Apotheosis – Ascension to Godhood

Chapter 454: Cheating

Just as these people were discussing Zen and the current situation of the test, the middle-aged cultivator glanced at the Picture Slab and remarked, “Now we enter the fourth round of attack.”

Upon hearing the announcement, Michael and Xiao immediately shifted their gaze at the Picture Slab.

During the third round of defense, it was quite astonishing how Zen managed to climb into the leaderboards and take the lead in killing black turtles. At the same time, Michael, along with everyone else, was checking how Owen was doing, a cultivator at the consummation of Illuminating Soul Realm, thus missing the scene of Lily, the sword spirit, killing black turtles.

Taking what the middle-aged cultivator said into consideration, Michael and Xiao were burning with curiosity. They could easily tell at a glance that Zen's sword spirit was peculiar. But why? What had made it so special?

In their minds, they only thought that Zen's sword spirit was too beautiful to be true. With a set of elongated ears, it appeared as if the sword spirit was somewhat inhuman. No one had any clue as to which race it could be classified into because it had been gifted with such a flawless physique and quality.

The attacks in the magic array were steadily becoming much, much more vicious.

Not a single one of the cultivators had been defeated in the span of the first round of battle against the spiders with three eyes as well as the second round of battle with the ogres holding spears, and there wasn't even a single pagoda that got destroyed as well.

But the moment the third round of attack arrived, seven of the cultivators' pagodas had already gotten damaged by the black turtles. And the state of affairs just got worse as one by one, the competitors were getting eliminated. Only a few of them would survive during the fourth round of attack.

When the bell started tolling, Zen heard a shrieking noise coming from above him and looked up to check what was happening.

“What is that? Does that mean the fourth round of attack is going to come from up above?”

Without a warning, a dark cloud full of creatures swarmed toward Zen from the sky.

Not until the dark cloud was already floating right in front of Zen's face was he able to realize that it was actually a large group of crow zombies.

These crow zombies consumed carcasses for sustenance, causing their beaks to get covered with toxic ptomaine at all times. Even the bladder located under their beaks stood the test of time, eventually adapting and evolving to store toxins. Crow zombies had been notable for their quick attacks and for being unforgiving creatures. If you finished off one of their kind, the rest would definitely come for revenge to besiege the enemy. They were the creatures whom cultivators greatly despised.

“These fearsome crow zombies are flying all over the place, moving much swifter than the armed ogres ever did! I guess it would be safe to say only a handful would be able to make it through this round!”

The instant the archers protecting Zen's tower unleashed a flurry of their arrows, Zen, along with his sword spirit, Lily, hightailed toward the sky straight away.

“I'm gonna put an end to every single one of you!”

Zen was surrounded by his consummate sword intent, slashing right through all of the crow zombies which were three meters away from him in all directions with ease, basically turning them all into mincemeat. The man went berserk through the lot, and every move he made, the lifeless bodies of crow zombies went down one by one like rain drops. Before they could even make it to the ground, all of the bodies transformed into blinding specks of light.

For this assault phase, Zen exhausted about half of his power, or else, he couldn't have possibly lasted that long.

These wretched crow zombies let out a series of grating caws.

They dove in with reckless abandon, spraying their reserves of toxin all over Zen while thronging him.

Zen had been completely enveloped by a shroud of dark green toxic gas.

If any other person were to inhale those toxins, they would most certainly fall dead on the spot. But it was quite a different case when it came to Zen. Possessing a body of spiritual weapon which was immune to the toxins, he was simply left completely unscathed.

Zen didn't even bat an eye even though he got surrounded by lethal fumes, much less Lily. She actually laid waste to more crow zombies than Zen did.

She gracefully soared through the skies much like a little fairy, and no one had a ghost of a chance of stopping her. Lily waved her great black sword, which moved so swiftly that it appeared as though it was a flower of death. Wherever the flower bloomed, pieces of crow zombie plummeted. This helped Zen's points displayed on the tower side to increase.

“Sixty seconds for the fourth round of attack to be fought off!” Zen reckoned how much time they had spent fighting and shifted his gaze into the distance, “That's...”

Zen flew over to finish off those crow zombies and looked even farther. The grassland, which had been constructed using magic array, was uneven and a bit bumpy.

Zen peered at a distance and made out the figure of one cultivator killing crow zombies in another grassland.

However, it looked like the man was having a hard time dealing with them. Those vile creatures flocked him from all sides and spewed out huge amounts of toxic gas, causing the pitiful man to keel over out of fear. ṛ𝙖NỗΒĚŜ

Zen examined the state of his own tower. Given that he had already cleared out the group of crow zombies which had been roaming around it, he was positive that the tower wouldn't be in any real danger, at least until the next round of attack arrived.

