John stared down at the now powerless Damon, his cold eyes burning with bloodlust.
"Your death will be a tribute to Russell," John said to Damon, who was clutching his abdomen in pain. Even now, Damon did not want to give up. His life was far too good to lose it like this. However, he quickly realized the futility of it all without his dantian.
Damon looked up to John, and a smirk appeared on his pained face.
"That friend of yours begg-"
Che!
John's hand slashed sideways, severing Damon's head from his body. John did not want to give him the luxury of having the last laugh before he died.
Damon's lifeless corpse collapsed to the ground. The Blood Emperor, one of the most gifted youths on the entire Yuan Continent, was dead. John collected Damon's corpse, and felt some anger wash away from his body. He was unable to save Russell, but at least he had avenged him.
John turned to look at the other two battlefields. Although he was at the end of his Qi reserves, he still had a bit left to help them.
Miko's sword slashed sideways towards the Sword Emperor, glowing with a soft white light. The Sword Emperor stood there like he was in a daze, not realizing Miko's sword was cleaving straight towards his neck. Clearly, he was under the control of one of Miko's powerful soul arts.
Che!
Miko's sword sliced straight into the dazed Sword Emperors neck, severing it cleanly. A brief moment of comprehension and fear washed over the Sword Emperors face as he snapped back to reality, but it was too late to change anything.
His body fell to the ground, dead. Another prodigy of the Bloodfiend Sect was dead. John walked over to Miko and patted him on the shoulders.
"Thanks."
He collected the body of the Sword Emperor, and tossed the Sword Emperors spatial ring to Miko. Miko was slightly confused why John wanted the body and not the treasures of the Sword Emperor, but said nothing about it. He knew John always had a purpose in his actions.
Boom!
A loud boom echoed behind John and Miko, causing them to turn around to the source.
Kirii was still fighting against Azalea and Kaiden, still locked in a stalemate. Blood soaked the bodies of all three of the fighters, showing how intense it had been. John nodded his head in approval at Kirii's display.
'Kirii is only in the Mid Core Formation Realm, and he was able to hold his own against one Mid and one Late Core Formation opponent. This is his first fight and he's displaying such combat prowess!'
John was truly impressed with Kirii's display. He quickly dashed over to the battlefield, and Miko followed. John appeared like a blur behind Kaiden punched out with his fist, landing a powerful blow on his back.
"Gah!"
Kaiden screamed out in pain as his spine shattered. John pointed his finger at Kaiden.
Lightning Ruin!
A powerful lighting beam slammed against Kaiden, piercing right through his body. Another Bloodfiend prodigy was dead. John, Miko, and Kirii all turned to look at Azalea. Her once proud face was now completely exhausted, and filled with fear.
Taking quite note of the dire situation, she paused and spoke out to John.
"Unlike those other idiots, I'm not nearly stupid enough to enter this land without a lifeline," Azalea said as a spatial talisman suddenly appeared in her hand. She instantly crushed it, giving John and Miko no time to stop her.
The spatial fluctuations wrapped around her body, swiftly taking her away. John frowned as he saw her quickly leave. However, he wasn't too upset at the situation. He had wanted to kill Damon, and he had achieved his goal.
As for keeping today's events a secret, John knew that wasn't possible either. THere were many many witnesses from the Divine Soul Sect and Supreme Battle Sect, and unless John killed them all, word would get out about today's events.
Even if he wanted to kill all those who witnessed the fight, he wouldn't be able to stop them all from leaving. As such, John made no effort to contain the news. The only thing he could do was continue to raise his strength and fight back against whatever came to him.
John's powerful aura faded from his body, as he once again returned to normal. His face was pale, and wounds dotted his entire body, a sign of the intense battle he had just fought.
The crowd behind him stared in stunned silence at what they had just witnessed. When they saw the Emperors leave the arch, their cultivations all in the Late Core Formation Realm, they assumed John was dead.
However, against all odds, he had managed to kill all but one. While he did have help from both Kirii and Miko to be able to do so, the battle prowess he just displayed was unlike anything they had ever heard of.
