Outside the barrier formation, the Elders from the various sects that made up the Honorable Alliance continued their work on the formation to ensure it remained stable. Their top geniuses were all sent inside the barrier, and losing them would be tantamount to the end of the Alliance.
In the sky high above the gathered Elders and formation experts, a lone figure suddenly appeared. He was wearing a sleeveless robe with a hood, which shrouded his facial features. His arms bulged with powerful muscles, as if he could fight a dragon barehanded and survive.
The man gazed down at the ground, inspecting both the formation outside as well as the ones who had constructed it.
"Child's play," the man muttered under his breath, almost as if the formation wasn't worth looking at. The man remained unnoticed by the powerful cultivators below, as if he didn't even exist in their eyes.
After inspecting the formation constructed by the Elder's, the man's gaze shifted forward towards the green Jade Dragon Empire barrier. His gaze locked onto a certain location, pausing for a brief moment.
"So he's already entered this land? I might as well pay it a visit once more and observe what happens," the man muttered once more as his body flashed. He reappeared at the very top of the green barrier, and paused for only a moment before his body slipped right past it, as if it didn't exist.
…
Later in the day, a lone figure suddenly appeared again, flying at full speed towards the Jade Dragon Empire barrier entrance. The Elder's all took notice of the newcomers' arrival and put up their guards for any possible defense, but relaxed as they noticed who it was.
The newcomer walked over towards the gathered Elder's, and bowed in respect towards them.
"Apologies, esteemed Elders. I was held up by something earlier in the day and missed the teleportation window. I flew here as fast as I could. I hope it's not too late to enter?" the youth asked, his tone genial and sincere.
"You should really take note of your status a bit more," one of the Elder's from the Honorable Alliance chastised. "Your talents have been fully revealed, and you will now be one of the benchmarks of our Alliance. With that status comes responsibility, such as showing up to events on time."
"Apologies, Elder. I have no excuses," the boy replied sincerely while bowing his head further.
The Elder's all glanced at each other at seeing the boys sincerity, before one of them sighed deeply before replying.
"It's alright. Mistakes happen, young man. Just make sure you begin to carry yourself with the prestige of being one of the Honorable Alliance's foremost geniuses, is that understood?" the Elder asked.
"Yes, Elder. I will not let you all down again," the youth replied, his voice firm and determined.
"Then go on in," the Elder said. "The barrier is still open."
"Thank you, Elder," the boy replied happily as he sped forward towards the barrier and disappeared shortly after.
The Elder's watched the youth enter, and shook their heads slightly at the youths' antics.
"That boy will need to realize he no longer represents his sect, and instead represents the entire Honorable Alliance," one of the Elder's chastised.
"It's only natural. Parker comes from the Sunmist Sect, which is rather weak. His sixteen steps suddenly propelled him to genius status, which I'm sure he's still getting used to," another replied.
"We can't coddle him too much," another Elder chimed in. "Geniuses such as him are paramount in our future fight against the Forbidden Alliance and the other races. If we raise them with soft and gentle hands, they will become soft and gentle themselves. At that point, we might as well offer them up for slaughter to the Forbidden Alliance disciples.
Hopefully this event will create even more geniuses, and propel our Alliance back to the front of the continent where it once rightfully stood."
…
The arid desert stretched in all directions as far as the eye could see, offering nothing but dry sand, rocky valleys, and dead skeletons of fallen youths of trials past. John and the rest walked through the desert, their guard raised as they didn't know what dangers existed within these lands.
"Ahhh, this is getting tedious!" Adam exclaimed in frustration after walking through the arid desert for half a day already. "I'm going up to get a better vantage point!"
John shook his head at Adam's antics, but figured he would let him find out first hand. Adam's body shot up into the sky, but after only a few dozen yards up, he found his body lurch to a halt, as if he had flown into molasses. His body was suddenly rocketed back down to the ground, and slammed into the earth, kicking up sand and dust.
The dust cloud quickly faded, revealing a grumbling Adam who was dusting off his now dirty robes.
"What the hell just happened?" Adam exclaimed as he looked up at the sky above him.
"Do you really think we just decided not to test flying in here for no reason?" John asked Adam with a scolding tone.
"What do you mean?" Adam asked while he brushed the sand out of his hair.
"Think about it you dunce," Iris chimed up. "When we saw the other disciples leave, none of them tried to fly. Obviously they have information about this land, and that information includes flying not working. Otherwise they would have already taken off to the skies at the very start!"
"Hey, who are you calling a dunce!" Adam cried out afterwards, missing the entire explanation from Iris. Iris rolled her eyes in frustration, but didn't comment further.
"Like Iris said, we're traveling on foot," John chimed in. "There's some sort of barrier preventing flying, most likely to prevent us from flying to the end of this land."
"Ah, I guess that makes sense," Adam replied.
The group began to walk forward once more, while Iris walked up next to John and leaned over towards him.
"Have you noticed them yet?" Iris whispered softly in his ear.
"We're being followed," John replied while nodding his head.
"They've been following us from a far away distance for quite some time now, but they've made the effort to move widely around us to get in front of us," Iris said.
"They were following us until we arrived in an area where no one else was, and then moved up to set up an ambush," John replied.
"Do you know who it is?" Iris asked, as John's words indicated that he had been aware of them, but had not taken action yet.
"Not yet, but there's only one group that would target us like this from the start," John replied.
"The Starforge Clan?" Iris asked.
"The Starforge Clan," John confirmed as his gaze grew cold. It seemed as though they were making their move on Adam already.
