Sometime later, John walked out of his room, needing a break from his recent breakthrough. He walked to the helm of the ship where his master still stood and looked ahead at the Lightning Dragon before them.
"Congratulations," Lilian said to John without even looking at him, causing him to tilt his head to the side in slight confusion.
"For…?"
"For your Lighting Dao breakthrough," Lilian replied, causing a slightly surprised look to appear on John's face.
"How can you tell I broke through?" John asked.
"You underestimate me if you think something like this is beyond my scope of power,' Lilian replied with a slightly mocking tone. She finally turned her head to gaze at John, and closely inspected him for a moment before turning her gaze forward once more.
"Despite the fact that you're quite stupid, your talent at comprehending Dao's is beyond freakish. It's quite a mystery how that's possible," she continued.
"Who the hell are you calling stupid?" John quickly rebuked with a look of displeasure on his face.
Lilian smiled at his response, as it seemed to be the reaction she was looking for.
John rolled his eyes at his master's antics, before asking for clarification on what she had just said.
"You said I broke through, and also that it's quite freakish, what do you mean by that? Although I can tell my comprehensions towards the Lightning Dao increased, I'm not sure exactly what happened," John asked for clarification.
"I suppose you haven't learned about them yet, so I can teach you now," Lilian replied as she turned to gaze at John.
"Comprehending Dao's, or heavenly laws, are broken up into stages. These stages are dictated by the heavens themselves, and each stage allows one to peer deeper into the Dao's they are cultivating," Lilian explained, causing John to frown as she still hadn't clearly explained it.
Lilian noticed this look and decided to elaborate further.
"Put it this way, much like cultivation levels, there are comprehension levels. When you first comprehend a Dao, you are at the Dao Initiate level. Once you comprehend roughly five percent of a Dao, you advance to the next stage of comprehension, the Dao Adept level, and so on," she explained, which John instantly understood.
"Wait, so my comprehensions so far have all been less than five percent of what's there to comprehend?" John asked.
"Indeed," Lilian replied. "Being a Dao Initiate means having roughly five percent of the Dao comprehended, while Dao Adept is five to twenty percent. There are stages above that, but you don't need to know about them yet, as that is very far away in your cultivation journey," Lilian explained.
'That means not only my lightning Dao, but the other Dao's I cultivate, like the Dao's of Power, Annihilation, and Destruction, are all less than five percent of their true power!'
John had thought his control over these Dao's was quite impressive, but had just learned that he merely saw the tip of the iceberg so far.
"That's why I said congratulations earlier," Lilian spoke up once again. "Your Lightning Dao comprehensions have advanced from the Dao Initiate Stage to the Dao Adept Stage. You should be quite proud of your accomplishments. It's incredibly rare for someone to advance to the Dao Adept stage before being in the Heaven Tribulation Realm, which is why I called you freakish."
John mused over his master's words for a moment, before asking another question.
"What about you? When did you first advance to the Dao Adept stage?"
"In the early Meridian Forging Realm," Lilian smiled as she replied to John's question. John's face lit up in surprise, as she had accomplished this even before he did cultivation wise.
"However, don't compare yourself to me. My situation is quite different, as I achieved this breakthrough in the Dao of Death, which I'm sure you noticed I have a special relationship with," Lilian clarified.
John nodded his head at his master's words, as they were quite true. His master had the Dao of Death rune on her head, clearly indicating that she had some sort of innate ability regarding this Dao. It was only natural that her comprehensions towards it was freakish as well.
John continued to discuss Dao comprehensions with his master for some time before once again retreating to his room to cultivate more.
After his breakthrough in lightning comprehensions, he continued to cultivate each and every aspect he could think of. He pushed his lightning comprehensions to the peak, until he felt a resistance he could not get through.
This was clearly his limit in cultivating the Lightning Dao at the moment, and he would need to consolidate his comprehensions and use them in real combat before he was ready to push his comprehensions to the next level.
After doing all he could do regarding his Lightning Dao, John focused on his mind and soul, and cultivated in front of both the holy and sinister gates within his palace realm. A mixed feeling welled up within him whenever he cultivated in front of the holy gate, as he knew his supposed father was on the opposite side of it but refused to speak to him.
After pushing his soul to the limits, John cultivated in front of the sinister gate, and pushed his will and resolve to the limits. By doing this each night, he felt a noticeable increase in his soul power and willpower.
John also focused on studying the Immortal Asura Tome further, as well as his Limiter of Power, both which allowed him to push his body to new heights.
Like this, John increased his proficiency in all aspects of his cultivation, as the ship continued to fly towards the Divine Martial Continent. The trip lasted almost a month, which shocked John and all the other youths in the ship.
They knew the Divine Martial Continent was far away, but the ship still took a long time to arrive despite its incredible speed the entire time. Sea creatures would occasionally emerge from the depths below in a fury at the new intruders but would all quickly retreat as they saw who it was.
One particular creature seemed to be blinded by rage and attacked the dragon without care. A casual lightning breath from the dragon instantly obliterated the creature, shocking each and every person on the ship who watched the attack take place.
It was the strongest attack they had ever seen, but it seemed to be a casual action from the dragon. John also saw this attack take place, and the only stronger attack he had seen in his life was Thunderzen's Thunderfall Judgement, which was absolutely monstrous in its power.
While the journey carried on, John conversed with the other disciples occasionally, as they would often approach him and ask him for pointers on cultivation. He was without a doubt the strongest one in their group by far, and even the five direct disciples acknowledged this.
Mason Light, who used to feel quite antagonistic towards John as he considered him a rival for the number one disciple spot, no longer concerned himself with such things. He knew that as it was right now, John was so far ahead of him that it no longer made sense to compare himself to John.
In fact, he was one of the youths who swallowed their pride and asked John some questions regarding cultivation and how he approached it, surprising John slightly. John nodded his head in approval at Mason's growth of character, before he sincerely answered as much as he could to help out his fellow disciple.
He also occasionally talked to Chase and Adam, who were both deep in their own studies, one for pills and the other for formations. Adam seemed to be making great breakthroughs by studying the formation artifacts John had given him, while Chase was consolidating all the information Pill Emperor Thunderpill had given him.
...
On this particular morning, John was sitting in a quiet corner of the ship, observing the ocean fly by below. He was taking a rare break from cultivation, as he felt he was pushing himself to the limit over the past month.
Despite his cultivation level not rising, John felt an incredible increase in power when compared to his former self before the trip. If the two of them fought, he was confident in winning quite easily.
"Look! Over there!" an excited shout sounded out within the ship, drawing the attention of all those in the ship.
Everyone walked over to the person who had spoken, who stood towards the front of the ship. John walked over as well, and quickly noticed what the other disciple was pointing at.
In the far distance, the coastline was coming into view. Towering cliffs lined the ocean coast, as surging waves slammed into them ceaselessly. Just past the coastline, a massive forest with trees that towered nearly a mile high into the sky was visible, further adding to the grandeur of the scenery before them.
John's face lit up with excitement and anticipation as all of this came into view.
'The Divine Martial Continent!'