Apotheosis

The piety of the Demon Night in their faith was something Zen was well aware of. To the entire Demon Night, their only faith consisted of the three queens, Lavender, Elena, and the last queen.

Regardless of whether it was in the Upper World or Lower World, in any sacred place of the Demon Night race, their faith remained the same.

Such a thing couldn't easily be changed in a person, after all.

The moment the members of the Demon Night were born, they underwent the baptism of the queens' statues, engraving their fealty into their bones. The Luster Force Secret Sect recruited a few of the Demon Night race members into their sect most likely because they had some special means to make the latter obey.

Seeing Zen's solemn expression, the white-robed martial artist's smile slowly faded. "Do you need me to spell it out?"

"It seems as though I can't refuse…" Zen suddenly commented with a smile.

The other man seemed pleased upon hearing this as he said, "You're a smart boy. I believe you can become a good believer. The gods will definitely protect—"

"No, I won't join you," Before the man could finish his statement, Zen interjected.

The man's expression froze and his gaze upon Zen turned cold. "Do you know what it means to refuse?"

"I don't know." A faint smile surfaced on Zen's face. "But I don't want to waste time creating a sword embryo for some Supreme Lord."

It was no secret that the Luster Force Secret Sect was making a sword embryo. Only the highest of figures in the Upper World were made aware of it, but in the name of 'god, ' the Luster Force Secret Sect still managed to gather a remarkable number of believers. In the eyes of many, after all, a Supreme Lord was hardly different from a god.

With that, Zen's straightforward words were deemed blasphemous. The face of the white-robed martial artist darkened as the corners of his mouth curled up into an icy smile. With a gentle wave of his hand, he triggered several rays of light to shoot out from the upper floor of the shrine—several warriors clad in golden armor could be seen in each ray.

"Capture the man who slandered our god. We're going to burn him to death with hellfire." With that, the white-robed martial artist commanded the warriors to seize Zen.

But Zen seemed rather down—they had merely stepped inside to take a look around, but escaping turned out to be such an ordeal. What kind of damned place was this?

In a flash of green light, the five-foot-long sword appeared in his hand. Then, Nether God Shadows shot out from the sword edge, rushing toward the golden-armored warriors from

armored warriors seemed to leave a rather deep impression on her—they were like puppets as they went all out in their attacks, not seeming to have a lick of concern for their own lives. Given the scene earlier, she assumed they had slave seals or had been controlled by some other special means. Anyway, she had no intention of joining the secret sect and turning into a puppet.

"There's a little guy who is hungry," was all Zen said in return.

Freya seemed puzzled until she saw him pull out the small Ancestral Dragon from his spirit beast bag.

The little dragon made some gurgling noises before tilting his head toward the shrine. It was clear that he had smelt food—he began struggling, trying to free himself from Zen's grip.

"This... What is this?" Freya asked, still puzzled.

It was no surprise that she didn't know what the animal was—the dragon was still too young and looked nothing like a Genuine Dragon.

Without answering her question, he said to the dragon, "Go! But you must be careful."

With that, he released his grip on the creature and the dragon sank into the ground in an instant, disappearing from their view.

Because Zen didn't answer, Freya decided not to ask any further—it was Zen who did so, and he must have had his reasons.

Inside the massive square inside the shrine, every believer was busy mumbling to themselves as they fell prostrate on the surface, offering their Faith Energy.

What they had yet to realize was that the tiny Ancestral Dragon was rapidly moving underground, approaching the center of the square.

When it felt its 'food' above it, it changed course and carefully slithered into the stone pillar above its head. The pillar was just the one holding up the sphere.