The lone youth within the hidden valley watched as the teleportation formation flared to life. Despite being the one who had set it up, he couldn't help but be impressed at the profundity of the formation before him. He had only followed the instructions in the jade piece, and set up the large formation linking the intricate formation disks and central formation disk.
Those disks did almost all the work, their power linking to twist space itself. A rip in space suddenly appeared, almost imperceivable to the naked eye. However, that small rip started to grow, spreading outwards as if it was consuming space itself. At the same time, a powerful shrouding barrier spread over the formation, masking its glow and aura from all to avoid detection.
The youth watched as the portal grew, and his eyes locked onto a group of youths that were revealed on the other side of the portal, all of them standing within a hellish looking chamber. The process lasted only a few seconds, and soon the portal had spread to be dozens of yards wide, allowing for the youths on the other side to enter immediately.
"Go, and spread anguish and despair," a guttural voice bellowed out from within the portal, and the youths all nodded their heads before they sped forward through the portal. All five hundred appeared on the other side in almost an instant and appeared in the hidden valley.
Their gazes shifted about the surrounding land before settling on the lone youth standing before them. Several of the youths standing in the front of the pack eyed him curiously, their powerful auras indicating them to be the strongest of the bunch. However, the other five hundred youths behind them were not weak by any means, and if placed within the Honorable Alliance, they would almost completely replace the Jade Dragon List, a testament to their overwhelming might, and also the fading power of the Honorable Alliance.
"So you're Asuros?" Amber Bloodrose said to the youth as she eyed him up and down, slight surprise in her tone. "I never expected you to be a human…I thought you'd look like your Master…how interesting."
Her hand suddenly flashed out, unsheathing the sword from her scabbard. It slashed towards Asuros' head, reaching it in an instant. Despite being a casual attack, the speed of her slash was beyond shocking, and its sharpness was almost without compare. There was virtually no time to react to the slash at all, and its sharpness and power was enough to cleave a Late Heaven Tribulation beast in half.
Che!
The sword slashed through the air uninhibited, reaching the end of its quick arc. Amber Bloodrose quickly sheathed her sword again and raised an eyebrow at Asuros before her. Despite giving no warning at all, he had casually dodged the attack with ease by shifting his head to the side, as if her attack was nothing more than a triviality.
"Interesting," she said with a smile on her face.
"Try that again, and I'll rip your heart out and feed it to you," Asuros replied. His voice was calm, but everyone could tell a coldblooded and murderous intent emanated from him, as if he would kill her if she made one more mistake.
"Good, you're at least slightly interesting," Amber Bloodrose replied with a cheery yet murderous smile on her face. "It would have been quite disappointing if you had turned out to be boring...and weak."
The others, including Vargul Plaagoth and Zulos Stonefist also eyed Asuros, both with heated gazes as if they wanted to fight this instant and test who was the strongest. Both barely resisted the urge, as their main goal was to exterminate the Honorable Alliance youths. Their personal battles could happen afterwards.
"You have three months," a voice said from the other side of the portal, belonging to the Ancient Elder. "When that time is up, return to this formation here to leave the realm."
The only way out of the formation was the main gate, which was not a possible solution for them. If that were to happen, the Honorable Alliance, with all its powerful formations and defenses at the entrance, would no doubt kill each and every youth.
"Now go, and settle your battles amongst each other afterwards," the Ancient Elder continued. The youths all nodded their heads, and prepared to leave the area. Asuros raised his hand towards the portal and activated a mechanism, and the portal slowly started to shrink. Just as it was about to close, an overwhelming aura descended over the youths, its power so high as to be incomprehensible.
…
In the sky above the Dao Transformation trial, the hooded man watched as John and Laia stepped off the cliff towards the dangers below. He had taken great interest in John's endeavors, and so had been silently shadowing and observing him.
The man's gaze suddenly shifted from John and Laia and into the distance, as if his attention was being drawn by something else. A frown appeared on his face as his body suddenly vanished and appeared hundreds of miles away in almost an instant. A powerful barrier, the one separating the Dao Transformation trial from the other areas of the trial appeared before him, but he tore through the barrier like it was paper and appeared on the other side.
His gaze shifted into the distance, hundreds of miles away towards the distant mountains. His body flashed once more, and he appeared high in the sky above a picturesque valley. Directly beneath him, five hundred youths were gathered, while a portal was starting to close behind them.
The man frowned as he saw the youths, and his divine sense flared out as he inspected the youths, and the portal they had seemingly came from. His frowning face instantly turned red with rage, as if he had just seen the thing he hated the most with his entire being. His aura exploded out with absolute might, his power so high as to almost be incomprehensible.
"ASURAAAAAAAA!!!!!"
A warcry of pure rage and anger bellowed out from the man, the power of his voice crumbling nearby mountains and fracturing the land beneath him. The five hundred youths all felt their bodies nearly explode from the warcry alone, and each flared their defensive power to the maximum to avoid dying on the spot.
Several coughed up blood from the power of the roar of anger, and all five hundred youths couldn't help but be stunned stiff as they saw a man suddenly appear before them like a ghost, standing directly in front of the closing portal. His hands reached out and grabbed opposite sides of the almost closed portal, and ripped them in opposite directions.
The portal suddenly tore open once more, as if space itself was unable to withstand the might of the man. The man ignored the youths behind him as he stepped through the portal, his sole focus on what existed on the other side.
The portal quickly closed as the man stepped through, returning the now fractured valley to silence once more. The youths all slowly recovered from their shock, as they had unexpectedly nearly died from the man who had just appeared.
