Apotheosis – Ascension to Godhood

Chapter 416: Got A Pig

Food never looked so good! The smell of onions and garlic filled up the tavern. Juice was oozing out of the tender meat as Zen sliced through it. He ate like he had not eaten in days! It was just too homely. Zen immediately grabbed another serving of the tavern's special.

Everyone in the tavern looked at him intently. Cunning smiles crossed the faces of the several servers standing beside him. They looked at him with desire, like Zen was a prey ready to be killed and eaten at any moment.

Having been to the Killing Sword Mountain, Zen couldn't be more sensitive to the paranoia and the killing aura, like when some people were ready to kill him. Nevertheless, he devoured his meal since his hunger was more important than being threatened. How could he not see through the threat by the several men?

The meal was so delicious, too delicious in fact. No threat could make him stop from eating since he was too hungry to even think about all those men. They dissolved into the background. The fighting could wait. Food was more important. He went with the eating as he grabbed more and more servings of the delicious meal in front of him.

Zen gorged on the food. With the clock ticking and Zen finishing one dish after another, the smiles on the several men faded away gradually and instead, were replaced by confused expressions.

Soon, Zen gobbled all the dishes on the table. Then he turned his head to the servers and grinned, with some meat sticking out of his teeth, “What's with the look?”

The several men who wore their hair in plaits were embarrassed. They lowered their heads, trying to hide their scrunched up faces. “No...nothing...” they faltered.

“Were you thinking why the poison in the food didn't work on me?” Zen asked smugly.

Hearing Zen's blunt question, the several men's face turned pale. The manager who stood not far away suddenly sneered and ordered, “Action!”

The several men around all drew out a small mechanical device from their waists. The end of the mechanical device was connected to a dark gold rope. Not thinking twice, they immediately shot their devices at Zen.

With swishing and whooping sounds, seven or eight dark gold ropes came directly at Zen's head. Almost in the blink of an eye, Zen was bound by the ropes. From their skillful moves and flawless cooperation between each other, Zen could see that it was not their first time to do the trick. It was flawless, like they had done it multiple times to different victims. It seemed not just one prey had been caught.

A skillful warrior as Zen was, he had all the time to dodge the ropes, but he did not budge this time. Instead, he let nature take its course and was bound by the ropes that locked him into place.

The manager smiled smugly and walked to Zen's side with a gloating look. “It did come as a surprise that the poison wasn't working on you. Yet, having known that your food is poisoned, you did not do anything. The joke is on you, lad. You didn't know that the ropes have special structures that can stop your life vitality from working. Haha! Good job, everyone! We got another pig today! Take him to the back!”

Hearing the manager's words, Zen didn't panic. He stood there, bound, having a resting face, and with no emotion whatsoever. His eyes were blank, and no words came out of his mouth. He only thought of one thing--if he was only a common nature creature who got tied up by these special ropes and his life vitality rendered useless, he might have really been in trouble. However, Zen had a strong muscular body. All the training and fighting made this scenario a tad bit easy for him to escape. Although firmly locked up by the ropes, it was still very easy for him to break free. Piece of cake.

“Got a pig? What do you want from me?” Zen asked curiously. There was still no trace of panic on his face. Rather, he was very composed even he was trapped.

The nonchalance Zen was giving off annoyed the manager so much. Every warrior he caught as his pig lost their head in such situation. But why was the guy in front him still so calm? The manager sneered and said, “You are going to die anyway, so stop wasting your breath.” Annoyed and feeling confused, he ordered his men, “Take him off!”

Following the manager's command, several men carried their pig towards the back yard of the tavern.

As soon as they landed on the backyard, Zen noticed something. He was not the only one, not the only pig. To Zen's surprise, twenty-odd other warriors were locked up at the place, too!

The people in the Western Region looked different as they all had sunken eyes, and the clothes they wore differed from that of people in Central Region. Zen immediately thought that those victims were warriors, more like nature creatures from the Central Region. He also noticed that one Illuminating Soul Realm cultivator was among them. The dark gold ropes that bound him were doubled compared to ropes used on other warriors.

With a heavy thud, Zen was thrown to the ground. The several men left the back yard immediately, not even bothered by the possibility that Zen could escape.

As soon as Zen struggled to stand on his feet, he heard one of the warriors mutter, “Alas, here comes another pig!”

Zen slightly frowned and asked, “What do you mean?”

'The manager said something about a pig. Were they taking men as pigs? What is all this?' Zen wondered.

“Hey, man, which sect are you from?” The warrior smiled and asked with contempt.

Zen blinked his eyes, trying to look alright and replied, “Cloud Hall.”

Hearing where Zen came from gave the other warriors a sense of disbelief.

