The disciple, eager to have been called on by John, stepped forward and answered his question. While the disciples of the other sects were incredibly wary of John, those belonging to the Heavenly Lightning Sect were not worried.
"This staircase leads to the temple above, and there is a mysterious energy covering it. As soon as one steps on the staircase, a type of pressure pushes down on them. The higher one goes, the greater the pressure."
John looked back towards the staircase, and noticed the few disciples on it were struggling quite a bit.
"Can't one just go around it?" John asked.
"Sure, some have already done that, and there's no pressure going that way. But those who have successfully ascended the staircase have said that they gained great cultivation benefits from it, and so those daring enough are seeking out those benefits," the boy clarified.
John once more looked back towards the staircase, his interest piqued. If the ancient people of this city placed such a thing on this staircase, then surely they had good reason to. If it was a dangerous formation, the weak disciples ascending it would have already died. Just based on the ancient battlefield alone, John knew these ancient people had much higher cultivations than today's standards.
"How many people have already entered the temple?" John asked another question.
"I'm not exactly sure, but we've seen at least fifty enter so far, and I'm sure more entered before we got here," the boy responded.
"Thanks. Adam, lets go"
John thanked the boy before beginning to walk towards the staircase, Adam following closely behind. John reached the base of the staircase, and stretched his leg out to step on it. A frown suddenly appeared on his face, and he instantly turned around, scythe in hand.
Peng!
Sword and scythe collided, sending a loud metallic sound outwards. All eyes turned to the source of the sound with surprise, as they had not expected such a thing.
"You dare kill my sect's disciples? Your punishment shall be death," the boy holding the sword spoke out as he stared at John with cold eyes.
John grunted as he pushed his scythe outwards, sending the boy backwards. The boy landed on his feet, and stared at John as if he was a dead man walking.
"You failed to kill me despite attempting a stealth attack. I'm afraid that was your only good opportunity to kill me," John responded with an indifferent voice as he stared at the boy.
The boy was wearing a blood red robe, signifying his status as a Bloodfiend Sect disciple. His cultivation was in the Early Core Formation Realm, and was at the very peak of the realm. His energy brimmed with power, and it was clear to see that he was close to breaking through to the Mid Core Formation Realm.
"That's Grant, one of the Four Kings of the Bloodfiend Sect, the Stealth King" a surprised voice suddenly spoke out from the crowd, revealing the identity of the newcomer.
"Oh? A King huh?" John mumbled out loud in an unimpressed manner.
"That's right. A King. Now, how will you fight? Will you flee for your life, or will you beg for mercy as I cut you down?" Grant asked with an arrogant tone.
His status as a King of the Bloodfiend Sect inspired fear wherever he went, and other than the Three Emperors, the Soul Sage, several of the Heavenly Lightning Sects Direct Disciples, and two of the Supreme Battle Sects strongest, Grant was the strongest around.
He was top twenty in strength in the entire wastelands, out of the tens of thousands of youths that had entered, which gave him great confidence, as well as arrogance. His forte was assassination arts, and he was incredibly deadly in such arts. However, his direct combat prowess was a bit weaker than the other kings, but was still terrifying when compared to others.
He had already slain a handful of other youths within the ancient city, and had arrived at the temple just in time to see John kill his fellow disciples. While he did not care about those disciples, as everyone in the Bloodfiend Sect only cared for themselves, John's actions besmirched the reputation of his sect, which was unforgivable.
"The only one who will flee is you. I guarantee that within thirty seconds, you'll be crushing your spatial talisman to escape," John replied with a calm voice.
While he wanted to kill Grant, he knew doing so when he had a spatial talisman would be incredibly difficult. He also mentioned that to confirm if the Kings and Emperors truly had spatial talismans or not.
"Spatial Talisman? I don't have such a thing on me. My Bloodfiend Sect would never hand out such a crutch to its disciples. Only those who trample over all others are worthy of being a Bloodfiend Sect disciple. Those who would flee deserve only death," Grant replied in a haughty tone.
"Oh?" John replied in an amused voice. This was incredibly good news for him.
"In that case, you can just go ahead and die," John responded.
His scythe slashed out in an incredibly quick manner, sending a scythe image towards Grant. The attack looked incredibly simple, as it was just a basic scythe Qi attack. John didn't even augment it with his Divine Reaping Scythe technique, and had only used his normal Qi as a base.
"Hmph."
Grant scoffed at the attack, and pointed his sword towards John. Three blood red sword images appeared around his sword, at which point they pierced directly towards the scythe attack.
Boom!
The two attacks collided, creating a powerful explosion of Qi, which quickly radiated outwards.
"Gah!"
The nearby disciples, caught up in the radiating explosion, were violently thrown backwards by its power. They had not expected such strong attacks, and quickly retreated hundreds of yards for safety.
The ground beneath the explosion had shattered, revealing a crater several yards deep and dozens of yards wide.
A silent sword suddenly pierced towards John's back, as Grant had managed to move directly behind him, using the explosion of Qi as cover. Grant specialized in speed and stealth, and was able to get behind John in an instant. This was his sure-kill assassination art.
Most of his enemies died without even knowing how they had died.
His sword slashed down towards John's back, the blade brimming with incredible power. Grant had made no sound during his movement technique as well as this attack, and was sure this blow would kill John. A small smile hung on his face as the sword approached John.
"Hmph."
John suddenly scoffed, as his head turned around over his shoulder to look at Grant. His eyes locked with Grant's, and his body quickly turned around to meet the attack.
"Too late," Grant yelled as his sword reached John.
There truly was no time for John to raise his scythe to block the attack.
Peng!
A metallic sound rang out as Grant's sword collided against John. The crowd grimaced as it prepared to see carnage ensue, but their grimaces quickly turned into looks of shock and disbelief.
Grant's confident face had also turned into one of pure disbelief as he looked at his sword. John's outstretched hand firmly grasped his blade, and had successfully blocked Grant's full strength stealth attack. John stood there like an unmovable battle deity, not even moving a step backwards as he blocked the attack barehanded.
John's other hand suddenly raised up in the air, his hand outstretched straight like a blade. Incredibly powerful Qi coated his hand, turning it into a sharp weapon as he suddenly slashed it down towards Grant's shoulder.
Che!