John sent a strong wave of Qi throughout his meridians, testing their limits for the first time. He smiled as he didn't feel any strain at all, despite pushing his essence dantian to almost its maximum output. His body thrummed with incredible power, while his aura flooded the small room, drowning it in his power as well. The walls shook and tables rattled, while some weaker objects started to shatter and break.
Despite all this, his meridians felt completely at ease, as if the Qi surging within was non-existent.
"Now, now. You can test your new limits outside, where you won't be destroying my property," the Prime Shadow grumbled.
"Ah, sorry," John said, withdrawing his essence Qi back into his dantian, returning the room to its former calm.
"Now I just need another body inheritance, something to increase the durability of my body to a great extent, and I'll have no limitations to worry about at all," John said, still smiling with satisfaction from his recent improvements.
"Don't get too far ahead of yourself," the Prime Shadow said. "Your meridians were mostly untouched, so the Titan Demon meridian essence was perfect for you at this moment. However, your body is beyond heaven-defying, so finding something to increase its level won't be easy. Not even the Titan Demon blood or bone essence would have had much of an impact, regardless of how much you could have absorbed. Your body is of Asuras and Dragons, two of the strongest, most physically talented creatures in existence. For something to increase your body strength and durability to any measurable degree, it will have to be equally as heaven-defying, and on this world, I am not aware of any such opportunities."
John sighed with disappointment, but wasn't really surprised. He knew everything the Prime Shadow had just said, and was mostly speaking out of hopeful optimism.
"The only place that could theoretically have something to improve your body is on the Continent of War," the Prime Shadow said thoughtfully. "But even then, it's far from a guarantee."
"The Continent of War? It could have treasures and opportunities of that level?" John asked curiously. He had heard Luri and Suri mention it once, as the home of the Eternal Serpent, the supposed strongest being on this world, but knew nothing else of it.
"Possibly," the Prime Shadow shrugged. "The Continent of War is home to the Eternal Serpent, which is an existence even I wouldn't want to fight."
"It's that strong?"
"It's that strong," the Prime Shadow nodded. "And not only is it stronger than me, but its body is also nearly impervious to damage. There's a reason it has reigned unchallenged on this world from the ancient war until now.
John thought about such a powerful creature, wondering where its limits truly were, then thought about the opportunities the Prime Shadow mentioned.
"What about those potential opportunities you mentioned?" he asked.
"Ah, yes," the Prime Shadow mumbled. "Well, the Continent of War was the pinnacle continent of this world before the ancient war, where the most powerful and grand sects, clans and guilds existed. The Eternal Serpent was part of the force that helped defend the world from the Asura invasion, and when the war ended, all continents had sustained great damage. The Eternal Serpent claimed that continent as his own, as payment for defending this world, and no one had the power to refute his claim. It's lived on that continent ever since, a continent filled with ancient ruins, natural treasures beyond compare, and countless other treasures.
Every few years, the serpent will allow the youths of this world, typically those under the age of fifty, to enter its grounds, and battle for the treasures and opportunities within. That includes all the races, so humans, beasts, devils. All go there when it is opened to claim those opportunities, as those who seize the best opportunities always rise to the top of this world. For example, the Sword Sovereign and Yang Sovereign both seized opportunities on the Continent of War that allowed them to rise to the top of this world eventually. It's a bloodbath every time the Eternal Serpent opens its borders, hence the name, the Continent of War."
"Why would it allow others to enter its lands?" John asked. "How does that benefit the serpent."
"I'm not exactly sure," the Prime Shadow said after a short silence. "But I have some ideas. Regardless of the reasons, the opportunities are too enticing to ignore, and so despite the dangers, all the confident geniuses of this world will flock there and battle for supremacy."
"When does it open next?" John asked, his anticipation rising. It sounded like the perfect place for him to be. Battling to the death against devils and beasts, improving his combat prowess and instincts, and obtaining incredible treasures as a reward. It was almost like paradise to him, making him want to go there immediately.
"No one other than the Eternal Serpent knows," the Prime Shadow shrugged. "The intervals between openings have been as short as a year, and as long as a century. It's seemingly random everytime, with the only consistent factor being how long it's opened for. Each time the continent is opened, it remains so for a year."
"A year, huh?" John mused. His face scrunched up as he suddenly thought of something completely unrelated that he had not thought of before.
"I just thought of something odd," John said. "This world speaks the exact same language as my homeworld, and from what I can tell of how you determine age, also uses the same passage of time when it comes to years. I'm assuming the way we measure years is also different, is it not?"
"Ah, that," the Prime Shadow nodded. "During the ancient war, a unified response was needed. As a result, a single language was spread to every world to be used, as well as a single system to determine the passage of time. Otherwise, if two worlds with different measures of time tried to coordinate a joint effort, they might have been days, months, or even years off in their efforts, resulting in a fractured resistance.
As a result, most worlds speak the language you and I speak, and also use the same time system. The time system was based on one of the Hegemon Worlds passage of time, which used their system of weeks, months and years to establish how many hours are within each week, month, and year for the rest of the worlds. As a result, age is determined by a certain number of hours, and not by the system most worlds used to use before the war, which was orbits around their primary star.
So, while one world might have one thousand days in a year and another twenty, and some worlds orbit their primary stars in ten days and other a thousand days, both years are the exact same in terms of actual passage of time.
The days in a week or a month may be different for each world, but for all worlds, there are twelve months in a true year, and each month means the same passage of time, regardless of which world you're on. Your world, a nearly destroyed fringe world as it may be, must have still used this time system even after it's near destruction, as your concept of time and age appears to match this worlds system."
"That...makes complete sense," John said, satisfied with the answer. "I never bothered to check, but how many days make up a month on this world?"
"Sixteen," the Prime Shadow answered, to which John nodded.
'The days and night are almost twice as long as the day-night cycle back home, so that adds up with what he's been saying,' John thought, as his homeworld has roughly thirty days per month.
"Now then," the Prime Shadow said, shifting the topic of discussion. "The Three-Dao Tournament is coming up next month, and you have some time to prepare beforehand. From what I've seen so far, your battle arts, and especially movement arts seem to be lacking for the most part."
John frowned at the truth of the Prime Shadow's words. His battle arts had been falling behind quite a bit as of late. His Divine Reaping Scythe only had instructions up to the Heaven Tribulation Realm, and so it was mostly useless now. His Heavenly Lightning Domain was still strong, but would soon reach the limits of what it was capable of. As for movement arts, his Thunderflash Step had long since become outdated, and although his spatial Dao control allowed him to move quickly, he was doing so through the Dao alone, and not using a spatial movement art, which would be much more effective.
'Only my Transformations, as well as my Dragontail Decimation are of any real use lately. As for the Shadow of Death art I just learned, it's very strong, but only useful in certain situations,' John thought, realizing just how bad his battle art and movement art situation was.
"Come, take out all your battle arts and movement arts, and show me what you have," the Prime Shadow said. "Oh, and tell me about all your comprehensions. Afterwards, it will be time to fix you up with a new set of battle arts more suited for your talent level."