The Central Region housed several sects including what they called the second grade sects. There were hundreds of them in the Central Region. And even much more for the third grade sects. But for the fourth grade sect, however, there were only a few. And the Cloud Hall, however, ranked the top in the fourth grade sects. ȓâΝο₿Êʂ

The Cloud Hall enjoyed a very high reputation among the hundreds of millions of warriors in the Central Region. It was like the Cloud Sect of Eastern Region.

The other warriors in the backyard could not help but let out a little laugh despite being held captive. 'This guy is clearly lying, ' a warrior thought. The disciples who were able to enter the Cloud Hall were elites strictly selected from tens of millions of warriors. And that nature creature guy claimed that he was from the Cloud Hall. That was totally nonsense! There must be some kind of a mistake.

Zen noticed both the mockery and disbelief in their faces. But he didn't care. Believe it or not, he was just being himself, just answering truthfully to a question being asked to him. He continued, “You haven't told me what it means by calling us pigs yet.”

“That's to say we are just like pigs that will be the lunch for the beasts. Now, could you just shut it?” The warrior said impatiently. Other warriors who heard this all showed a downcast look. Knowing that they were going to die shortly after, who had the mood to explain anything to Zen? They would all die anyway. Why even bother?

Zen believed in his skill. He knew he would be able to save all of them if he did try. He was going for a long shot. “Explain to me, and I can save you,” Zen said lightly.

The warrior snorted and laughed, his head tilted to one side. “You? You are only at the fourth grade of nature level. Your cultivation base is even lower than me, and you can save me? Haha! A pig and a clown wrapped into one package. What an entertainment system!” spoke the warrior at the seventh grade of nature level who looked down upon Zen. Everyone thought of Zen as a joke, an obnoxious man at the fourth grade of nature level. Who was he kidding? They were all doomed. At least, that was all in each and every one of the pigs' minds.

This gangster tavern was set up to catch nature creatures. The ropes that tied them up were mixed with heptyl gold threads, and structures which could suppress their life vitality. If the life vitality of a warrior was suppressed, he had no way to get rid of it. All the other pigs then realized that there was even an Illuminating Soul Realm cultivator who was also trapped there!

As soon as the warrior stopped his laughing from all his mockery, he heard a cracking sound. “What was that?” asked the warrior. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped at the sight of one of the gold ropes broken by Zen. How did he do it?

Firm as rocks those special ropes were, they were not able to resist Zen's force supported by dragon scales. Zen summoned the force of one hundred dragon scales. Inch by inch his body glowed, including his eyes. He lifted his hands and split them apart. There was a loud noise. He successfully destroyed one rope.

Several warriors who had seen the scene were dumbstruck. The strength of this guy's corporal body was so terrifying! How could he possibly do that? Was he all that powerful? All the warriors were in awe, their faces paled. All of them were in shock, they started to think that Zen was no ordinary nature creature. What could he be hiding? What strength could he possiblely possess? He broke the rope without using his life vitality and that was beyond his supposed skill and strength.

Still in disbelief after seeing what Zen did, they knew that they had a chance at escaping the prison-tavern that they were in. This situation gave them a silver lining, a chance to live. They also knew they should keep quiet about this, as they might be watched by someone else--a guard who could easily tear the escape. They all turned to Zen and said in a soft voice,“Help us untie the rope!”

Zen said slowly,“You should tell me first what is going on and what exactly the pig thing is?”

At this time, several warriors scrambled to answer his question. One voice on top of the other, it was getting out of hand! One of the warrior said,"Have you heard about the news that purple thunder bamboos appeared in Moon Mountain?

“Yes.” Zen nodded. This was also the reason why he came here.

“The Moon Mountain is extremely dangerous with numerous horrible beasts lurking inside. In order to get the purple thunder bamboos, some warriors hired local men to catch someone like us, and then they would use us as pathfinders, like a scent trail, if you think about it. If we meet some strong beasts, we will become their food. Just like pigs,” The warrior said with gloomy face.

The Moon Mountain was the home of the purple thunder bamboos. Their growth required a special environment, making the mountain the perfect place of them to thrive. The purple thunder bamboos grew underground for years or even decades. They grew slowly when they were underground. Even they had hid underground for decades, they only grew by several inches. But once they broke the soil, they could grow to several meters or even over ten meters within a couple of weeks.

Some purple thunder bamboos might hide underground for hundreds of years or thousands of years, like a flower taking its time to bloom. Once they broke through the soil, they could easily grow to several dozens meters in a short amount of time. After thousands of years of hiding, Mother Nature would welcome their birth with an abnormal phenomenon-- thunder, lightning and heavy rain to glorify their presence. It was, after all, a mother's instinct to give such an elaborate and beautiful ceremony to open the doors to a beautiful creature.

