Apotheosis

"I... I have never heard of a river within the Sacred Spring Mountain!"

Teigan muttered.

According to what the outside world knew, the land of the Collapsing Mountain race was considered the sacred place for cultivation because it was the source of strength.

The reason people had described the rare strength source as spring water was because there weren't much of them. It was commonly believed that here was a spring where the rare strength source was gushed out.

This was why this mountain was called the Sacred Spring Mountain.

Within the Sacred Spring Mountain, one could see a number of caves spreading out from the bottom part, like capillaries. You had to explore carefully to reach the bottom.

Over the years, the Collapsing Mountain race had almost finished studying the inner structure of the Sacred Spring Mountain. Although the road here was complicated, there was still a map. But the map would not be given to anyone apart from the elders of the Collapsing Mountain race, even if they were members of the race who had participated in the coming-of-age ceremony.

Chapman had wanted to hand over a portion of the map to Zen. The map had several locations marked where Zen could find more strength source.

But the elders of the race rejected this plan. If this map were to be leaked, it would be dangerous for the Collapsing Mountain race. The power that Zen could obtain would still depend on his own ability.

The Collapsing Mountain race obviously knew a lot about the Sacred Spring Mountain. But they didn't know everything about it. They only knew that there was a spring under the ground and that all the mountain's strength source must have come from it.

The strength source had interesting characteristics. It looked like flowing water, which would flow down to the bottom of the mountain. But there were many times when the strength source would flip back, completely ignoring gravity, and climb to the top. The strength source, that should have been deep underground, would even appear at the top of the Sacred Spring Mountain and occasionally, even spill over the top of the mountain.

In truth, the chaotic power around the Collapsing Mountain race was closely related to the strength source.

Before today, no one had known that there was a river inside the Sacred Spring Mountain. If this news were to spread, the Sacred Spring Mountain might start to be called the 'Sacred River Mountain'.

Even Zen was excited at this. The barbarian bee queen had chased him, and with the bee queen's help, he had carved a new path for himself.

The two of them stared blankly at the seven-colored river in front of them. It took them a few minutes to finally calm down.

There was, however, a big problem. Zen had discovered quite a fe

he river above them came to form a straight line, like a man-made canal. Nature had gone all out on this, but it was impossible for such a river to have been formed by nature. It was rather obvious that it was created by intelligent beings.

Along with the river above them that seemed to be laid out regularly, the path under Zen's feet also became more regular, almost identical in shape to the river above them. The silver walls on both sides of the mountain became smoother and smoother.

"The intelligent beings that dug this river knew that the strength source would be reversed. So they dug out two canals at the same time, one at the top of the cave and one at the bottom. I wonder what the purpose of this is,"

Zen said as he walked.

Not long after, the space before them opened up. A huge circular pit appeared beneath their feet, and the seven-colored river above their heads fell into a waterfall.

Ordinary waterfalls flowed straight down from top. But the waterfall above them flew straight up. It was the complete opposite.

This was exactly what Zen had expected. He had seen complete reversal several times. But the waterfall flowed straight up and gathered in a circular lake at the top of the cave!

An identical circular lake appeared naturally in front of Zen and Teigan. But the lake below them was empty. After all, only after the strength source had reversed itself would the lake's strength source fall into the lake below.

Zen and Teigan stood beside the lake and looked around. Before long, they noticed something grey and blurry, jumping about in the middle of the lake. They could not see what exactly it was. But everything that appeared in this damn place was too bizarre, and neither Zen nor Teigan had any intention of entering the lake. They were curious about it, but their lives were more important.