Apotheosis

Loud footsteps ran through the jagged, rocky surface. The hairs on Zen's back stood on their ends when he sensed danger behind him.

He continued to run away from the imminent peril, but it turned out to be useless. He knew where the danger came from, but he simply couldn't get rid of it!

He finally thought that since he couldn't get away, he'd have to turn back and fight!

With that in mind, Zen jumped up and turned around in the air. He saw that Aldrich had gotten close to his back and several bone spikes from his body got closer as well. The nearest one was only several feet away from his nose.

"Get it off!" a sudden scream was heard.

"Ah!"

A five-clawed black dragon had abruptly emerged above Zen's head and gave a loud roar. Its great, slender body directly swooped downwards from the sky.

Before, Aldrich was able to dodge that black dragon's attack, but the dragon didn't disappear. Now, Zen had it under his control and commanded it to stay parallel above him all the time.

After all, Zen's personal skills were quite useless. There was nothing he could do for now except control this huge black dragon to defend himself against the enemy.

Now, if Aldrich really decided to risk everything and wanted to kill him, he could end up dead even if Aldrich was under the attack of the huge five-clawed dragon.

If Aldrich decided not to, he could have a chance of survival.

However, Aldrich didn't want to resign himself to not fighting back. He saw his opponent was close at hand and he could kill Zen immediately, but the damned five-clawed black dragon in the sky quickly rushed down.

"Hah, do you think that you can run away?" Aldrich said disapprovingly. He flapped his large, scaly wings and maneuvered strangely to the side. He seemed to wait for the black dragon to turn away before he attacked Zen again.

Unfortunately, that didn't turn out to be the case for Aldrich.

Across him, a smile playfully danced on Zen's lips as he slightly waved his index finger. The black dragon then rushed down and suddenly changed its direction, then flew towards him. When it got nearer, it unexpectedly swallowed Zen in whole!

The huge five-clawed black dragon was made from Zen's demonic life energy, so when he was inside the dragon's body, he didn't get hurt, but was able to control the dragon to wrap him up.

Apparently, Aldrich never thought that Zen would use this skill. For one second Aldrich was already determined to take his life, but now he was completely hidden deep inside the body of the black dragon. Aldrich couldn't do anything to him anymore.

"Quack…" Aldrich screeched.

Dozens of livid bone spikes suddenly came out from his body.

The bone spikes hurled themselves towards the black dragon's body. The sharp ends penetrated it through, but Aldrich couldn't find Zen. He could only shoot randomly without an aim.

Meanwhile, Zen silently lay on the bottom of the black dragon and remained perfectly still. Bone spikes continued to fly back and forth above his head. He was calm on the outside, but he really felt scared. He had to depend on luck this time.

After a while, luck was on his side after all as not one bone spike hit him.

On the other hand, Aldrich couldn't do anything to Zen. H

I have saved your life anyway!" Zen shouted angrily.

However, Yolande simply blinked at him. "If you didn't save me, you would die--so it is not that you saved my life but you saved yourself," she said.

"..." Zen could not respond to that. After he thought about it for a while, he stated, "Even so, you don't need to lock me up all the time!"

"After sending you to the Military Office, I can let you go," Yolande replied.

When he heard Yolande's last words, Zen felt relieved. Under this situation, the Military Office of the imperial army wouldn't get him in trouble. While he did kill a counselor of the army from Zhuge family, he had also helped the army slay a demon king just now. That was a huge deal, so he believed that even Hugh wouldn't bother him again.

After a few moments, the powerful men of Illuminating Soul Realm finally descended from the sky one by one. Lennie and Spencer walked towards Yolande as soon as they landed.

When he saw Zen was still bound by the enchanted box, Spencer's eyes stared at Yolande. "Yolande, be quick and let Zen come out. Why do you have to lock him up till now?" he said.

But, Yolande only shook her head. "I will let him come out after giving him to the Military Office!" she firmly said.

The others, including Lennie and Hugh, had heard what Yolande said and stroked their temples in exasperation. This girl was truly extremely stubborn! Even under such dire circumstances, she still insisted on sending Zen to the Military Office!

Now, Lennie was not pleased by her decision.

"Yolande, you can't send him to the Military Office!" he said.

The girl's steely gaze turned to look at him.

"Why?" she simply asked.

"Because he has done a meritorious deed just now. He is a hero and has saved our White Emperor City!" he explained.

The powerful men of Illuminating Soul Realm, including Lennie and Spencer wouldn't usually get into a conflict with Yolande at ordinary times.

They had defended White Emperor City for a long time, and clearly knew about Yolande's character and attitude.

However, today would be different -- Lennie told himself that he wouldn't make any compromise.