turned into pure magma, creating a caldera of magma beneath their feet.

Ji'Han floated above the magma unbothered, his Flame Attribute body and defensive Qi resisting the heat. He inspected the yang runes on Jaxus' body for a moment.

"So you've awakened your King-Grade Yang Runes it seems. Congratulations," Ji'Han said, although his calm delivery of his praise sounded more like mockery than praise to Jaxus.

"You may have a Heaven-Grade Flame Body, but I can tell you've yet to reach the awakened stage," Jaxus said with a smirk. "In the battle of yang and flames, I win."

"My Flame Attribute Body is nothing but a distraction from the one true path of cultivation, the Sword Dao," Ji'Han replied calmly.

"Heh, so arrogant. Let's see how long you can keep up that arrogant attitude! Before this battle is over, I'll make you realize the true power of Yang, and make you regret looking down on it," Jaxus sneered, his aura exploding even more as he shot towards Ji'Han like a flaming star of ruin and destruction, while twin wings of yang in the shape of lotus petals appeared behind him, increasing his speed with explosive might.