Ascension of the immortal Asura

John's face scrunched up, as he realized he had let a big secret slip out. He was still quite drowsy and scatterbrained from just waking up after so long that he didn't even think about what he was saying.

"What do you mean your father?" Adam asked, "isn't your father back on the Yuan Continent?"

He knew about John's Fenix Clan lineage and wasn't able to make sense of what John had just said.

"Ahhh…it's hard to explain," John said after a moment of silence, not wanting to elaborate further.

The group realized he wanted to avoid the subject, and their gazes locked onto one another as they shared silent thoughts. They could tell that John's secrets were far more shocking than they had ever imagined, but didn't want to pry if he didn't want to speak about it.

"Take this," Chase said to John as he changed the subject. A pill appeared in his hands, which he wanted John to take.

John inspected the pill, and realized it was a pill meant to fill him with vibrant medicinal energy, meant to temporarily boost his own Qi.

"It's not a healing pill," Chase said as he noticed John's close inspection, "it's just meant to augment your own Qi and life force temporarily, so you can better recover from your wounds through your own means."

"Thanks, Chase," John said as he took the pill and popped it into his mouth. A rich and vibrant energy flooded into his body, which he absorbed into his dantian. His dantian surged with vibrancy, which flooded the rest of his body with energy as he utilized the Celestial Lightning Script to heal his body slowly but surely.

John closed his eyes as he started guiding his Qi around his body, but opened them as he felt a sudden embrace. He looked down at Iris, who was lightly hugging his chest.

"Thank you," she said to him, tears forming in the corner of her eyes. She still felt guilty about what had happened, but was now overwhelmed with relief that John was fine and would recover. A smile appeared on John's face as he reached out and patted her head in a warm manner.

"There's no need to thank me," John said to Iris, "I made the decision to interfere on my own, and I also received some personal gains from your tribulation. If anything, I should be thanking you."

Slight surprise at such a response appeared on Iris's face as she gazed up at John, who smiled back at her. A smile appeared on her face as well as she stood up once more and wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes.

"That's good then," Iris said as she sighed deeply in relief, finally at ease with everything that had happened.

"What do we do now?" Adam suddenly asked, breaking the silence that had filled the cave.

"First, I need focus on fully healing, as well as firming my comprehensions from the tribulation," John said to the group. "Once that's done, we can set out once more."

The group nodded their heads at John's words, and also read between the lines of what he was saying. They wanted to speak more and ask him more questions, but John wanted peace and quiet at the moment to focus on his recent comprehensions received from the tribulation. The longer one went without firming sudden enlightenment, the more they would fade away until eventually forgotten.

"Take this," Chase said to John as he handed him a bottle of the same type of vitality pills he had just given John. John thanked Chase, at which point the three of his friends moved away to other parts of the large cavern, leaving John to himself.

He breathed in and out deeply several times, clearing his mind from the fogginess of just having woken up from his deep slumber, before his divine sense linked with his palace realm, instantly sending him into an enlightened meditative state. The jade piece of the Celestial Lightning Script appeared in his right hand as his mind attuned with it.

Like this, John slowly focused on firming his lightning comprehensions, while slowly healing his damaged body with the Celestial Lightning Script.

…

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

In a rocky and barren mountain range, explosive blasts shattered the land, as a battle between three youths was raging on with great power. Two of the youths were fighting bare handed, their powerful upper bodies bare and exposed. They looked strong enough to lift mountains, and clearly came from the same body art sect. Blood and deep wounds covered their sturdy bodies, as they fought with everything on the line.

They were teaming up against a lone youth, who's arrogant smile mocked the two as he unleashed crimson sword images at his opponents.

All three cultivators were in the Middle Heaven Tribulation Realm, although all three seemed as though they were ready to break through to the next realm at a moment's notice. The battle continued to rage on for a while before the area suddenly went silent.

The lone youth stared at the two bare chested youths before him, who were both lying dead on the ground, several limbs already removed, and large gaping holes in their chests. His sword slashed out, severing their heads from their bodies, before both their heads and bodies disappeared from sight.

A satisfied look appeared on the youths face, as a jade piece suddenly appeared in his hands, while his divine sense entered it.

"Those two said they were the Abson brothers…ah here we go. Rank ninety two and rank ninety one…not a bad haul," the youth mused while he continued to scan the list. His divine sense stopped on a particular name, one that had only dropped in ranking over the past month as others surpassed it.

However, the name had only gone down over three weeks, showing that the person had done nothing of note in that time. The youth clicked his tongue in disappointment before putting the jade piece away, while he sped forward into the distance once more.