John stared at Iris for a moment, before a small smile broke out on his face. He had uttered words like that many times to others, but had never been on the receiving end of such words. He shook his head at himself for being in such a situation, before his body shot forward with absolute speed, appearing before Iris in an instant.

Boom!

His fist collided with the earth as he punched down on the location Iris was previously standing, as his attack had narrowly missed her. Without hesitation, John followed up his attack with a kick, his actions completely fluid, as well as completely natural.

Iris’s daggers crossed in front of her chest as she raised them to block John’s kick, which collided squarely on the daggers.

Bang!

A loud collision rang out, and Iris’s body shot back like a cannonball for some distance, before she managed to recover her balance. Her gaze shifted down to the daggers in her hands, which were shaking from the force of the impact she had just blocked.

“Monstrous,” Iris muttered under her breath, as just a casual kick had been enough to fill her with a slight scent of death. If that attack had landed on her body and not her daggers, she knew she would have one foot in the grave.

John had managed to shroud his movements from her sight. Although she could still see through them, they were much more difficult to see through, which revealed John had incredible control over his body and its movements. Such a thing was only able to be accomplished through a combination of incredible talent, as well as incredibly harsh training.

“It appears he was the one I saw in my visions, but I need to push him a bit farther to make sure.”

Just as John was about to speed towards Iris once more, he felt a strange power begin to emanate from her, which gave him a slight pause, not out of fear, but curiosity. It was unlike anything he had felt before, and was as if he was being stared at by the universe himself.

After a thought, essence Qi flooded into his eyes, elevating his vision to the maximum. He stared at Iris for a brief second, before his gaze shifted to above her head. His eyes widened slightly as he could barely make out the existence of an ethereal eye hovering above Iris.

Iris noticed John’s gaze, and raised an eyebrow in slight surprise. Clearly John was able to see this ability of hers, which was invisible to most at her realm of power.

“You can see it?” Iris asked John as he stared at the ethereal eye hovering above her.

John nodded his head slightly, before his gaze shifted back towards Iris.

“Good, then I’ll tell you one thing. With this innate Astral Eye of mine being used, my ability to see through all of your movements has amplified severalfold. If you keep coming at me with such a half-assed attitude, you won’t even be able to land a single finger on me.”

Iris’s playful manner had been replaced with complete seriousness, her mood shift slightly surprising John.

“Come now, this is a perfect opportunity for me to train by body-based combat prowess. Why would I ruin such a thing by going all out?” John replied nonchalantly.

Whether she had the Astral Eye or not, the only thing that changed was the difficulty of landing a blow on her. Her ability to inflict damage on John, poison or not, had not changed. Besides, even if she did inflict him with poison, John had a variety of poison neutralizing pills on him, as well as Chase nearby, who was a Pill Dao genius and could most likely figure something out.

Iris frowned as she heard John’s reply, as she could clearly tell he did not consider her a threat at all. His gaze shifted from John to the top of one of the nearby mountains, and focused on a group of youths gathered together, watching the fight take place.

Her gaze shifted back to John, who was now frowning, as she had gazed at a group consisting of disciples from the Yuan Continent branch.

“If you won’t take me seriously, then I’ll make you take me seriously,” Iris said to John. “I’m going to go with that group of your fellow disciples over there, and if I make it to them before you stop me, I’ll start slaughtering them one by one until you stop me.”

John’s gaze hardened upon hearing this, as any threat against his fellow disciples was something he would not stand for. However, he didn’t believe her words, as doing such a thing would eliminate her from the entrance exam, and probably bring other troubles with it as well.

“I don’t believe you,” John replied, his voice slightly colder than normal. “If you did that, you would be kicked out of this exam, and have no way to join this Heavenly Lightning Sect.”

Iris fell into silent contemplation for a brief moment, before her hardened eyes locked onto Johns.

“There are worse fates in this world than merely being kicked out of this sect,” Iris replied calmly, yet filled with resolve. “To avoid such a fate, I will do whatever is needed to be done to find the path of survival.”

Without another word, Iris turned and shot towards the group of disciples on the top of the mountain, leaving John standing there alone. John’s gaze hardened as he could tell Iris was completely serious about what she had just said.

‘I can’t tell why she’s doing this, but I can tell she’s one hundred percent serious. I need to stop her.’

Without another thought, John activated his Thunderflash Steps, unlocked his Limiter of Speed, and pushed his Supreme Battle Art to the peak and shot towards Iris. Hundreds of lightning nodes appeared in the air around him as he activated his Heavenly Lightning Domain, intent on stopping whatever Iris was planning to do.

However, Iris’s speed was absolutely incredible, and was far beyond what someone in the Late Meridian Forging Realm should be capable of. Although he was catching up to her, the short distance to the nearby group of disciples would mean she would arrive there first.

‘I won’t make it in time like this!’

Boom!

An absolutely sinister aura suddenly spread across the entire area, drowning the valleys below and mountains above in a sea of bloodthirst and malice. Iris felt her body chill as she felt this aura wash over her, before a figure suddenly appeared before her, shocking her senseless with its speed.

Before her, a pair of blood red eyes stared at her with a gaze so cold it seemed to freeze her in place.