Sinister murmurs instantly assaulted John's mind.
"Gah!" John screamed in pain as he focused on erasing the lingering thoughts. His soul power flared as he focused on calming his mind.
Several minutes later, John 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. What is going on?"
John thought about it for several minutes but couldn't come to a definite conclusion.
"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, John 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 John 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. John 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, John could feel some faint comprehensions come to him. Resonating with and comprehending the essence of this holy aura allowed John 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. John 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 John. 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. John took a deep breath before stepping inside the room. Each step forward increased the pressure on John's 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. John gritted his teeth as he sat down and let the aura wash over him. Although this aura was almost unbearable, John 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. John 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!" thought John as he grit his teeth and focused 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, John 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, John practiced both the Mountain Crushing Sword and the Five Step Movement Technique. After exhausting over half his Qi reserves, John 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.
John eventually spotted the distant Dreadel Kingdom come into view. Although he was still quite far from it, John 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!" thought John 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. John 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 die?" asked the boy.