John frowned as he heard that name again, as the name left a foul taste in his mouth whenever he heard it.
“Can you believe it?” the youth continued, “Parker managed to beat Luth in this trial. While it doesn’t mean he’s stronger or more talented, it does mean that his willpower and pain tolerance is higher. How impressive is that?”
“Quite impressive indeed,” John replied, his gaze shifting to the youth on the wall that suddenly cried out in pain as his arms and legs gave out, and he fell from the wall to the ground below.
“So I’m assuming the order we arrived in is the order to take this trial?” John asked the youth, who nodded his head in confirmation.
“There’s no need for you to wait,” a voice from the front of the crowd spoke up, catching John’s attention. The crowd parted for the youth, who walked over towards John. Hushed whispers from the other youths sounded out, and the number one hundred and twelve was mentioned several times, giving John some information of who this was.
The youth walked up to John and stood before him, his arrogant gaze inspecting him with doubt on his face. The youth was the same height as John, and carried a large greatsword on his back, which glowed orange on the blade’s edge. He had short red hair, and had a powerful looking body, clearly belonging to a body cultivator.
Unlike the robes that most youths wore, the youth was wearing a set of impressive looking black and orange armor, making him look quite fearsome. His gaze inspected John for a moment, before he scoffed lightly..
“Are you John Fenix?” the youth asked, his words causing the hushed discussions to begin once again.
“I am,” John replied, hiding nothing. His confirmation sent the other youths into a hushed frenzy, as they were in the presence of two Jade Dragon List geniuses.
“What, do you want to fight?” John asked, as he had been challenged quite a few times by other youths over the last two weeks and had become used to such a thing.
A confident smirk appeared on the youths face, as he scoffed once more.
“If your rank is justified, fighting you would be worthwhile, but I just don’t believe it,” the youth replied. “I’m not sure how you did it, but you clearly either tricked the Heaven Scrying Sect, or paid them a ridiculous amount of money. Either way, you’re not worthy of fighting against me. But how about this, I’ll let you take my place to climb the wall next. If your performance is good enough, I’ll entertain the idea of fighting you.”
John stared calmly at the youth before him, before a small smile appeared on his face.
“I accept,” John replied, wasting no time at all as he walked over towards the wall. The heated gazes of the other youths locked onto his back, eager to see if the rumors were true or not.
‘Idiot. I don’t care at all about fighting such a weakling. But if he wants to let me cut to the front of the line, I’m more than happy to oblige,’ John laughed internally at the muscle-headed youth.
He appeared before the wall and gazed towards the top. The wall was riddled with holes and cracks, giving him places to place his hands and feet. He wasted no time at all as he placed his hand on the wall, and began to climb.
The pressure the youth mentioned instantly washed over him, as John felt a growing pain begin to form within his body.
‘Strange. I can tell this pain is not real, and is only mental, but it feels indistinguishable from real pain. How bizarre, but that’s a good thing I suppose. The pain from this trial won’t cause any body damage, so I won’t have to worry about healing afterwards.’
John’s movements remained steady as he began to climb, his speed much faster than the youths were used to seeing. He quickly reached fifty yards up, as the pain grew several times over. However, John scoffed at the pain he was feeling, as it was almost nothing to him.
‘Compared to the pain of my tribulations and cultivating with the Celestial Lightning Script, this is almost nothing so far.’
John continued to race up the wall with a rapid pace, his speed shocking the youths below him as he did not slow down at all. Meanwhile, the muscled youth gazed at John with narrowed eyes, as his performance was starting to lend aid to the truth of his ranking.
Two minutes into the trial, John reached the half-way point. The youths were all eagerly discussing his performance, while the muscled youth scoffed once more.
“Hmph, his speed has been impressive, but he’s only now reaching the challenging part. We’ll see if he can keep up such bravado in the face of what he’s about to experience,” the youth said with his arms crossed over his chest.
John’s movements suddenly stopped as he reached the half-way mark, and he didn’t move for fifteen seconds. The muscled youth scoffed again, while a smile appeared on his face.
“See. Just as I predicted,” the youth continued.
Meanwhile, John had paused for a moment, as he had not been expecting to feel this aura here.
‘This aura! It’s just like the sinister aura within my palace realm!’
John almost couldn’t believe it, and had paused as he studied the aura closely. While the aura was not the exact same as the aura in his palace realm, it definitely belonged to something similar.
‘Why would this aura show up here?’ John mused, trying to figure out what was going on. After fifteen seconds of contemplation, John wiped the question from his mind, as he knew he would not figure out the true answer himself.
‘Well, whatever the reason, I can tell why the youths struggle when they reach this spot. The sinister aura is unlike anything they’ve ever felt, and it has the power to drive someone into complete madness if not guarded against. Not only that, but the level of pain I’m feeling has also grown tremendously when compared to the start of the trial. However…’
A smirk appeared on John’s face as he once again began to climb the wall. He had been cultivating in front of the sinister gate for years now, and his willpower had been firmed to an incredible level. Compared to the sinister gate aura, this sinister aura was quite lacking, as was the pain he was feeling when compared to his other experiences in the past.
The youths began to discuss John’s ascension as he once again began to move, but the discussions quickly died down as stunned silence replaced them. They all stared in silence as John raced up the wall, his speed almost too fast to be believed. Less than three minutes after starting his climb, John reached the top of the wall.
His smiling gaze shifted back towards the muscled youth, and he gestured to the youth to come up to him.
“Come on up,” John said to the youth, his tone slightly mocking, “we can have our battle up here.”
The muscled youth stared at John, his mouth quivering slightly as he thought of what to say. He had already attempted the wall once, and had failed to reach the top. John scoffed in a similar manner as the youth had done previously, almost in a mocking manner as his gaze seemed to pierce into the muscled youths soul.
“Well, you now know what I look like, so feel free to seek me out for a battle anytime,” John called out to the youth before he sped off the wall into the distance, disappearing from the sight of the others. Silence filled the area for quite some time, before frenzied discussions broke out once more.
“Three minutes! Three minutes!” a youth exclaimed, almost unable to believe it.
“I know! That’s three times faster than Parker, and five times faster than Luth! Unbelievable,” another exclaimed. John’s performance sent a wave of desire through the youths, who now wished to emulate a bit of what they had witnessed. The next youth hopped onto the wall with eager anticipation, while the others waited on impatiently.
Afterwards, tales of John’s performance spread throughout the land, further adding to his growing legend.