The orb slowly lowered and appeared before him, while an awe-inspiring aura flooded the entire room as he grabbed the item and withdrew it from the protective orb. All three youths felt their souls tremble as they heard a powerful roar in their minds. Ziora and the injured youth clutched their heads in pain, as the roar had inflicted pain on their souls, while John firmly ignored it.
A smile appeared on his face as he held the object in his hand, which struggled against his grip as if it were sentient. His own power flared out, as he focused on subduing the object in his hands. After a brief battle between the two, the object quieted down, seemingly accepting of John.
The pain in Ziora's mind disappeared, and she gazed at John as if he truly were a monstrous monster.
"You…that's a dragon scale...and not just a regular dragon scale. That's a reverse scale, the first scale a dragon is born with, which is imbued with not only a portion of the dragon's power, but also its pride and some of sentience," Ziora exclaimed in shock.
She paused for a while, trying to figure out what had happened, before she spoke up once more.
"Did…did you get the dragon's reverse scale to accept you? Such a thing is almost never heard of," Ziora exclaimed. "Dragons are incredibly prideful creatures, and I can tell this one belonged to a very powerful dragon."
"No, it didn't accept me," John said, his words causing Ziora to breathe out in relief, as the shock would be too great to accept, even after everything she had seen him do before. However, his next words nearly caused her to collapse in shock.
"I didn't realize the scale was so...special," John replied, his voice a bit bashful after what Ziora had revealed to him, "and it gave me a lot of sass when I held it, so I just forcibly subdued it instead."
Ziora almost couldn't believe her ears. She stared at John with a look of stunned disbelief, but the now calm scale that rested in his hands was a testament to the veracity of his words.
"How…forget it," Ziora said after a long silence, coming to terms that John was a monstrous genius beyond anything she thought possible, "with you, cultivation norms don't apply it seems."
The injured youth also stared at John with a strange expression, both at subduing the reverse dragon scale, as well as having enough points to buy it in the first place.
"How many Jade Marks did you obtain in this trial?" the youth asked curiously.
"Seven hundred," John replied without hiding anything.
"Seven hundred!" the injured youth exclaimed, almost unable to believe his ears. He had gone solo through all but the last trial, and had only managed to get seventy points. He didn't know about the difficulty adjustments, but even if he did, he would not have done what John had done and fought above his level.
"I'm Oliver," the youth introduced himself after a moment of silence, as he realized he still hadn't done so. "From the Astral Sword Sect."
"Astral Sword Sect?" John repeated the name, "the strongest sect in the Honorable Alliance?"
Although he had limited information about the Divine Martial Continent and Honorable Alliance, he did know that the Astral Sword Sect was the supposed strongest sect in the alliance. Not only that, but they boasted the strongest Alliance disciple, as Luth Chaster was a disciple of the sect.
"That's the one," the youth replied.
"No wonder your sword attack was so profound," John said as he recalled the sword attack he had seen the youth unleash before. He could tell it was not simple in origins, and most likely had some ancient lineage.
"Thanks, but my attack is still nothing compared to what Luth can unleash," the youth replied, downplaying himself and his power. John found himself approving of the youth's attitude, as most geniuses from the number one sect like that would be haughty and prideful, but Oliver was quite the opposite.
"Well Oliver, I'm-"
"I know who you are," Oliver said before John could finish his sentence.
John raised an eyebrow, but then realized that Oliver most likely had a Jade Dragon List, and pieced together who he was that way.
"There's only one youth on the Jade Dragon List with your cultivation. I thought the Heaven Scrying Sect had gone mad, but it seems as though I was the one who was mistaken. There's no doubting your power, as unbelievable as it may seem," Oliver said.
"You still have three hundred points remaining!" the temple spirit voice spoke up once again. "Choose your rewards!"
"An impatient artifact spirit? That's a first," John mumbled as his focus shifted back towards the items above his head. He was disappointed there was no scythe amongst the items, and so he inspected the other's with his divine sense, seeing if any were of interest to him.
After searching for a while, he found two that interested him. The first was called 'Roar of the Jade Dragon,' which was a body battle art, and cost one hundred Jade Marks. It was a body battle art not because it strengthened the body, but because it required one be a body cultivator to use it. The battle art concentrated a massive amount of Qi and air within one's lungs, before unleashing an incredibly powerful and devastating roar, akin to a dragon. Only a body cultivator could have lungs strong enough to withstand the pressure that built up inside the body.
The other was called 'Advent of Annihilation,' which was a battle axe battle art, and cost two hundred Jade Marks.
'I've been using the Sky Sundering Axe to this point, but it's become quite weak when compared to my opponent's level. It's a Meridian Forging battle art, and so I think it's about time I upgrade to something more powerful. The timing couldn't be more perfect.'
His brief review of the Advent of Annihilation battle art revealed it to be a devastatingly powerful battle art, which focused on power above all else. With his initial grasp of the Dao of Power, this was a perfect battle art for him.
His divine sense linked with two objects, both jade pieces. After linking with the jade pieces, they slowly began to lower towards him, eventually arriving before him.
"Roar of the Jade Dragon and Advent of Annihilation," the artifact spirit spoke out again. "You have chosen two powerful battle arts. In fact, Advent of Annihilation is a battle art created by the Jade Dragon Emperor himself."
"The Jade Dragon Emperor!" John exclaimed, as that name was beyond legendary. "The Jade Dragon Emperor used a battle axe?"
"That he did," the temple spirit replied. "The Jade Dragon Emperor was born with a Perfect Innate Variant Body, which allowed him to wield his heavy battle axe with awe-inspiring power."
