Ascension of the Immortal Asura

John's scythe slashed out quickly, and a bright red scythe image pierced directly towards Alix.

Crimson Blade Slash!

The scythe image emitted great power and speed, and reached Alix in an instant. Alix slashed his own sword out to parry the attack, and the battle arts collided. Alix's attack successfully neutralized John's attack, and he was just about to send out his own counter attack, when another scythe image was in front of him.

Che!

Che!

Che!

Scythe image after scythe image pierced towards Alix with great power as John mimicked Alix's attack style. Still in the recovery process after his last barrage of attacks. Alix could only defend against John's continuous onslaught.

At first, John's attack speed was a bit slower than Alix's, as continuous attacks like this were not his forte. However, he quickly picked up on it, and his scythe began to slash forward at incredible speed, sending out faster and faster attacks.

Alix's sword continuously slashed out as well to meet the constant barrage of Crimson Blade Slashes, and the arena and stadium was once again rocked by the powerful battle arts exploding outwards. 

The disciples watched in awe at the battle before them, while the Elder's watched intently at the battle between two of their most promising disciples.

John's continuous attacks continued to overwhelm Alix, as if there was no end to his Qi supply. Both the disciples and the Elder's were surprised at John's endurance, as his barrage had lasted even longer than Alix's by now.

"Just how much essence Qi does John have?" A disciple exclaimed.

"I don't know, but this doesn't make sense. Either he had a variant body that stores incredible amounts of Qi, or his dantian was compressed an incredible number of times," another replied, unsure of what the real reason was.

Even the Elder's watching from high above were impressed by John's display, as his attacks were only growing stronger, not weaker.

"Who is this boy? Why have we not heard of him before today?" an Elder asked.

"He was just an outer sect disciple until recently, so its only natural none of us knew about him. However, we will need to get to the truth of his strength after these matches are concluded," another replied, equally interested in John's secrets.

They knew John had no master, and so he was not protected by a powerful Elder. As such, they would be able to question him as they pleased, and could dive into the source of his powerup. Perhaps, he would have something interesting on hand to increase their own strength.

To the side, Elder Praxx heard the ongoing discussions, but ignored them. His eyes remained glued to the battle below.

John's scythe twirled in a continuous cycle, and each full rotation resulted in another Crimson Blade Slash being unleashed. He had managed to optimize his attack pattern, and was now unleashing attacks at an unreal speed. 

His scythe appeared like a blur to all watching, as it twirled with such speed that their eyes could not keep up with. Just like John before, Alix's figure was bathed in non stop Crimson Blade Slashes, and he could not even be seen anymore.

All those watching held their breath, waiting for the result of this barrage to become apparent.

"Do you think Alix is alright? Can he survive such an onslaught?" a concerned disciple asked.

"Are you kidding? This is an Emperor we're talking about, he should be completely unharmed," another nearby disciple replied.

"Are you sure?" a different disciple asked. "This onslaught is incredibly overwhelming. I don't think there are many Core Formation experts anywhere in the world that could survive this type of atta-"

As if summoned by the disciples words, an absolutely incredible aura suddenly exploded out from within the barrage of John's attacks. The nearby attacks were all knocked back, as the aura from Alix within forcefully pushed back all the attacks.

John stayed his hand and steadied his scythe by his side, as he raised his eyebrows in slight surprise. Alix's figure was now revealed, causing many to gasp in surprise. Much like John, he was quite injured, with blood trickling down many parts of his body. 

In fact, he seemed to have taken more damage than John, but the surprising part was not his blood, but his aura. His aura radiated outwards with absolute power, far beyond what he had revealed earlier.

In fact, it was more akin to the aura of an early Meridian Forging expert than a Peak Core Formation Expert.

"What's going on?" many confused voices asked from within the crowd. "How is Alix exploding with this much power?"

Alix seemed to be on the verge of defeat, but had suddenly revealed power far beyond what anyone thought he was capable of.

Standing closest to Alix, John quickly realized what was going on. He frowned as he figured out the truth, as it was not good news for him, both in terms of Alix's strength, and what it meant when John killed him.

"You're actually burning your blood essence in a situation like this?" John asked Alix.

His voice was heard by all within the stadium, and their expressions turned into ones of shock and surprise at John's words.

"What? He's burning his blood essence? Why would he do that?" 

"I know right. He might be losing, but even if he wins now, his talent will drop a level when compared to before. Burning his blood essence is not the answer at this point," another replied.

Similar discussions broke out, as they all discussed Alix's move. Burning blood essence was something a cultivator could do to explode with absolute power, reaching their maximum potential. 

However, doing so would only result in a temporary power increase, and that power increase would subside once too much blood essence was burned. 

Blood essence was one of the bases of a cultivator's latent talent, and burning it was avoided at all costs. Doing so would cripple one's talent, and make it so that they would never be able to rise to the peak of the cultivation world in the future.

Replenishing lost blood essence was almost impossible, and only the most heavenly of medicinal ingredients was able to do so. As such, almost no one ever burned their blood essence, even on the doorstep of death.

In their minds, even if they lived by doing so, they would forever become a cripple when compared to their former strength and talent. Doing so was not worth the price.

A smirk appeared on Alix's face as he listened to John, and all those in the crowd.

"Idiots, you think I would cripple myself just to beat you?" Alix replied in a mocking tone. "I'll let you in on a little secret of mine. I have an incredibly rare body constitution, which allows me to replenish my blood essence, as long as I haven't burned too much."

Alix's words shocked not only the crowd, but John as well.

"There's such a thing?" John asked, as it was the first time he had heard of such a thing. Almost none in the crowd had heard of such a thing either.

"There is. Now that I've revealed this strength of mine, your only choice is to die," Alix replied with absolute confidence.

His figure suddenly flashed forward with greater speed than he had ever displayed before, and appeared before John in an instant.. His sword pierced forward, directly towards John's neck.