Apotheosis – Ascension to Godhood

Chapter 32: Using The Flying Knife

At this moment, Zen leaped forward suddenly, and the ogre's attack hit the ground just behind him. The sound of the impact was so loud that Zen's ears ached. When he turned back to look, Zen realized that the force of the attack left a huge palm print on the ground. Had he not jumped away in time, the blow would have landed on his body.

Without wasting any time, Zen rolled forward, got up, and continued running.

The phantom ogre, who had been created by the illusion, murmured a few incomprehensible ogre words before chasing after Zen.

Zen had no choice but to keep running. At the same time, he felt angry and annoyed. Why was this ogre chasing him only?

Unfortunately, he couldn't stop to ask for an explanation. Even though the ogre was an illusion, if he were killed by it, he would be embarrassed. Besides, the ogre was an unreal beast. It was illogical to assume that the ogre was capable of thinking rationally. Of course, Zen couldn't communicate with such a creature.

While Zen struggled with his escape, the scene outside Bloody Mountain was also messy.

Many instructors had discovered through the Picture Slabs that the ogre had escaped from the fifth level and entered the third level.

“Joshua, do you know what is going on?”

“Shouldn't this ogre be in the fifth level? How could he break through the magic arrays and enter the third level? This has never happened before!”

Faced with those questions, Joshua stammered, “I..I don't know what's going on. Maybe there is something wrong with the magic arrays in the Bloody Mountain. Otherwise, I have no explanation for how this could happen.”

“I demand that the Blooded Test be stopped immediately,” said one of the instructors.

“Yes, the Blooded Test should be stopped. I'm afraid that if the participants on the Bloody Mountain are attacked by this creature, they will all be unfairly removed from the exam. I've long suggested that the grade-five phantom beast should be eliminated. It's meaningless to put it there. I really don't know what the top-level masters are thinking!” Another instructor agreed, too. He nodded and echoed this sentiment.

“Wait! Wait! Don't jump to conclusions in haste!” a master exclaimed. On hearing this, the two instructors who had been talking about the elimination of the unreal beast turned around and asked, “What is happening now?”

“Come and see! This ogre seems to be chasing Zen,” the master switched the screen on the Picture Slab to one of the noble-clan disciples. These instructors peered at the screen and saw that Zen was desperately running for his life.

“Hah, so what? I agree that this young fellow's strength is astonishing, but do you remember Johan Lin? When Johan attended the Blooded Test with the strength of the marrow refining level, he was proud of his superior power and wanted to fight with this unreal beast. But in the end, he had been badly injured and could only run away.” Another instructor commented.

Johan Lin had been the best disciple Cloud Sect had seen in the past hundred years. He became famous only three years after entering Cloud Sect. At the age of nineteen, he passed the trial of Cloud Road and became a member of Cloud Hall. Both his genius and strength were outstanding and rare in the world. Some referred to him as a super genius owing to his skills and abilities.

The strength and talent that Zen had shown at this stage were quite distinguished, but in the minds of many instructors, he was still not as good as Johan. Moreover, at that time when Johan sought out the ogre, he was at the level of marrow refining, which was a realm higher than Zen's current level.

Even Johan, who was stronger than Zen, had to accept defeat and run from the ogre. How could Zen have the slightest possibility of resisting against the unreal beast?

Though they had such feelings and comparisons in their minds, most of the instructors still paid close attention to Zen, who was considered as the biggest surprise this year. After a short debate, they stopped arguing and watched the screen to see what Zen would do.

Seeing that none of the instructors were questioning him, Joshua smiled. He was satisfied that his trick had worked. 'Sneaky simpleton! You will die. How can you escape from the attack of the devil ogre? I can't wait to see your dead body!' With these thoughts in his mind, Joshua also turned to the Picture Slab.

It was still broadcasting the fight, or in other words, the unilateral attack from the ogre, as Zen wasn't attacking back. He was just running. With his flexible body, precise and calculated movements, powerful explosive force, and a little bit of luck, Zen had avoided the attacks of the ogre so far.

'Running is never a good solution.

If I keep running like this, I will eventually get exhausted and the ogre will catch me. Its powerful blow will take me out of the exam.'

Zen thought. There was not enough time for him to think of a solution. He found that his attention was divided. On the one hand, he needed to escape and on the other, he needed to observe the ogre's intentions to avoid its attacks.

As he ran, Zen recalled that the ogre's body was entirely different from that of a human. Starting from birth, the ogre was much stronger than a human in terms of physical strength. So, in ancient times, human beings suffered tremendously during wars with ogres.

But the creator was fair. Ogres had a fatal defect, which made them vulnerable. They had two hearts.

One heart was insufficient to generate enough power to support their tough and robust body. So, ogres required a second heart.

Having two hearts was not a fatal flaw. The anomaly allowed ogres to have greater forces. However, the placement of the heart was an issue. The second heart was on their back.

Only a thin layer of flesh protected the ogre's second heart. If the layer of flesh was penetrated, it would be easy to smash the second heart, and the ogre would die.

Aware of this weakness, all ogres would be equipped with heavy armors when they went to the battlefield. The armor had a high protrusion on the back, which was to protect their second heart. Humans called this kind of armor tortoiseshell in jest.

Having fought with this ogre for some time, Zen had noticed that it wore no such protection on its back.

