Sinister murmurs instantly assaulted John's mind, wracking his mind and soul with pain.
"Grh!" John grunted in pain as he focused on erasing the lingering thoughts. His soul power flared as he focused on calming his mind.
Several minutes later, he was finally able to calm himself down and erase the lingering murmurs. He started at the corpse in front of him with shock on his face.
'That was at least ten times more efficient than when cultivating with beast blood essence.'
John only guided a minuscule portion of blood essence towards his sphere dantian for his experiment. He wanted to see if human blood essence worked with the Immortal Asura Body art. Much to his shock, he was immediately overwhelmed.
'Human blood essence seems to be more potent for cultivating the Immortal Asura Body art? Not only that, but it also seems to be resonating with the Immortal Asura Body art. I haven't felt this using beast blood essence.'
He thought about the reason for the difference for several minutes but couldn't come to a definite conclusion. While he had speculations, they were just that.
'I suppose the reason doesn't matter, only that it exists. I should take these bodies with me.'
John walked to each of the bodies and stored them in his palace spatial area.
'Good thing that no matter how much time passes, none of the beast corpses rot in spatial dimensions. It should be the same with the human bodies.'
After collecting the bodies, John started walking towards the town gate. He paid no attention to the scurrying villagers. After leaving this village, he looked at his map once more before choosing a direction.
"I should arrive in the Dreadel Kingdom in a few days."
That night, John set up camp before starting his cultivation. A few hours later, he opened his eyes.
"I seem to have hit the bottleneck that father spoke of. No matter how I channel Qi into my dantian, nothing changes."
Every time he cultivated, he could feel the essence and quality of the Qi subtly change. This was the sign that he was advancing in his realm. As his comprehensions increased, so would his ability to refine more powerful Qi. This was the first time that John had experienced a stagnation in his cultivation. No matter what he did, the Qi he extracted from his dantian stayed the same.
"Well, if my cultivation has paused, then I'll just focus on something else for tonight."
John sent his divine sense towards his sphere dantian, at which point he found himself floating in front of the palace. He walked all the way to the holy gate before he stopped. A holy aura radiated out of the gate, cleansing his soul.
"No matter how many times I come here, I'm still amazed. I wonder what's behind this gate?"
John sat down and meditated in front of the gate for several hours. As he sat there and focused on the holy aura washing over him, he could feel some faint comprehensions come to him. Resonating with and comprehending the essence of this holy aura allowed him to learn more about the nature of his soul. This increased comprehension also resulted in his soul power slowly but surely growing stronger.
John sat in front of the holy gate for several hours before he stood up. The soul felt completely refreshed, as if it had just bathed in the holiest of waters. He stared at the gate for a bit before walking to his side.
He eventually approached a large door. A resolute look appeared on his face as he pushed the door open.
A vile, sinister and evil aura washed over him. Murder! Pillage! Desecrate! Defile! Destroy!
All sorts of evil thoughts crept into John's mind. He steeled his heart and did his best to withstand the lingering murmurs. He took a deep breath before stepping inside the room. Each step forward increased the pressure on hiss mind and soul.
Several minutes later, John arrived in front of the large gate. The sinister aura washed over out from the gate, threatening to drive him insane and corrupt his soul. He gritted his teeth as he sat down and let the aura wash over him. Although this aura was almost unbearable, he felt his will being tempered every time he stepped inside of the room. Initially, he had only been able to withstand the room for a few minutes. He knew that if he stayed any longer, he would lose himself to the corrupting aura.
Now however, after enduring this aura night after night, John was able to last almost ten minutes before his mind was at its limit.
"Anything to get stronger!" he said, gritting as he gritting his teeth and focusing on withstanding the aura. Ten minutes later, John felt as if his mind was on the brink of collapse. He hastily sent his divine sense outwards to leave the palace spatial area.
His campsite appeared in front of him once more. John took ragged breath after ragged breath as he clutched his head. The longer he stayed in that place, the longer it would take to erase the sinister murmurs from his soul. Fifteen minutes later, he finally calmed down, the murmurs successfully purged.
"I truly wonder what's behind that gate. What kind of thing could cause such a dreadful aura?"
John truly had never experienced anything like it. He took out a piece of meat and bit into it. After finishing his meal, he practiced both the Mountain Crushing Sword and the Five Step Movement Technique. After exhausting over half his Qi reserves, he stopped practicing and went to bed exhausted.
Several days later.
