Zuri watched as John stepped into the door of light, then shook her head lightly, sighing in the process. All this could so easily have been avoided.
"Why does John keep his aura so withdrawn?" Naelia asked curiously, tiling her head to the side thoughtfully. "With his talent, if he reveals just a bit of his aura, others like those boys would immediately know he's an opponent they cannot afford to offend. And earlier, had he revealed his aura to me, I would have had an easier time believing his testing scores to be real. He really should reveal a tiny portion of his aura to avoid these problems."
What Naelia said was the truth. John always had his aura withdrawn as much as possible at all times, unlike most geniuses, who flared a small portion of it at all times, like peacocks flaring their colorful feathers around for others to gawk at with awe. Even a tiny portion of one's aura would reveal Qi quality, which was a major indication of talent. If those boys had felt a sliver of John's aura, they would have turned around and fled immediately, regretting the day they targeted him.
Zuri shook her head. "I have no idea," she said. "Either he doesn't care to reveal his talent, or he enjoys indulging in situations like this, where he allows overbearing opponents to walk into a trap, like a bug being caught in a spider's web."
"Maybe it's both?" Naelia suggested, a thoughtful look on her face.
"Maybe," Zuri said, then turned around and left the room, Naelia following closely behind.
…
John walked towards Gerid and the others, his footsteps steady and confident. Gerid watched his approach with an amused smile on his face, his arms folded across his chest. His friends fanned out to the side, making sure they didn't interfere in the battle and get disqualified for teaming up.
"You really should have done your research before showing your face in this trial," Gerid said haughtily. "If you had, you would have found out I'm not someone you can afford to offend."
John ignored his words, each footstep steady as he closed the distance between them. Gerid frowned at his words not causing John to hesitate, then smiled again.
"Why don't you go ahead and check my testing results," Gerid said, head tilted upwards, looking down his nose at John.
John's footsteps paused, causing Gerid's smile to widen.
"I can do that?" John asked. "How?"
Laughter broke out amongst Gerid's friends, and even Gerid had to stifle his mocking laughter. He shook his head at John, as if he were truly dealing with an absolute idiot.
"You don't even know that much?" Gerid asked. "How is it possible that someone like you was able to qualify for this prestigious tournament?"
"Because strength is the only thing that matters in a tournament," John replied.
Gerid nodded his head, agreeing with John's words. "You are right. Strength is the most important thing that matters in the end. And since this is your first and last tournament you'll ever enter, I'll take pity on you and provide you with some short lived information. You use your divine sense to enter my armband formation, where you can see my testing scores."
"I see," John said, but didn't check Gerid's formation armband. Knowing his score changed nothing for John. Gerid frowned, becoming irked by John's refusal to check his score. He wanted John to read his score and tremble with fear, at which point he would break John, savoring the entire thing.
"Since you are too stupid to check my score, I'll tell you it instead," Gerid said, aura flaring to prepare for the fight, folded arms splaying to both sides in the air. "I placed six hundred and twelve. That's right! Top one thousand! Amongst all the Dao Transformation geniuses on this continent, I reign amongst the top one thousand. My level is something you could never hope to compare against, and all you can do is tremble and despair!"
He looked at John, mouth wide open with haughty laughter. He yearned to see John's eyes go wide with shock, his footsteps retreating instead of advancing, his body shaking with fear. And yet, he received only a smile on the corner of John's mouth, as if John thought he was dealing with an absolute idiot.
Gerid's short temper ignited, and his aura flared fully, drowning this small room they were in with his power. His divine sense flooded outwards, linking to John's armband. However, it was not to read the armband, but to do something else. As Gerid's divine sense linked to John's armband, a formation energy ignited from Gerid's armband. It enveloped him with formational energy, which infused into Gerid.
John watched on curiously, wondering what was happening. His curiosity was answered quickly as he noticed Gerid's cultivation being restricted, limiting his power to the Middle Dao Transformation realm, the same as John's.
"Now that we're linked, I can destroy you," Gerid said, voice filled with battle-lusted anticipation. "I can't kill you, and I can't cripple your cultivation but the rules say nothing of breaking each of your limbs slowly, making you cry out in agony."
During Gerid's deranged monologue, John felt the divine sense of Gerid's companions hit his armband, not the way Gerid's had done, but instead to read the score contained within. Each of their eyes went wide with absolute disbelief, unable to comprehend what they were seeing.
Gerid suddenly rushed forward, his laughter filling the room as he appeared before John. As he reached out towards John to attack, he heard the yells of his friends fill the room, each yell louder than the last.
In his battle-lusted state of anger and anticipation, the words of his companions were lost to him. All he could feel was the passion behind those yells…yells no doubt cheering him on to break the pathetic opponent before him.
In the air, high above their heads, small, circular formation orbs floated in the sky, one for each youth in the room.
…
A few minutes after John had entered the door of light, the last participant stepped through, officially declaring the start of the tournament. The door of light disappeared, sending out a wave of energy throughout the arena.
That energy triggered mechanisms placed throughout the arena, such as the mechanism that disclosed the results of the illusory tests. The crowd in the arena stands, well over over ten million strong, surrounded the preliminary testing grounds, their faces alight with excitement and anticipation.
In the arena before them, the preliminary testing grounds stretched out from one end to the other. It started underground, in a labyrinth they couldn't see into, eventually opening up to a land of valleys, mountains, fire, ice and more. The wave of energy suddenly passed over them, indicating the start of the trial.
With the official commencement of the Dao Transformation tournament, the crowd in the arena erupted with cheers, their loud cheers combining to become something almost like a roaring primordial beast. The collective eruption shook the arena itself, like an earthquake had hit the land.
Formation disks appeared in the hands of each of the spectators, which acted as ticket and information. Each spector eagerly sent their divine senses into the disk, which had now been filled with the information regarding the illusory testing results.
The excited expressions on everyone's face almost immediately turned into wide eyed confusion, and then shock, doubt, and disbelief. A name that no one had ever heard of, a name that meant absolutely nothing to them, sat atop the list, a list that contained illustrious names like Ji'Han and Jaxus.
After reading the list over and over again, making sure they weren't reading it wrong, a collective thought dominated the crowd.
"Who the hell is John Fenix?"
