Ascension of the immortal Asura

Jaxus' large saber slashed downwards on his opponent, its power like that of an erupting volcano. The arena trembled as his sword slammed onto Ji'Han's, who had raised it outwards to block the attack.

Boom!

Weapons collided, and the earth beneath their feet shattered, sending a shower of rock and magma outwards, creating a large crater that stretched all the way down to the arena's floor, revealing it once more.

A moment after the weapons collided, Ji'Han shot backwards, using the power of Jaxus' attack to create some space. Jaxus' sneered and shot forward again, his fire-cloaked figure leaving a fiery afterimage as he appeared before Ji'Han immediately.

Boom!

Weapons collided again as Jaxus' explosive power drowned him and Ji'Han, rocking the arena once more. An instant later, Ji'Han's figure blasted out from the explosion of fire before coming to a halt in the air a hundred yards off the ground. Despite taking two head on attacks from Jaxus, he appeared unscathed and unbothered, his face calm and aura steady.

The explosion of fire faded away, revealing Jaxus once more. The two locked gazes for a second, Ji'Han looking at the saber in Jaxus' hand then back at his opponents eyes.

"I thought we were skipping the testing blows and going straight to using battle arts," Ji'Han said calmly with a slight tone of questioning.

A smirk appeared on Jaxus' face. "We are! Nine-Petal Destruction!"

Ji'Han's eyes suddenly shifted to his weapon in his hand, his eyes widening ever so slightly as two bright runes, both fiery in color, sprung to life on his sword blade. The runes took the shape of a nine-petaled lotus, both brimming with the power of descriptive yang energy.

The runes activated in an instant, both exploding right in Ji'Han's face. The twin explosions were far more powerful than the explosions created when sword met saber, shaking the arena, the stadium, and the Yang-Sphere with its remnant power. Up to this point in the tournament, this explosion was the strongest yet by a considerable margin.

The crowd gasped in shock as the explosion blasted onto the defensive formation screen surrounding the arena, which flared to life to block the powerful blast. Pure yang flames filled the entire arena like an ocean of fire, leaving not a single inch of land or sky untouched.

The yang flames roiled for a short while before finally fading away, revealing the two youths once more. Both stood in the same place they had been before the explosion, almost as if nothing had happened. Jaxus' flashed towards Ji'Han once more, the latter taking action and moving to the side, narrowly dodging Jaxus' saber strike.

John's gaze narrowed as he studied Ji'Han, whose pure white robe now contained the slightest traces of damage, as did his skin. While the damage was only superficial and Ji'Han's wounded skin began to heal and mend at a visible rate, returning his body to perfect condition, it was the first time that anyone had seen Ji'Han take damage.

"Whoa! The first win of this battle goes to Jaxus, and for the first time in this tournament, Ji'Han has taken damage from an opponent! The last time we saw him take damage was three years ago, in his battle against the very same opponent he now faces!" the announcer exclaimed, followed by a roar of cheering from the overwhelmingly Yang-Dao Sect supporting crowd.

"I should have expected as such," Jaxus sneered, clearly disappointed by the minimal damage his battle art had inflicted on Ji'Han. In fact, the damage was so superficial that Ji'Han's health hadn't even dropped yet. "That Flame Attribute body of yours is a true pain in my ass."

With Ji'Han having a Flame Attribute Body, the damage Jaxus' Yang based abilities could do was greatly minimized. This also meant that Ji'Han's flame based abilities were less effective against Jaxus, but with Ji'Han specializing in the sword while Jaxus' specialized in yang-based battle arts, the advantage went to Ji'Han.

"That was a new ability," Ji'Han said calmly, inspecting his sword closely to see if there were more lingering runic arts like before. He discovered none, and looked back towards his opponent.

"I see," Ji'Han said. "Each time your saber touches something, you can leave behind a runic art like that. How troublesome!"

"Figuring out what the ability does doesn't mean you'll be able to deal with it," Jaxus smirked, unconcerned about his art being figured out. It was a relatively straightforward art, meant to give him an advantage in direct combat instead of being used deceptively.

In their future exchanges, Ji'Han would need to avoid direct contact with Jaxus' saber, otherwise he would need to deal with the runic arts left behind.

"Who said I need to deal with such mundane art?" Ji'Han asked, his voice and expression as tranquil as a gentle stream.

"Mundane?" Jaxus scoffed questioningly. "Then let's see how you deal with this 'mundane' art of mine!" he roared, then sped forward once more. As he did so, Ji'Han also moved, using his own movement art to dash to the side. Like this, the two raced through the sky above the arena, like twin beams of light, one pure white, the other fiery red.

Both were moving at incredible speed, as a strong sword Dao emanated from Ji'Han's body, while powerful yang-flames exploded behind Jaxus, propelling him forward at speeds most in the crowd were unable to follow. Even John couldn't help but nod his head approvingly, as it was the fastest he had ever seen others in his cultivation realm move.

"So fast!" Naelia exclaimed with shock. "I can't even follow them with my eyes!"

"That's to be expected," Zuri said while watching the fight intently. "They're a full major realm above you, and are the pinnacle geniuses of this world. If you could follow their movements, their statuses as pinnacle geniuses would be nothing but a joke."

"But…how am I supposed to know what's going on?" Naelia pouted, trying to figure out what was going on in the arena below. All she could see was the afterimages of the two geniuses soaring through the sky, their blades finally connecting in a series of blows too fast to follow.

Zuri shrugged, unable to help Naelia with her issue. Still pouting with disappointment, Naelia looked sideways at John, whose eyes were darting around the arena, following the two fighters as they sped throughout the battlefield.

"Can you follow what's going on?" she asked him curiously, and received a silent head nod from John.

Naelia harrumphed again with disappointment, then fell silent and continued to watch the fight, hoping to catch a glimmer of action here and there.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Saber and sword collided a thousand times a second, the power of each exchange trembling the ground below and the sky above. After several seconds of exchanges, Jaxus suddenly shot backwards and sneered at Ji'Han.

"Let's see you withstand this! Nine-Petal Destruction!" he roared, his power flaring to life as he activated a thousand runic imprints left behind in their previous exchange.

Ji'Han's sword suddenly erupted with a blinding bright light of fiery orange and red as a thousand runic imprints sprang to life on his sword. The crowd gasped in shock and horror at the sight, as two explosions had already been so powerful. Even though he was Ji'Han, would he be able to survive the combined power of a thousand Nine-Petal Destructions?

His expression still as calm as ever, Ji'Han slashed his sword out towards Jaxus the moment before the explosion. The thousand runic imprints created by Jaxus had somehow been thrown off his sword by Ji'Han, streaming towards Jaxus like a meteor shower. The moment they reached Jaxus, each imprint completed its activation.

A thousand calamitous explosions combined into one, drowning everything in calamitous ruin with Jaxus in the very center of the storm.

BOOM!