BOOM!

Watching from below, the stunned crowd watched as a wave of Yang Qi, so powerful that it shook them to their cores, blasted against the edge of the Yang Lotus, its power enough to blast a small opening into the side of the lotus.

Despite the power of the explosion being reduced by the Yang Lotus, the resulting shockwave blasted against those watching from below, its power enough to shatter the bodies of the weaker cultivators who had been present.

Unfortunately for those cultivators, they had already been sucked up into the Yang Lotus, leaving only those in the Heaven Tribulation Realm and above remaining. Those in the Heaven Tribulation Realm groaned from the pain, feeling as through their bodies were about to collapse from the pressure of the shockwave alone.

A moment after exploding out of the Yang Lotus, the remnant power of the Yang explosion faded away before it could reach the edge of the Yang-Sphere. The hole in the Yang Lotus reformed an instant later, Yang Qi reknitting the wound as if it had never existed. Millions of wide eyes, filled with both awe and horror, watched as the battle unfolded within the Yang Lotus realm. While they could not use their divine sense to peer into the lotus, its translucency allowed them to follow the battle within for the most part.

They had watched as John, his power defying reality and the Heavens, and the Sword-Saint fought the Yang-Sovereign, their battle beyond terrifying, their powers beyond comprehension. They had considered John’s words of killing the Yang-Sovereign to be nothing but empty blustering, but after feeling his true power, their hope was once again reignited.

The eight million remaining cultivators watched on with wide eyes and bated breaths, their hopes placed in the Sword-Saint and a Dao Transformation youth they had cursed and insulted for most of the tournament. Those hopes were squashed as they felt the horrifying power of the latest explosion, as almost none believed John and the Sword-Saint could withstand that and remain in fighting condition.

Still, they clung to that last sliver of hope, millions of silent prayers said for the two who could provide their salvation.

Boom!

The Pure Yang Supernova blasted over John and the Sword-Saint, both of them unleashing their strongest attack at the last possible moment to give them a hope for surviving this explosion.

Kirin-God Extinction!

Sacred Sword Scripture!

Sword and Lightning blasted forward, slamming onto the unstoppable explosion of Yang. The two attacks were swallowed up instantly, their power eclipsed by the might of the Pure Yang Supernova.

Bang!

The explosion of Yang slammed against them an instant later, drowning them in ruinous power and horrifying heat. Despite his Kirin-God Extinction lessening the power of the explosion by a small amount, he tumbled through the sky, blasted outwards by the explosion without being able to resist at all.

His skin turned to ash, his muscles cooked within his body and even his bones began to melt, nearly unable to withstand the unstoppable might and heat of the Yang-Sovereign.s attacks. Teeth gnashed, John did his best to control the Qi within his body, sending it to the parts most damaged by the continuous blast. His healing Qi coursed through his damage body, healing the melted bones and cindered muscles and ashen skin, only to be destroyed a moment later by the explosion again.

As he was flung through the sky, the battle between healing and destruction raged on within his body, John barely able to keep his body intact and mind focused. The pain was nearly overwhelming, even for someone as experienced with pain as him. After what felt like an eternity, he finally regained a sliver of control over himself and his Qi, then slashed out with his scythe, carving a path through the explosion.

He surged forward and burst out of the explosion just before slamming into the internal walls of the Yang Lotus, narrowly avoiding a gruesome end.

Che!

A sword-image cleaved out from the explosion a moment afterwards, followed by a miserable looking Sword-Saint speeding out of the explosion. Blood slicked the Saints body in many locations, with deep wounds covering much of his body. John was surprised to see the Sword-Saint manage the attack even better than him. While the Sword-Saint was weaker than him in power at the moment, and was not a body cultivator, his true body was still that of a Holy Manifestation cultivator.

As such, it was on a comparable level to John’s current durability, allowing him, alongside the terrifying sword arts he used, to survive that attack.

“That’s a true Holy Manifestation cultivator for you,” he yunted, returning his gaze to the distant Yang-Sovereign.

The Sword-Saint flashed towards John, appearing next to him an instant later.

“Can you still fight?” he asked John, eyeing his gruesome condition. John merely nodded, his answer surprising the Saint. “You’re far more terrifying than I could have ever imagined. I…apologize for the way I treated you before. It was shortsight-”

“You can apologize after we kill the Yang-Sovereign,” John cut the Sword-Saint off, as now was not the time for heartfelt apologies. Every second was a second closer to his body collapsing from the tremendous strain his current level of power burdened him with, and so no second could be wasted.

The two watched the Yang-Sovereign remain motionless in the distance, not approaching them, eyeing them with an amused smile. The surrounding Qi from the Yang Lotus coursed towards him, reinvigorating the Qi he expended in that apocalyptic Pure Yang Supernova.

