When he thought about it carefully, John truly did almost consider himself to be half-beast at this point. His Immortal Asura Body had transformed every inch of his body, making it something far more than human. Even other body cultivators couldn't come close to his level. Him being able to bite through and chew through hardened crystal was just one attribute that made him more beast-like.
Laia stared at John in silence for quite some time, unable to process what she thought of him. He stood there as if the devilish properties of the crystal were as of no note at all, something she didn't think possible. Only the most steeled of wills and minds could do such a thing. That...or he was already insane, and the devilish insanity couldn't do anything to drive him more so.
"Let's keep moving," John said after he processed the crystal, eager to test out his new strength.
….
Laia's eyes were wide open once again as she watched the battle unfold before her. Before her, two beasts were fighting to the death, their battle incredibly brutal. Fists, claws, teeth, and everything in between was being used to rend flesh and break bone of their opponent, making the battle incredibly gruesome to witness.
Such a thing was quite common in the beast world and would not surprise Laia…only one of those beasts at the moment was John, who was fighting an Early Dao Transformation beast barehanded, as if he were nothing more than a creature of instinct himself.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The battle between John and his opponent, an Blacksteel Tiger had been raging on for quite some time as the two battled to the death. The Blacksteel Tiger got its name from its smooth lustrous skin that appeared to be like steel, but was pure black in color. Not only that, the Blacksteel Tiger was a physically powerful creature, and had a very strong defense thanks to its tough exterior. It stood five yards tall and ten yards long, and was far larger than John.
After explaining the nature of the creature to John, Laia had watched in stunned silence as he shot forward without warning, and had begun to fight the creature with nothing but his bare hands and his Supreme Battle Art. Not even his battle axe was used, something that she couldn't understand. Both fighters were bloodied and bruised by now, with gruesome wounds covering both their bodies. However, they fought as if those wounds didn't exist.
Bang!
John's fist punched out with incredible power, creating a shockwave as it travelled. His fist slammed against the side of the tigers head, the force like that of a falling mountain. The Blacksteel Tiger roared out in pain as its body shot across the foggy land, carving a deep trench into the earth for half a mile before coming to a halt.
The tiger immediately got back on its feet and shot towards John and bit at him, its mouth large enough to swallow him whole. John's body flashed to the side to unleash another barrage of fist attacks, but the tiger's quick reactions beat him to the punch as its paw swiped out, slamming against his body with incredible power.
Boom!
John's body carved a similar trench as he skirted across the earth for hundreds of yards, while the ground around the trench fractured with ease. After coming to a halt, he stood up immediately and shot forward towards his opponent with no hesitation, laughter echoing out behind his figure as it blurred forward, while a large smile was plastered on his face.
"I…I don't understand him at all," Laia couldn't help but mumble as she watched John fight the gruesome battle, but laugh and smile as if it were the most pleasurable thing in the world.
"Does…does he need something from this Blacksteel Tiger?" Laia asked as she glanced sideways at Kirii, who was standing next to her demanding head pats. Kirii's eyes were closed and a soft purr-like sound was escaping him as he enjoyed the head pats, but his eyes opened as he glanced at Laia, and then the battle before him.
"No, he's just fighting it for fun," Kirii's voice sounded out within Laia's mind, "but he can use its blood, so he'll get something out of it I guess."
"Fighting for fun?" Laia replied as her gaze shifted back towards John. She remained silent for a while as she watched the battle, before she asked another question.
"Is he fighting this crazily because he knows I'll heal him after the battle is done?" Laia asked. The wounds John had accumulated in this battle were quite gruesome, and she couldn't believe someone would willingly take such painful injuries on purpose.
"Not at all," Kirii replied immediately, "he's always been like this. If you think this is bad, you should have seen some of the things he did before…there was this one time, where his entire body was charred black because of this lightning sphere…and this other time, he destroyed an entire sect…and this other time…"
Kirii started listing off the crazy things John had done in the past, many of them voluntarily despite the risk to his life. Laia's mind went numb as she listened to Kirii ramble on non-stop, as if all John ever did was seek out life and death situations. His rambling went on for quite some time, and only stopped around the same time that the brutal battle before them also stopped.
A scraping sound stirred Laia from her thoughts, and she gazed up to see John covered head to toe in blood, dragging the corpse of the Blacksteel Tiger behind him while a large, satisfied smile lingered on his face. Gruesome injuries covered his body, but he ignored them as if they didn't exist. His body began to slowly heal on its own thanks to his Limiter of Healing he had unlocked after his tribulation, but it would take days for these wounds to fully heal.
"You were right," John said to Laia with a carefree attitude, "that Sanguine Devil Crystal really did raise my body strength by quite a bit. We should find more opportunities like that."
"...."
