John looked around the unfamiliar room, making sure that there weren't any enemies lying in wait. The room had the same dilapidated look as the palace, with worn down bricks and pillars. The room was illuminated by torches that hung on the wall, although John had no idea how they had stayed lit this whole time.
After a brief sweep of the room, he confirmed that it was empty. The room was not that large, only several dozen yards wide and long, and John quickly spotted six doors on the opposite side of the room.
He walked towards the six doors, and quickly noticed that there was a carving of an image above each of the doors.
"Whats this?"
John looked closer at the carvings, and noticed that they were simple drawings, which he quickly identified as the various elements.
'Each of these carvings seem to align with an element. Water, earth, fire, air, wood...and lightning.'
John's eyes lit up brightly as he glanced as the carving above the rightmost door. The carving displayed a simple lightning bolt. Ever since studying the Celestial Lightning Script, John had been yearning to start cultivating it, but never found the opportunity to do so.
'Do these symbols mean I need the associated elemental power to pass the test, or are the rewards based on the element?'
John pondered over his question, but was unable to come to a definitive answer.
'Well, there's only one way to find out.'
John walked towards the door and pushed against it. After a brief struggle against the door, John was able to open it, and widened his eyes in surprise.
The door revealed an expansive world directly behind it, much larger than he imagined. Although he hadn't stepped through the doorway yet, John could see much of the world in front of him. Dark grey clouds churned violently in the sky, and arcing lightning could be seen continuously flashing within the clouds. The ground was charred black, and no vegetation could be seen anywhere, making the world look quite apocalyptic.
John took a deep breath as he stared at the world in front of him before he took a step forward and entered through the doorway.
Bang!
Just as he stepped through the doorway, he heard a loud bang behind him and quickly turned around.
"It's gone!"
The doorway that John stepped through was nowhere to be found, and all he could see was the expansive lightning world in every direction. He turned in every direction to see if he could see something of importance, but it was the same charred earth and desolate sky in every direction. He had hoped that some of the lightning in the clouds struck down towards him so that he could cultivate the Celestial Lightning Script, but much to his dismay, the lightning stayed up in the clouds.
After looking around for some time, John noticed that in one particular direction, the lightning in the sky seemed to be more concentrated and powerful.
"Maybe there's something over there!"
John decided to walk over in that direction. Charred ground cracked beneath his feet as he walked forwards. A small mountain range a few thousand feet tall soon appeared in front of John.
'This mountain range seems to extend in both directions for a long time. I suppose I'll have to climb it.'
Although the charred black mountains were thousands of feet tall, with precipitous cliffs and jagged rocks, John was not too bothered about the climb. His powerful body allowed him to climb the mountain with relative ease, and soon he found himself already halfway up the mountainside.
"Roaaar!"
A loud, guttural roar entered John's ears and he quickly looked up towards the source of the sound.
Bang!
Rock and earth exploded at John's location, revealing a large beast as the source of the sound and attack. John had managed to dodge the attack at the last moment, and calmly took out his scythe as he stared directly at the beast.
'What type of beast is this? I don't think I've ever heard of something like this.'
The beast in front of John was six feet tall, and stood tall on four powerful and thick limbs. It was white with bright blue stripes along its fur, and looked similar to a tiger. Small flickers of lightning danced over its skin.
'It's a lightning elemental beast! I've never seen a lightning elemental beast before.'
John couldn't help but be shocked. Elemental beasts were incredibly rare back in his portion of the Yuan Continent, and were almost always powerful beast overlords. They would rule over large swaths of land, and only the strongest of clans and sects would be able to challenge them.
The Fenix Clan had one fire elemental beast in its care, and it was one of the clan's most powerful assets. However, John had never seen or heard of a lightning beast before, which was why this beast surprised him so.
'This one appears to only be a middle Mist Creation beast. Why is it attacking me?'
John couldn't understand the beast's actions. Although beasts were not intelligent, they still had sharp instincts. The beast should be able to tell that John's essence cultivation was at the last Mist Creation realm, and that he was more powerful than the beast.
However, the beast attacked John nonetheless, surprising him somewhat.
Boom!
The ground exploded again as the beast attacked John, but it was only able to strike the ground as John easily evaded it. John danced back and forth for several minutes dodging the beast's attacks while studying it closely.
'Well, I've learned nothing from its actions, so I might as well just end this.'
A sharp beam of scythe Qi flew out of Johns scythe, and easily bisected the beast in two. John collected the corpse and studied it a bit before continuing to climb further up the mountain.
Several minutes later…
Roar!
Roar!
Roar!
Several loud roars echoed out once more, and John soon found himself face to face with over a dozen beasts. The beasts were of several different types, but they were all lightning elemental beasts, surprising John greatly.