Jason raised his arm and attempted to unleash a battle art at John, but nothing happened. A confused expression appeared on his face for a moment, before he realized what had happened before he passed out.
His slight confusion and fear turned into despair, and his desire to live faded from his body. Without his cultivation, he was nothing. He couldn't even run away, due to having no legs.
"Just kill me," Jason said with a shaky voice.
"Oh, don't worry. That will definitely happen. But before then, you're going to tell me about a few things," John replied in a calm voice.
"First things first, what is your Bloodfiend Sect intending to do to my clan?" John asked.
Although his clan already had the protection of a Heaven Tribulation Elder, he still wanted answers.
Jason ignored John, and instead stared off into space. He wanted nothing more than to die right now.
John frowned at Jason's lack of cooperation. His hand moved forward, and pressed down on one of the stumps of Jason's legs.
"Ahhhhhh!"
Jason screamed out in pain. John kept pressing harder, causing Jason's screams to grow in intensity. After a moment of this, John stopped and asked Jason the same question once again.
Jason recovered from his pain slowly, and a determined look appeared on his face. He suddenly clenched his jaw, and bit off his tongue. Blood began to spew from his mouth, as Jason attempted suicide from such an action.
John shook his head in disappointment as he admonished Jason.
"Come now Jason. You should know just how amazing healing pills are, especially when done on mortals."
Now that Jason was crippled, he was the same as a mortal. Although his lingering cultivation benefits still existed, such as having a stronger body than true mortals, he was no longer a true cultivator. As such, the healing pills were much more effective on such a person, as their bodies were weaker and required less energy to heal.
A healing pill appeared in John's hand, and he forced it down Jason's throat. The healing pill settled in Jason's stomach, and the healing nature began to spread throughout his body. Before long, Jason's tongue began to heal, and eventually reformed.
Since it was a small part of his body, and had been very recently injured, his tongue was able to heal back to full. However, his legs, which were much larger, and damaged quite some time ago, were not healed.
John suddenly pointed his finger towards Jason's stumpy legs, and shot out a small burst of lightning. The lightning pierced into his flesh, and continued to burrow deeper and deeper in an agonizing manner. Although the lightning John used was not powerful, due to Jason's now weakened body, it still contained his destructive nature of lighting.
To Jason, this felt like hot steel nails being driven into his flesh continuously.
"Gaaahhhhh!"
Jason screamed out in an even more agonizing manner, on the edge of insanity. After what felt like an eternity
"I have more than enough healing pills to make sure you can't die. And everytime you attempt such a thing, the pain you will experience will grow. Do not test me!" John's cold tone and cold eyes seemed to pierce Jason's soul, and he shuddered in fear.
Even within his bloodthirsty sect, he rarely saw such cold, terrifying eyes. Jason grit his teeth, before finally replying.
"My Sect...found out about the pocket realm...and wanted to claim it as our own. The Crimson Valley Sect came to us with this information in a hope of partnership, with the condition that we crush your clan and the other powers."
John nodded his head, as this was what he had assumed already. However, it was good to get confirmation.
"And when does your sect plan on crushing my clan and the other powers?" John asked.
Jason paused for a moment. His parched throat made it hard to talk.
"I'm not sure. My Sect does not inform me of such things. I was just there to explore the pocket realm and report my findings back to my sect," Jason replied in a hoarse tone.
"A pity," John replied. He began to ask various things about the Bloodfiend Sect, such as its make-up, who was in it, and what their signature battle arts were.
Jason answered as best he could, but most of the questions he had no answers to.
'It seems like the Bloodfiend Sect is far more secretive than my sect, even towards its own disciples.'
He had asked Jason most of the questions he wanted to ask, and only had one remaining question. His eyes hardened as he looked back towards Jason, and Jason shivered for a moment after seeing those eyes.
"Parker...Was he a spy for your sect?" John asked coldly.
Jason recovered his wits, before responding. "Parker? No, he was never a spy. His betrayal was never planned."
"Is that so? Then let me ask this, where is he now? Is he still in my clan? Or has he become one of your sects disciples?"
John remembered Parker's request of becoming a Bloodfiend Sect disciple. It had been the reason he betrayed the Fenix Clan afterall.
"He's become a disciple of our sect," Jason replied.
"Is he here in these wastelands then?" John asked hopefully. He wanted nothing more than to eliminate Parker as soon as possible.
