Ascension of the immortal Asura

1114 Hundred-Yard Sword Image

A sudden explosion of incredible power blasted below in the arena, snapping everyone's attention back towards the two youths. As they looked back at the arena, all they could see was a towering surge of Qi, golden in color like that of the sun, piercing into the sky, stopped only by the defensive formation at the very top of the stadium a dozen miles overhead.

Many wondered if they had missed the start of the battle, caught up in the Sword-Saint and Lilian's discussion to the point that they had missed the youths using battle arts.

Their eyes widened as they saw the real reason for the sudden explosion. It was not some pinnacle battle art being used by the two geniuses, nor was it caused by a clash of their weapons. Even the Sword-Saint's expression changed, from smug arrogance to stunned disbelief.

"Impossible," the Sword-Saint muttered, his mouth slightly agape. To his side, Lilian merely smiled, then leaned back in her chair, awaiting the bloodbath to come.

Down in the arena, Ji'Han looked at John with a stunned look, one almost never seen on his face. His eyes trailed upwards, following the surge of Qi that pierced into the sky, then looked back at John.

The source of that overwhelming surge of Qi was not from a battle art. It was not from an explosion. Instead, it was entirely from John's aura, a byproduct of him pushing his essence dantian, body dantian and Dragon-God Shift to its absolute limits for the very first time since enhancing his meridians from the Titan-Demon Meridian Essence.

With his power no longer restricted by the amount of Qi he could send through his meridians, John's current state equaled that of his Dragon-God Shift and Asura Transformation combined before augmenting and fortifying his Meridians.

The arena and the entire stadium itself shook from the power of his aura alone. It was as if a powerful battle art was exploding ceaselessly, drowning everything with its power. Even while protected by the formation barrier, the weaker cultivators in the crowd felt as though they were suffocating from the weight of the aura, unable to draw a single breath.

Even Lilian's eyebrows raised slightly as she felt his power continue to surge higher and higher. Then she smiled. "It seems you've improved more than I had guessed," she hummed with amusement. 'Well then, you've held back for long enough. It's time you had some fun."

Boom!

The ground beneath John's feet exploded as he took a step forward, sending cracks snaking outwards for miles in each direction. Without any hesitation, Ji'Han snapped back into focus and took to the sky, separating himself from John, as only a fool would fight a body cultivator in close combat.

John snapped his gaze upwards, his eyes glued to Ji'Han like a hawk. His power fully unleashed, the overwhelming draconic energy surging through his body, John opened his mouth and unleashed the most primal of roars.

Roar!

Almost everyone in the crowd clamped their hands over their ears, nearly unable to withstand the might of the roar. Even space itself rippled ever so slightly from the roar, bending under its power.

The roar blasted towards Ji'Han, its might no less than the most powerful of Dao Transformation battle arts. Then he pressed off the ground, which shattered like glass beneath his feet as he surged up towards Ji'Han.

"Infinite Sword Domain!" Ji'Han said as he moved his sword in an arc all around him, forming a complete circle. Wherever the sword passed, a sword image as true as his real sword appeared in the sky, each sword arching through the air around him. One sword turned to two, then four, then a thousand, then countless as the sky around Ji'Han because a sea of swords.

His sword domain activated, Ji'Han slashed his true sword towards the approaching roar, unleashing a quick yet powerful sword image.

Che!

Ji'Han?s sword image cleaved through the powerful roar, reaching John an instant later. Scythe gripped tightly in his right hand, John extended his left arm and pointed towards the sword image.

Twentyfold Lightning Ruin!

Boom!

A beam of lightning blasted out from his finger, slamming against the sword image, shattering into a million pieces of light that scattered in the air like dust. He streaked through the sky like a god of lightning, his scythe slashing out as he neared his opponent.

Che!

A scythe image shot towards Ji'Han, who sneered as his sword domain moved to intercept it. Scythe and swords smashed into one another, the power of the seemingly simple exchange drowning the arena in ruinous energy.

