The fruit was brimming with the aura of life, so great that only Laia’s healing orb she gave John was more potent. John withdrew the fruit into the real world, which drowned the entire stadium in its vibrant aura. All eyes locked onto the fruit, with some gasping in recognition.

“The Star of the Serpent Tree!” the more experienced powerhouses gasped, recognizing the object. Even the Mage-Sovereign, who stood on the platform high above, looked at the fruit with an expression of awe and envy.

Based on their reactions, John could tell that the fruit was well known, and an object of unimaginable value. He gave the Prime Shadow one last look for confirmation, then bit into the fruit, swallowing it after a few bites.

An incomparable wave of life Qi began to flood through his body the moment the fruit hit his stomach, filling every inch of his benign, from his flesh to his soul, with a vibrancy he had only felt once before in his life. His wounds began to knit at visible speeds once more, all but the most deep and gruesome of wounds healed within seconds.

Only the deeper, more foundational related wounds remained, wounds that not even this miraculous fruit could heal. Wounds suffered from using his Bloodline Ability and True Asura Transformation. Still, John felt a wave of renewed vigor course through him, restoring a portion of his power and a great deal of his vitality.

He bathed in the sensation for a moment, guiding the healing Qi all throughout his body, the wounds that could be healed mending in less than thirty seconds. After healing what he could, John noticed that a great deal of the fruit’s life Qi remained, unable to be absorbed, as if its very nature was different from the healing Qi he used to heal his body.

It was potent and vibrant, but in a different way, a way that couldn’t be used for healing wounds directly. John scrunched his face slightly as he tried to use this energy, but couldn’t no matter what he tried. Giving up, he let the energy do as it pleased, which coalesced into an orb of pure Life Qi, then moved towards his body’s spatial realm which held his dantian and his body dantian.

There, it floated in the spatial realm around his essence dantian, like a moon orbiting a planet. John studied this for a brief moment, then asked the Prime Shadow about it.

“I’ll explain its purpose later,” the Prime Shadow said, then looked up to the Lotus above. “First, you’ll need to deal with the lotus. I’m sorry I’m putting all the burden on you, it shouldn’t be this way.”

“It’s alright,” John smiled, then without wasting another moment, he flew up into the sky, soaring towards the infernal Yang-Lotus.

Millions of cultivators watched him rise into the air, first a demon of anguish and carnage, now a god of hope for them, the only thing that could save them from this damnation. John arrived at the Lotus, the entrance into the lotus created by the Yang-Sovereign’s formations still intact.

John felt the heat within the lotus rising, already hotter and more powerful than when he had been battling within. Without the Yang-Sovereign’s constant absorption of its power, it began to strengthen once more despite the yin blood of the cultivators being used to quench it.

Then, wasting no more time, as every second others died to the lotus, John sped into the tunnel and into the infernal hell of the lotus realm. As he did so, his body shifted as he activated his Dragon-God Shift and Asura Transformation once more, pushing his frail body to the level required to withstand the heat of the lotus.

The cultivators below grimaced as he entered, hoping that he still had the power to not only sustain his transformations, but also resist the growing heat and power of the lotus. They watched him become consumed by the hellish Yang Qi within, then watched him struggle to move through the Lotus realm to the location the Yang-Sovereign had been seated, trying to absorb the Lotus.

He arrived there a short while later, his flesh burning and turning to ash, his body wavering with struggle, pain, and exhaustion. Then they watched him stop in that location, and all any of them could do was pray.

Pray for the one who they had scorned all this time, to once again save them from sure damnation.

…

The infernal Yang Qi surrounding him blasted onto his body with ceaseless heat and destructive power, nearly overwhelming him from the very start. It was like swimming through the hottest of magma’s, its heat unbearable, its currents nearly overwhelming.

Through the horrific pain and growing fatigue, John made his way to the center of the Lotus realm, to the location where the Yang-Sovereign had been seated.

After great struggle he arrived there, and noticed that directly above where the Yang-Sovereign was seated, was a small condensed ball of Yang Qi, far more powerful and potent than the Yang Qi permeating the lotus realm. The ball was in the shape of a nine-petaled lotus, and in the depths of its core, John could feel the existence of a sentient soul within.

‘The soul of the Nine-Petal Yang Lotus!’ John couldn’t help but exclaim internally.

While most natural treasures didn’t have souls, the most powerful of them were able to form a sentient core after hundreds of thousands of years of existence. For John, this was the first time he was meeting such a sentience.

Then, he reached out towards it.

“Go away!” the same ethereal and childlike voice that had spoken to the Yang-Sovereign spoke, followed by the lotus core growing in power and intensity, far too great for John to withstand. He moved a short distance away to keep himself alive, then hovered in the air, peering at the core.

“You hated the Yang-Sovereign, did you not?” John said, his tone as calm and friendly as he could muster in the moment. “He tried to enslave you, right?”

“He DID enslave me!” the voice replied angrily, although its childlike tone made it hard for John to take it seriously. Were it not for the Lotus’ unimaginable power, he would have laughed at its tone, but obviously didn’t as to not anger the already angry Lotus soul.

“He enslaved me for so long!” the voice continued. “Tens of thousands of years, maybe more. I can’t remember. All I can remember is becoming sentient, and already being captured and enslaved by the Yang-Sovereign. I will NOT allow you to do the same to me.”

“I’m not trying to enslave you,” John said, struggling to speak through the scorching heat every time he spoke. “I just killed the Yang-Sovereign. I’m sure you saw it.”

“So what?” the soul replied. “You killed him so you could kill me and absorb my powers. I will not allow you to do what that man tried to do to me. I will not be chained again!”

John fell silent for a moment, studying the nature of the Lotus soul, contemplating its words and tone. From what he could tell, the Lotus itself was not an evil entity. It had no part of the Yang-Sovereign’s plans, and most likely didn’t even know enough about the concept of death to understand the magnitude of the death and destruction happening just outside.

It was like a child kept locked in a basement all its life, its perspective of the world limited to what the Yang-Sovereign allowed it to see and know. .𝒎

“So, you wish to be free?” John asked, trying another angle. He needed to be able to touch the Lotus soul without perishing, and to do that, he needed to have the Lotus restrict its power for him for a moment. Otherwise, there was only failure and death.

“Yes!” the soul exclaimed, its tone full of yearning.

“And then what?” John asked curiously.

“I…” the voice said, pausing as if it had never contemplated such a concept before. “I…I wish to…I wish to become the ultimate source of Yang, even more powerful than the strongest of stars! So powerful that no one can ever enslave me again.”

“Hahaha,” a soft, understanding chuckle escaped John’s lips, followed by the Lotus soul growing brighter and more powerful again.

“What’s so funny?” it asked angrily. “You can’t possibly understand-”

“I understand,” John said, interrupting the Lotus as time was not on his, or anyone’s side. “I understand more than you could possibly know.”

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