An explosion unlike anything the crowd had seen thus far in the tournament erupted, with Jaxus directly in the center of all the explosions. The moment before detonation, the thousand runic imprints surrounded him, perfectly placed by Ji'Han's counter attack.
Pure yang energy, the most potent and powerful of all fire-type attacks filled every inch of the arena, only stopping with violent impact as it slammed against the defensive formation screens. The screens flared to life, stopping the explosion from killing millions, but did little to stop the vibrations from the explosion.
Many of the weaker cultivators in the crowd were thrown from their seats, only coming to a halt as they used their own power to stabilize their bodies. A blinding fiery red light filled the entire Yang-Sphere, as if the sun itself had materialized inside the arena.
The explosion reached all the way to the top of the arena, stopping at the very top as it slammed into the defensive formation covering the top of the fighting area. The fire of the explosion and rumbling of the arena continued for quite some time, the power contained within too much to dissipate quickly.
Seated in the Prime Shadow's private room, a whistling sound came from Araxus, who was watching the fight with John and the others.
"What just happened?" Naelia asked, trying to discern what had happened. "Ji'Han turned Jaxus' attack against him. How did he do that?"
"I told him that runic art of his could backfire. Ji'Han is too smart to not find a way to beat that ability," Araxus said while shaking his head.
"What did Ji'Han do?" Naelia asked.
"He covered his sword with thousands of miniature swords created from his Qi and the Sword Dao," John explained, while Araxus nodded his head in agreement. "When Jaxus placed his runic art on Ji'Han's sword, he was actually placing it on those Qi swords instead, which Ji'Han sent over to Jaxus at the last possible moment."
"How come Jaxus didn't notice that before he activated his ability? You noticed it, so why didn't he?" Naelia asked curiously.
"I didn't notice it," John replied flatly, "at least not until he shed those swords of Qi from his true sword. Only after those swords were flung out towards Jaxus was I able to notice them. His ability to create Qi based swords that have the same aura and potency as his true sword is quite incredible."
"That's Ji'Han for you," Araxus chimed in. "Part of why he's so dangerous is his monstrous control over the Sword Dao, as well as his monstrous Qi quality and quantity. With those two combined, a simple sword made of his Qi is as strong and dangerous as a World Expansion grade weapon, making each and every attack of his, regardless of how profound it is, a potentially lethal one.
"So is Jaxus alright? Surely such an explosion did alot of damage to him" Naelia asked.
"Nah, he'll be alright," Araxus replied, a small smirk on his face.
"Ah," Naelia said musingly before falling silent. She gave Araxus a thankful nod, a look of reverence on her face as she did so. Geniuses such as Jaxus and Araxus were practically mythical figures in the Yang-Dao Sect. Araxus was the second strongest genius of the Yang-Dao Sect which she belonged to, and it was the first time she was able to talk to him like this.
As their conversation died down, so did the explosion of pure yang inside the arena. As the explosion faded, John gave a quick glance towards the nearest formation screen, checking Jaxus' combat metrics.
His Qi reserve was still over ninety percent, while his health had taken fifteen percent damage, a testament to the power of the explosion. A moment later, the fading explosion started to swirl, quickly going from a fading explosion into a swirling tempest of pure yang energy. The swirling yang energy quickly formed a violent hurricane, the center focused on Jaxus' last position.
The tempest of yang energy hastened into a calamitous storm of fire, revolving faster and faster around Jaxus. Before long, Jaxus himself became visible once more, the tempest of yang funneling down towards him and then disappearing within. Visible wounds covered Jaxus' body, which began to mend at an incredible rate, disappearing a few seconds later.
As that happened, John gave another glance towards the information screen, an eyebrow raising when he noticed something he had not expected. Jaxus, whose health value was at eighty-five percent a moment ago, had climbed back up and now rested at ninety eight percent.
"What! How did he-" Naelia exclaimed with surprise.
"Like I said, such an explosion is far from being able to harm Jaxus," Araxus smirked. "His Yang Attribute Body can easily resist powerful yang-based explosions, and he also has the Life-Yang Restoration Art, which allows him to absorb Yang energy to heal himself."
"He can do that?" John asked curiously, not expecting Jaxus to have such a potent self-healing ability. Normally such a thing was reserved for cultivators that specialized in healing, or those with variant bodies capable of unlocking the limiters of healing and life. Jaxus was not a body cultivator, and he did not have any limiters unlocked.
"It's one of the reason's he's so hard to defeat," Araxus nodded. "Any Yang Qi he expends can be reabsorbed to heal himself. While a bit of that Qi is lost, meaning he can't heal himself infinitely, it's still incredibly hard to damage him to the point that he loses any combat potential."
"Troublesome indeed," John nodded, becoming more and more impressed by what he was seeing.
"Wow! Jaxus not only managed to withstand that calamitous blast, but he's also almost fully restored the damage he sustained! Amazing!" the announcer exclaimed, her voice finally audible as the tempest of Yang was fully absorbed into Jaxus, returning the arena to relative silence.
After restoring his body, Jaxus looked at Ji'Han with a smirk on his face.
"Not bad," he said, nodding his head. "I didn't expect you to adapt so fast to my Nine-Petal Destruction, but then again, I didn't expect it to do much to you in the first place."
"So, what's your next scheme?" Ji'Han asked calmly, sword held at his side. He floated in the air with elegant grace, his hair and pure-white robe billowing gently in the wind, as if he were some ethereal being.
"Heh, no more schemes," Jaxus sneered, his right arm stretching out in front of him, palm turned upwards. His fingers curled into a fist, with only his pointer and index finger outstretched, pointing upwards towards the sky. "When schemes don't work, the only thing to rely on is pure, destructive power."
Boom!
A point of blinding light suddenly materialized in the air above Ji'Han and Jaxus, like the birth of a miniature star. As it appeared, Jaxus' aura exploded once more with fiery power, far greater than what he had shown thus far. The mere heat emanating from the star began to melt the ground beneath it, turning the arena into a land of magma.
With his power linked to the ball of yang energy that had appeared, it quickly grew from a small ball into a massive sphere over a mile wide. The sphere, like a mile-wide star, churned with ruinous Yang energy, so powerful and dense that it seemed as though the energy within wanted to break out from its confines and destroy all of creation.
"Let's see how you deal with this," Jaxus sneered as the ball of pure Yang energy suddenly shifted shape, transforming from a sphere into the shape of a massive nine-petaled lotus. As it changed shape, so too did its power, as if the shape of the lotus had somehow made the battle art more profound. The crowd gasped at the power of the battle art, which seemed to be even more powerful than the combined explosion of the thousand runic yang imprints.
The beautiful yet destructive lotus shaped star churned and roiled, with flickers of yang energy exploding out before being incorporated into the star, a cycle that continued to increase the power of the lotus star. The land of magma beneath the star heated up, roiling and churning with power.
The entire process, from the first appearance of the ball of yang energy to the emergence of the lotus star took only a second, at which point Jaxus moved his right hand, his upward pointing fingers moving downwards, pointing directly at Ji'Han.
"Blooming Lotus, Falling Star!" Jaxus roared, his fiery passion seeming to give the lotus star one last boost of power before it fell down like a meteor towards Ji'Han, its power looking to destroy everything in its path, Ji'Han included.