Both John and the Sword-Saint grimaced, coming to a terrible realization.

“In this realm of pure Yang, the Yang-Sovereign has an almost infinite amount of Qi to use,” the Sword-Saint said through sound transmission, his expression grim. ‘We cannot fight a battle of attrition against him. Either we suppress his power, weakening him to a point that we can kill him, or we cut off his ability to freely absorb the lotus Yang. If we cannot do that, defeat is imminent.”

He glanced at John, eying his condition again, surprised at how much John had healed in just a few seconds. Compared to before, his condition was night and day. What he didn’t know was the horrifying amount of Qi John used to heal his body, Qi that was slowly but surely dwindling.

“I do not have a way to restrict his Yang Qi absorption, nor do I have a way to suppress his power,” the Sword-Saint continued, his piercing gaze silently asking John the question. ‘Do you?’

John remained silent for a second, his mind racing for solutions. They had already used their most powerful attacks against the Yang-Sovereign, and had not succeeded in killing him. The Sword- Saint was right in his assessment of the battle. They had to weaken the Yang-Sovereign first, or cut him off from his unlimited Yang.

He didn’t have a way to do the latter, but an idea was forming in his mind regarding the former. He gritted his teeth as the idea grew in his mind, one so crazy that he would never have considered it in any situation other than the one he currently found himself in.

“I might have a way,” John finally replied, expression grim. The Sword-Saint’s eyes lit up with hope and relief, his expression begging for John to explain. John glanced at the Sword-Saint, then breathed in deeply as he prepared for what was to come next.

“I have a Domain Art that I’ve been cultivating, one that has the power to diminish the powers of others within the domain,” John said, his words growing the hope within the Sword-Saint’s soul. “But, I’ve never been able to successfully unleash the domain, and I doubt I can do so now either.”

“Then….” the Sword-Saint replied with defeat, unable to finish his sentence.

“But,” John continued. “I may just have a way that will allow me to not only become a tiny bit stronger, but also allow me to comprehend the fundamentals of that domain to a point that I can use it in battle.”

“Truly?” the Sword-Saint replied, hope evident in his voice. “Then why haven’t you used it yet?”

“Because,” John said after breathing out deeply. “Doing so will push myself to the edge of destruction, both physically and mentally. In order to achieve this power, I will need to abandon a part of my humanity, sacrificing it to fuel the Asura within me. If I do that, I have no idea what will happen, and in the worst-case scenario, I perish from the power, or I lose my sanity and no longer have control over my body and mind. In that case, I could see you as an enemy just as much as the Yang-Sovereign. Its an all-out gamble, one that very well might fail even if it works.”

The Sword-Saint fell silent for a second, then instantly made up his mind. “There is no other option, John,” he said to John with soft sincerity, using his name for the first time instead of calling him boy or some form of insult. “Do what you must. From everything I’ve seen of you so far, I have full confidence in your ability to control this power.”

John gave the Sword-Saint a surprised glance, then nodded slowly. His mind made up, he focused his Qi inwards towards the Artifact, the object that had been his Body Dantian for many years now.

Ever since stepping into the Heaven Tribulation Realm, his Essence Dantian and Body Dantian became inexorably linked, making it nearly impossible for him to raise his Body Dantian to a level above his Essence Dantian like he had done in his early cultivation realms.

Every attempt to do so had nearly pushed his mind and soul into the realm of insanity as his Asura powers sought to overtake his body and mind, a risk too great to ever take.

Now, that risk was the only possible solution for getting out of this alive. To suppress the Yang-Sovereign to a level that they could kill, he needed to be able to unleash the Asura Domain. And in order to comprehend the Asura Domain, he needed to become an Asura.

With one last deep breath, John plunged his mind over the edge as he sent his beast blood essence reserves into his Body Dantian, pushing it towards the Half-Step World Expansion Realm, and his soul towards insanity.

The process was almost instant, as what stopped him before was not the difficulty, but the danger of doing this. An agonizing amount of pain assaulted his mind, body, and soul, as the familiar murmurs gnawed at his very existence.

Defile! Pillage! Murder! Slaughter!

In an instant, his Body Dantian stepped over the edge, taking his mind and soul with it. With the last shred of his remaining control, John formed a defensive wall around his soul using his strongest soul power he could, then plunged into the Asura abyss. 𝑖𝘦.𝒸𝘰𝑚

As he took the plunge, deep within the palace realm, a deep, muffled growl emanated from the sinister gate as a hidden power stirred, tendrils of red and black Qi permeating through the gate.

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