John was walking on the main road leading to the Dreadel Kingdom. He had left the Skycleave Forest the day prior, and had been traveling on the road since. The road was bustling with people traveling in both directions. Anything from lone persons to large caravans could be seen.
He eventually spotted the distant Dreadel Kingdom come into view. Although he was still quite far from it, he could not see the ends of the kingdom. Stone walls nearly thirty yards tall surrounded the entire kingdom. Behind the walls, grand buildings could be seen lining the various streets. Perched at the highest point within the walls, a grand majestic castle was visible.
'It's much larger than our clan grounds. There must be over one hundred thousand people living here!' he thought as he continued to walk forwards. The Dreadel Kingdom was one of the most prominent powers for thousands of miles, and was almost on par with the Fenix Clan in terms of power.
The ruler of the Kingdom was the Rolde family. They had been the ruling family of the kingdom for hundreds of years. Grant Rolde, the king of the Dreadel Kingdom was a powerful late Core Formation realm expert. The Dreadel Kingdom and the Fenix Clan had a neutral stance towards each other. Although they were not enemies, they were not allies either.
After walking for some time, John finally approached the front gate of the kingdom. The gate was a dozen yards tall, and was heavily guarded. A long line stretched out as the guards inspected each and every visitor.
John was about to step into line when he heard a commotion behind him.
"Move, swine!"
A loud shout echoed out. John turned around to see a large beast rushing forward. A carriage was attached to the beast, and the one who had just shouted was the driver of the carriage.
"An Onyx Horse? It seems to be at the early Mist Creation level, and the driver seems to be a Body Refinement cultivator" thought John
Onyx Horses were often used as travel beasts. They were powerful enough to pull large carriages, while still looking quite regal. He watched the horse approach. Although the horse wasn't a threat to him, he still decided to step to the side as it raced by. The driver, enraged by John's late response, lashed out with his whip.
"You should have moved sooner" yelled the man as the whip came crashing towards John.
"What?" cried the driver. He had expected the whip to severely injure the boy. He was already late to his masters event, and now this boy had dared cause him trouble. He whipped the boy to teach him a lesson, but was completely shocked to see the boy catch his whip with ease.
"Gah!"
The man was violently pulled off the carriage as John tugged on the whip. He crashed into the ground, tumbling over several times before coming to rest right at John's feet. The Onyx Horse came to a halt soon after.
"What's going on?" shouted a displeased sounding voice from the carriage and a young man soon stepped out. He appeared to be around fifteen years old, and had short blond hair and an immature face. The luxurious clothes he wore hinted at his status.
He was about to ask his driver what the commotion was when he spotted him lying on the ground. He looked up towards John and narrowed his eyes.
"How do you want to be die?" asked the boy.
"Excuse me?" John asked, his face scrunched with confusion. The boy's question was completely out of his expectations. The driver had been the one to lash out at him. He only tugged on the whip to teach him a lesson and nothing more.
"I asked how you want to die?" repeated the young boy. Two guards quickly hopped out of the carriage and surrounded John on each side.
'Late Mist Creation! Both of them. Seems like this boy is someone decently important in the kingdom to have two late Mist Creation guards following him around!' Although John was surrounded by two Late Mist Creation realm cultivators, he wasn't worried.
He looked away from the guards and back to the boy as if he was stupid.
The boy became enraged by the way John looked at him. "Capture him!" shouted the boy.
The guards had just arrived on the scene and had not yet taken a chance to assess the situation, but their young masters orders were orders. They took out their weapons and were about to charge at John before they came to an abrupt halt. Fear quickly appeared on both their faces. Their eyes were glued to John's hand.
In John's hand was a small item. It was a small badge which had an ornately carved phoenix on it. It was a Fenix Clan badge, and every member of the Fenix Clan carried one. It was almost impossible to fake, and was used by Fenix Clan members to quickly identify themselves. Although John had this back when he was attacked by the bandits, he had no intention of revealing his identity and had therefore not taken out this badge.
'The guards are pretty blind. I have the Fenix Insignia embroidered on the shoulders and back of my robe!'
"What are you stopping for? Capture him!" shouted the young boy once more. He obviously didn't recognize the Fenix Clan insignia. The boy lived a sheltered and pampered life, and did not care for learning about the surrounding powers. Fear appeared on both guards faces as they quickly admonished the boy.
