Ascension of the immortal Asura

John's rage instantly ignited as he felt himself about to slip over the edge, but he controlled his rising rage as he sped towards Adam. He arrived before his friend in an instant, his face becoming further twisted and enraged as he inspected Adam's wounds closely. The wounds on his body were beyond ghastly, and John could only imagine the pain his friend had felt during his gruesome ordeal.

John inspected Adam for any sign of life, but there were no visible signs at all. His divine sense flared out and inspected Adam closely, his face becoming even more enraged as his divine sense revealed the extent of the internal injuries his friend had sustained.

Thrum!

The faintest thrum was detected by John's divine sense, the thrum of a barely beating heart.

"Adam!" John called out. Against all odds, Adam still hung onto the very last vestiges of life. However, his life force was so small as to be almost non-existent, and John knew his friend would die at any moment.

"Hang on!" John called out to Adam, who was unconscious and unable to respond at all. A healing pill appeared in John's hand, and he guided it into Adam's mouth and into his stomach. However, his face scrunched up in rage and panic as the pill fell right out of Adam's exposed entrails and onto the ground before him.

"Shit! What do I do?" John yelled out in frustrated panic.

Adam's internal damage was so severe that his stomach was beyond damaged and was basically no more. Without his organs to digest and process the healing pill, it was completely useless to feed him such a thing. It was a miracle that Adam was still alive, and he was only alive due to him being a Meridian Forging cultivator. However, that life was about to be snuffed out, and John had no way of helping his friend.

Thrum!

Thrum!

Silence!

The last thrums of Adam's faint heartbeat finally ceased, and a soft whisper of his last breath leaving his lungs sounded out. John felt a cold wave of numbness wash over him as he watched his close friend die, while his mind went blank as well.

The silence seemed to linger on for an eternity, as John stared into nothingness. In the sea of numbness he felt, an ember ignited within John's soul, the ember of rage and fury. The ember quickly grew into a raging fire, and John felt his sanity begin to slip from his grasp. However, he did nothing to stop it, as he allowed it to consume him.

His aura began to climb as he prepared to let himself be consumed. Suddenly, a hand rested on his shoulder, while a soft whisper entered his ears.

"Don't lose control, or you'll kill your friend."

John instantly snapped out of his state of fury, and his emotionless gaze shifted to look at the figure that had appeared next to him. The figure was shrouded in a black robe, and had a hood as well that seemed to block all light from escaping, further hiding their features. John's eyes narrowed as he recalled the words just whispered, and he felt his anger rise once more.

"Kill my friend? My friend is already dead," John replied, his anger rising once more.

"I won't allow that to happen," the shrouded figure replied, the voice gentle and soft. John's anger instantly subsided as the words entered his ears, and at the same time, an incredible aura began to radiate from the shrouded figure. The combination of voice and aura shocked John, as he had experienced it once before in his life.

"It's you!" John exclaimed, although the figure ignored his words and instead focused on Adam.

The incredible aura was guided into Adam's body, and John watched with eyes wide open as the gruesome wounds on Adam's body slowly began to heal. The shrouded figure shuddered for a moment, but continued to infuse their power into Adam's body.

"It's not enough," the figure said softly in frustration, and after a moment of hesitation, the aura from the figure skyrocketed outwards, gold and light green in color, and brimming with absolute healing energy. A green light escaped from the dark hood of the figure, as if there was a bright light source glowing from within.

The healing energy instantly climbed in both power and profundity, which the figure once again guided into Adam's body. The gruesome wounds continued to slowly heal, but at the same pace as before the figure's aura exploded. However, John could tell that most of the healing energy was not being used to heal the wounds, and was instead focused on Adam's soul, heart, and life force.

The crowd watched on in stunned silence as the aura from the shrouded figure shocked them, as it was beyond anything they had felt before. John stared nervously at Adam, whose wounds had been healed by a considerable margin. His entrails which hung out of his body had returned back into the correct place, and the wounds on his stomach and face had begun to close as well.

However, there was still no sign of life, as all John heard was silence. After what felt like an eternity.

Thrum!

The faintest thrum sounded out, so soft that it was barely audible. John's eyes widened, and his divine sense flared out once more as hopefulness appeared on his face. After what felt like another eternity…

Thrum!

Another thrum sounded out, as Adam's heart once again began to beat, and the faintest signs of life appeared. John's expression instantly turned from hopefulness to absolute elation as Adam seemed to be raised from the dead, and returned to the world of the living. The healing energy from the figure next to him continued to flood into Adam's body, but John could tell that they were already reaching their wits end.

The figure's aura had rapidly declined as soon as life returned to Adam's body, and they began to sway slightly. John gazed at the figure next to him, unsure of what to say, when his face suddenly twisted up in rage once again.

He turned on his heels, and watched as an incredibly powerful battle art sailed directly towards him from within the crowd, its power beyond anything he had experienced in these lands thus far.

The battle art contained no sharpness at all, and was instead an incredibly concentrated and powerful blast of Qi. It contained traces of Dao's John had never experienced before, but he could tell it was beyond dangerous.

His aura exploded out in absolute rage once again, as he felt the desire to tear to shreds whoever dared to attack him in this moment.

"Stop!" the figure next to him exclaimed in a panic. "Your friend is beyond weak. Your aura alone will kill him, and I cannot save him a second time!"

John's aura instantly died down as he listened to the figures' words. His rage exploded even further as the thought of losing Adam again entered his mind, but he didn't dare to unleash that rage any further.

In an instant, he sent a command through his soul as he sensed the presence of someone near him, while he bounded forward towards the oncoming attack. Space seemed to shimmer as something arrived next to Adam, whose body was instantly wrapped up in the same shimmer of space. John's battle axe appeared in his hands as he arrived before the attack and guarded against it with pure physicality. He could not unleash a counter attack, or the explosion between battle arts would overwhelm Adam.

The blood within his body tumbled and his bones creaked as his body skidded backward, his feet carving a deep trench into the earth. The power of the attack was incredible, and his physical only defense was not able to resist it. However, his actions slowed down the attack for long enough, and John felt the shimmering figure finally leave the area with Adam in tow.

As soon as the shimmer was out of range, his power climbed once again as he unleashed his full rage and fury. However, his hastily mounted defense resulted in him only being able to use a fraction of his power. His backwards momentum had already reached a shocking speed, and his power was not able to reach a zenith in time to resist the attack.

His body shot backwards like a bullet, and the crowd gasped in shock as they saw his body vanish into the portal behind him. Their gazes all shifted upwards to the top of the portal as they re-read the words they knew existed there.

Dao Transformation!