"Impossible!" a mutter of pure disbelief drifted through the group of enemy youths, sounding more stunned each time the word was mumbled.
The enemy youths gazed over to the one mumbling, and raised an eyebrow in surprise as they saw Kadin mumbling the word over and over. His eyes were wide and lips were trembling, revealing him to be incredibly shocked at something.
While John's arrival had been incredibly powerful and flashy, it was not enough to cause someone like Kadin to become like this.
"What the hell are you mumbling about?" Amber Bloodrose couldn't help but ask with great displeasure. John's arrival had already ruined the advantage in battle they had, and had stopped the battles entirely for a moment. She was incredibly displeased at his interruption, and was just about to make a move when Kadin started mumbling.
After staring at John with wide eyes for a short while, Kadin's shock slowly faded away as he finally regained his senses. He gazed all about, noticing that everyone was staring at him.
"What the hell are you so scared of?" Amber asked once again, her displeasure growing by the second.
Kadin cleared his throat as he recovered from his embarrassing state, before his gaze shifted back towards John hovering in the distance.
"He shouldn't be here," Kadin said out loud, "it's impossible!"
"Who is he? And why is his arrival here impossible?" another youth asked with arms crossed over his chest. "And why are you so fucking scared of him? He's only in the Middle Heaven Tribulation Realm!" the youth scoffed with slight mockery.
Kadin's gaze shifted back to the youth who had insulted him, debating whether to attack the youth for his veiled mockery or not. He eventually calmed himself down once more and took a deep breath before starting his explanation.
"It's impossible for him to be here…because I knocked him into the Dao Transformation Trial myself!" Kadin started to explain.
The eyes of the nearby youths widened for a second as they heard this, not expecting to hear such a thing had happened. While they had not gone through the trials themselves, they had heard about them from the others. They knew everyone took the Heaven Tribulation Trial, and even then it had been slightly challenging.
Entering the Dao Transformation Trial was practically a death sentence for anyone below the Dao Transformation Realm, making his statement incredibly shocking.
"He should be dead! There's no way he made it through that trial!" Kadin continued, his voice becoming slightly heated as if he didn't want to believe his eyes.
"Hmph, so what?" Amber scoffed with disinterest, "from what I heard of the Heaven Tribulation trial, I would have been able to get through to when I was at the Late Meridian Forging Realm. Him getting through the trial at the Middle Heaven Tribulation Realm is impressive, but not something that should make you become so pathetic," she said, adding an insult at the end.
Kadin's gaze narrowed with displeasure, but he remained calm as he continued to explain the situation.
"You don't understand…when I knocked him into the trial…he was still in the Late Meridian Forging Realm!"
"What?"
"Impossible!"
Several voices of disbelief sounded out as several of the youths refused to believe Kadin's words. A youth entering the Dao Transformation trial in the Meridian Forging Realm would perish without question.
"You're clearly lying," Amber scoffed as she looked down on Kadin with obvious disdain. Such a thing was impossible. Her disheveled hair and bizarre expressions made her look quite crazy at the moment, as if her recent defeats had driven her mad. Clearly she was starting to lose her grip on reality.
"Why would I lie about an enemy youth in a way that praises him?" Kadin replied angrily.
Amber and the others gazed at Kadin for a moment, studying his face. His steady and grave expression eventually convinced them of his words, causing them to become stunned once again.
"Just who is this kid then?" one of the youths asked.
"His name is John Fenix, from the Heavenly Lightning Sect," Kadin replied.
"John Fenix? I've never heard of him," Amber scoffed once more. "A nobody like him could never have made it through the Dao Transformation trial with his power alone. There's obviously something else going on here," she said as she dismissed Kadin's theory of how John got through the trial.
"What do you mean?" Kadin asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" Amber said as she gazed at John, who continued to hover over the ruined crater he had made. "No one else entered the Dao Transformation Trial, so for all we know, it could have been destroyed over the eons of time. It's most likely that the trial itself is less dangerous than the Heaven Tribulation Trial."
