"Hahaha, middle Mist Creation? What's this? Are you lost?"
"What the hell is this kid thinking? Is he brain damaged?"
"He must be if he's thinking he can compete in this tournament."
Many jeers and taunts resounded throughout the crowd as John's cultivation level was finally realized by all those at the tournament. Before when John was in the crowd, no one had used their divine sense to scan the cultivation's of everyone involved. But as everyone went up one by one, many would send their divine sense out to see just how powerful their opponent was. Although divine sense mostly showed cultivation levels, slight variations in the power of the cultivation level would be able to tip off how strong someone was.
Although the stone tablet would reveal just how strong everyone was, many juniors, mostly from the Crimson Valley Sect, still decided to inspect for themselves.
Not one youth in the group was below the late Mist Creation Realm, except for John. Everyone knew that there was no hope for any middle Mist Creation cultivator to qualify, and so none had participated.
Although most of the jeers and taunts were mostly coming from the Crimson Valley Sect, John couldn't help but notice many unsuccessfully stifled fits of laughter from the other powers. Only the Fenix Clan youths were not laughing, and instead they were looking quite embarrassed. Ryan was the only exception, as he had a large smile on his face, as if laughing at the stupidity of all those speaking.
"Motherfuckers, they dare mock John? Let's see how they laugh when I beat them all into the ground." In the stands, Miko Varis was fuming at the words he heard thrown towards John. It took several Elders of the clan to calm him down to make sure he did nothing foolish. Miko eventually calmed down, after much urging from his clan.
"Hmph. They're just lucky that I'm not in this tournament. I'll be sure to make them pay in the pocket realm." Miko muttered before finally sitting down.
In the stands, Warren Gildar was laughing quite loudly. After several seconds of boisterous laughing, Warren turned to look at Cade on the other side of the stands and yelled out to him.
"Cade, you even need to register a middle Mist Creation boy for this tournament? The Fenix Clan truly is lacking lately."
Cade Fenix furrowed his brows but decided against responding to such cheap provocation. Although he didn't know why his son Barden allowed John to enter, he knew Barden was a level headed individual and wouldn't do something to embarrass the clan without a reason.
John turned to look at the group of Crimson Valley Sect youths and looked around to see if he could spot any familiar faces. After a few seconds of searching, John was disappointed to find that he did not see the late Mist Creation boy that he had slapped into unconsciousness and tied naked to a tree.
A large smile broke out on John's face as he thought about why the boy wasn't present.
'Obviously, that incident is still a massive embarrassment for their sect. They're probably keeping that boy away from the tournament to avoid any further embarrassments.'
The Crimson Valley Sect youths noticed John smiling towards them, instead of being angry or embarrassed by their taunts.
"What the fuck are you smiling at? Have you gone stupid?" One of the boys asked.
John shook his head before responding. "I was just looking for an acquaintance of mine from your sect, but I don't see him here. Unfortunate, I was looking forward to slapping him unconscious and tying him naked to a tree once more."
The laughter from the Crimson Valley Sect group instantly died down after John's words. Anger quickly replaced amusement as one of the boys instantly lashed out.
"What the fuck are you talking about? No such this happened. You're spouting nonsense."
"What do you mean didn't happen? Half the continent is talking about the incident. There's no way your sect can keep it under wraps." John smiled at the boy as he responded.
The boy's words caught in his throat as he thought of how to respond. It was true that the incident had become a hot talking point throughout the entire land, despite the Crimson Valley Sect trying to contain the news.
"So? Even if it is true, there's no way an ant like you could have done it. Are you not ashamed to take glory from the achievements of others?"
"You'll find out soon enough if I'm lying or not." John responded to the boy before he turned around and ignored them completely. The Crimson Valley Sect group were enraged at having been taunted and then ignored, but they decided to keep quiet in order to let the talks regarding the naked incident die down.
In the stands, Orenn Fenix had quite an irritated look on his face as he watched what was happening. He turned to Barden and whispered angrily.
"See, I told you this would happen. But you didn't listen."
Barden listened to his brother's words but decided to ignore them. He knew John would silence the doubters soon enough.
John took a deep breath before the stone tablet and raised his hand towards it. His palm touched the cold smooth surface of the tablet, at which point he sent out his most powerful burst of body Qi towards the tablet. Since his body dantian was in a higher realm, John decided to use that Qi for this test.
The tablet started glowing dazzling blue colors, and continued on for some time. A confused expression appeared on Waylon's face as the tablet glowed for much longer than any other contestant. After twenty seconds of glowing, the tablet dimmed down and returned to normal.
Everyone held their breath for the results of the test, with those wanting John to fail wishing for it to be a terrible score, while those backing John wishing for a good score. The crowd waited for some time, but no numbers showed up.
"Haha, after all that talk, he couldn't even get a number to show up. What a clown."
"Seriously, what a dumbass."
The Crimson Valley Sect group broke out into laughter at John's lack of a score. Waylon Varis frowned at the results and walked over to John.
"Try it again. This is the first time I've seen this happen."
John nodded towards Waylon and turned back towards the stone tablet.
'I used my body Qi from the mysterious sphere, but it seems for some reason the tablet was unable to detect it, or unable to score it. Either way, it seems like I'll need to do this test with my essence Qi. Oh well, I'll show them my true strength in the battles to come."
John once again took a deep breath and channeled his strongest burst of Qi into the stone tablet. The tablet glowed for several seconds before it died down. A second later, a number appeared at the top of the tablet.
"Three hundred and fifty."
