The crowd gasped as they saw Ji'Han's condition. It was almost impossible for them to believe; Ji'Han taking damage. Many stood up in their seats, unable to control their emotions, while the announcer roared with passionate shock, detailing the events that had just unfolded.
A layer of blood covered Ji'Han's skin, which quickly baked into blackened soot under the heat of the domain. Jaxus sneered at the sight of his injured opponent, then charged after him once more to press the attack.
Watching his opponent close the distance once more, Ji'Han did what no one thought he would do and closed his eyes. There wasn't even time for the crowd to react as Jaxus arrived before Ji'Han once more, his power and aura like that of an exploding volcano.
His saber lit up with even more powerful flames as he raised it and slashed towards Ji'Han, who was now directly exposed.
Eyes still closed, Ji'Han's lips began to move. First there was silence. Then there was a humming chant, appearing instantly and everywhere as if it had always existed. The humming chant came from Ji'Han, who had his left hand before his chest, hand flat and fingers pointing upwards.
His right hand gripped his true sword, which began to glow brighter and brighter as the chant intensified, as did Ji'Han himself, as if the chant itself was awakening a slumbering beast within Ji'Han and his sword.
In an instant, Ji'Han transformed from a normal cultivator to a blazing beacon of white, as if he had transformed into a holy deity. A pure white flame-like brilliance began to emanate off of him, defiantly resisting the tempetrous power and heat of the Nine-Petal Lotus domain.
"True Sword Mantra," the crowd heard the announcer exclaim, her voice shocked beyond all belief. "That's the True Sword Mantra, the famous Sword Art of the Sword-Sovereign, which raises one's affinity towards the Sword-Dao tremendously."
At first it looked like Ji'Han had managed to summon flames in the hell domain, which Jaxus had said was impossible. Upon looking closer, John and the other powerhouses noticed that it was not flames, but swords instead.
Millions upon millions of tiny swords materialized in the air around Ji'Han, flowing off his body like a brilliant white flame. It was no doubt some sort of combination of his sword and flame powers, although the sword was the true leader in this combination.
Jaxus' instincts flared with warning, but he gritted his teeth and continued his saber slash, as it was too late to do anything else. As his saber fell towards Ji'Han, Ji'Han's eyes snapped open. They glowed brilliantly, like twin beacons of holy light within the roiling hellscape.
Ji'Han seemed to transform in some way, not physically, but spiritually. Looking down on him from above, John felt as though he was looking at someone becoming the true embodiment of the Sword Dao. While Ji'Han had terrifying control over the Sword Dao before, that was him wielding it. Right now, it was as if Ji'Han had become a sword himself, and had become the embodiment of the Sword Dao.
After undergoing this transformation of sorts, Ji'Han lifted his head to look at Jaxus, who was falling towards him like a meteor, flaming saber in hand. Jaxus roared loudly and swung with all his might towards Ji'Han. Ji'Han lifted his right hand, which held his true sword Whiteflame, and slashed it outwards in a casual motion.
A brilliant white sword light flew out of his sword, far faster and sharper than anything Ji'Han had revealed thus far. It slammed against Jaxus' sword, stopping his downward momentum in an instant. Jaxus' saber shot upwards, almost leaving his grip, while remnant sword-image power landed on his shoulder.
Jaxus' shoulder was instantly sliced open, blood shooting outwards for a moment before Jaxus used his Yang Qi to heal the wound. He paused in the sky above Ji'Han, a shocked and grim expression on his face.
In the Prime-Shadow's private room high above the arena, John and the others stared at Ji'Han with shocked expressions. Jaxus' assault had been so powerful and overwhelming that they had expected to see Ji'Han struggle to regain his footing in the battle. Instead, he had begun chanting, had transformed in some inexplicable way, and then had unleashed a single slash of his sword to counter Jaxus' overbearingly powerful saber art.
"Dao Lord," Zuri whispered softly, drawing the attention of the others. Araxus and Naelia looked at Zuri with wide eyes full of shock, while John looked at her with a questioning expression. "Ji'Han has become a Dao Lord."
"What? Really?" Araxus exclaimed, stunned by what he was hearing.
"What's a Dao Lord?" John asked curiously, never having heard the term before, although he had his guesses based on what he just saw.
