971 Chaotic Battlefield
John was quite fatigued from his three day battle with the Devil, but had no choice but to move on. His Qi was mostly replenished, and his power was not impacted, but he still felt quite exhausted, physically and mentally.
As he stepped through the portal, chaos suddenly enveloped him. An arrow, strong enough to pierce directly through mountains sped right by him, slamming into the earth. It pierced deeply into the earth and sent out a massive shockwave, throwing John into the air. His aura erupted as he unleashed his Dragon-God Shift, stabilizing himself a short distance off the ground, preparing for the next attack.
Screams of pain and anger bellowed out all around him as he found himself in the middle of a chaotic battlefield. Thousands of other cultivators, mostly in the Dao Transformation realm battled all around him, half of them clad in black robes, the other in blood-red robes.
‘A battlefield trial?’ John mused, guard raised the entire time. ‘And no instruction from that voice this time?’
The battlefield was exploding with powerful battle arts, causing the land to fracture and explode, drowning everything in its chaotic power. John’s instincts flared as he spun about, instinctively punching out towards the approaching danger.
His fist slammed against a massive sword image, one that dwarfed him in size. However, despite its impressive size, the sword image was only at the level of an Early Dao Transformation attack, and was easily blown apart by his physical power. John’s eyes locked onto the one who had unleashed the attack, a red-robed cultivator a short distance away.
He sped towards that person, appearing before them in an instant. His fist exploded outwards and shattered the skull of the man, killing him instantly. The man’s headless corpse crumpled to the ground, while a frown appeared on John’s face as he stared at his blood covered fist.
‘Something feels off. This trial seems too easy after the last one,’ he thought, noticing that the strongest cultivators on the battlefield were only in the Middle Dao Transformation realm. Jumping a single minor realm was not too tall a task for a pinnacle genius, which he had come to realize were the intended takers of this Heaven’s Shadow trail.
When compared to the dangers of the last trial, this one seemed incredibly easy.
‘Maybe it’s testing the combat prowess of the trial taker?’ he mused, eyes scanning the battlefield. ‘After all, the previous trial was not supposed to be a combat based one.’
While thinking, another cultivator sped towards him, spear raised, piercing directly towards John. The spear glowed with a bright blue light, brimming with the Dao’s of Ice and Sharpness. Anyone else in the same realm would have a hard time dealing with this spear attack, as its lethality was quite good.
“Impressive weapon art,” John praised, as he punched out towards the spear. While the spear art was impressive to most, it was mere child’s play for John. His Dragon-God Shift augmented fist slammed against the point of the spear.
Wide eyes in the audience room watched as John’s fist won out against the spear, blasting it aside with ease, and without taking any damage at all. They had already noticed his body was heaven-defying from his battle with the Devil, but John had never taken any weapon attacks head on in that battle.
Dealing with such a powerful spear attack wit a bare fist directly head on was practically suicide for anyone in the Dao Transformation Realm, even body cultivators, as such a spear was even more durable than the bodies of Late Dao Transformation Body cultivators. And yet not even blood was drawn in the collision, directly revealing the durability of John’s body.
His fist continued forward, slamming onto the surprised cultivator, whose body exploded into a shower of gore and blood a moment later, unable to withstand his power. As his attack landed, John’s instincts flared again, this time in much more dire warning.
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He turned around without hesitation, punching outwards with all his might towards the empty air behind him. A powerful shockwave blasted outwards from his fist, which slammed against something invisible. The shockwave and the invisible attack fought briefly before neutralizing each other, returning the space he had attacked to calm once more.
‘A stealth attack? Or was it an attack hidden with the spatial Dao?’ John wondered, then shook his head. ‘No, I’m skilled enough in the spatial Dao that I would have detected its use on an attack of this level. This is something else.’
Another hopeful cultivator sped towards John, unleashing a powerful blood-based battle art. Tendrils of blood shot towards him from all directions, each one forming a spear-like point, trying to overwhelm him from all sides.
John scoffed and allowed the attack to slam into his body unguarded. The tendrils of blood, strong enough to kill Early Dao Transformation cultivators with ease if not guarded against, shattered like glass, then dropped to the ground, only forming small cuts on his skin, but doing no significant damage. John pointed towards the cultivator and unleashed a beam of lightning, which pierced through his opponents body before they could react, killing them instantly.
As he did so, another attack came from nowhere, igniting his instinctual warning once more. He punched out towards nothing once more, and again blocked an attack that he could not see or feel. This time, the attack had been a bit stronger than the last one, not at a dangerous level yet, but still stronger.
The same sequence carried on for some time, with the invisible attacks growing stronger with each attack. A frown appeared on John’s face as the attacks were starting to become a nuisance to him, and would no doubt eventually reach a level that became dangerous.
Ignoring the invisible attacks for now, John moved about the battlefield like a war god, killing each and every opponent with a single attack. Dozens of attacks landed on him, attacks which he didn’t even care to block. In less than ten minutes, the battlefield became silent, as the entire enemy force had been wiped out by him.
As the last enemy fell, the allies, the black-robed cultivators, stood motionless, as if they had no instructions of what to do next. The battlefield fell completely silent, and yet did not vanish, and the trial did not end.
A frown appeared on his face again as he considered what to do next.
“I assumed this trial was to end the battle before the invisible attacks become lethal, but apparently that was wrong. Was I approaching this trial the wrong way again?” he mumbled to himself.
As he thought about the way forward, another invisible attack approached him from behind, this time with power that he could not withstand with only his body durability. Frustrated by the unclear and annoying trial, John exploded outwards with everything he had, minus his Asura Transformation and Bloodline ability.
His aura erupted outwards like an exploding volcano, drowning the battlefield in his overwhelming power. His divine sense exploded outwards fully at the same time, trying to find the source of these annoying attacks. His fist punched out towards the attack, unleashing a combined attack of physical power and lightning, shattering the invisible attack, which was suddenly no longer invisible to him.
John’s eyes went wide, and he blinked several times at what he now saw; an entirely different landscape, one occupying the same space as the battlefield. The two were overlapped with one another, and the hidden one was only visible to him through his divine sense. A world hidden to those who did not have the needed soul-power to peer through its illusions.
John chuckled softly, a laugh filled with self-depreciation.
“I’m such an idiot sometimes,” he said to himself, shaking his head. “This trial isn’t a battle trial, but a soul-testing trial. If I wasn’t such an overconfident musclehead, I would have noticed that sooner.”
His confidence in his power had made him slow to react to the invisible attacks, as they had not been a danger to him at first. Only once pressed to do so did he carefully inspect the trial with everything he had, soul-power included.
“I’ve started to become overconfident again, that my combat power can get me through everything,” John said, shaking his head again. “This trial is a good reminder for me to not rely on my physical power for everything, and to sometimes use my rock-filled head instead.”
He then sped in a direction, towards a seemingly unimportant part of the battlefield. However, through his Divine Sense, he was able to see the exit of this illusory trial. He arrived there a moment later and stepped through the portal, successfully completing the soul trial.