As long as he penetrated the flesh and the second heart of the ogre, he could knock it down. And this was the only plan for Zen to escape with his life.

While he was still thinking about the solution, a strong wind blew from one side. Zen glanced sideways only to find that the big palm of the ogre was coming toward him.

'Oh, my goodness! No time to run away!'

This time, even though Zen wanted to dodge the attack, he did not have enough time to do so.

There was no other alternative except to fight. Zen made his decision quickly. He gritted his teeth, turned around, and then jumped on the back of the ogre's hand. Running along the back of its hand to its arm, Zen then jumped on to the ogre's shoulder. With a somersault, Zen crossed over the ogre's head. At this moment, his nose was only inches away from the two sharp horns on the ogre's head.

With these calculated movements, Zen had finally reached the ogre's back. It was then that he could see the prominent protrusion on its back!

'This is it! Taste my Purple Fist Strength! You devil!'

Zen summoned all his strength and channeled it to his fist. Then he hit the protrusion. This protrusion was the second heart of the devil! A purple light flowed out of Zen's body.

If he could manage to inject the Purple Fist Strength through the thin layer of the ogre's flesh, its heart would be smashed to pieces.

However, to his surprise, Zen's fist slipped when his attack landed on the ogre's back. Its skin was so slippery!

'Oh, my goodness. I failed!' Zen thought as an overwhelming feeling of danger flowed through him.

In the next moment, the clumsy ogre sensed where Zen was and slapped him when he turned around. 'Bang!' A loud sound echoed.

The ogre had managed to land a blow on Zen while he was on its back! Its power pushed Zen far away. Seeing Zen flying dozens of feet away because of the impact, like a small stone, the instructors sighed deeply.

“What a pity! He has almost done it! What a good opportunity was lost just now!”

“The skin of the ogre is too tough to be broken by a little fellow who is just at the organ refining level.”

“Yes, I think so. However, it is a pity that he does not have a spiritual weapon in hand. Otherwise, he would have beaten the ogre.”

All the instructors watching the Picture Slabs could not help but sigh deeply. Anyway, in all the time that the ogre had been in the test, Zen was the only candidate to pose a threat to the ogre. In retrospect, were these instructors really expecting this man at the organ refining level to defeat a grade-five unreal beast? Their expectation seemed a bit unrealistic. This incident drew some of their attentions back to reality.

“Wait, wait. Don't run away!” Suddenly, one of the instructors shouted.

Initially, these instructors could not see Zen in their Picture Slabs. They could only observe him through other disciples' cards. Before the ogre beat Zen, there were a few disciples bold enough to follow them and watch their battle. Once they saw that the ogre had defeated Zen, these disciples turned and immediately ran away. They did not have the courage or the strength to face the ogre.

As soon as they had run away, the instructors could no longer see Zen.

However, most of instructors knew that there was no need to see the fight to its end. Zen would be eliminated eventually.

Only Master Su kept looking at her Picture Slab. Several emotions passed through her as she watched the scene. She had tampered with Zen's disciple card earlier. And now, only she could see Zen's every move in her Picture Slab. As far as she was concerned, Zen's physical strength was indeed extreme. Even though the ogre had slapped him, Zen did not look as bad as other instructors thought.

'This fellow has not given up till now. He has a strong will. Powerful and determined, Zen is more than a match for most disciples, ' thought Master Su. 'I hope this young man passes the test.' With this hope in mind, Master Su turned her eyes back to the Picture Slab.

Zen was still lying on the ground. His chest heaved as Zen took deep breaths to calm himself.

The power of that slap was so terrible that he felt like all his bones had been smashed to pieces.

Fortunately, his body was strong enough to withstand the blow.

Zen's body had absorbed most of the ogre's power, and at the same time, it had transformed the force into warm currents that were refreshing his body.

However, there was still a small portion of the power left, which was enough to cause serious injury to Zen's body.

With no strength left to move, Zen could only lie on the ground and wait for the warm currents to restore his body. Meanwhile, he closely watched the ogre. Feeling the trembling of the ground, he knew that the ogre was getting close to him.

Even though agonizing pain coursed through Zen's body with even a smallest movement, he did not want to give up yet.

As long as there was a small chance, Zen wanted to fight back.

When the ogre saw his prey lying on the ground, it slowed down. The ogre even stopped and studied Zen for some time. Then he raised his foot and was about to step on Zen with the intention of trampling him to death.

Maybe because the ogre felt that its prey was unable to move, it raised its foot slowly.

The slow movement gave Zen the time he needed to roll away. Enduring the agonizing pain, he climbed up from the ground. Zen intended to jump up at the same time.

“Ouch! That hurts!”

Although Zen was determined not to wait for his death at the hands of the ogre, the movements caused a tremendous amount of pain to flow through him. He could not help but cry out in agony. The pain from the inner bones was so significant that his body lost flexibility and he could not jump up as he had planned to.

In this case......

Zen needed a new plan. Without hesitating, he took out the broken flying knife from his space ring and then summoned all his strength before throwing the flying knife at the ogre.

'I hope it works!' Zen prayed in his heart. This was his last hope. If this strike did not cause any harm to the ogre, then Zen was doomed to be eliminated from the Blooded Test.

Zen watched the flying knife with bated breath. He was shocked when he saw the route of the flying knife.