John frowned at these words from the Vice-Sect Leader.
"Isn't that a little harsh?" John replied in a grumpy voice. He was liking the Vice-Sect Leader less and less the more he talked to her.
"On the contrary, this is being done to give you the best chance of survival," the Vice-Sect Leader replied.
"Best chance at survival? For what?" John asked.
"You'll find out eventually, but it involves that little mask of yours," the Vice-Sect Leader replied as she strode past John.
John turned around and watched her walk towards the doors. "Now follow me. We will begin your training immediately."
John stared at her back before sighing.
'It seems like I'm in for a long, long day.'
John followed the Vice-Sect Leader out of the room, and through the War Hall Palace before eventually stepping outside.
They continued to walk for some time, drawing the curious eyes of all they passed by.
The Vice-Sect Leader suddenly took to the sky, surprising John slightly. He had expected to walk to the martial training area of the War Hall, but it seemed as though the Vice-Sect Leader had other plans.
He took to the sky as well and quickly followed behind her, flying past several valleys and mountains before the Vice-Sect Leader started to land. John followed, and the two landed on the top of a mountain, several thousand yards tall.
The top of the mountain had been sheared flat, as if cut down by a stroke of a sword.
"We will train here," the Vice-Sect Leader said to John as she turned around. "The faster you learn, the faster...and less painful your training will be. So do your best to not disappoint me."
John once again rolled his eyes at her words, but didn't reply.
"Before we start working on your combat prowess, we will work on other things first," the Vice Sect Leader continued. "Many of you youths get caught up with the sole goal of getting stronger. However, once you run into a single hurdle in battle, you crumble. As such, we will work on those hurdles first, to make sure they do not hinder your combat prowess when your life is on the line."
"What hurdles?" John asked, his curiosity slightly piqued.
"There are several, but the first hurdle we will start with...is pain."
As soon as the words left her mouth, the Vice-Sect Leader raised her hand and waved it at John. Lightning instantly snaked out of her hand with incredible power and slammed onto John, catching him off guard.
John was knocked back several dozen yards before he managed to stabilize himself.
"If you cannot tolerate pain, then any injury in a life or death battle could be the end of you," the Vice-Sect Leader said to John in a raised voice, her voice fighting against the loud sounds of lightning slamming against John.
After recovering his balance, John stood there as the lightning washed over him. With his Lightning Attribute Body and Celestial Lightning Script, John was able to ignore this level of lightning, as it felt like a breeze to him.
His expressionless face stared back at the Vice-Sect Leader, causing her eyebrows to raise slightly in surprise. Her face quickly returned to normal.
"Ah, that's right. I forgot you had a Lightning Attribute Body," she stated out loud while shaking her head at herself. "I could increase the power of my lightning to overwhelm you, but that wouldn't be the best avenue. In that case…"
The lightning suddenly ceased, and a round object appeared in the Vice-Sect Leader's hands. She threw it into the air above John, at which point formation runes started to glow on its surface.
Boom!
John instantly felt an incredible power wash down on him, locking him in place. He instantly recognized the item, as it was the item used in the entrance exams Trial of Pain. However, the setting seemed to be greatly increased compared to last time.
John stood there in silence, feeling the strange energy wash over him, wracking his body with pain. However, compared to the other things he had experienced in his life, this was almost trivial.
"We will continue with this training until you can withstand this setting for ten minutes."
John looked back towards the Vice-Sect Leader with bored eyes, as if this was a joke to him.
"Is this really what you consider pain?" John asked with an unamused voice.
"Oh?" The Vice-Sect Leaders face lit up with surprise as well as amusement as she stared at John. "Not bad. But if you want to speak like that, then I'll be more than obliged to cooperate."
The pressure on John instantly increased, as well as the pain he was feeling. John felt the pain radiate throughout his body, wracking every inch of his body with excruciating pain. This pain was enough to drive any Core Formation cultivator mad, and would even drive many Meridian Forging cultivators to the brink.
However, John still stood there calmly, as if such a thing was beneath reacting to.
Surprise once again appeared on the face of the Vice-Sect Leader.
When one advanced in cultivation, their will and tolerance for pain would naturally improve. As such, the device she was currently using had many settings for different cultivation levels, and she was currently using the Meridian Forging setting.
At this level, more than half of Meridian Forging cultivators would crumple beneath the pain, but John stood there with a relaxed expression.
"It seems I looked down on you a bit too much," the Vice-Sect Leader spoke up. "However, since you're so confident in your ability to withstand pain, let's see how incredible it truly is."
John frowned, and his frown quickly turned to a grimace as he felt the pain instantly increase several fold. Despite his incredible pain tolerance, he was beginning to be pushed to his limits. He grit his teeth as he struggled against the pain, doing his best to withstand it.
He felt as if every inch of his body was being flayed off and seared. His bones felt like they were breaking within his body, while his mind felt like it was about to explode from within.
Small groans of pain escaped John's lips, but he remained standing tall. Seconds felt like hours to him, and he was just about to reach his limit when the energy, and thus the pain, faded away.
"Not bad. You've truly exceeded my expectations," the Vice-Sect Leader chimed up.
Heavy breaths escaped John's mouth as he leaned over, doing his best to catch his breath.
"However, pain is not the only thing you need to be able to resist in combat. One must have good mental defenses alongside their physical defenses. As such…"
The item above John started emitting a strange energy once again, and John instantly felt his mind become assaulted. In a similar fashion to the murmurs he felt when he cultivated in front of the sinister gate, John felt his mind tugged on, as if it was stretched and squeezed.
The strange energy attempted to find a crack in his will and drive him mad. However, John once again scoffed at the training.
"Let's just get started with the combat training," John said, his face completely expressionless. "This is useless for me."
Surprise and amusement once again appeared on the Vice-Sect Leaders face. She knew John was strong, and a prodigious genius at that, due to his battle with Hunter. However, she did not care much for such things, as plenty of prodigious geniuses failed and died due to their hubris and weak wills.
However, John's displays today were far beyond her expectations, and were quite to her liking. He displayed incredible pain tolerance, as well as an incredibly firm will, which were two things the Vice-Sect Leader valued highly. Not only that, but his bold and brash attitude in dealing with her before was also to her liking, once more raising her opinion of him.
She had expected the pain training and will training to take several weeks to get John to an acceptable level, but he showed that he was already at levels she deemed acceptable and more.
A smile appeared on her face as she stared at John.
"Maybe you are worth training after all."