Apotheosis

The sudden laughter made Zen a bit uncomfortable.

When they were in the outside world, Zen had interacted with her quite frequently. Though they had never personally met, he remembered her as a rather lively girl.

But after entering the Illusion Battlefield, she meticulously read the rules of the battlefield, growing more and more cold and detached.

"Your performance was not bad, Zen. You've already ranked 77th!" The girl's voice echoed from within Zen's mind.

After a stunned moment, he asked, "Is there any news of Yan?"

"…"

For a moment, the other was silent until a dissatisfied voice called out, "Why is this the first thing you say to me every time?"

The comment made Zen roll his eyes. 'Isn't this nonsense?'

Though he could use his Roaring Token limitlessly, he had something else more important to do than telling her stories. Wasn't it all for getting her to help him investigate Yan's whereabouts, after all?

"No news?" Zen still asked.

As indifferent as ever, the girl replied, "The divine land is much larger than you can imagine. I sent back the news a few years ago, but I haven't heard from them yet." Helpless, the mysterious girl could only explain this to Zen.

A look of disappointment surfaced on Zen's face. With a sigh, he asked, "What are you doing? Why did you suddenly appear?"

Originally, he wanted to examine the bamboo slips, just when the mysterious girl's consciousness suddenly popped up.

"Nothing. I'm personally presiding over the Illusion Battlefield. Aren't you going to ask for my help?" she asked him with a knowing smile.

"No need," Zen immediately declined.

While Zen wasn't very clear on the true meaning behind the Illusion Battlefield, he knew that this was the place where the talents of the Soul Sea Realm competed. Since he had entered the battlefield prepared to rely on his own strength—he didn't rely on the cyan dragon nor did he rely on Lavender. So why would he need anyone else's help?

Eventually, he knew he had to face those ace talents and the Godly Geniuses.

Those like Lucille after the fusion, or Lone, perhaps. But when a martial artist was born, he could only rely on himself in the end. One might be able to show off his strength with others' help, but that was still only others' help.

"Don't be like this. I can truly help you," the mysterious girl continued.

"I said there's no need," Zen said with a frown. "I only need you to find Yan's location. That alone is enough."

"…" Suddenly,

how Zen's Roaring Token had come about. So long as the guy was willing to talk to her, she would be satisfied.

Afterward, she listened to Zen tell stories one after another after she promised to help him find his sister. These few years, she no longer fell into deep sleep, or rather, she refused to let herself fall into one. With this, her sleeping time was cut down to less than a year or half a year instead of the millions or even hundreds of millions of years before.

Now that she had made her decision, she slowly raised her right hand until a purple halo appeared around her thin arm. The instant it appeared, it silently spread out. Without being noticed, it silently enveloped the entire Illusion Battlefield.

Zen had no clue what this mysterious girl was planning.

When her voice faded away, he released a breath of relief. Once again, he examined the bundle of golden bamboo slips and realized that this was used to imprint the heavens' law onto the sculpture.

But this heavens' law required 500 million Illusion Points in order to exchange for it. The news left Zen feeling dizzy.

Even if it was the first-ranked warrior of the Illusion Battlefield, he couldn't possibly have obtained 500 million Illusion Points, could he?

So Zen turned around and selected the bamboo slips of power, defense, and speed.

Someone had concentrated all his Illusion Points into one kind of slips, but Zen was still doing what he could to achieve balance. What Zen didn't know, though, was that he had already been manipulated by the mysterious girl during the exchange.

The amount of Illusion Points he exchanged was different from that of the others.