Ascension of the immortal Asura

Araxus' arrival stirred the crowd into another frenzy, especially the Yang-Dao Sect supporters. While Jaxus was ranked number two and Araxus number three, the two had spent their entire lives as the two top geniuses of the sect, constantly swapping places. The two were almost exactly equal in strength and talent, and so there was still hope that a Yang-Dao Sect member made the grand finals.

John grinned at Araxus', as his boisterous arrival had dampened the Sword-Saint's momentum even more. The two acted as if the Sword-Saint, who was still standing nearby, didn't even exist. This tournament was for them, and they were the next two to fight. The Sword-Saint had used this opportunity to boast about Ji'Han's engagement, but that had been completely overshadowed by the two of them.

The Sword-Saint frowned deeply upon being ignored in such a fashion, but knew he would only cause a greater headache for himself if he tried to argue against John and Araxus. He turned and took to the sky a moment later, maintaining his dignity and poise, as if their arrival was all part of the plan. John watched with a satisfied smile as the Sword-Saint slinked away with Ji'Han in tow, then turned his gaze back to Araxus. The youth standing before him was flickering with lightning, as if he was ready to go at a moment's notice. "I have high hopes for this battle," Araxus said with passionate excitement. "My instincts are telling me, warning me even, not to fight you. But I can't help myself when a strong opponent is in front of me."

"I'd expect nothing less from you," John replied, not surprised by Araxus' sharp instincts, or willingness to ignore those instincts. "Hopefully this battle of ours can teach me something new in regards to the lightning Dao," Araxus said with hopeful expectation. "I wonder what's stronger. Your body, or my lightning."

"Oh, I won't be using any body battle arts for this fight," John replied calmly. His words immediately shocked everyone, from Araxus, to the crowd, to even the sovereigns.

"What? Are you conceding before the fight starts?" Araxus asked, head tilted to the side in confusion.

"No, not at all," John shook his head. "It's just that I'm going to only use my lightning Dao as well in this fight, and not any body related arts. I want to see how my lightning comprehensions match up against yours."

Araxus stared at John with a stupefied expression, as did most of the crowd.

"Are…are you a dual cultivator of both essence and body?" Araxus asked, his tone almost as if he were asking a stupid question not even worth uttering. No one, not even the most heavenly of geniuses, cultivated both body and essence. Those that did fell behind their peers in both aspects, resulting in a life of wasted talent. John merely nodded to answer the question, a confident and relaxed smile on his face. His expression alone was proof enough that he wasn't lying, shocking everyone to their core.

They had seen John use some rudimentary lightning Qi before, but nothing special. So far in this tournament, John had mostly used his body strength to get this far, revealing very little of his essence Qi talent. For him to have such heaven-defying body talents, and also be an essence cultivator as well. Well, it was just too much to believe. Part of the reason many thought his Illusory Test Scores to be fraudulent was exactly because of this.

His durability, health, and stamina scores were all one hundred, meaning he was the strongest and most durable body cultivator to ever be tested. That alone would have been jaw-dropping, let alone the other categories that he scored one-hundred in, such as his qi quality, qi quantity, and attack power. Those hinted at something being awry, as body cultivators never had the strongest attack power. Essence cultivators almost always had the strongest attacks, while body cultivators had the strongest defense. When the two clashed, it would be a battle of if the essence cultivator could break the body cultivator's defenses. If they did, they won. If they didn't, they lost.

It was rarely a case that the body cultivator had stronger attacks, forcing the essence cultivator to be on the defense. A deafening silence filled the arena for a short while before Araxus spoke once more, recovering from his shock.

"Between your essence and body, which one is stronger?" he asked, no longer doubting John. Unlike the others, he had a great impression of John, and could tell he wasn't one to lie for false glory or fame. Otherwise, he would have been much more high-profile in the tournament thus far.

"Hmmm?" a thoughtful look appeared on John's face as he contemplated the question, then he shrugged. "They're about the same to be honest." .

His words stunned everyone once more, as such a claim was utterly impossible. He had already shown body strength and durability greater than anything anyone had ever seen for his cultivation level, and was now also claiming his essence talent was on par.

While the claim sounded outlandishly impossible, it was the truth. While his body talent was heaven-defying with his Asura and Jade Dragon inheritances, his essence talent was equally as terrifying. He had a twenty-times compressed dantian, which would have already put him above everyone else as far as essence talent was concerned.

On top of his dantian, he had his essence bloodline ability, which was as heaven-defying as his dantian. With those two combined, the power he could unleash was definitely on par with his body power, perhaps even more so. When combined, he formed the ultimate fighting machine, unmatched by anyone in his same realm.

"Hahaha," a chuckle came from Araxus as he recovered once more. "Just my luck to have to fight someone like you," he shook his head. He breathed in deeply, then locked gazes with John again.

"One last thing," Araxus said, walking towards John. He stopped a few feet away, then reached out and touched John's shoulder. John let the process happen, as he didn't feel any harmful intentions coming from Araxus, and well as the fight not having officially started yet.

Lightning surged from Araxus' hand, piercing into John's body. He instinctively tensed up in surprise, but relaxed a moment later as he felt no danger coming from the lightning. Instead, the lightning coursed through his body, snaking towards his lightning essence runes like a hound following a strong scent.

The profundity of the lightning surprised John, as it was no less profound than his own lightning, and even contained traces of augmentation from Araxus' awakened King Grade essence runes. As Araxus' lightning hit John's essence runes, the essence runes flared to life as if awakened from a deep slumber.

The process startled John, as the runes normally only came out when he himself was using strong lightning abilities, taking strong lightning damage, or using the Celestial Lightning Script.

One by one the runes on his body activated, and in less than a second, his body both outside and within flared brightly as tens of thousands of bright-blue essence runes appeared. The moment they appeared, a wide-eyed look appeared on Araxus' face, who took a step back in even more shock than before. The same shock was on the Sovereign's faces high above, who also instantly recognized the runes on John's body.

"Origin Essence Runes!" the Yang-Sovereign muttered with shock, then turned his head towards the Prime Shadow. "Just how many heavenly secrets does this boy's body contain?"