Ascension of the immortal Asura

As the Prime Shadow left, so did his Qi that was pushing aside the Dao of Nothingness permeating the area. The fruits slowly started disappearing, as if they were truly vanishing, while even his memory of the fruits started becoming hazy again.

John flared his Qi, trying to push aside the Dao as the Prime Shadow had done, but to no avail. The effects of the Dao of Nothingness continued to grow, forcing him to retract his Qi.

"I don't want to accidentally destroy these…..fruits, otherwise I'll have nothing to study. It's best that I take things slow. The…what was I…that's right…the fruits…I can't forget about them," John rambled to himself, doing his best to maintain a silver memory regarding the fruits.

If he lost that sliver, he would completely forget about the fruits, and who knew if he would be able to detect them after that. John's soul flared with its full might, maximizing his divine sense, soul defenses, memory, and comprehensions. He burned the memory of the fruits into his mind and soul, and then focused on nothing else.

…

Perched on a tree branch high above John, the Prime Shadow peered down, curious at how well John would do in this unique trial. He took a bite of the fruit he had plucked, a satisfied look appearing on his face.

"For a fruit called the Fruit of Nothingness, it sure is flavorful," he said, taking another bite. He quickly finished the fruit, then flicked the core into the air. "It took me a full year to comprehend the Dao of Nothingness to the Dao Adept stage. This boy is a true genius when it comes to combat and cultivation, but I wonder what level his comprehensions are at. Is it at the same level as his heaven-defying combat talent, or is it lacking? Surely the heaven's aren't so unfair as to bless him with prodigious-level talent across the board."

The Prime Shadow mused it over a for a while, studying John's struggle to remember the fruits.

"If his comprehensions are genius-level, it should take him a year. A year to nine months would put his comprehensions at a similar level as the top geniuses of Great Worlds, and six to nine months would put him on the same level as a Hegemon World genius. For this child to be able to master this assassination art to its fullest, and have the potential to complete it as my master had intended, he will need Hegemon level comprehensions. So, which will it be, child?"

…

The battle between John and the Dao of Nothingness continued on for a long time, with John struggling just to remember his task at hand. The memory of the fruits ebbed and flowed in his mind, sometimes a strong memory, other times barely a memory at all. Each time the fruits nearly slipped from his mind, he focused everything he had on maintaining that sliver of memory.

"The Dao of Nothingness may be impressive, but so am I," John said to himself, trying to maintain his confident composure in such an unusual battle.

After a full day of struggling to maintain the memory of the fruits, John established that permanent sliver he had fought for. The fruits were hazy in his mind, and translucent, almost invisible in his vision, but they were still there, still remembered.

"That's good enough for now," John said to himself, finally sitting down on the ground in a meditative position. His soul ached from using it as he had for a full day, and so he focused on recovering his mental wits for a while before continuing.

Soul refreshed and recovered several hours later, John resumed his task of studying the fruits, and the Dao they emanated. However, every time he tried to focus on the Dao and not the fruits, his thoughts would slip away, fading into nothingness.

"Tch," John clicked his tongue in frustration. "Focusing on a Dao that doesn't want to be felt is beyond frustrating."

He continued to focus on the Dao of Nothingness from the fruits, but made almost no progress at all despite several days passing by. Every time he started, he forgot about the Dao a short while later, resetting his progress. Unlike other Dao's, where studying it was additive, and each second spent studying it added to the comprehensions already built up, the Dao of Nothingness seemed to erase all progress, resetting his comprehensions to zero whenever he forgot about it.

"Will I have to comprehend the Dao to the Dao Adept stage all in one go, without forgetting once? Just how long will that take?" John mused, thinking it over instead of trying to brute force the issue.

Night fell on the forest, bathing it in darkness, followed by a bright rising sun. This process continued several times as the days passed by, with John doing his best to study the fruits, and the Dao of Nothingness. However, his progress was very slow, frustrating him greatly.

"At this rate, it would take months for me to even have a chance at comprehending this Dao, and that means months of not cultivating, not battling, not raising my combat prowess. That is unacceptable."

Frustrated by his slow progress, John decided to take a break, focusing on other things. Forcing himself wouldn't do him any good, and would only make him frustrated, which was not good for meditation, when a calm mind was needed.

John spent the next day cultivating instead, slowly but surely raising the Qi in his dantian, edging it closer to the Middle Dao Transformation Realm. His Primordial Lightning Examination technique created thousands of mini-whirlpools within his body, which greedily sucked up the dense Qi around him, then funneled it towards his dantian.

High above, the Prime Shadow watched with surprise as John cultivated.

"What cultivation technique does this boy have to disturb the Qi around him so fiercely? It's as if he's a World Expansion cultivator with the amount of Qi he's drawing in, and not an Early Dao Transformation child. The secrets this boy holds are countless it seems," he mused, equally surprised and impressed.

John felt his essence dantian swell with Qi, and following the principles of his Primordial Extermination Lightning cultivation technique, he used that Qi to not only strengthen his dantian, but also slowly change its very nature, from an unaspected dantian, to one that naturally favored the Lightning Dao. While he was still able to generate Qi in all its forms, when wanting to, his dantian naturally turned his Qi into potent, destructive lightning Qi, allowing him to skip the step of using his comprehension to change his base Qi into lightning Qi.

This allowed him to unleash more powerful lightning at a much quicker speed than other lightning cultivators, giving him a great advantage in combat. John basked in the feeling of growing his cultivation, which now teetered on the edge of the Middle Dao Transformation Realm.

"It's only been five months since I stepped into the Dao Transformation Realm, and I'm ready to break through to the next realm, and I haven't really focused on cultivating these last three months either. Had I focused entirely on cultivating, I would already be in the Middle Dao Transformation Realm. At this pace…I might be able to reach the World Expansion Realm in less than two years. The natural QI thickness of this world really is amazing."

John was now nineteen, and reaching the World Expansion Realm at the age of twenty one would stun his homeworld completely.

"It would definitely cause a storm back home, but I wonder how it compares to this world? At what age do the geniuses of this world step into the World Expansion Realm? I suppose I'll ask the Prime Shadow when I finish this training."

With his cultivation slow close to breaking through, John decided to focus on that instead for the moment. A few days later, the world around him erupted with power for a brief moment as his essence dantian broke through the barrier, stepping into the Middle Dao Transformation Realm.

A short while later, his body dantian broke through as well, putting him firmly in the Middle Dao Transformation realm. John smiled as he inspected his progress, satisfied with the increase in strength he felt. After savoring the feeling for some time, he calmed his mind once more, returning to the important task; comprehending the Dao of Nothingness.