To the warriors, it wasn't necessary for them to get those thousand-year-old purple thunder bamboos. They would be very happy if they were able to obtain the younger ones which had lived for decades. The ancient bamboos were too difficult to get. Any warrior who could get that would be lauded. Despite the dangerous path that the Moon Mountain had for its visitors, there were still many warriors who wandered at the foot of the mountain, hoping to get the purple thunder bamboos.

Several days ago, people saw a purple lightning flash through the sky in the shape of a dragon. It was so bright that it had lit up almost half of the sky. The gossip flew around the town like the morning breeze. Thus, this gave many warriors an idea--they predicted that a purple thunder bamboo might have emerged and that it might be at least one thousand years old. The lightning was enormous, bearing the idea of what kind of bamboo might have grown in the mountain. And judging from its size, the bamboo was most likely to have lived over ten thousand years!

Taking advantage of the news that flew around town, evil minds met and came up with such a destructive idea--catching warriors and sending them out to the woods as a bait for ferocious beasts to chew on, like pigs.

“It turned out to be such a story.” Zen then understood what they were all there for, in the backyard of the gangster tavern. Some people were just willing to be so vicious to use such unscrupulous ways to gain advantage over other people, even if it meant to put innocent people's lives on the line. Zen shook his head, stretched his arms forward, and enabled the dragon scales force once more.

“Snap! Snap... Snap!”

Each of the ropes around Zen's body were cut and fell to the ground. “That hurt a bit!” exclaimed Zen while feeling his reddish wrists. He stood up, held the knife that popped out of his pocket, and sent it flying across the whole backyard, untying every single one of the golden ropes that tied the other warriors.

Within seconds, the ropes on the twenty-odd warriors were all untied.

Many ropes were cut, thus making sounds everywhere. The sounds became a loud noise that alerted the men in the tavern. One man shouted,“The warriors in the back yard are running away!”

“Running away? That's impossible!” The only Illuminating Soul Realm cultivator present sneered and was truly furious. He closed his eyes. Life vitality surged out from his body and materialized into sharp swords that charged at the direction of the tavern.

With his command, all the other nature creatures all started to attack. Life vitalities were exuded from restless bodies. Several knives were thrown. A flying knife was dodged by Zen an inch close to his face. Others relied on their body strength and threw blows at the nasty gangsters. One, two, punch, three, kick, four, dodge...all the warriors wanted to escape. All they had to do was immobilize these good-for-nothing tricksters!

All the men in the tavern were no match for these angry prisoners. They fought in numbers. They might be only at the nature level, but they fought as a group and this only made them stronger and invincible. The gangsters' dirty tricks didn't do them good this time around.

The gangsters were caught off guard for they did not expect that the poison would not work on Zen. More strangely, Zen was not affected by the dark gold ropes' ability to suppress life vitality. What was going on with Zen? Who was he?

With a rumbling sound, the warriors reached out their arms. They joined hands and struck the whole tavern down to the ground.

“Dang! I got trapped and controlled by these craps? Really? You call these gangsters fighters?” said one warrior smugly as he rubbed off some dirt from his shirt. “What a shame!”

“That's too little damage for revenge. Kill them!” “How dare a group of martial art practitioners use such dirty tricks!”

Up in the sky, several men appeared in mid-air. One of them exclaimed,“Eh? Why were these pigs able to run away? Myron, is this how well your useless men are doing?”

Another man in the mid-air, gave out a confident smile and snorted,“Don't worry, none of them will be going anywhere!”

Hearing other voices aside from theirs made the warriors wonder who else might be with them. All the warriors in the backyard raised their heads, and looked up to the sky. What they saw turned their faces pale.

In mid-air stood three Internal Elixir Realm masters!

All of them were frozen at the sight of the masters in mid-air. Quick on his feet, the Illuminating Soul Realm cultivator came to his senses and shouted,“Everyone, run!” As soon as he was finished, he leapt into the air, not looking back at how others were doing. It was an escape after all, and everyone was out for themselves. He and everyone else tried to get out of there as soon as possible. But the moment he took the leap, one of the Internal Elixir Realm masters raised his hand and waved. A huge palm appeared in the air. The palm slapped the Illuminating Soul Realm cultivator. He froze. Time stood still. In mid-air, his arms spread wide, and his legs were dangling. This was his end. The force rammed him so hard that it radiated throughout the whole tavern.

With a deafening sound, the Illuminating Soul Realm cultivator was hard as rock. With one swish of the wind, he was smashed to pieces. His body turned into pink mist--he was literally blown off, piece per piece, with every organ shredded into bits and pieces along with his own blood splattered around everyone's faces. And just like that, the Illuminating Soul Realm cultivator was no more than dust.

Blood was everywhere, and everyone was covered with the Illuminating Soul Realm cultivator's remains. Witnessing the scene, all the nature creatures, including Zen, stood there, stupefied.