John reached out and removed the weapon from Adam's chest, and grabbed his arm once more as he took the final step. The pressure instantly vanished, and John took a breath of relief. Even he had been quite exhausted resisting that pressure for that long.
Several minutes later, Adam regained consciousness once more.
"Gahhhh!" Adam screamed out in pain.
Slap!
John's hand slapped Adam's face, bringing him back to his senses.
"You're not in the formation anymore, stop crying like an idiot," John said to Adam.
Adam quickly came to his senses, and realized John was telling the truth. Relief washed over his face, before anger quickly replaced it.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Adam barked out in an angry voice.
"Stop yelling and thank me instead," John replied in a calm voice.
"Thank you? Thank you for what?" Adam once again asked in a raised voice.
"For helping you advance to the Core Formation Realm. Inspect your dantian."
Adam's anger was put on hold as he quickly sent his divine sense towards his dantian. Elated surprise quickly replaced his anger at his findings. His dantian, tempered by the mysterious pressure, had advanced to the very peak of Qi Condensation, and was ready to break through to the Core Formation Realm.
"Here," John suddenly threw a pill to Adam, which he carefully caught.
"This pill was the pill I originally prepared for myself when I broke through, but I don't need it anymore. Go to the side over there and focus on breaking through."
Adam eagerly nodded his head and moved over away from the staircase, as if nothing had just happened. He sat down in a meditative position, and cleared his mind for a while before swallowing the pill.
John stood next to Adam, acting as a protector and making sure no one disturbed his breakthrough. The Core Formation breakthrough was the make or break point of a cultivators journey, and he couldn't allow Adam to be disturbed.
A dense energy began to emit from Adam after swallowing the pill, and Adam focused his full power on guiding that energy to his dantian, and then compressing it.
Boom!
A muffled sound echoed out of Adam's body shortly after swallowing the pill.
"So it started. I wonder how many compressions he will achieve," John mumbled softly as he watched Adam ascend.
Based on what he knew of Adam, he would guess three to four compressions would be his maximum, as that was an above average talent. Five to six compressions was the realm of incredibly gifted talents, while seven to eight was reserved for those who stood at the top of the cultivation world. John assumed that even talents like the Bloodfiend Sect Emperors would be five to six compressions.
While he had achieved many more compressions, an anomaly like John couldn't be compared on the same scale.
Boom!
Another muffled boom echoed out, followed shortly after by another, and another. The booms continued for some time, before the energy finally began to fade from Adam's body as he drew his aura back into himself. His eyes slowly opened, full of delight as he instantly inspected his newly formed core dantian.
"Six compressions! That's truly not bad," John said to Adam with a smile.
Six compressions truly was impressive, and such a breakthrough would surely help Adam to grow fast in the future. John had an inkling that the six compressions Adam reached was due to the staircase pressure, which helped him reach a height far above his revealed talent so far.
"Of course it's not bad. Six compressions is the sign of a genius," Adam replied, and began to laugh loudly like a madman.
John shook his head once more at Adam's shameless antics before he patted him on the back.
"Now that this is done, let's head inside. I have a suspicion that a certain someone is inside this temple, and I need to pay them a visit," John said.
Adam's laughing face instantly darkened as a serious look appeared on it. He nodded his head in agreement.
"Mhm, we need to get revenge for Russell. Let's go," Adam replied.
The two of them started walking towards the temple's entrance, which was a large open arch at its very center. The arch was a hundred yards high, and displayed exquisite craftsmanship on its edges.
They quickly set foot inside. An ancient aura washed over them, making them feel incredibly small. The entrance of the temple revealed a large hallway, which was surprisingly simple. The walls were smooth and marble white, and the hallway only pointed in one direction.
There were no side halls, and so John and Adam ventured down the main path. The main path stretched forward for nearly a mile, before John and Adam finally saw the end of the hallway, illuminated brightly by an outside light source.
John and Adam picked up their pace, and eventually found themselves at the end of the hall. They both walked forward, surprise on their face, as they saw what lay before them.
The massive temple had given way to an incredibly large and open expanse, nearly eight miles wide. The ceiling of the temple high above acted as a false sky, although John and Adam struggled to tell the difference between it and the real sky. Clouds moved above realistically, and the sun, moon, and stars did the same.
