The haughty look on Araxus’ face caused John to roll his eyes. He then stepped forward and inspected the other figures, then moved about the other rows. While perusing, he noticed a section that seemed to be dedicated to him. It was a table covered in books, scrolls, paintings and more, all depicting him on the art.

He reached out and picked up one of the books, a rather thin and flimsy one, and opened to the first page. He was greeted with a comic of him, one that he quickly flipped through the pages to read. The comic depicted him as a youth, seemingly an origin story of his. He was supposedly raised by a dark and mysterious figure, one that tasked him with the mission of destroying the Nine-Dao World. His first mission since emerging from his secretive training was to destroy the other geniuses in the Three Dao Tournament.

His eyes went wide as he flipped through the comic, which depicted him in quite a villainous light. “I never agreed to any of this!” John grumbled. “Are you okay with your likeness being used like this?” He turned and asked Araxus.

Araxus merely shrugged. “This is how its always been, so it’s not worth getting worked up over.”

John returned his gaze to the comic in his hand, which was suddenly snatched by a newcomer.

“No reading unless you buy the comic-” the newcomer said, then stopped immediately as he finally noticed John’s face. The man, a man who appeared in this thirties and had a rather portly frame, went wide-eyed as he looked at John. His eyes went even wider as he noticed Araxus.

“Ah! It’s you! And Araxus! What an honor it is to have you in my store,” the man hastily said while removing his cap and wringing it nervously in his hands. He then noticed he still held the comic he had snatched from John, and hastily returned it.

“Ah, here you go. Apologies for my hastiness,” the man said to John.

“It’s alright,” John said flatly, then looked at the table next to him that held all the merchandise regarding him. The man looked as well, then looked at the comic in John’s hands. He grimaced and quickly picked up another book from the table, then handed it to John.

“Here, you should read this one instead,” the man hastily said. “This comic depicts you in a much, much better light. Not all the stories about you paint you as a….” his voice trailed off.

“A villain,” John filled in the rest, while the man’s grimace deepened.

“It’s alright,” John waved his hand dismissively. “I’m assuming you didn’t make this comic.”

“No,” the man shook his head. “I just purchased them to sell to the tournament crowd. Your items have been selling like crazy ever since you defeated Araxu-”

He paused while glancing at Araxus who stood nearby. “It’s alright to say it,” Araxus said. “He beat me fair and square.”

The man sighed a breath of relief, obviously happy that Araxus wasn’t a pompous genius like most others, who were sore losers as well. He then gestured to the table.

“Take anything you like. It’s on the house,” he said to John, as well as Araxus.

“Thanks,” John nodded, then took a few of the novels and comics about him. While he wasn’t really concerned about what they said, he was quite curious to see read them nonetheless.

Afterwards, the man hounded John with a million questions, mostly asking about his past and upbringing. To everyone, John was a mysterious youth with almost nothing known about him, and so the man used this opportunity to garner as much information, most likely for his novels and comics, as possible.

John answered some of the questions, giving vague enough answers that it didn’t reveal much, while still satisfying the man’s curiosity.

“I see, I see,” the man mumbled excitedly while taking notes. “You were raised by a rather low born clan, and worked your way up mostly on your own. How exciting! I’ll be able to use this information to make the most accurate comic yet! It will sell like wildfire!”

This continued for a while before John finally got bored of it, and said his goodbyes to the man. The man thanked John with great eagerness, then wished him luck for the fight to come.

“Good luck young man,” the man said with a large smile on his face. “I truly hope you win. Not only do I detest the Sword-Dao Sect, but I don’t think much about that Ji’Han either. Going along with his fathers ploy to force your master to marry him? How barbaric.”

John smiled lightly and thanked the man for his kind words, then left the store with the others as well as some new stories and books to read in the future when he had free time. The other’s in the store watched the group leave with awed looks on their face, then hastily began to discuss what they had overheard.

As John and the others left the store, he felt that the day, while enjoyable, had run its course.

“I think its time for me to get back to training,” he said, then got a stern look from Naelia and Zuri. “I’m close to making a breakthrough with Chaos Lightning, and I’d rather do that sooner than later while the comprehensions are still fresh in my mind.”

That answer seemed to appease the two, who nodded their heads.

“Alright, let’s go back then,” Zuri agreed as the group stepped into the wide and busy hallway to return to the Prime Shadow’s lodging. They walked and conversed for quite some time, as the trip back to the room would take over an hour at this pace. While they could rush to the room with faster speed, that was looked down upon in this place. .𝒎

“I already told you, I’m unable to teach you the Kirin-God Extinction,” John said to Araxus, who begged him to teach it to him. “I made it specifically for me, so even if I taught it to you, you wouldn’t be able to-”

John’s words cut off instantly as he felt his instincts flare with warning. His Dantian instinctively sprung to life as Qi flooded into his body, activating his Dragon-God Shift as fast as possible.

An instant after his instincts flared with warning, Araxus and Zuri both surged with power as well, all three of them turning to see a powerful sword-image, almost on them, piercing directly towards John’s heart.

The nearby crowd was blasted away by the sudden explosion of auras as the sword-image reached its target.

Boom!

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