The rules stated that the more crow zombies you defeated, the more points you were going to receive. But did it say anything regarding killing off the other participants' crow zombies?

Zen giggled in excitement and hurriedly moved over to another area.

Realizing what Zen must've been planning, Michael, Xiao, and the middle-aged man were at such a loss for words.

“That guy right there... What is he thinking?” Michael then turned to look at the Picture Slab.

With his mustache quivering, Xiao replied, “Isn't it obvious? He's going to do away with some other cultivator's crow zombies!”

Furrowing his eyebrows quite deeply, the middle-aged man remarked, “In spite of the fact that he successfully defended his tower and managed to clear out his crow zombies in a short period of time, there are still rules he has to follow. We are still just in the first step of the competition, and fights among cultivators should be included in the second step of the pre-qualifying test. He's not supposed be having a go at competing with another warrior, at least not until they have already survived the first ten rounds of attacks from various beasts! It's clear that he broke the rules we set!”

Shaking with laughter, the old man with the family name of Xiao retorted, “I don't really see it that way. Our rules don't necessarily go against his strategy. It wasn't specifically said that it can't be done”

“That may be true, he might not be going against the rules, but he's definitely cheating!” The middle-aged man, to all intents and purposes, wasn't fond of Zen's actions. Cultivators were supposed to protect their towers during the first step and then proceed to steal from others in the second. No one had ever dared to try to pull off a stunt like stealing others' beasts to kill at the beginning!

They were somewhat open to the idea of a person breaking the rule using Zen's strategy. However, in its entirety, no one had ever managed to kill all of the beasts assigned to them during the first step, let alone steal from other participants. After all, it wouldn't be a great idea to leave their own towers unprotected as someone could grab that window of opportunity to siege it. It wouldn't be that hard to come up with such a strategy, as many warriors had really considered doing it. But no one actually put it into practice until now. It was just the first time someone managed to really pull it off.

Zen was the first guy, and currently the only one as well.

“That wouldn't necessarily count as cheating. Your rules have a few loopholes. And Zen just happened to be good at finding one and exploited it. You shouldn't be blaming him for anything at all. Has any other participant ever attempted to do something like that?” Xiao insisted, for he was actually somewhat burning with anticipation and wondering whether Zen would be able to make it through the pre-qualifying test and how far he could go during the main draw match.

“If you say so...” The middle-aged cultivator didn't bother arguing anymore because of the way Xiao saw things made enough sense. But he was just so anxious about what might happen if they didn't put an end to his antics soon.

The cultivator whose tower was located right next to Zen's was desperately trying to do all he could just to survive inside the blanket of toxic fumes.

The gas should be avoided at all costs. It didn't really matter how strong and powerful a cultivator might be, his skin would wear away instantly if the gas got in contact with it. Even though he wouldn't actually get hurt physically in the magic array, he would still risk losing the game.

It was like a gargantuan task for this cultivator to get away from the cloud of toxic gas and keep his tower safe at the same time as he was only at the Internal Elixir Realm.

While he was so engaged in trying to kill as many crow zombies as he could, the cultivator suddenly noticed a man approaching him at a moderate speed. The pitiful man seemed so lost.

“What's going on here? Are there also going to be attacks from other competitors aside from the beasts?”

The cultivator had been left dumbfounded for a moment there, but he immediately comprehended what was happening as he witnessed Zen going ahead and killing crow zombies. But Zen had come from the tower next to his.

The rule was made clear, you had to acquire as many points as possible to make it through the test of the magic array. Meaning to say, points were crucial to each of them!

In the span of the first ten rounds of attacks, all of the participants were tasked to protect his or her tower while annihilating those foul beasts. So, all the survivors basically had the opportunity to receive the same number of points at the end if they managed to clear their designated areas.

But at that time, Zen went over to another area with the intention of killing another warrior's beasts to get points. This made zero sense whatsoever in the eyes of this warrior.

Despite the fact that the cultivator was already having difficulties just from keeping up with the swarm of crow zombies, there was no way he would want someone to take points which were supposed to be for him. The annoyed man cried out, “Go away.”

He dashed toward Zen, trying to slash him.

“I just want to give you a helping hand...” Zen justified his reason for being there, wearing a cunning smile as he laid waste to the crow zombies as fast as he possibly could.

The cultivator yelled furiously, “Who said I needed help? Get away from my place! Who do you think you are? Are you trying to play God?”

Zen chuckled, totally unfazed by the angry man. What he needed to do was pass the pre-qualifying match. The swarm of crow zombies in front of him would give him even more points, which would surely earn him more advantages in the second stage. With that in mind, just how could anyone let such an awesome opportunity slip away?