John blasted through the explosion, completely ignoring its power, appearing next to Ji'Han like a ghost. His scythe slashed towards Ji'Han's waist from below. Ji'Han sneered and slashed his sword towards John's scythe, while thousands of sword images pierced towards John from all directions.

Heavenly Lightning Domain!

Thousands of lightning nodes flickered into existence around John, followed by an explosion of thousands of lightning beams moving from one node to the next. The instant before the sword images pierced into him from behind, a solid cocoon of lightning appeared all around John, leaving only his front unprotected.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The thousands of sword images rained down on the lightning cocoon like meteors, each shattering into thousands of pieces of light as lightning and sword met. The arena trembled once more as the barrage of swords fought against the lightning wall, both being destroyed by the second.

No longer having to protect his back, John's scythe continued towards Ji'Han, brimming with the power of space and lightning. In that moment, even Ji'Han felt danger, his instincts warning him not to confront John in a head on collision.

"Tch," Ji'Han sneered as the spatial Dao enveloped him, making him disappear in an instant.

Flash!

Ji'Han flickered back into existence an instant later, now several hundred yards away from John. His sword was already slashing towards John even before he reappeared, sending a sword image far more powerful than before towards John. The sword image grew in an instant, creating a brilliant white sword a hundred yards long.

Space rippled from the might of the sword, with the tip slicing a thin line into space wherever it passed, with space reforming only a short while later. John flickered to the side as the last possible moment as the sword sliced inches to his side, its size dwarfing him, making him look like an ant before it.

After dodging the attack. John snapped his gaze towards Ji'Han who floated in the air a distance away.

"Not a single drop of blood," Ji'Han said, repeating his boast from before that John wouldn't be able to harm him at all.

Ignoring the taunt, John gripped his scythe and prepared to move once more. The instant before he did, his instincts flared with warning at the same moment his divine sense detected the massive sword image piercing towards his back. Somehow, without him noticing, Ji'Han had managed to redirect his previous attack, sending it back towards John with almost no warning at all.

A sneering smile appeared on Ji'Han's face as the massive sword image reached John. It was far too late for him to dodge, and even if he stepped into the spatial void, the spatial aspect of the sword image cleaved into the spatial void as well, able to harm John even if he used his spatial movement art.

In that split second before the sword-image reached him, John planned his response.

Roar!

John roared once more, turning towards the sword image while unleashing the full might of his Dragon-God Shift and body limiters to push his strength and durability to the maximum. His scythe vanished from his grip, returning to his spatial realm as its massive weight would slow him down too much to counter with his own scythe art.

As he turned around, the tip of the hundred yard sword-image was upon him, just feet from his chest, a distance that would be closed in less than a hundredth of the time it took to blink.

Unleashing another primal roar, John's arm muscles bulged beneath his skin, like mountains emerging from the earth as he punched his right fist with his full, uncontained might.

The crowd gasped with horror as they watched John punch towards the sword image, one powerful enough that not even Jaxus or Araxus would dare to block without a weapon. John's right fist exploded forward, space rippling outwards from his sheer might alone.

Boom!

The air shattered like a thousand battle arts went off as his fist slammed into the side of the sword, just two inches past the very tip of it. The power of his fist blasted the tip of the sword slightly to the side, enough that the sword-image shot passed his body at the last possible moment, only lightly grazing his left shoulder.

Che!

The blade of the sword carved into his flesh, creating a shallow wound in his upper arm. John ignored that insignificant pain as he turned to face the flat of the massive-sword, which was shot by him in an instant. As the sword fully passed him by, he reached out towards it, his two hands clamping onto either side of the sword- images two yard wide hilt, barely able to wrap his arms around the massive grip.

Then, like an ant wielding a sword, he turned and threw his arms downwards, sending the massive sword-image slashing towards the one who had created it.