"Please, let me go," the leader of the Black Snake Mercenary Company pleaded as his neck was gripped by John's green-scaled right hand. "I'll give you whatever you want. I have a hidden stash nearby that I can lead you to, just let me live!"
"Is this truly the limit of a normal Dao Transformation cultivator?" John scoffed, his golden eyes glowing brilliantly as he stared at the man. "Unfortunately for you, your blood essence is more valuable than any treasures you could give me," he said as he tightened his grip and snapped his neck, killing the man instantly.
His battle with the six Dao Transformation cultivators had ended almost as fast as it had started, which John felt nothing but disappointment towards. Only the man in his grip had managed to put up a sliver of resistance, although that resistance had only lasted for less than a minute.
Not only was the man's combat prowess disappointing compared to his cultivation level, but his battle arts were also quite pathetic and weak, at least when compared to the heavenly battle arts he had faced in the Jade Dragon Empire realm.
"I suppose normal people like you cannot be compared to true geniuses after all," John mused as he thought over the battle. "Even an early Dao Transformation genius would have lasted much longer than this group had managed to last."
If it were someone like Asuros or Amber, they would have managed to make the battle at least somewhat interesting even if their cultivation was in the early Dao Transformation realm. In fact, if he used only his Dragon-God Shift, Amber or Asuros at the Early Dao Transformation Realm would have been quite a good fight, as that was three minor realms higher than his current cultivation. However, the man he had just killed was a minor realm above that, and yet he had put up such a meager resistance.
‘I suppose I've reached the realm where battle prowess cannot be easily measured. A late Dao Transformation cultivator might be blown away by a single attack of mine, while an Early Dao Transformation genius could very well put up a decent fight. It all depends on the talent of the cultivator and the quality of their battle arts, so at least this battle has taught me that much," John mused out loud as he quickly severed the man's head and stored it in his spatial realm.
His divine sense linked with the palace in his spatial realm, transporting his soul-form into it. He appeared before the massive pool of blood essence and stood at the edge, staring down into it.
Sigh!
John sighed deeply as he stared at the pool, which was now mostly empty. It had been filled to a high level about a year ago, when he had stored the blood essence of all the cultivators killed in the Bloodfiend Sect assault, as well as Allfiends blood essence.
"Allfiend had a Late Dao Transformation cultivation, so his blood essence was able to increase the quality of the blood essence mixture by quite a bit, but now that my cultivation is at the Late Heaven Tribulation Realm, I require much more of it to break through. I exhausted almost all the available blood essence when I broke through, so I'll need to acquire more in the near future if I want to break through again.
The blood essence of these six mercenaries is not great, but it's better than nothing," he mused as he extracted the man's blood essence and infused it into the pool of blood, and did the same with the five other corpses, raising the level of the pool ever so slightly.
After doing so, John appeared in another room of similar design to the previous. He had discovered it much later than the first pool room, as more and more rooms seemed to open up each time he raised his cultivation level.
This room also contained a massive pool, even larger than the previous. In fact, it was several times larger, and contained the beast blood essence he used for fueling his body dantian. The blood essence from the Dao Transformation beasts he had slain in the trial realm was collected here, but was also beginning to become sparse.
"I'll need to purchase quite a bit of beast blood essence, or go on a hunting trip soon. Otherwise, I won't be able to use my body dantian after a few more uses until I get more blood," he mused as his soul-form left the palace realm and returned to his body in the real world.
After cleaning up the battlefield, John waved his hand once more to summon the flying ship from one of his spatial rings, in which the ship was stored. The ship appeared before them and John and Kirii quickly entered, to which John glanced at Kirii with a serious expression.
"So now you know why its so important to stay on the proper path," he scolded Kirii as he guided the ship through the air, back in the direction of the proper travel routes which meandered through areas of dense civilization.
"Even if it's something we can handle, being interrupted like this only slows down our progress, and it also stirred me from my meditations right when I was about to make a large breakthrough, which has set me back several days, possibly weeks," John explained his frustrations to Kirii.
"Sorry. I just got distracted chasing a flying beast before. I'll be sure to stay on the proper route this time," Kirii replied sincerely.
"Good. Then just follow this direction until you see the massive sprawling roads and cities below us, and that's when we'll have returned to the proper route. Then follow the route I showed you earlier until we reach Five-River Freeport," John instructed before returning to his meditation chambers.
"Aye!" Kirii replied with a large smile as he returned to the command console, happy to steer the ship once more as if it was the most entertaining thing to do.
…
The flying ship continued to soar through the air for days, while John stayed in his meditation chamber the entire time, trying to reignite the spark of insight towards the Lightning Dao he had before. However, the spark of insight had left him already, causing him to be frustrated at his setback.
Realizing that forcing the issue would not be the best thing to do, John put aside the Lightning Dao and meditated on the Dao of Annihilation and Dao of Destruction, which had fallen behind his comprehension of the Dao of Power.
The Dao of Power was an all-purpose Dao, increasing the power of whatever attack was being utilized. However, the Dao of Annihilation and Dao of Destruction were different, with more specialized purposes.
The Dao of Annihilation focused on living things, and increased attack potency and lethality of attacks against living targets, while the Dao of Destruction focused more on pure destruction with a wider range of carnage, not caring whether the target was living or inanimate.
The Dao of Annihilation was suitable for use with his scythe arts, while the Dao of Destruction was better suited for his battle axe arts.
John ruminated on his insights into these Daos as the ship sailed towards their destination, and made significant progress with both as he thought back to his battle that had utilized both of these Daos.
While comprehending these Dao's, the ship started to slow and eventually came to a halt, stirring John from his meditative ruminations once again. However, the stopping was much less jarring than last time, which made John realize they had most likely arrived at their destination.
"We've arrived," Kirii said as he saw John leave the meditation room, to which John nodded his head and walked to the front of the ship next to Kirii. He gazed out of the front window and his eyes widened in surprise as a city far more unique and grand than any he had seen came into view.
"Five-River Freeport!"
