Ascension of the Immortal Asura

The silence within the arena felt deafening, as almost no one made any noise at all. Millions were standing upright, not even realizing they had stood up in instinctual awe when John had unleashed his Dragon-God Shift. They looked at him with stupefied expressions, still trying to comprehend what they had seen and felt. After several seconds of silence, the Yang-Dao Sect Elder finally regained his wits and announced the final result.

"The victor by forfeit, John Fenix!"

The crowd was silent. Then it roared to life with a mixture of emotions, ranging from disbelief to pure excitement. The roaring crowd shook the arena with its cries, like a million beasts roaring out in unison. Even those who had hated John thus far and wished for his demise were calling out with wild emotion, forgetting the grudges they had against him. His aura, his performance, his sheer power was too much for them to contain themselves.

They had seen the impossible happen before them, and none could stay calm upon seeing such a thing happen.

While the crowd came to life with mixed emotions, John continued to look at Chloe, who remained kneeled before him, eyes glued to his. It was as if she could not remove her gaze from him, still stunned and awed by what she had personally witnessed.

After a short moment of sharing this gaze, John smiled and extended his hand out towards her. "You should be proud," he said as he withdrew his Dragon-God Shift and his aura returned to normal, then withdrew into him to make him look like an average cultivator, and not one who had just defied all realms of logic and reason. "Proud?" Chloe repeated absentmindedly, then reached out and took his helping hand.

John nodded again as he pulled her to her feet. "Yes, proud," he repeated. "That's the most damage I've taken from an opponent my age in many years. The damage I sustained from your attack was not light, and if not for my formidable healing factor, it would have been a decisive blow."

Chloe's expression and gaze remained scattered and unfocused for a while, her mind still working out everything that had happened, and still processing her sudden and unexpected defeat. Her gaze eventually cleared up, once more focusing on John's face. She studied him for a few seconds, then returned a small smile.

"Thanks," she said, nodding ever so slightly. "You're not as bad as the rumors make you out to be."

"I can only imagine what is being said about me," John said, laughing lightly. Chloe laughed a moment later as well, the weight of her defeat slowly fading away. When faced with someone as heaven-defying as John, sometimes all you could do was accept that monsters like him existed, and move on.

She breathed deeply, holding the breath for a long time, then finally exhaled. Her shoulders slumped slightly and body released some of its tension, as if the weight of everything had fallen off her shoulders.

"If you are able to learn how to activate that gravity art at the seventh or eighth stage instantly, you will become a formidable threat in the future, one that even I will have to be cautious of," John said to her, to which Chloe nodded again.

"Thank you, for showing me there are still more heights to achieve in this world of cultivation," she said softly, etching John's power in her mind, making sure she never forgot this overwhelming defeat. "From this day forward, my mind will no longer be bound by the illusory restrictions of possible and impossible. You have shown me a new way to view this world of cultivation."

John's smile widened as he nodded again. "That's the way a cultivator should think. Impossible only means someone hasn't done it before, but it doesn't mean that you cannot accomplish it yourself. If you move forward with this new mindset, I'm sure you will become a formidable powerhouse in the future."

Chloe smiled at him, then silently nodded. John gave her one last nod of parting, then turned to leave the arena. "Wait," Chloe called out. John stopped and looked at her. "Was…was that your full strength?" she finally asked after a short pause. "My defeat stings like the sharpest of pains, but I can rest a bit easier knowing that I managed to push you to use your full power to defeat me."

John gave her an even look, thinking over whether he should tell the truth or not. He eventually decided that he had a rather good opinion of Chloe, and that lying would only hurt her in the long run.

"No, that was not my full strength," John replied, then turned and took to the sky. Chloe looked at him leave with a stunned look on her face, a smile of defeat and acceptance on her face as she turned around and left as well. The two of them soared through the sky in opposite directions. All eyes were on John as he landed next to Naelia and Zuri, the former looking at John with wide eyes full of awe and wonder. John smiled as Naelia started waving her arms widely and raving about his battle, then disappeared with them into the nearby tunnel leading into the stadium's interior.

"...What was that power?" on the exclusive viewing platform, the Mage-Sovereign was standing, so surprised that she had stood up like most of the crowd. Even the Yang-Sovereign was leaning forward in his seat, a rare look of surprise on his face. As for the Sword-Saint, he was gripping the armrests of his chair tightly, fingers digging into the wood, brow furrowed.