"No. When he was brought to our sect, an Elder noticed he had a unique constitution that perfectly matched our Bloodfiend Sect's cultivation techniques. He's been taken somewhere to further explore than constitution, but as to where, I have no idea," Jason replied, his voice growing more and more hoarse.
John frowned at the response. Not only was Parker not in the wastelands, but it seems like he was obtaining more and more benefits from his betrayals.
"No matter, I'll find him eventually and eliminate him. As for you," John said as he stood up.
His finger pointed directly at Jason's chest, and a beam of lightning struck out, piercing directly through it. The remaining vestiges of Jason's life slowly faded away, and he died soon after. John coldly stared at Jason's corpse before waving his hands, causing it to vanish.
"Only one more enemy remains from the pocket realm. I'll be seeing you soon enough Parker. And I'll make your fate much more miserable than Jason's."
Anger flared through John as he thought of Parker once more. His betrayal was inexcusable, and he would have his revenge.
John stood there for a moment before turning around and returning to where Adam was sitting. He was instantly studying the broken formation disk, doing his best to ignore John's ordeals with Jason.
"How are your studies of that disk going?" John asked as he sat down on the ground. He took a piece of cooked meat out of his spatial ring and bit into it.
Adam looked up from the disk, his eyes full of wonder.
"This disk gets more and more amazing the more I study it, and I only have half of it. Whoever made it is a genius. I have only understood less than one percent of this disk, and yet I've learned so much," Adam replied in an excited tone.
"Have you been able to incorporate it into your formations yet?" John asked curiously.
"No, and I won't be able to for a long time. It's far too complex to utilize yet. But it has improved my understanding of the formation arts, and even given me insights into how to make my formations more powerful."
John nodded his head in an approving manner as he took another bite of meat. As long as Adam was making use of the disk, he was fine with him keeping it for now.
After finishing his meal, John sat in a meditative position and focused on recovery. His recovery efforts had been interrupted halfway through, and he had expanded quite a bit of essence Qi in his recent battle.
Based on what he heard about the other youths in the wastelands, as well as what he had seen so far, John knew he needed to be in peak condition to explore deeper into the wastelands.
…
Several days later, John slowly opened his eyes. His fists clenched tightly, feeling the power of his newly recovered body. His body strength had improved once more, as he had absorbed the blood essence of the three youths he had just slain.
His body power had been lagging behind his essence power ever since he joined the Heavenly Lightning Sect, but now it had finally caught up. He could fight Russell, who was a half-step Core Formation expert when his body was still in the Mid Qi Condensation Realm.
With both in the late stages now, John's strength had grown tremendously. He was confident in fighting against early Core Formation experts now, despite the difference between Qi Condensation and Core Formation being incredibly vast.
Jumping between major realms was completely unheard of, and John had never heard of such a feat ever being accomplished. However, with his incredibly unique cultivation system, he was confident that he would be the first to do so.
He stood up and dusted off his robe.
"I'm fully recovered, let's head out," John said to Adam as he began to leave the cave. Adam hastily packed up his formation disk, before catching up to John.
The two of them ventured further and further into the wastelands. They occasionally spotted other members of the Heavenly Lightning Sect going about their business, such as exploring uncharted caves or fighting against powerful beasts, but never interfered with what they were doing. There were many opportunities to be found within these lands, and John was not going to steal them from his own sect members.
John and Adam eventually came to the base of a thick forest. The trees towered high into the sky, and they brimmed with vibrant life. After pausing for a moment, John continued to walk forward and entered the forest. Adam followed closely behind, and before long, they both heard raised voices ahead in the forest.
John curiously followed the voices, and eventually came to a slight clearing in the forest. He stopped, and watched what was going on.
There were two groups of youths, each with several members. One group was from the Heavenly Lightning Sect, and contained several familiar faces to John.
"Hmm? They're in here as well? They're not second year disciples?"
The group opposite them consisted of four boys. They all wore brown robes with their sleeves torn off, revealing incredibly powerful arms. Their bodies exploded with vigor and power, and were much stronger than anything John had seen before.
"Are they body cultivators?" John asked Adam curiously.
Adam closely inspected the group, and nodded his head in confirmation. "Those sleeveless brown robes are quite telling. They're from the Supreme Battle Sect."