Apotheosis

As the spectators waited for the fight's next sequence with bated breaths, the golden dragon slithered around Zen and pranced on its five, large claws like a giant snake. Zen's Heavenly Ogre Fist was far weaker than that of the golden dragon's, and his power had been weakened a lot throughout the battle.

After all, Zen was still half-step into the nature level, which meant that he was only capable of condensing and exerting demonic life energy. Although demonic life energy was powerful as it was, it was nothing compared to the strength of life vitality. Apart from the incomparable differences between the two, the five-clawed golden dragon in front of him continuously consumed life vitality which only made it grow stronger.

Thus, the battle between the dragon and Zen was not the fairest. It was like pitting a chick against an eagle, and Zen was the much weaker chick.

"Boff!"

The unmistakable cracking sound of a punch was heard from the shadow of Zen's fist that collided against the five-clawed golden dragon. Right after the punch, the shadow stealthily slipped into the body of the dragon and vanished from their sight.

The general of the imperial army's lips curved into a flat smile when the shadow had vanished. He sneered at Zen's overestimation of his own strength and overconfidence about his own abilities. He used to think highly of his own "Magical Dragon Fist," but after a fierce attack, Zen even didn't flinch at all. Very soon, the golden dragon defused Zen's punch that he used his life energy to throw.

The spectators, including Lenard and Cleve, shook their heads at the sight of the attack.

The audience were witnessing what they had already expected.

It was completely impossible for anyone else present to battle a strongman who had entered the Illuminating Soul Realm, simply because in such a fight, they weren't powerful enough to counterattack at all.

In the audience, Nina's face had a serious and vexed expression. For this trip, she brought along three jade boxes with her, each containing a "Shock Dragon". She had previously called on her last Shock Dragon to counterattack the five-clawed golden dragon when it showed up for the first time, so she had none left.

Even if all her Shock Dragons had been used up, she still had an arsenal of other hidden self-defense weapons ready at her disposal.

For ins

influence after it was consumed by his demonic life energy.

Zen's head whipped to the side for a moment. 'Then, how can I manipulate this five-clawed blackish purple dragon?' he thought.

As he silently asked himself, he came up with an idea. He immediately proceeded to separate his soul from his body and bewitched the dragon with his mind.

"Howl, rawr!" the dragon let out a thundering cry.

It was as if it had been woken up from a deep slumber. The huge monster began to ascend towards the sky, as its body started to slither around Zen's own.

Eyes wide with astonishment, Zen was completely amazed and pleased at the outcome of his magic. "That's it! I really can manipulate it now!" he exclaimed excitedly. The blackish purple dragon slithered this way and that, then lowered its head to face its current master. Zen gave it a gentle pat on the forehead as he stared smugly at the furious eyes of the imperial army's general, who had reached the Illuminating Soul Realm.

All the spectators were utterly dazed by the scene. They were absolutely puzzled by how Zen got the general's dragon under his control, especially with only his half-step into the nature level abilities.

What had gone wrong? Just a few moments ago, they witnessed how the golden dragon was ready to kill Zen. But, how could the dragon turn into a blackish purple color and be under Zen's authority in just a blink of an eye? The dragon had really stopped its attacks against Zen and seemed to have been under his dominance.

Was there anything weirder than this in the world?