Chapter 568: Desert Ambush

The youth from the Heaven Scrying Sect watched as John and the rest left the coliseum, ignoring the youth he had been talking to.

"Hey, are you going to sell me the Jade Dragon List?" the youth asked, slightly agitated at being ignored. The list of geniuses sold by the Heaven Scrying Sect had been named the Jade Dragon List, in homage to the Jade Dragon Empire lands they were exploring. A genius capable of making the list was like a dragon amongst men, at least in the eyes of the youths of the Honorable Alliance.

"Ah, yes," the Heaven Scrying Sect youth replied as he turned to face the youth before him once more. "The cost is one million spirit crystals."

"One million spirit crystals? That's daylight robbery," the youth exclaimed in shock upon hearing the price. One million spirit crystals was a sum most of the youths in these lands could easily afford, but it was still a shockingly high number. There were over fifty thousand youths in these lands, and if just half bought the Jade Dragon List, the Heaven Scrying Sect would make twenty five billion spirit crystals. Such a sum was beyond shocking.

"I'm leaving, so purchase it now or don't, it makes no difference to me," the Heaven Scrying Sect youth said as he began to walk away.

"Alright alright, here you go," the youth hurriedly replied as he handed over a spatial ring containing the spirit crystals. The Heaven Scrying Sect youth inspected the sum before handing over a jade piece to the youth, who happily took it.

"Oh yeah," the youth chimed up once more. "I heard your sect is also selling a map of these lands. How much is that going for?"

"The map is ten million spirit crystals," the Heaven Scrying Sect youth replied.

"Ten million? For a map? How can you possibly charge such a sum," the youth cried out in shock once again.

"Do you want the map or not?" the Heaven Scrying youth asked impatiently.

"Ah...no. I don't have that many spirit crystals," the youth replied sheepishly, slightly embarrassed by such a thing.

Upon hearing that, the Heaven Scrying Sect youth turned and left, leaving the coliseum behind. He had already sold many Jade Dragon lists to the youths of this town, and had more pressing matters to attend to.

...

The arid desert stretched out before John and the others as they once again ventured out into it. The scorching sun hung high in the sky, baking the sands below. They had been walking through the desert for a day already, but had yet to see anything of note yet.

"Sheesh, it's a good thing we cultivators have sturdy bodies. Otherwise this heat would have cooked us alive," Adam chimed up as he wiped the sweat from his brow.

"Just use your Qi to form a protective shield around yourself," Iris replied dismissively as a protective shield of Qi surrounded her body. Chase had done the same, while John had no need to do such a thing, as his durable body was easily capable of withstanding the scorching heat.

"Using my Qi nonstop is even more tiresome than withstanding this heat," Adam replied with equal dismissiveness.

"Here, take this then," Chase chimed up as he outstretched his hand. To the surprise of the others, a flower suddenly grew out of the center of his hand, blooming in almost no time at all. The flower was blue in color, and gave off a fresh icy aura, making the surrounding area quite comfortable.

"What the hell?" Adam exclaimed in surprise, shocked to see Chase do such a thing. "How did you do that?"

"I have a Wood Constitution, which gives me control over plants, trees, and flowers," Chase explained. "As long as I have a seed of the particular plant, and I have enough Qi to germinate the plant to maturity, I can quickly grow the plant as you just saw. This particular flower is the Frost-Mist Flower, its name given for the natural frosty mist it exudes."

"That's...amazing!" Adam bellowed out with great excitement as he grabbed the flower from Chase.

"Wood constitutions truly are quite remarkable," Iris chimed up as well.

"Do you two want a flower?" Chase asked, his mood quite happy to be receiving such compliments.

"No, I'm fine," John replied, unbothered by the heat.

"I'm alright as well," Iris politely rejected the offer as well before her gaze shifted towards John.

"Have you noticed him?" Iris asked softly.

"Mhm," John replied while nodding his head. "He's been following us since we left the town."