"But-" Kadin replied, but was instantly cut off by Amber once more.
"Even if the trial still is intact, there's zero chance he made it through with his own power. He obviously managed to sneak his way through the realm somehow, avoiding the dangers of the trial. That does not make him strong."
"Then how do you explain his attacks when he arrived?" Kadin refuted angrily.
"Simple…that was most likely a one-time use artifact reward he got for passing the trial. Both that Roar and the lightning attack is far beyond what Middle Heaven Tribulation cultivator can unleash, and so it was clearly a borrowed power and not his own. If my guess is correct, he no longer has anything like that to use," Amber explained her opinions of what had happened.
"Do not underestimate him," Kadin warned gravely.
"Who do you think I am," Amber growled in anger as she unleashed a sword attack towards Kadin, who hastily raised his sword to block it.
Peng!
Weapons collided, and Kadin was thrown violently across the land, coming to a halt several hundred yards later. He stood up slowly, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth, clearly having lost out in that exchange.
"Hehehehehe. Fine. While you cowards grovel here in fear, I'll show you what a true genius looks like," Amber laughed maniacally before saying to the others.
"First that fucking soul art pipsqueak, and now this brat. I refuse to lose to this useless scum," Amber continued, ranting to herself more than speaking to the others. Her mouth widened into a manically sinister smile as she gazed at John with heated bloodthirst.
The other youths gazed at each other with odd expressions as they could tell Amber had finally snapped and lost her mind.</o>
Amber was the number one genius of the Forbidden Alliance, and before Asuros, the number one genius of the enemy powers. She had been cowed by Asuros, and then Miko, injuring her arrogant pride twice. Now with John's arrival, she had snapped from the consecutive blows to her pride, and had seemingly finally lost her mind.
Bang!
The ground erupted beneath her feet as her body pressed off with incredible power and shot forwards. Her speed was incredible, and everyone watched as Amber raced towards John who was hovering in the very center of the ruined battlefield.
Fwoosh!
The air parted violently as Amber came to an immediate halt to John's side, just a few dozen yards away from him. John casually glanced to the side towards Amber and raised an eyebrow as he noticed her disheveled and crazy appearance.
He glanced at her with unconcerned disinterest, eyeing her up and down for a moment as he took in her wounded and clearly exhausted condition.
Amber's maniacal smile widened as she noticed his indifferent expression, as if she were not even worth her time. Her desire to cut down John and flay him alive before everyone grew by the second as her unhinged laughter returned.
"Hehehehe! Some of the others seem to think that you're quite the hotshot, but I am not stupid enough to think that you're-"
"Piss off," John replied with dismissive disinterest, not even sparing Amber a second glance as his gaze shifted back down towards the ground beneath him. "I'll deal with you after I'm done with Parker!"
Amber's maniacal expression instantly turned into one of pure rage and anger as she heard John's dismissive reply. She dashed forward with her slender red sword in hand, which slashed out towards John with incredible speed and sharpness. Even in her wounded and fatigued state, she was still one of the strongest youths on the battlefield, and in her mind the foremost genius as well.
This attack of hers was strong enough to kill almost anyone here as she held nothing back. Even with her attack, John did not look at her, and continued to stare at the ground below, infuriating her further.
"You fucking brat! I'll cripple you and flay you alive while you beg for mercy! Even then, that will only be the start to your miser-"
Peng!
A loud ringing sound boomed out over the battlefield as two hard objects collided. The eyes of almost everyone else on the battlefield widened with absolutely stunned disbelief, while Amber's eyes and mouth widened the most of all, feeling nothing but pure shock as she stared at the blade of her sword, which had been casually yet firmly caught by John's outstretched hand.
His calm and indifferent gaze shifted from the ground below his feet towards her, his gaze as if he were staring at an already dead person.
