Shortly before John left the temple, all the youths within the massive temple realm felt a disturbance, as the aura within the temple realm began to change.
"What's going on?"
"I don't know? Is something happening?"
"Look! The Dragon corpse!"
Boisterous discussion broke out amongst the youths, who finally noticed that the source of the change was the ancient dragon corpse itself. Against their wildest imaginations, the ancient dragon corpse that had existed for hundreds of thousands of years was beginning to fade away, as if it were turning to dust.
The dragon corpse continued to fade from sight, and just as it fully disappeared, the youths all saw a bright white light pierce directly down into the temple beneath it. After the white light disappeared, the dragon corpse faded away for good, shocking everyone who had seen it senseless.
The dragon corpse was dozens of miles long and tall, and yet it had vanished just like that. None of them knew how such a thing was possible, or what had caused it to disappear.
Shortly after, the youths saw the final temple begin to fall back into the earth like the others had, and as it did, another strange energy began to wash through the realm.
"This energy!"
"The realm is closing?"
"I thought we had two more weeks!"
Heated discussion broke out once more as the youths recognized that the realm was beginning to close. When the realm began to close, it lifted some of the internal spatial restrictions between the different regions. This was the only time the spatial talismans given to them by the Honorable Alliance could work, and the talismans would begin to resonate with this energy, signifying the realm was about to close.
Each youth would have a short amount of time to activate the talisman, or be left within the realm forever. Shocked by the sudden turn of events but not wanting to be stuck in the realm, the youths begrudgingly took out their spatial talismans. Many of them wanted to explore for longer, as there were still dozens and even hundreds of unexplored trials within, and even more natural treasures that had yet to be discovered.
The entire realm was still rife with life changing opportunities, but those opportunities would have to be left to the next generation for now. Almost all of them had already obtained life changing opportunities already, and while disappointed the realm was closing early, they had still obtained things they could only have dreamed of before entering the realm.
The memories of their journeys through the realm flooded back for all of them, from their hopeful optimism when first entering the realm, their joyous discoveries of profound opportunities and valuable treasures, the realm of hope becoming a realm of nightmares when the enemy youths invaded, and then their nightmares becoming salvation when the enemy youths were soundly defeated against all odds, saving them from the brink of annihilation.
Most of the youths felt themselves nearly overwhelmed with these memories; memories they knew they would never forget for the rest of their lives.
Carved most deeply in their memories was the overwhelming power displayed by both Miko and John, the two who had saved them from sure death. Both of them had strength beyond what was considered possible, and both carved deep memories into all the youths, serving as a goal to strive for in the future.
The youths gazed up at the top of the stairs, and saw the one who had carved those memories standing at the top, gazing down at the land before him. They could tell that he somehow had become even more powerful after entering the final temple, as if he had been reborn anew somehow. They could tell that they were falling farther and farther behind at each and every moment, which only further ignited their fiery passion for obtaining strength and becoming like John.
John too felt a wave of emotions flood through him as he stared at the youths below him. He took in one last look at the temple realm before him, as he knew he would most likely never see this place again. The battlefield before the steps had been cleaned up and corpses removed, most likely from fellow sect members gathering their dead compatriots to bury back home.
After savoring the moment, John sent Qi into his spatial talisman, which immediately flared with power and wrapped him up with strong spatial energy. The others youth also did the same, and the temple realm which had been host to a calamitous and ruinous battle fell silent once more, the only evidence of what had occurred being washed away by time and grown over by nature, returning the realm to what it was once more.
…
Outside the Jade Dragon Empire realm, the elders from the various Honorable Alliance sects stationed outside noticed the disturbance happening within the realm.
"The realm! It's closing!"
"What? That's impossible? It's supposed to close in two week- You're right. It is closing!"
"Alert the council of Elders!"
They all quickly sprang into action, preparing for whatever the outcome was. They had received grave omens from the Heaven Scrying Sect, and had sent youthful reinforcements as a result. However, they didn't know what dangers were occurring within, or what the outcome would be.
Shortly after realizing that the realm was closing, the Elders watched as the first youth appeared in the area before them, summoned by the massive formation circle they had built outside the realm. A very small sigh of relief washed through the Elders as the first youths showed up, and soon more and more youths were appearing by the second.
One became two, became ten, became a hundred…a thousand. After a few minutes, twenty five thousand youths appeared, John amongst them. After appearing outside the Jade Dragon realm, John's gaze shifted about as he took in the state of what had happened.
Over fifty thousand youths had entered the realm at the start, and twenty five thousand had left. The number of youths appearing slowed down and eventually stopped, putting the final count at twenty six thousand youths.
John sighed deeply as he saw this, as more than twenty five thousand youths had been slaughtered within the realm. Most of those surviving had been the ones who never entered the final realm area, and never encountered the enemy youths.
Those who did enter that final area were the best of the best, and their numbers were barely over one thousand remaining. The Honorable Alliance had taken a massive blow with the deaths of its youths, but at the same time, so had the enemy powers, who had sent their absolute best in, with only one of them managing to escape with his life.
John's gaze swept about the group of youths, and locked onto Miko who stood a short distance away. The two of them exchanged hardened glances and nodded their heads in knowing unison, as there was still one last thing to do.
"So few!" one of the Elders sighed as they noticed that over half had died, and most that had died had been the best of the best.
"We seem to have taken a calamitous loss," another Elder sighed and stepped forward, about to address the group when all of a sudden a flaring soul power and loud booms caught everyone's attention.
A strong soul power flared out from Miko as he inspected each and every youth carefully, marking them for John. John flashed about the thousands of youths, causing chaos wherever he appeared.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The booms continued for a short moment, surprising the elders as they had no idea what was going on. The chaos quickly faded away as John and Miko appeared before the tens of thousands of youths, with around thirty beaten up youths sprawled on the ground before them.
"These are all the enemies who came out with us, and thought they would be able to escape somehow" John's voice boomed out for all to hear. "I'm sure some of you recognize them, and have lost friends and family to them. Feel free to do as you wish to them!"
