John's location was roughly half-way up the stadium, which continued to stretch out high behind him and down before him. Countless formation screens hovered in the air in the near distance, each depicting the same scene; a battle being fought between two youths.
Boom!
A loud boom blasted out, causing John to look down towards its source. The stadium surrounded an absolutely massive arena, one a hundred miles in diameter. Unlike normal, flat arenas, this arena was filled with small mountains, natural rock formations, valleys, rivers, volcanos, rivers and lakes of lava, and more.
The explosion of fire was around twenty miles in the distance, atop one of the mountains within the arena. The explosion faded, revealing two youths battling it out. One was a young girl with long golden hair, dressed in a pure white robe, holding a thin marble white sword in her hand.
The other was a boy around her age, who had a blazing aura of fire enveloping him. Both of them were in the Late Meridian Forging Realm, and both were currently battling one another. Hundreds of flying swords danced in the air around the girl, while a tempest of flame and destruction surrounded the boy.
John watched as the battle continued, which raced over the mountain out of sight for a moment. He peered up at the large hovering formation screens in the near distance, which continued to show the battle take place, allowing for a ceaseless viewing experience.
As he watched the formation screen, he noticed that images of the two youths were depicted on opposite ends of the screen. Above the images of the two youths were their names, their cultivation levels, ages, and the sect they belonged to.
Unsurprisingly, the girl belonged to the Sword-Dao Sect, and the boy the Yang-Dao Sect. John looked below the images of the two youths, noticing more information on the screen beneath the images.
The images contained various statistics and details which he had not expected to see. Labels and gauges depicted things such as their Qi values, stamina values, and even their health values.
Those gauges seemed to show percentage ranging from maximum to empty, and changed as the battle went on, revealing they were giving live updates on the condition of the two youths. The gauges also contained numbers next to them, quantifying those Qi values, stamina values, and health values,
Comparing the two youths, the girl had higher Qi values, but lower stamina and health values. The boy was more robust, having higher health values, but had a slightly lower absolute Qi value.
Below that was even more information, which contained a circular talent chart. The chart included Qi quantity, Qi quality, speed, constitution, stamina, battle arts, comprehensions and more. The values on each category were filled in from the interior circle to the edge of the talent chart, with values at the edge indicating higher talent in that category. The girl's talent chart was quite impressive, with her speed, Qi quantity, Qi quality, and battle arts near the maximum, while the rest of the values were still quite high.
The boy had near maximum constitution, stamina, and comprehension values, with the others a bit lower but still impressive. It was the first time John had ever seen something like this, which was basically a quick snapshot of a cultivator's true talent level and combat prowess.
'How are they doing all this?' he wondered, shifting his gaze downwards to the battle as the two youths appeared in the distance once more.
The crowd roared with deafening excitement as the battle unfolded, millions of cheers and boos mixing together. The two youths continued to fight, using impressive battle arts and displaying genius level talent. John nodded his head approvingly, as these two youths would have been absolute pinnacle geniuses on his homeworld.
A wave of flying swords slashed out towards the youth as the girl took advantage of an opening. The swords pierced into the youth's flesh, tearing wounds into his body. The crowd gasped and cheered, while John noticed the youth's health gauge drop dramatically.
An explosive aura blasted outwards as the boy's power flared with incredible intensity, seemingly to prepare an all-out attack as a last, desperate measure. The youths Qi guage dropped to near zero as a ball of fire, like a miniature sun, appeared above him and crashed towards the girl.
The flying swords in the air turned towards the ball of fire, slamming into it, slowing its descent. At the same time, a massive glowing sword appeared behind the girl, formed from her Qi. Once full formed, the sword slashed down towards the ball of fire, battling against it for a brief moment before cleaving it in half.
The cleaved ball of fire exploded with destruction power, some of it blasting against the girl, but most of it exploding out to either side of her. Wounds covered her body as she braced against the explosion, but she seemed to still have decent combat prowess despite the wounds. At the same time, the blast expended the massive sword image's energy, which faded away.
Che!
The girl's body flashed, instantly appearing before the exhausted Yang-Dao Sect youth. Her sword rested against his neck, their eyes locked together. The boy, exhausted and wounded, gritted his teeth, staring silently at the girl who demanded his surrender.
No words came from his mouth, and instead he fell backwards, collapsing to the ground unconscious. Silence filled the arena for a brief moment before an absolute storm of cheers and boos blasted from the crowd, filling the entire hundred-mile-wide arena with an electric, undeniable energy.
A man suddenly appeared next to the youths, dressed in the Yang-Dao Sect robes. He appeared to be in his fifties, had short black hair, and had a strong, muscular body. His cultivation was in the Half-Step Holy Manifestation Realm, and his aura, while withdrawn, made those looking at him feel as though they were looking at a star.
He looked at the boy on the ground, then to the girl who still stood firm. He nodded his head approvingly, then called out, voice filling the entire arena.
"The winner of the Three Dao Tournament Meridian Forging Bracket: Terisa of the Sword-Dao Sect!"
Inspired by everything he had seen, John joined in on the cheering and clapping, a smile forming on his face.
"This is going to be fun!"
