Apotheosis – Ascension to Godhood

Chapter 435: I Don't Like You

The head of the Dragon Abyss Palace had flown straight into the black ball and was devoured in the blink of an eye.

The Soul-nurturing Thunder Lock right above the black ball was uncontrollably surging with immense destructive power. However, she was still kept safe and sound somehow.

The second she soared into the black ball, the only reaction she had was, “Huh?” with her gorgeous eyes wide open...

She had more than enough strength to hold back the strongest Owl Beast, so defeating such a weak one would be a walk in the park.

The thing that managed to surprise her was not the Owl Beast itself, but Zen's soul just lying in the distance.

The Owl Beast just vanished without a trace! The only thing she could make out was Zen's soul resting in the middle of the darkness.

Just what could have possibly happened here? How the heck did all of this happen? And where in the world did the Owl Beast go? Baffled and left utterly dumbfounded, the head of Dragon Abyss Palace had a hard time wrapping her mind around what on earth had just transpired.

“Bang... Bang...”

On the other hand, the other portions of the Soul-nurturing Thunder Lock simply persisted on overflowing with an endless supply of thundering light. Zen's soul was repeatedly getting bent out of shape with diverse colors, which looked much like the oil on the water drifting away into vibrant ripples.

“Wow! This is unbelievable! His soul could end up bursting forth into the level of the Fighting Soul!” Upon noticing that, she was beginning to get serious, with her curiosity quite piqued. Elder Wei had briefed her that Zen had undergone a baptism by laws, so she immediately flew straight toward the black ball solely for the purpose of helping Zen. Little did she know that Zen could probably attempt reaching the level of Fighting Soul! 'Isn't he someone on the nature level? Just what exactly did he do to be capable of reaching the level of Fighting Soul in such a short span of time?'

She was completely perplexed, because all throughout her whole life, she had only witnessed a handful of skillful warriors—who were either on or above the level of Internal Elixir—successfully reach the level of Fighting Soul. Come to think of it, even some of the ones already on the level of Virtual Tribulation Realm had failed to reach the Fighting Soul level. Surely, this was a special one!

Lifting her head up a little, the leader of the Dragon Abyss Palace walked over to where Zen was. When she stretched out her arms and extended her hand, a dark red pill appeared out of her white wrist. The pill, rather than being round, actually had an unusual shape, and it was bouncing continuously, akin to a living creature.

Slowly but surely, she carefully tossed the pill forward and it went right into Zen's soul.

Despite the fact that Zen was dead set and focused on breaking through the higher level no matter what, he somehow still managed to notice a girl wearing palace clothes, who had been standing in a place not too far away from him, pulling out a weird object and throwing it at him. That being said, the only thing that shifted was the look on his face, because this was just such a crucial moment for him in order to reach the Fighting Soul level.

“No reason to be alarmed! The pill is essential and it can also be of great assistance to your soul,” he perceived the voice of the cyan dragon inside his head. To be triumphant over the Owl Beast, the cyan dragon had actually gone the extra mile, and now, he was already worn-out, so he thought that it would suffice to simply remind Zen without mentioning any further details.

As luck would have it, those words were enough to help Zen ease up and let the pill pierce straight into his soul.

The pill, much like red ink fanning out in the water, scattered everywhere the moment it entered Zen's soul, Due to the effects of the pill, every color moving all over Zen's soul accumulated much faster and as for his soul, it gradually became much more rigid. Upon reaching a certain extent, a red light suddenly illuminated him.

Zen's soul returned to his body without incident the second the red light emerged, and with that, the first thing he did was open his eyes.

If a person's soul had enough strength, his eyes would be shining with radiance and vitality. That was how they were able to track down some of the most powerful men whose eyes were shining brightly and burning with energy.

Zen's eyes were glowing remarkably just like two stars soaring in the dark sky, letting it be known to some masters that Zen had successfully attained the Fighting Soul level.

The Fighting Soul was just a castle in the air hopelessly being chased after by most warriors.

If one was fortunate enough to reach the Fighting Soul level, his soul would be completely altered, making him significantly stronger than ever before! At this point, the soul wasn't weak in any way whatsoever, and it even had the ability to attach itself to leaves or falling petals perhaps to engage in battle with an enemy. That was the reason why people had been saying time and time again that falling leaves and flowers could become deadly through the skills of a powerful warrior.

But when all were said and done, it could be beyond a mere mortal's capability to reach the Fighting Soul level.

Only a select few amongst all of the warriors on the Internal Elixir level could hope to train and reach the Fighting Soul level for the sake of increasing the strength of their soul! A majority of the warriors in the Virtual Tribulation Realm couldn't ever reach the Fighting Soul level in their lifetime!

Zen, a warrior whose prior achievement was reaching the nature level, had attained the Fighting Soul level. What an astonishing feat!

The warriors who had experienced training side-by-side with Zen were not as surprised as opposed to everyone else, the reason being that they had witnessed firsthand Zen's progress and rapid improvement and they also watched as Zen stepped into the inner circle from the outer circle in order to move closer to the Owl Beast.

Dennis, Wei, Alan, and a few other people weren't able to see what occurred in the black ball, and all they knew was that a guy who was at the nature level shouldn't have been capable of reaching the Fighting Soul level at all. It was an utterly inconceivable idea in their eyes. Ŗå𝐍ỖᛒÈṠ

“Hold on just a second, why does it seem as though there's some sort of unusual attribute contained inside his Fighting Soul?” With his glare fixated on Zen, Dennis sensed that there was something out of the ordinary being exuded by Zen's body.

