Chapter 959: Heaven's Shadow

John glanced at the door a short distance away, and then nodded, moving towards it.

"John," Zuri called out. He turned to look at her.

"Remember, these dangers of the trials you will face are real," Zuri cautioned him. "In fact, the Genius Trial has a death rate of over forty percent, so do not underestimate what you encounter within the trials."

John raised an eyebrow, surprised to hear how brutal the trials were, and then nodded his head. While he didn't voice his opinion, the dangers of the trial were not of a concern to him.

'I've faced demons and asura's and lived. What's an assassination guild trial compared to that?'

As John walked downwards towards the large door on the opposite side of the room, a large group of guildmembers flooded into the room. Those able to enter the room were cleared by the guards, ensuring they had the appropriate clearance level required to enter. As such, most of the entrants were on the older, more experienced side, although some of the younger geniuses of the guild were able to enter as well.

Expressions of curiosity, excitement, and doubt were visible as each quickly found a seat, a buzz of conversation filling the theater-like room. The Grandmaster, Zuri and the others watched the guildmembers take a seat. The Grandmaster turned to Zuri.

"Which trial do you think he will take?" he asked her.

"The Genius Trial," Zuri said without hesitation.

"Oh? And how do you think he will do?" the Grandmaster asked.

"I think his performance will surprise even you, Grandmaster," Zuri said respectfully.

A scoff of disbelief left the man next to them, the one who had been a pain towards John and Zuri the entire time. The Grandmaster glanced at the man, silencing him, then back to Zuri.

"In that case, I am quite interested to watch his trial. It's been dozens of years since I last watched a Trial of Shadows," the Grandmaster said, moving towards a nearby seat and gesturing for Zuri to sit next to him. "Come, sit with me. Let's watch the trial of the one you initiated together."

Zuri nodded and took a seat next to the man, heart thumping within her chest. John's performance would directly impact her status within the guild, due to her accepting him before an official trial. If he passed with flying colors, her actions would be forgiven, and her status would rise as a result of finding a promising genius.

If he failed, she would suffer a stiff punishment, one that might even strip her of her current ranking. The scenes of John's battle within the chamber entered her thoughts, and her thumping heart calmed down. From what she had seen from John, failure was not a possibility.

...

John arrived at the bottom of the theater-like room, and stopped before the large door leading to the trials beyond. He pushed on the double door a moment later, parting it open. A screen of light came into view on the other side of the door, swirling with white and golden brilliance.

John stepped into the screen of light, disappearing from sight, the doors closing behind him. As he stepped through the door, the large black wall at the front of the theater lit up brightly, showing an image of an empty location of some unknown place. John suddenly appeared within that location, followed by a buzz of excitement from the gathered crowd. The trial had finally started.

...

Immediately after stepping through the screen of light, John found himself standing in a large, empty room. The walls of the room were unable to be seen as the black-tiled ground seemed to stretch into infinity. He peered upwards, and saw a void of blackness stretch on forever. Wherever he was, he wasn't in the Nine-Dao World anymore.

"This is most likely a spatial realm," John muttered to himself, "one constructed specifically for the trial."

His head swiveled about, trying to see if there was anything important. The rushing sound of wind filled his ears, and he watched three massive archways of light rushing towards him from the distance, suddenly stopping a hundred yards away from him.

The archways were each a hundred yards tall, and each swirled with a different color of formation energy.

'Portals.'

John's gaze shifted upwards to the top of the archways, where words were carved into the stone archways.

'Standard Trial. Elite Trial. Genius Trial. Three different trial difficulties huh?'

The archways reminded John of his time in the Yuan Continent ancient city, where he had entered the Divine Trial. These archways no doubt worked similarly, leading to the trial proper one he chose which one to enter.

After inspecting the three trials, John turned his gaze in other directions, his instincts suddenly kicking in.

'It's that same feeling!' John thought, head swirling about, trying to determine the source of that feeling. He could feel the faintest killing intent, just like that of the Mark of Shadows he had found in Greatcrest City, in this place, and it wasn't coming from any of the three trial archways before him.

John's divine sense flared outwards, trying to pinpoint the source of the aura. He couldn't tell exactly where it was coming from, but his powerful soul and divine sense gave him the general direction, which was away from the three archways.

He started moving in that direction, towards the aura.

Outside the trial realm, in the theater area, a commotion broke out as the guildmembers watched John walk away from the trial archways.

"What is he doing?" a younger male guildmember asked, a look of amusement and confusion on his face, as if he were watching an idiot go about his day.

"He's walking away from the trials? Is he giving up?" another younger member asked, equally amused.

Similar discussions broke out, as many were not expecting this to happen. They were debating which trial John would choose, and against all expectations, he started walking away from them. They couldn't recall such a thing ever happening before.

While the younger members chatted amongst each other about the amusing situation, the older guildmembers, those part of the Guild for thousands of years or more became silent, stern expressions appearing on their faces.

Zuri was quick to notice this, and glanced sideways at the Grandmaster, eyes widening slightly as she saw the Grandmaster leaning forward slightly, his expression slightly surprised, and also..

'Is that excitement on his face?' Zuri thought. She never thought she would ever see a Grandmaster...excited.

But it wasn't pure excitement. There was another expression veiled beneath the Grandmasters expression.

'Regret? No, that's not exactly it,' Zuri thought. It was hard to pinpoint, but it seemed like the Grandmaster was both excited, and somewhat saddened, at what was happening.

While the theater was abuzz with conversation, John navigated through the area, trying to pinpoint the source of that aura. As he moved, he felt the aura grow stronger, and after moving several hundred yards, he eventually stopped.

A frown appeared on his face as he looked all about him, but saw nothing before him. Just more empty space.

'I can feel the aura coming from directly in front of me, but there's nothing there.'

Trying something, John reached outwards towards where he felt the aura coming from. His eyes widened with surprise as he felt his hand hit something solid, although his eyes couldn't see what it was.

The moment his hand hit the solid object, the object sprung into existence before him in an instant. A massive archway appeared before him like a ghost, equal in size to the others, but feeling completely different.

He took several steps backwards and peered upwards towards the top of the arch, muttering the words he read there.

"Heaven's Shadow Trial."