The expanse before them was open terrain, which appeared incredibly natural. Fields stretched for miles, in which flowers bloomed vibrantly. Trees lined the fields occasionally, forming small pockets of forests. Hills rose high, and valleys descended deep, making the room they stepped into feel as if it was outside.
In the distance several miles away, John and Adam spotted a large object jutting high into the sky, nearly touching the temple's roof. It appeared to be a pitch black monolith, and was the only object that looked out of place in the expanse before them.
"Well, this was unexpected," Adam suddenly commented.
John nodded his head in agreement, and he pointed to the monolith in the very center of the massive room.
"That's the only thing of note here. So let's proceed towards it and see if it reveals anything."
Adam agreed, and the two quickly began to proceed forward towards it. As soon as they stepped into the room, both John and Adam felt an unusual energy was over them, pressing them down to the ground.
John frowned as he tried to use his newly established Core Formation cultivation to fly upwards against the energy. While he had not done so yet, flying was incredibly natural to a cultivator once they reached this realm. However, he was unable to do so, no matter how hard he tried.
"Seems like there's some sort of formation restricting flight. No matter, we'll just walk then."
There were no animals or beasts in the area, slightly surprising John. He had expected to fight his way towards the monolith, but his progress was proceeding incredibly quickly.
Other disciples of the other sects were occasionally spotted, searching through the forests, fields, valleys and hills for any and all opportunities that may exist. John ignored these disciples, as none belonged to the Bloodfiend Sect, and proceeded forward steadily.
Suddenly, something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention, and John paused for a moment to get a better look. There was a dense expanse of vegetation before him, but a tinge of orange and red in the otherwise green vegetation caught his interest.
He turned towards the source of the color, pushing through the thick vegetation to get a better look. After walking through the thicket, John spotted what the color was. His eyes lit up in delight at his discovery.
There were ten fruits growing on a short tree, not more than six feet high. They each emitted a dark orange and red color, and were about the size of a grape. A blazing aura emanated from them.
"A Nascent Yang Fruit Tree!"
Adams' eyes lit up as well as he spotted the tree.
"Haha, we've hit the jackpot once again," Adam replied with an enthusiastic tone.
Nascent Yang Fruit Trees absorbed pure Yang Qi from the air, and refined it into the fruit. While pure Yang Qi was far more powerful than John or Adam could handle at the moment, the fruit distilled it into trace amounts, making it edible.
The fruit was mainly beneficial for fire users, as it bolstered their fire Qi and pushed their fire comprehension to the next level. However, lightning was also a yang based element, and the fruits could also serve the same purpose.
"Help me!"
A cry for aid suddenly sounded out, catching the attention of John and Adam. They soon spotted the source of the sound, which was a girl laying on the ground, several dozen yards away from the fruits.
Blood seemed to be seeping into the ground below her body, revealing her to be injured. Her face looked up towards the two of them, revealing her to be incredibly beautiful.
Adam's heart stopped in his chest, before he suddenly puffed his chest out in a strong and prideful manner.
"Don't worry my lady, with me here, your safety is guaranteed."
John rolled his eyes, as he watched Adam rapidly dash over towards the girl to give her aid. John shook his head in disappointment, and he suddenly raised his finger.
Lightning danced on it for a moment, before a Lightning Ruin blessed out of his finger, piercing directly towards the girl on the ground.
Boom!
The Lightning Ruin slammed into the girl's body, instantly destroying it.
"Aiya-" Adam screamed out in surprise and backed away quickly, before he quickly turned towards John.
"What the hell did you kill her for?" Adam yelled out, however, his anger quickly faded as a sinister laugh suddenly sounded out behind him.
"Jejejeje, you actually managed to detect that the girl was a corpse-puppet. Not bad."
A boy suddenly stepped out from behind a nearby boulder, revealing himself to John and Adam. His cultivation was at the Mid Core Formation Realm, revealing himself to have great power. His blood red robe billowed slightly in the breeze.
John looked towards the boy with unmoved eyes.
"Seems like I can add another Bloodfiend Corpse to my growing collection."