"Young master, apologize to this man right now!" shouted one of the guards. He quickly followed up by turning to John and said "Young master, please take no offense. Our young master is spoiled and unbridled. He had no idea who you were."
The young boy was confused by his guards' reactions. He was just about to shout out once more when his guard appeared directly in front of him. He bent over and whispered into the boys ears, at which point the boy's eyes grew large with shock.
His guard quickly turned back towards John and spoke out before his young master could cause any further harm. "Young Fenix Clan Master, please accept our most sincere apologies. We will be leaving." The guard quickly turned around and started dragging his young master back towards the carriage.
"Wait!" a shout came from behind the guard. The guard winced before turning around.
"Yes young Fenix Clan master? How can I help you?" asked the guard.
"He asked for my death. Had I not been who I am, I would have certainly died to your hands, and most likely in a miserable way. Don't you think leaving like this is getting off a little too easy?" John asked with slight anger in his voice. If he was some commoner and not a member of the Fenix Clan, he would have surely died right now. All for standing in the path of the carriage for slightly too long.
"Mercy please, young Fenix Clan master. Our young master is the youngest son of Duke Trommel."
The guard was clearly trying to use the young masters status as a shield against any punishment. John scoffed at the man's response. John was a direct descendant of the Fenix Clan leader himself. Not only was the Fenix Clan more powerful than the Dreadel Kingdom, his status was much higher than the boys. Even if the boy was a prince of the Dreadel Kingdom, he would still need to be respectful to John.
John didn't like flaunting his clans power, but every now and then it was needed. This was one of those times. He still felt indignant about the way the driver and boy had treated him. They considered all beneath them, to the point of them taking lives for trivial reasons.
"Duke Trommel huh?" John said for a moment before continuing. "I will be staying in the Dreadel Kingdom for some time. Duke Trommel better give me an acceptable answer for what has happened. If not, I don't mind asking my grandfather Cade Fenix to show up personally."
The guards eyes widened in horror, his worst fears realized. Not only was the boy in front of him a Fenix Clan member, he was also a direct descendant of the Fenix Clan leader. The boy in front of him was someone even Duke Trommel would have to be respectful towards, let alone the Duke's son.
The guard hesitated for a moment before responding "I will relay today's events to Duke Trommel himself. We will give you an appropriate answer before you leave the kingdom."
John nodded his head at the guards answer. The guard breathed a sigh of relief before quickly turning around and getting in the carriage with the boy. He threw the injured driver in the carriage as well, while the other guard assumed the driver's mantle. The Onyx Horse sped off into the distance.
John watched the carriage leave before he started chuckling slightly.
'Although I don't like abusing my status, it is pretty convenient at times. That was pretty refreshing.' he thought with a smile on his face.
John knew what it felt like to be powerless. Most of his life was spent being powerless and watching others soar. Because of this, he had a soft spot for the weak, he understood their struggles. The son of the Duke was clearly someone who didn't care about the lives of commoners and the weak, he only cared about himself. John hated people like him the most.
After dealing with the situation, John stood in line to enter the Kingdom. The nearby people who had been watching the events unfold looked at John with shock and reverence. The son of the Duke was known by all the commoners as a horrible, vicious person. All of them did their best to avoid him at all costs. Seeing the Duke's son take such a loss was quite refreshing for them.
John waited in line for nearly an hour before he reached the front of the line.
"One silver coin," said the guard stationed at the gate.
"Silver? That's quite expensive compared to other places" responded John.
The guard looked at John before responding "The Dreadel Kingdom is the bastion of power in the surrounding area, and as such many people seek to enter and live inside. The silver entrance fee is meant to keep things from getting overcrowded."
"Oh" mumbled John. He took out a silver coin and gave it to the guard.
The guard took the money and handed him a piece of paper. "This paper is proof of your payment. It's good for one week, at which point you'll have to renew it."
John took the paper before heading inside. A bustling city soon revealed itself to John. Thousands of people could be seen walking in the busy streets, going about their daily lives. Mist Creation realm cultivators were quite common, and he even noticed a few Qi Condensation realm guards walking about.
'This place surely deserves its reputation,' he thought as he walked through the busy streets.
He walked for some time before he eventually arrived in front of a large building. It had deep purple colored walls and was ten stories tall and one hundred yards wide. Two majestic lion statues were placed on either side of the front entrance, and a steady stream of people was constantly entering and leaving the building. John read the front sign, which was written in large characters.
"Mystic Trade Hall? Never heard of it. Let's see what's inside."
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