Lightning flickered and crackled over John's body as he sat within the meditation room with his eyes closed. He ignored the lightning as if it didn't exist, and instead focused his attention on the jade object in his hand, the True Jade Origin Piece of the Celestial Lightning Script.
It had been quite a long time since he had last studied the Celestial Lightning Script, as his comprehensions had hit a roadblock, and he was unable to pierce through to the next layer of the script. He had been stuck on the third layer of the Celestial Lightning Script for over a year now, but thanks to his battle against heavenly lightning during this tribulation, as well as his battles afterwards against beasts, demons, and Asuros, John was finally trying to push his comprehensions of the Lightning Dao to the next stage.
The lightning on his body continued to flicker and crackle with ever increasing intensity, as if resonating with his very existence. At the same time, John's soul linked with the jade piece and the Dao of Lightning, attempting to reconcile the two and push through to the next stage together.
Images of lightning flickered in his mind as the True Jade Origin Piece gave him some insights into the Lightning Dao, which he greedily absorbed into his soul, working to comprehend the truths contained within.
As he studied the jade piece in his hand, he felt as if he were pushing through the hazy fog of Daoly comprehensions before him, just as he had done with the Dao of Power not long ago. Clearly he was almost ready to break through to the Dao Expert stage for the Lightning Dao as well.
The fog continued to this as the lightning insights flooding into him made more and more sense, as if the truth of the Lightning Dao was finally starting to make sense to him. The mental fog continued to become thinner and thinner, as if about to part and reveal more of the truth of the Lightning Dao to him when…
Bang!
A loud blast sounded out while the ship shook violently, instantly stirring John from his deep meditation. Anger coursed through him as his insights faded away right as they were about to be revealed to him.
"Motherfucker…I was this close to breaking through," John grumbled as he hastily stood up and left the room.
"John," Kirii called out as he saw him leave the room, and John couldn't help but groan as he saw a slightly guilty look appear on Kirii's face.
"Ugh, what is it now?" he asked, doing his best to remain calm. He walked to the front of the ship where Kirii was and gazed out through the transparent window, his eyes narrowing as he stared at a group of cultivators hovering before the ship, six in total, who all wore the same brown colored robes. There were four men and two females, who all had mischievous smiles on their faces as they stared at the ship before them.
"Dao Transformation huh? All six of them," he mumbled.
The ship and the cultivators hovered about a mile up in the sky, while a sprawling land of verdurous mountain ranges and meandering rivers stretched out as far as the eye could see, with not a single sign of civilization in sight.
"I…may have strayed off the path slightly," Kirii spoke up with a guilty tone as he scratched his head in an awkward manner. "Sorry, I got too excited about flying around and lost track of where we were."
"Ugh," John grumbled again, still irked that his mediation session had been interrupted on the verge of a massive breakthrough. However, he didn't become angry at Kirii, but instead directed his rage towards the cultivators outside, who had clearly been the ones to stop the ship and wake him from his meditation.
"Let's go see what these fuckers want," John grumbled as he opened the side-door on the ship and stepped out, while Kirii followed closely behind. He waved his hand as they left the ship, returning it to his spatial realm, and gazed with cold indifference at the group before him.
"What do you want?" John addressed the group coldly.
"What do we want?" the man standing at the front of the group replied while smirking. He had short blonde hair and a rugged yet somewhat attractive face, and appeared to be in his mid thirties. For him to be in the Dao Transformation Realm and yet look in his thirties, his talent was not bad, indicating that he had broken into the Dao Transformation Realm before he turned one hundred.
While such a cultivation speed was nothing compared to the geniuses of the continent, it was far better than the average cultivation most had.
"You've entered our territory, unannounced and uninvited, and you have the audacity to ask us what we want?" the man said mockingly.
"Your…territory?" John asked as he gazed around in all directions, seeing nothing but mountains, trees, and rivers, but not a single building or city in sight.
"Yes, the territory of the Black-Snake Mercenary Company," the man replied proudly, as if that name should mean something to John.
"Oh, I see, so you're just a group of bandits then," John replied calmly, finally understanding the situation. At the same time he rubbed his head in frustration at the situation, but realized why he was insured to follow the proper roads guarded by sects and cities, lest he run into situations like this.
"What did you say?" the man asked coldly upon hearing John's reply. "Kid, do you have any idea who you're talking to?"
"Nope, no idea," John said as he shook his head, "but I'm guessing you stopped me to take the opportunity to rob me, thinking of me as an easy target? Am I wrong?"
"Why are we wasting time speaking to this disrespectful brat? Let's just finish him and be done with it," one of the women spoke up, staring at John as if he were a piece of meat about to be carved up.
"Tough luck kid," the leading man spoke up again. "Had you shown some respect to me and my Black-Snake Mercenary Company, I might have let you off the hook, but my woman has spoken. You can only blame yourself for being stupid enough to stray into my territory, and with a flying ship as well. You must be from some decent off family to have a flying ship, but if you were from a true power, you would no doubt be flying with something better."
"Hahahaha," John started laughing wildly, as if he had lost his mind.
"Look at this brat. He's already gone mad with fear. How pathetic," one of the men in the group mocked John, thinking, while the others laughed at his comment.
John's laughter simmered down eventually, and he exhaled deeply while staring up at the sky overhead.
"I was starting to run low on human blood essence, but you've all gratefully decided to offer yourselves up to me," John said as his gaze slowly lowered towards the group before him. "But you should rejoice. Once I absorb your blood essence, you'll all can finally become part of something not completely worthless. And the best part is…I can finally test how strong my Dragon-God Shift is, with your lives being used as the measuring stick. It's just unfortunate that the strongest of you is in the Middle Dao Transformation Realm. Try not to die too quickly," he said while smiling at them like a predator staring at prey, while his eyes started to glow with a golden brilliance and his body rapidly changed, parts becoming covered in green scales.
"He's fucking crazy! Let's kill him," the woman yelled, while the others took out their weapons as well. While they didn't know why, their instincts were flaring at the moment to kill the youth before them as fast as possible.
"Brat! Die!" the man roared as he moved towards John, while a black saber appeared in his hand. The saber had a white etching of a snake on both sides of the blade, which lit up with formational might, further augmenting the weapons power.
"Black-Snake Slaughter!" he roared as he slashed his sword out, unleashing a powerful Qi attack that quickly formed the image of a massive snake, its gaping maw striking out towards John.
Boom!