"What, someone's following us?" Adam exclaimed, as he had been completely unaware of such a thing. He glanced behind them, but didn't see anyone. Clearly whoever was following them was following from beyond visible range.

Iris rolled her eyes and ignored Adam's outburst. "What do you think he wants?" she asked John.

"No idea, but he hasn't made any sort of move on us yet," John replied, "and I detect no hostility from him, so we can ignore him for now."

"Alright," Iris replied as the group continued onwards, ignoring the lone youth that followed them from a distance. They continued on through the desert, blindly making their way deeper into the lands.

...

The Heaven Scrying Sect Youth walked through the desert, keeping his distance from John and the rest. A unique looking artifact, a crystal ball with mesmerizing lights emanating from him rested in his hands, while the youth continued to inspect it.

Within the mesmerizing lights was an image of John and the rest walking through the desert. Clearly this youth was using this artifact to follow John and the rest. A frown appeared on the youths face as he followed behind.

"They're just aimlessly wandering through this desert, blind and lost. It will take them days to find the next set of trials at this rate," the youth muttered with slight frustration. He had been following John to confirm his combat prowess, but had yet to see him fight.

"Should I approach them and guide them to the next trial?" the youth mused once again, before his eyes opened slightly.

"An ambush?" the youth mused as his scrying artifact suddenly showed a fresh set of faces, hiding behind some ancient boulders that littered the desert sands. The boulders were directly in the path of John and the rest, guaranteeing that they would walk into the ambush.

"I might be able to see his strength finally," the youth mused as he slipped forward, closer towards John and the rest.

...

"I'm sure you already noticed," Iris said to John, her eyes narrowing while shifting in color slightly as she stared forward.

"Mhm," John replied calmly as he stared ahead. "They're doing nothing to conceal their presence, so they're quite noticeable."

"They must be looking down on us after noticing our cultivations. We probably look like easy targets," Iris replied calmly as well.

"What's going on?" Chase asked as he listened to Iris and John talk. "Is it another ambush?"

"Seems like it," John replied without slowing his steps.

"Why would they ambush us?" Adam asked, "is it the Starforge Clan again?"

"No, their aura's are different," John replied, "they're probably just looking to rob us of our valuables. We'll find out soon enough."

"Tch, despicable," Iris sneered.

The group continued forward without care, arriving before the desert area littered with ancient boulders. Without any surprise at all, a group of four male youths jumped out from behind the boulders, each emanating an Early Heaven Tribulation aura.

"Stop right there," one of the youths yelled out loudly, his aura flaring out powerfully.

"That's right," another one of the youths yelled out, "hand us your spatial rings, and we'll let you go on your way. Otherwise, don't blame us for forcibly taking it from you."

Adam, Chase and Iris glanced at each other with strange looks on their faces, before the three burst out into laughter. Their laughter boomed out without care, startling the four ambushers. The faces of the ambushers twisted up in growing anger, as they were clearly being mocked by their weaker prey.

"You dare laug-"

Boom!

The ground beneath John's feet exploded, interrupting the youths words as he appeared before the four ambushers. The faces of the ambushers lit up with shock at the speed John had unleashed, as it was far faster than what they were capable of.

Lightning nodes suddenly sprung up in the sky around John, as a lightning cage instantly appeared, trapping all five within. The sounds of weapons colliding, battle arts exploding and cries of pain rang out from within the lightning cage, before it faded away a short while later. The ground beneath John's feet had shattered away into a large crater from the force of the attacks, while the four ambushers laid unconscious on the ground before John, stripped completely naked. The sight surprised Iris, Chase, and Adam, as they had been unable to see what had happened within the lightning cage.

Strange looks appeared on their faces as they saw the naked youths piled up atop each other.

"They tried to rob us, so I merely robbed them back. With how this ended up, I'm sure they'll think twice before robbing anyone else," John said as he noticed the strange looks on their faces. "Let's go."

"Wait," Iris suddenly said, her gaze lingering at the bottom of the crater John had created.

"What is it?" John asked as he turned to look at Iris once more.

"There's something underneath this ground."