In that last exchange, Roy had not expected John to punch out with his fist. None of the juniors of the five powers had body cultivations, and so none of them were used to fighting body cultivators. If an essence cultivator punched out like that, then it would have hardly any power and not be worth blocking. However, if an essence cultivator used a powerful technique on their fist to punch out with it, the Qi fluctuations would have exposed the technique early enough for Roy to notice and dash backwards.
That's what made body cultivators fearsome to fight against. Although their attacks were simple and straightforward, they were also incredibly quick and powerful.
The crowd was silent for a moment before it exploded into applause and heated discussions.
"What the hell just happened? How did that Fenix boy explode out with so much power"
"I don't know, but did that boy just use body cultivation?"
"Well, he also used essence attacks earlier. Is he actually cultivating both?"
"Do you really think his clan would let him do something that stupid?"
"Well then how would you explain what just happened? Clearly he used both essence and body attacks there, and it didn't seem like his power was hindered by that at all either."
"Well, that's impossible as we all know. Something weird is going on here."
Many similar discussions broke out through the stands. No one could understand what had just happened.
"Barden, what is going on here?" Cade couldn't help but ask. He had no idea what to make of this situation. Although John winning was fantastic news, even he had no idea how John had unleashed such power at the middle Mist Creation realm.
Barden was just about to respond when a loud shout echoed out.
"I knew something fishy was going on. The boy must be cheating. Just what the hell is going on here Fenix Clan?" Warren Gildar couldn't make sense of it either, and was convinced that John was cheating somehow. He could tell that John had exploded out with more power in both essence and body than what a dual cultivator could do, and so the only thing he thought of was that John was using some kind of powerful artifact or treasure to increase his power.
"Shut your goddamn mouth you old fool" Barden Fenix barked back at Warren. Insulting his son like that had ignited his anger.
"What did you say?" Warren Gildar had been disrespected twice by Barden now, and felt like killing him more than anything else right now.
Waylon Varis jumped onto John's fighting platform and called out to the Fenix Clan. "This situation is quite odd. Would you mind explaining what's going on?"
Cade Fenix had no idea how to respond, but before he could say anything, Barden stood up and walked over to the arena John was standing on.
"Nice job!" Barden winked at his son and congratulated him on a good fight.
"Thanks Dad."
Barden stood besides John and turned to address the crowd in the stands.
"I'm sure you could all tell that my son used his body in that fight along with essence Qi, and to a higher level than a dual cultivator could do. And you're right, he did use essence attacks and powerful body attacks, but he did not use a treasure to accomplish this, and he does not follow the body cultivation path either."
"What the hell are you talking about. Isn't what you're saying impossible then?" Warren Gildar rebuked loudly, while the crowd nodded their heads in agreement. Everyone knew that if someone cultivated both body and essence, their attacks would be weaker than focusing on one, but without body cultivation, how could John explain the attacks he used in the fight.
Barden smiled and shook his head before he turned to John. "There are going to be some powerful divine senses scanning you soon, but just bear with it for a moment."
John nodded his head and reassured his father that it was fine.
When a cultivator at a much higher level used their divine sense to inspect someone at a lower level, the lower level cultivator would feel a sort of pressure bear down on them. The larger the gap in cultivation's, the larger this pressure would be. The pressure wasn't from physical force, but was felt by the mind and soul instead. Someone with a weak soul and weak will would be unable to bear the divine senses of powerful experts, and would either be scared stiff, or even collapse into unconsciousness. In the worst of cases, there were stories of cultivators going crazy or dumb from the divine senses overwhelming their minds and souls. John was about to bear the divine sense inspections of Core Formation experts, and quite a lot of them, which was why Barden had warned him.
"Why don't you all do yourself a favor and use your divine sense to inspect John's body." Barden suggested to the crowd. It was the only way to definitely silence the doubters once and for all. While many had scanned John earlier, none of the Core Formation experts had, otherwise they would have realized his unique body situation.
John immediately felt dozens of divine sense's pass over his body and soul. Although there was quite a bit of pressure on him, it wasn't enough to make John flinch, let alone anything worse.
'Compared to the holy gate and sinister gate, the pressure of these divine senses is insignificant. Especially the sinister gate, these senses are like an ant compared to a heavenly dragon. Although the quantity of pressure emanating from the sinister gate isn't that high, the quality and profundity is far beyond anything I've ever experienced. These divine senses are far from what's capable of making me feel uneasy.'
John could immediately see a benefit to tempering his will in front of the sinister gate, and vowed to continue to do so in the future. Not only that, but his strengthened soul from cultivating in front of the holy gate helped him withstand these powerful senses as well.
Barden had expected John to feel unwell and was ready to use his own divine sense to help alleviate some of the burden on John, but was completely shocked to find that John didn't even flinch, let alone look unwell at all.
After a few seconds of close inspection, many of the Core Formation elders in the crowd drew in deep gasps.
"This is?"
"No, it couldn't be. But it's unmistakable."
Many of the elders started talking amongst themselves regarding their findings.
A large smile appeared on Barden's face as he once again addressed the crowd. "That's correct, your divine senses are not playing tricks on any of you. The reason John is able to fight with body power comparable to a body cultivator is because...he has an Innate Variant Body."