Elder Wei realized in an instant what Zen had been through and let out a smile, “If I'm guessing correctly, our leader decided to hand over to him a Ganoderma Soul Pill produced by the Dragon Abyss Palace.”

Alan forced a dull smile and remarked, “Your Dragon Abyss Palace was quite the generous one. A Ganoderma Soul Pill is much too costly even if its power is rather below mediocre.” After saying that, he went down to the ground and whispered to Zen under his breath, “Zen, be one of us with the Dragon Blaze Hall, and I can promise you that you will have a bright future ahead of you. Banding together with us, the finest within the realm, I assure you, would be the best decision you're ever going to make in your lifetime!”

Knitting his eyebrows, Zen shot Alan a glance. Indeed, he could feel the power of everyone there, but Alan's way with words made Zen feel nauseous and totally repulsed, prompting him to ask the person standing close to him, “Who might you be? For what reason should I become a member of the Dragon Blaze Hall?”

“Aha, who I am is but a trivial matter, what you need to understand is that there are billions of aspiring warriors whose dream is to become part of the Dragon Blaze Hall. Sad to say, the ones who are actually qualified are few and far between! If you were to join our Dragon Blaze Hall, you are going to be destined for greatness, and I'll even throw in an extra 50 drops of Genuine Dragon blood on behalf of our Dragon Blaze Hall!” Alan's eyes were already blazing with triumph as he was quite certain that his offer to Zen would be hard to refuse. For a warrior coming from the Lower World like Zen, a drop of Genuine Dragon blood was more than sufficient to entice him, and 50 drops, even more so!

Zen smiled at him and responded with a straight face, “Thank you! I appreciate it! I really do.”

Upon hearing that, Alan's face brightened up, and he was already grinning much like a Cheshire cat. He was under the assumption that his discernment was on point that the guy on consummation of nature level would be much too thrilled. It couldn't have been further from the truth though, as Alan's smile barely even lasted for a minute.

Zen added immediately, “But I'm afraid I can't accept your offer, because I'm not interested in joining the Dragon Blaze Hall.”

“Why is that? 50 drops of Genuine Dragon blood was still inadequate? The Genuine Dragon blood can dramatically increase your blood concentrations! Weren't you aware of that?” Alan blurted out subconsciously, his eyes darkened out of confusion. Zen's response greatly agitated him, to such an extent that he seemed to have momentarily lost track of the high position he was in as well as his morale, causing him to act far too different from how he usually did.

“It's not because of the Genuine Dragon blood,” Zen explained.

“If not that, then what should matter even more?” Alan pried further with great intensity. His full strength was far greater than Zen could ever fathom, so there couldn't possibly be anyone who wouldn't be overwhelmed by the power Alan exuded.

If he hadn't attained the Fighting Soul, Zen's soul would have been destroyed instantly when faced with such intimidating strength which Alan gave off. However, at that point in time, Zen had already successfully reached Fighting Soul level, meaning he was capable of resisting such an enormous amount of power with ease.

“It's quite simple, really. Because I don't appreciate the way you speak to me,” Zen answered in all honesty and then walked directly to the girl wearing palace clothes who just came out of the black ball. He was aware that during the time when he was planning to reach the Fighting Soul level, that girl was the one who helped him, and truth be told, he was actually a man with a heart filled with so much gratefulness.

“You!” Alan clenched his fists and gritted his teeth as a result, his eyes instantaneously fuming with intense hostility. Oh, how he longed to kill Zen! That man, Alan, was seething with anger due to Zen declining his offer to join the Dragon Blaze Hall. To add insult to injury, Zen even had the nerve to talk to him like that, leaving him downright infuriated.

Prior to that point, no one had ever found the guts to talk to him that way, so let alone a man of the meager nature level.

Everyone had heard of Alan's immense power! To Alan, killing Zen swiftly would be just a piece of cake. However, Zen had the audacity to humiliate him! How could Alan let that one slip?

As luck would have it, at that very moment, the words from the leader of the Dragon Abyss Palace managed to diffuse Alan's desire to annihilate Zen.

“Zen has a point. Since he isn't fond of you, what other reason would he have for joining the Dragon Blaze Hall?” the girl wearing the palace clothes giggled at the scene in front of her.

The girl's remarks helped Alan get to thinking.

Alan was actually just a vice leader, and amongst the Dragon Lineage Human, he was significantly much inferior to the girl who was the leader of Dragon Abyss Palace both in position and in power. So, of course, he couldn't just kill Zen right in front of the girl!

“I don't know how to thank you enough, Madam. Thanks for lending a helping hand when I was attempting to reach the Fighting Soul level!” Zen leaned over to pay his respects.

“Ha-ha.” Hearing Zen's words of gratitude, the leader of the Dragon Abyss Palace merrily roared with laughter.

“Madam, you look rather young, akin to a girl of sweet sixteen! Is referring to you as Madam a bit too much?” Zen clarified, unable to hold back his laughter.

Hearing Zen's way of speaking toward their head, elder Wei couldn't help cursing him deeply in his heart, 'This Zen... such insolence talking about our leader's age casually. Do you have some kind of death wish? Just how badly do you want to get sent straight to?'