The crystal ball in the Heaven Scrying Sect youth's hands flashed with various colors of light, as the brief battle between John and the ambushers appeared in the ball. The youth's face remained focused as he studied every detail of the battle that was unfolding, not wanting to miss a second of it.
However, much to the youth's disappointment, the entire battle had taken place within John's lightning cage. While glimmers of the battle within appeared between the web of lightning, it was quite difficult to make out what was happening within. The lightning cage was almost like a solid wall in all directions as hundreds of beams pierced from one lightning node to the other.
Soon after the battle started, the lightning cage faded away. A frown appeared on the youths face as the cage faded away so early.
"The cage is fading away already?" the youth muttered, slight disappointment evident in his voice. "It seems as though the Heavenly Lightning Sect youth was not as strong as the rumors claim, and has already been defea-"
Before the youth could finish his sentence, the lightning cage faded away fully, revealing the truth of what had occurred inside. The unconscious bodies of the four Early Heaven Tribulation ambushers were stacked one atop the other, while John stood there with a look of indifference on his face.
The Heaven Scrying Sect youth stared closely at the scene before him, his mind racing from what he had just witnessed. Despite his vast experience regarding both heaven scrying and information collection on the other geniuses of the Divine Martial Continent, both from the Honorable Alliance and outside of it, it was the first time he had seen something like this.
However, after remaining silent for some time, a frown appeared on the youths face.
"I was unable to see what occurred within that cage of lightning, which is quite troublesome. There were some unverified rumors that this youths strength comes from artifact and external sources, which would exclude him from the list. While the cage of lightning seemed naturally formed, I am unable to fully verify that. Not only that, but I was unable to see what exactly occurred within the cage of lightning. For all I know, he could have used a one time artifact of great power to overwhelm his opponents. I must continue my observations of him before I can make any alterations…hmmm? What are they doing?"
The youth noticed John and the rest stop, and soon they began digging into the ground. A thoughtful look appeared on his face, as an idea of what was going on entered his mind. After some further consideration, the youth started walking forward, proceeding towards John and the rest.
…
"What's down here that we're digging like this for?" Adam asked Iris, slightly disgruntled by the physical work he had to do.
"I'm not sure yet, but I can tell there's something emanating a small amount of Qi down below us," Iris replied, ignoring Adam's grouchiness.
"Why do we have to dig manually like this though? Adam harumphed once again. "Can't John just unleash strong attacks to blow the ground away?"
"That wouldn't be a wise thing to do," Iris replied as she used her Qi to move aside a lump of sand and dirt, before doing so again. Her and the rest were all doing such a thing, carefully extracting the sand with their Qi. The process was quite slow when compared to forcefully breaking through to whatever was beneath them, but Iris had cautioned against such a thing.
"I have no idea what's beneath us, or how fragile it is," Iris replied. "If we blow the ground up with force, we could potentially destroy what's down there. Only when I'm closer will I be able to see exactly what it is."
"You have no idea?" Adam asked, "aren't your eyes able to see through everything or something like that?"
"My eye powers don't work like that," Iris replied, and decided to take this time to explain to the group how her talents worked, as she had never done such a thing. "While I can see through objects, my vision becomes obscured after a bit, making me unable to see what exactly it is in situations like these. However, my eyes can detect sources of Qi with much greater clarity, almost like I can see flickers of light through the ground. Not only that, but I'm also able to determine the relative value of the source of Qi, based on the profundity of the Qi that is exuded."
"So that's how it works," John chimed in. He had been curious as to how Iris's eye talents worked, and now it all made sense. "So with how your eye talents work, I'm guessing you can not only see the micro-muscle movements of your opponents, but also the flow of Qi through their body. Am I correct?"
"You are exactly right," Iris replied with a smile at John's guess.
"That's quite impressive," John replied, truly in awe of Iris's talents. Qi flow through another cultivator's body was almost impossible to detect, as the cultivator's external,. aura would interfere with such internal detections. It was one of the reasons cultivators flared their auras, despite it being slightly wasteful when it came to Qi.
However, Iris's eyes were able to pierce right through her opponents auras and see the flow of Qi within their bodies, giving her an amazing advantage of predicting what type of battle arts would be used, and when. This allowed her to dance around the battlefield with absolute precision, which made it seem like she was able to predict the future.
"No wonder everyone struggles against you so much," John replied with an understanding nod of his head. "Your speed coupled with your vision makes it almost impossible to catch you. The only way someone would be able to beat you is with overwhelming power to suppress your movements."
"Hmph, it's an alright talent I guess," Adam felt the need to chime in, causing Iris to look at him with displeasure on her face. However, she ignored him after a short moment, as she was happy that John had sincerely praised her abilities.
"You also said your eyes give you visions occasionally, correct?" John asked as he moved another pile of sand away. He had remembered his conversation with Iris, and something about her having a vision regarding him. However, at the time he had dismissed talking about it, as he was sick of hearing of prophecies and visions. Not only that, but Iris had briefly passed her vision to him during the entrance exam for the Heavenly Lightning Sect, although that vision was chaotic, making him unable to understand exactly what it was about.
"You're correct," Iris replied, her gaze becoming slightly hardened as she stopped digging. Her actions caught the attention of the others, who stopped digging as well, as they could tell that something was on her mind.
"What is it?" John asked Iris.
A conflicted look appeared on Iris's face, before she replied to John's question. "I have something incredibly important to tell you. Something regarding the visions I've had. Visions that I showed you before, but I have not shown you everything."