Even the Heavenly Lightning Sect, who were slightly used to John's displays, were stunned silent.
John popped a healing pill in his mouth, as well as one of the Qi recovery pills he had bought earlier from his sect. He sat heavily on the ground, his body completely exhausted from the grueling fight. He had used the second form of the Immortal Asura Transformation Art for quite some time, and also wielded the extremely heavy sword.
These two things placed an enormous burden on John's body, and he would need quite some time to recover. Miko sat on the ground next to John, as well as Kirii. Kirii nudged up against John in a loving manner, his head rubbing against his chest.
John rubbed Kirii's head and gave him a healing pill as well, which Kirii happily swallowed. Adam arrived next to John at this time as well, patting John on the shoulders in a proud and happy manner.
"I was worried you were finally in over your head. You truly are a crazy bastard!" Adam said.
John chuckled slightly, and gestured to Adam while speaking to Miko.
"This is Adam, who I met in the Heavenly Lightning Sect. He was the one who set up the formation around the battlefield, and just like you, I consider him as my brother."
Miko's looked up towards Adam, who stood there with a proud expression on his face after being described by John in such a manner. Adam's proud face slightly paled as Miko's eyes stared straight into his own.
It was like he was being stared at by an ancient monster, who's very look could pierce into his soul. The pride look on Adam's face instantly died down, and he meekly sat down on the ground next to John and Adam. He realized he was in the company of two complete cultivation anomalies, and had no grounds to act proud here.
After a brief inspection, Miko broke out into laughter and patted Adam on the back.
"Not bad, not bad. Anyone who John considers a brother is also my brother."
Adam breathed out a sigh of relief, and greeted Miko back as well.
Miko suddenly turned to John and asked the question that had been on his mind the entire time.
"John, I thought you were dead? How did you manage to survive?"
John's expression was slightly surprised at Miko's question.
'Celestial Souldrends soul found its way to Miko when he left the pocket realm, and should have relayed the information that I'm alive to Miko. I guess Soulrend truly was in an incredibly weakened state like he said, and must have gone into a slumber as soon as he found Miko.'
John decided to ask a probing question to ascertain if he was right.
"When the world collapsed, I was forced out through a different spatial channel and found myself appearing by the Heavenly Lightning Sect. What about you? What happened when you left?"
"So that's what happened," Miko replied. "As for me, when the realm collapsed, I felt a strange force wash over me, and then left the realm. I'm not sure what happened, but my soul cultivation has improved greatly ever since I left that realm," Miko continued.
'It seems like Soulrend truly is asleep then, or he would have told Miko all about what happened.'
John patted Miko on the shoulders once more. "Sounds like you got a nice reward from that pocket realm then. But how did you end up in the Divine Soul Sect, and become its 'Soul Sage'?"
Miko nodded his head at John's first comment, before elaborating on the second.
"After the realm closed, those powerful cultivators that had always tried to recruit me returned once more. With you gone, I had no reason to stay in those lands, and so I accepted. The Sect Leader instantly made me her direct disciple, and gave me the moniker of Soul Sage," Miko explained.
"So that's what happened," John exclaimed. It had been completely unexpected to see Miko be the Soul Sage.
Although John was still confident in being able to Kill Damon and the Sword Emperor without Miko's help, he would have been at a much greater risk of being cut down himself in the process. Miko's surprise arrival had truly been a blessing.
John and Miko continued to talk about everything that had happened to them up to this point, while Adam and Kirii sat there in silence, listening to the conversation. Miko detailed his journey in the Divine Soul Sect and wastelands, and everything that happened up to this point.
John did the same, revealing the reason for his battle with the Bloodfiend Sect disciples.
"Those bastards. They dare cut down one of our brothers? Their deaths were more than deserved," Miko replied in slight anger.
Any brother of John's was a brother of himself, and although Miko did not know Russell, he still felt anger for his death.
"With Damon's death, Russell has been avenged," John replied with a slightly sullen tone.
The conversation eventually led to the arch trials, at which point John's gaze lingered on the fourth arch from which Miko had emerged.
"What happened once you entered the fourth trial?" John asked curiously.