The Mage-Sovereign realized her actions a moment later and sat down, coughing once in embarrassment, then turned towards the Prime Shadow. "What was that power?" she asked again.

The Prime Shadow met her eyes, a small smirk on his face as he thoroughly enjoyed the reactions of the other powerhouses. He then shrugged, arms moving out to the side in an unknowing expression.

"I have no idea," he replied. "John has shown me this power before, but never elaborated what the origin of it is."

The Mage-Sovereign narrowed her eyes as if trying to see through the Prime Shadow to tell if he was lying or not.

"It's clearly draconic in nature," the Yang-Sovereign interjected, voicing his opinion. "Obviously," the Mage-Sovereign said. "But I've never felt draconic powers so potent, so…powerful. Such a draconic inheritance is almost unheard of. Even the beasts on the Beast Continent with draconic inheritances don't come close to what we just witnessed."

The Yang-Sovereign shifted his gaze to the side, looking towards the Netherfrost Beasts on the other platform nearby. The Netherfrost Beast leader was standing up, eyes glued to John's last location, clearly shocked by what he had seen. The Yang-Sovereign sent the beast a sound transmission, at which point the Netherfrost Beast flew over to their platform and landed before the Sovereigns. "Who…who is that boy?" the Netherfrost beast asked, voice tinged with shock and awe. He received no answer, as only the Prime Shadow knew, and he was not going to divulge John's secrets.

"Do you know something about the power he used?" the Mage-Sovereign asked, shifting the topic slightly. "It's clearly draconic in nature, but in all my readings and studies, I cannot think of a dragon race that matches the sheer power and profundity of what we all just saw and felt."

The Netherfrost Beast looked at her, then nodded. "Just as there are many races of beasts, there are countless races of Dragons," the Netherfrost Beast said. "Like all other races, Dragons range from weak to strong, with the weakest races having impure bloodlines, while the strongest have pure draconic bloodlines."

The Mage-Sovereign's eyes widened slightly, realizing where the Netherfrost Beast was going.

"Are you saying his inheritance is that of a True Dragons?" she asked, her voice filled with doubt. "How could you possibly know that just from what you saw and felt?"

The difference between a Dragon and a True Dragon was its bloodline purity. There were thousands upon thousands of races that boasted they had draconic blood in their ancestry, and many could be considered as dragons themselves.

However, only the most pure blooded could claim themselves as True Dragons, the mightiest of all dragons. Their status was so lofty and mythical that even the Sovereign's had only ever heard of True Dragons, never having seen or felt the power of one before.

The Netherfrost Beast gave her a pointed gaze, clearly unhappy by her doubt of his words. "When a beast is born, they share the blood and bone of all those who came before it," the Netherfrost Beast explained. "Yes, yes, so do humans," the Mage-Sovereign interrupted. "So do all creatures. So what of it?"

The Netherfrost beast narrowed her eyes, further agitated by her interruption. The Yang-Sovereign gestured for the Mage-Sovereign to let the Netherfrost Beast speak freely, which she begrudgingly obliged to.

"While you humans inherit blood and bones," the Netherfrost Beast continued, "unlike us beasts, you do not inherit the instincts of those who came before. We beasts are different. When one of us encounters another beast of mythical strength, the feelings, the awe, the power, the fear…is etched into our very blood, our very bones. Those feelings and instincts are passed down unfiltered to future generations, making it so that almost each and every beast surviving to this day instinctively knows the powers of other beasts of note."

"So you're saying your ancestor's ran into the type of dragon the boy's inheritance is from?" the Yang-Sovereign asked, to which the Netherfrost Beast nodded.

"My very blood is telling me the truth of that boy's powers," the Netherfrost Beast agreed, his expression and tone turning serious. "In the hierarchy of dragons, True Dragons reign supreme, and can be considered the absolute peak of the beastial world, the Gods of all Beasts. And at the very top of the True Dragons, the ones who reign supreme as mightiest of all dragons….That, is the boy's inheritance," he said, pausing for a moment as the Sovereign's and all those in earshot were stunned silent by the truth.

"The power of Jade Dragons, the Kings of the Dragon-Gods."