"Young Master John! Young Master John! Young Master John!"
John heard the excited cries of his clan below echo out with fervent passion. These were his people, crying his name out with absolute passion and hope. A wave of emotion washed over him for a moment, before he quickly regained his calm and focused on the Elder before him.
The Elder before him was an Early Heaven Tribulation cultivator, while he was only Early Meridian Forging. It was taking his full power to fight evenly with the Elder, as the difference between those that had ascended tribulation and those that had not was immense.
The Elder had received the blessings of the heavens during his ascension, and as such received a much larger power increase than a normal major realm ascension. While achieving Core Formation was considered the first true hurdle in the cultivation world, ascending to Heaven Tribulation was the second.
Undergoing a heaven ascension tribulation would shed the mortal body, as the heavens infused their will and power into the flesh of the ascender.
If John had not gone through his own unofficial tribulation several days earlier, his power would not have increased enough to battle this Elder. While the tribulation he went through was meant to kill him, it did the undesired thing of increasing his strength immensely instead.
'I guess I should thank the heavens afterall,' John mused to himself while he unleashed Sky Sundering Axe towards the Bloodfiend Elder.
The Elder unleashed his own Crimson Blade Slash to counter the attack, causing another monstrous collision of attacks to explode in the sky.
"How is John so powerful?" an impassioned Fenix Clan member cried out in awe.
They had witnessed the entire battle take place, and knew the might of the man John was fighting. He was far more powerful than the Patriarch, shocking everyone with the knowledge that John was somehow able to fight evenly against him.l
"Who knows, but our young master is fighting evenly against a Heaven Tribulation opponent while only at the Meridian Forging Realm. He truly is a heavenly talent never before seen," another warrior cried out.
"John! John! John!"
The fervent cries continued to boom out across the land as John's battle continued above.
Barden and Cade Fenix stood to the side and watched the battle in proud and worried silence as their flesh and blood fought for the fate of the clan above. They felt ashamed they couldn't help him, but knew he was their only hope at this time. A proud yet slightly sad smile appeared on Barden's face as he looked up at his son high above.
The battle raged on for some time as the two sides unleashed their strongest attacks. However, neither side seemed to have the upper advantage. John eventually added in his Limiter of Power, which explosively increased his battle prowess to unreal levels.
If he had fought this Elder before unlocking this limiter, the battle would have been much harder to win. However, unlocking his Limiter of Power had increased his explosive body power severalfold, making each physical swing of his battle axe comparable to a full powered battle art. Each swing of his battle axe caused the nearby air to boom and tremble, as if he was cutting into the very fabric of space itself.
This unlocked limiter gave him the advantage in the exchanges, and slowly but surely he was starting to overwhelm the Elder.
However, the Elder was incredibly strong himself, and was managing to hold on without taking too much damage. John could tell that the Elder was trying to work his way towards the Fenix Clan below, most likely to hinder John's ability to attack with his full power.
Both sides had taken damage in the fight so far, and both were reaching the ends of their energy reserves.
'It's time to end this!'
John suddenly pointed his finger at the Elder, who had seen him use his Lightning Ruin already. The Elder scoffed at the attack and steadied his sword, ready to parry it and counter attack immediately.
John smirked as he saw this, as this was exactly what he wanted the Elder to do. Lightning instantly exploded out of his finger, piercing towards the Elder with heaven defying power.
Tribulation Lightning Ruin!
John felt his essence Qi drain considerably as he unleashed a beam of pure destructive tribulation lightning. This was the tribulation lightning he had absorbed, and infused into his lightning Qi to use as he pleased.
However, the essence Qi cost to control and unleash the attack was far beyond his expectations.
'This attack drains nearly half of my Qi, even with my twenty times compressed dantian. However, this should be more than enough!'
The Elder slashed his sword out to parry the attack, but immediately realized he had made a huge mistake. He had detected there was a unique nature to the lightning as it approached him, but only when his sword was slashing against it did he realize how unique and problematic the lightning was.
The lightning ignored the Elder's Qi defense and instantly slammed onto his body.
"Gah!"
The Elder cried out in pain as the tribulation lightning pierced through his flesh and began to run rampant within his body. The destructive nature of the lightning destroyed whatever it touched, and the Elder was shocked to find that it was incredibly resistant to his efforts to remove it.
His Qi surged out with his utmost strength, as he utilized his heavenly comprehension to slowly erase the rampaging lightning from within his body, which he found was the only effective way to do so. After a brief struggle, he finally managed to purge the lightning from his body, which had locked up all his movements.
"Too late!"
Che!
John's Dao infused axe cleaved onto the Elder's body with his absolute full strength, causing the very air around him to boom and part violently. The axe cleaved onto the Elder who had yet to reform his defenses, and carved through his chest like butter.
The Elder's eyes went wide as he felt his body severed in half, but was too late to do anything about it. The powerful Elder, who had lived for hundreds of years in the Heaven Tribulation Realm, was slain by a junior dozens of times younger than him. Even in death, he still couldn't believe what had happened.
The Elder's lower half fell to the ground below, while John grabbed the upper half and stored it away in his spatial realm.. The battle that would be talked about for thousands of years across these lands had finally come to a shocking end.