Zuri turned to him with a questioning look, then remembered John's origins. She breathed in deeply as she looked towards the arena once more.
"A Dao Lord is the title for one who has stepped beyond the threshold of the Dao Expert Stage, and into the next stage, the Dao Lord Stage," Zuri said, her words shocking John despite his suspicions being confirmed.
"The Dao Lord stage indicates that one has comprehended at least forty percent of a certain Dao," Zuri continued. "In regards to the Sword Dao, Ji'Han has firmly stepped into the Dao Lord Stage."
"Not even Jaxus or I have achieved the Dao Lord stage for any of our Dao's," Araxus said, still stunned by this revelation. "Have you?" he asked John, who shook his head firmly.
"Unbelievable," Araxus muttered, a heavy expression on his face. "Jaxus is in for a tough battle."
John nodded his head in agreement, while internally his fighting bloodlust was rising, ignited by Ji'Han's talent and combat prowess. Maybe, just maybe, he would be pushed to his limits in a battle against his peer. He could hope, at the very least.
"You've…stepped into the Dao Lord Stage?" Jaxus asked Ji'Han, still surprised by this sudden and shocking revelation.
Ji'Han merely nodded, as if the subject were of little importance. Jaxus' grit his teeth tightly, a loud grinding sound coming from his mouth.
"So what?" he roared! "Although I haven't broken through, My Yang comprehensions have begun to touch the initial parts of the Dao Lord Stage as well. Inside my domain, you are still my prisoner!"
Ji'Han looked calmly at Jaxus, his brilliant aura of sword and flame resisting the power of the Nine-Petal Hell Domain. It was as if his aura itself, powered by his True Sword Mantra and Dao Lord comprehensions, was a defensive art itself, almost fully resisting the terrifying heat of the hell domain.
He then looked above Jaxus' head, towards the small floating Yang lotus hovering directly above him. That Yang lotus moved with Jaxus wherever he went, and burned with a profound and powerful aura.
"That must be the core of your domain," Ji'Han said, his words more of a fact than a question. Jaxus paused for a moment, then sneered.
"So what? You cannot reach me, nor can you reach it," he replied. "Your power may be amazing, but within my domain, you are nothing."
"Is that so?" Ji'Han muttered softly, then raised Whiteflame and pointed its tip directly towards Jaxus. Jaxus moved backwards instinctively, then stopped in the air a distance away that he could react to, uncertain of what Ji'Han was doing.
Ji'Han then moved his sword upwards, pointing its tip towards the small lotus above Jaxus, instead of at Jaxus himself.
Suddenly, space itself seemed to freeze for a moment, as if suspended in time. The flames of the hell domain around Ji'Han slowed down, affected by Ji'Han somehow. A thin line in space materialized in an instant, starting at Ji'Han's sword tip and piercing forward through the entire arena until stopped by the defensive formation dozens of miles away.
The line pierced directly through the tiny Yang lotus, although it didn't seem to do anything to it.
The thin line seemed to have appeared all at once, as if it had always existed in that place, and had only become visible upon Ji'Han's command. "Sword of Space and Time," Ji'Han muttered, his voice calm yet ethereal, as if the words had been uttered by a god.
The entire process had happened almost instantly, and an instant later, the line in space changed. It transformed from an almost imperceptible line in space, as if someone had taken a pen and drawn a line in the very air itself, into a blinding beam of white.
Flames roiled off the beam of white, which extended from the edge of the formation barrier all the way back to Ji'Han's sword, Whiteflame, which was now dozens of miles long, and occupied the same space the thin line had previously occupied.
His sword, Whiteflame, had in almost an instant extended through space, the process so fast that only the true powerhouses of the world could see what had happened. For everyone else, Ji'Han's sword had suddenly become dozens of miles long, and most importantly of all, was now piercing directly through the heart of the Yang lotus above Jaxus' head.
Jaxus looked upwards with an expression of shock and horror, his eyes glued to the sword piercing directly through the core of his Nine-Petal Hell Domain. The Yang lotus bubbled and roiled as it grew out of control, then blasted outwards in a calamitous explosion, bathing Jaxus and the arena in the condensed power of the Nine-Petal Hell Domain.
Boom!
