Upon hearing the Grand Elder's words, hundreds of disciples rushed towards the portal to enter first. Others slowly walked over to the portal, unconcerned about entering first as they knew such a thing held no advantage, while others waited for the frenzy to die down so that they could leisurely enter.
John slowly made his way over at a steady but unrushed pace. According to what he knew of the Thunder Realm, opportunities were rarely found immediately after entering. Not only that, but one would end up at a random location upon entering, and so things could not be planned out ahead of time.
As such, he didn't put much effort in grouping up with Adam or Chase, as they would be separated at the start regardless.
John reached the portal, which glowed a bright blue and brimmed with absolute power. It was spherical in shape, and he could see a vague image of what laid on the other side.
Flash!
He entered the portal, and felt the familiar sensation of spatial power wrap around him for a moment, before his feet landed on solid ground. His divine sense immediately flared outwards to detect any nearby threats, but quickly retracted upon sensing.
"It's quite barren," John mused out loud while raising an eyebrow.
Before him was an endless expanse of charred earth, as if the ground had been struck by lightning continuously over hundreds of years. Not a single spec of vegetation could be seen on the blackened earth. Above him churned an endless ocean of clouds which contained flickering lightning within.
'It's quite similar to the Elysian Lightning World.'
When he had arrived in the Elysian Lightning World where he had obtained Kirii, the scenery was much the same. However, such a thing made sense, as they were both realms dominated by destructive lightning.
John started moving in a random direction, as there was nothing of note in sight. Mountains occasionally pierced high into the sky, while valleys descended low into the earth. John climbed these mountains and valleys for some time, looking for any opportunity, but after several hours of exploration, was unable to find a single thing.
He had spotted other disciples occasionally, but they mostly ignored each other as they each searched for their own opportunities.
"What the hell type of realm is this?" John muttered with slight displeasure.
Despite searching for hours, he had found zero opportunities at all. Eventually his gaze shifted upwards and locked onto the black clouds above as a thought appeared in his mind. He considered it for a moment before deciding to give it a shot.
Boom!
John's body pressed off the earth and rapidly pierced towards the clouds above. If he couldn't find any opportunities on the ground, he would find them in the sky.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," a voice suddenly entered his ears, which caused John to stop his upward momentum and hover in the sky.
A quick inspection of the disciple revealed him to be in the Early Heaven Tribulation Realm, although he seemed as if he was ready to break through to the next realm at any moment.
"Why shouldn't I do this?" John asked.
He could tell the disciple had no ill will, and was just giving him sincere advice from one Heavenly Lightning Sect disciple to the other.
"Because at best you'll be injured, and at worst you'll die," the youth replied calmly. "Your cultivation is at the Middle Meridian Forging Realm, so I'm ȧssuming you're one of the new disciples from the branch sects. It's natural that you do not know much about this realm in that case, but I would advise you to heed my advice. Even I wouldn't dare to enter those clouds."
John fell into silent contemplation for a moment as he mused over the disciples words, as well as a few other things. His gaze shifted to the clouds above, and then back to the youth.
"Do you know how strong the lightning in these clouds are?" John asked, trying to gauge the strength of the lightning above.
While his instincts didn't sense any danger above, it was still best to ask.
"They are strong enough to kill a Middle Heaven Tribulation cultivator, and greatly injure a Late Heaven Tribulation cultivator," the youth replied.
A small smile appeared on John's face as he heard this, as it should be no problem to him in that case. His body, which was at the Late Meridian Forging Realm, was already equivalent to a Late Heaven Tribulation cultivator in terms of durability.
"What's your name?" John asked the boy.
"Gerrid," the boy replied quickly, although was slightly taken aback by John's relaxed demeanor.
When lower year disciples, especially ones that just came from branch sects ran into third year disciples such as him, they would usually be intimidated and tepid. However, John's calm and composed demeanor was the exact opposite, slightly surprising the youth.
"How well do you know this realm?" John asked.
"I know it well enough," the youth replied. "The realm does not change every year, so everyone knows where the best opportunities are. Getting to those opportunities is the hard part unless you know the lay of the land. We're currently on the outskirts of this realm, so our placement was quite unlucky."
'No wonder I didn't find any opportunities here.'
John had felt it quite odd that everything was so barren, but the boy's words cleared everything up.
How quickly are the opportunities you described obtained?" John asked another question.
"Not too fast. Many are quite hard to obtain, so most will remain until the last few days of the realm's duration," the youth replied.
"Hmm, perfect," John replied with a happy nod as he pointed at the youth. "In that case, you will wait here while I take care of some business in the clouds above. Afterwards, you'll escort us both to the area you spoke of.. If you do that, I guarantee you'll obtain more treasures than you could have on your own."