With no other choice to make, John had activated his Asura Transformation Art. With his advancements in the art, the physical change to his body had become more pronounced than before. Blood red runes covered his entire body, glowing from within like hot embers within a fire.
Two horns that were thin, sharp, and straight, jutted a few inches out of the top of his head, making him look even more menacing. The horns themselves were black at the base, and gradually melded into a blood red color at the tip, making them look even more menacing.
Not only that, but his aura itself had become completely different than before. His aura before was firm and unflinching, like a warrior defying all that came at it. Now however, it was like a demon god had arrived before them, wanting nothing more than to slay each and every one of them.
The disciples watching this all unfold shuddered upon feeling this aura, and some even began to flee as they had no idea what was going on. The only thing they could clearly tell was that if they got on the wrong end of John at the moment, they would be completely at his mercy.
Only the disciples of the Yuan Continent remained mostly calm, as they had seen this power of John’s before. However, their heartbeats all increased nonetheless, as seeing and feeling it was still more than frightening. It was like a natural instinct kicking in, urging them to flee for their lives.
Iris, who was at the very center of this aura and was feeling its effects the most found herself almost unable to move. The aura emanating from John was not only sinister beyond belief, but also pressed down on her with incredible power.
It clearly wasn’t a domain being used, but the force of the aura itself that was restricting her movements, shocking her greatly.
Without warning, John’s body flashed towards Iris at incredible speeds. Her eyes went wide as both her natural eyes and her Astral Eye picked up on John’s movements, and her body began to move to dodge his attack.
Bang!
Iris’s eyes went wide as John’s hand firmly gripped around her neck before she could react to his movements. Although she could see his movements, her body was not nearly fast enough to keep up with John’s speed at the moment.
Iris grit her teeth in pain as she struggled against John’s hand, but was unable to make it move even slightly.
Boom!
A powerful kick from her right leg, which was infused with a unique energy slammed against John’s unguarded waist, the power of the kick shaking the nearby land. Her eyes went wide once more as the attack landed successfully, but John didn’t even flinch slightly at its power. It was as if the attack was beneath him, no more a nuisance than a fly landing on his body.
“Give me a good reason not to kill you now,” John said to her, his voice cold.
Iris remained silent for a moment while struggling against John’s grip on her neck, her breathing ragged as John was gripping her neck quite tightly.
“I…would…tell you…if…you…let…me….speak,” Iris struggled to get these words out, as John’s grip was too tight.
John’s face remained calm as he suddenly let go of her neck, causing Iris to fall down onto the ground on her knees. In his current form, nothing Iris attempted to do could work, and so John felt no hesitation against his current action.
He wanted a good reason for her actions, or he may truly kill her on the spot. Dealing with the fallout of his actions was something he was willing to deal with later.
Iris breathed several ragged breaths while rubbing her aching neck, before she gazed up at John with a mixed expression.
“You really are quite heavy handed,” Iris said to John, her pained expression slowly turning into a small smile. “But that’s exactly the type of attitude and resolve I would expect of the one I plan to follow.”
John frowned upon hearing her words, as she constantly seemed to be speaking in riddles. He was just about to tell her to speak clearly, when Iris stood up and slowly moved her outstretched pointer finger towards John’s forehead.
John frown lingered on his face as he watched her actions, but felt no ill intent from it and allowed her to do what she was trying to do. Her pointer finger tapped against John’s forehead, and John suddenly saw his vision change.
Different scenes started blurring by in his mind, visions of people he had never met, battles, asura’s, demon’s, golden-armored gods, and death. He felt his heartbeat steadily increase as the visions continued to fly by. The scenes also included himself, although his face was blurred. However, his asura aura was unmistakable.
The scenes in his mind lasted for a short while, before his vision once again returned to normal.
John had never felt anything like this before, and the closest experience he had was that one strange dream he had the day after he started cultivating. The dream that appeared to be a vision instead of a dream, of the past, or the future.
However, he was clearly able to tell that he was part of all of these visions, being stared at as if from another’s point of view.
John’s gaze locked onto Iris once again as his heartbeat slowed down, regaining his former calm.
“What the hell was that?” John asked, his voice still cold due to his transformation art.
“I’ll tell you after this trial, but these are all visions I have seen myself. Each vision has one commonality…you.”
John remained silent as he heard this reply from Iris, while he tried to figure out what was going on.
“I have two sets of visions,” Iris spoke up once again. “One with you in them, and one without you in them. Let’s just say the one with you in them is…much better for me. Which Is why I needed to confirm that you were truly the one in the visions. I wasn’t actually going to kill any of your sect members, I just needed you to show your true power to confirm that you were the one in the visions, and this was the only way I knew how to do that. Now that I have confirmed it’s you…here you go…Master!”
Iris once again took the bag of identification badges from her waist and raised it before John for him to take. John’s hand swiped out swiftly, taking the bag, but was surprised that there was no trickery from Iris this time around.
His aura suddenly faded, returning his body back to normal, as the Asura Transformation Art was quite taxing on his body. John tied the bag to his waist before his gaze shifted back to Iris, who was smiling happily at John as if nothing had just happened.
‘Tch, another headache has showed up.’
Bang!
His leg suddenly swept out, smashing into Iris’s waist before she could react, which sent her flying backwards down the mountainside. Regardless of her intentions, she had still pissed him off.