Apotheosis

The young man in front of Zen obviously came from a prominent family. He had a well-defined face, a finely-embroidered robe that looked quite expensive, and excellent manners.

The four bodyguards at the Life and Death Realm he had with him informed Zen that this young man's status was not modest by any means. He might even actually be a prince, like the one he had met so long ago back in Immortal Mist's celestial tomb.

If he wasn't a prince, he was at least a very important figure here in the Harlen Divine Kingdom.

Zen wouldn't really know for sure. He had just arrived after all and was consciously making an effort to be careful since he was still unfamiliar with how things worked here.

But, no matter how careful he was, trouble just seemed to gravitate towards him.

"Are you also a candidate?" the young man said haughtily. Despite the good manners and fine facade, Zen knew that it would've been impossible for this young man to not have an arrogant side to him.

"Yes," Zen answered curtly, trying to suppress his annoyance.

"Great! I haven't seen any independent warriors that are around the same cultivation level as you. I'm also going to participate in the assessment. Follow me," the young man ordered arrogantly.

Martial houses functioned differently from the sects in Central Region. Here, they gathered multiple warriors in order to select those with decent enough strength to compete against the other divine kingdoms in the secret places.

In Cloud Hall, the system would be to gather its own disciples. However, in the divine kingdoms, there was no such thing. Whoever had the strength could enter the secret places and excavate the treasures within.

Zen froze at his command.

'Follow him?' he thought to himself before shaking his head.

"I'm sorry. I've always been alone and I'm not really used to being someone's follower," he refused politely.

One of the guards erupted into a white-hot rage at Zen's words. "How dare you! Our young master has thought highly of you and granted you the honor of following him!"

The guard's anger did not faze Zen. "Since you think highly of me, surely you wouldn't make things difficult for me, would you?"

His words made the young man chuckle. "Good! You have guts. I like you." He looked back at his guards. "Let's go!"

His reaction left Zen feeling quite confused and a little bit shocked. He didn't think he'd leave him alone that easily. He had actually gotten himself ready for a fight just in case. The four guards the young man had with him surely wouldn't be an easy kill.

Nevertheless, he was grateful for the avoidance of unnecessary drama. Though he knew he could take out warriors at the Life and Death Realm, he preferred to conserve his strength in case he had to escape from a warrior at the Soul Sea Realm.

Francis let out a sigh of relief beside him. "Thank goodness you held yourself back."

"Why?" Zen asked, rai

fought to enter the martial houses.

Warriors at the Virtual Tribulation Realm were different.

These warriors had been on the path of cultivation for a long time and ordinary cultivation resources that the martial houses provided wouldn't really be of much use to them at this point.

Even the Tower of Sin could only breed top-level war lords. Warriors at the Virtual Tribulation Realm could only rely on themselves if they wanted to advance through experiencing life and death situations and making breakthroughs through adversity. If they were lucky, they might be able to obtain a good opportunity during their advancement which would then effectively open up the road towards enlightenment.

It was this good opportunity that they all yearned for. The warriors at the Virtual Tribulation Realm that had come to sign up had the same goal as Zen—to represent the Harlen Divine Kingdom and enter the sea of miracle.

Some were independent warriors while a few came from other martial houses. They were probably from third-grade or even fourth-grade martial houses and came here to a higher grade martial house to be able to enter the sea of miracle.

Hopping from one martial house to another did not really mean that one had turned his back to his original martial house. All martial houses worked for divine kingdoms after all.

A woman at the Internal Elixir Realm came up to Zen as soon as he entered the courtyard. She welcomed him and asked if he wanted to participate in the test to obtain the Harlen Token.

This Harlen Token was what he would need to enter the sea of miracle. According to the agreement among the four divine kingdoms, each would issue a corresponding number of tokens every year to those deemed worthy. These tokens were equal to the licenses to the Feather Holy Sea and those issued by the York Divine Kingdom were called York Tokens.

Zen naturally nodded. His purpose was to enter the Feather Holy Sea after all.