Apotheosis

Tracy stood elegantly at the center of the competition field. The shadow of the Blue Phoenix behind her looked indistinct and blurry, yet it radiated an overwhelming aura. Tracy looked like a sacred goddess that everyone couldn't look at her graceful figure directly.

The audience was left in awe by the dramatic change in the competition field.

It was a mind-blowing fact that one of the disciples of Cloud Sect among them could have the power of a legendary beast.

To everyone's mind, it would be nearly impossible for Zen to beat Tracy now that she had used the power of the Blue Phoenix. They were expecting that Zen would do the best thing—to admit defeat.

But to their surprise, Zen took out his sword instead.

"A sword? Does Zen have a sword? But he is a body refiner, so how could he use a sword? I don't know what to believe now!"

"I agree. I don't know when Zen has become a sword practitioner. Other than that, it looks to me that he is carrying a fairy weapon!"

"What the heck? Does this mean that Zen has never shown his real strength in his previous matches? So, neither his flying knife nor his soul attack was his real ace! I can't wait to see what his real trump card is!"

The audience had not yet recovered from the shocking fact that Tracy had the power of the Blue Phoenix, and now they were yet again treated to another revelation.

Zen, who was only in grade-two nature level, had astonished the audience by consecutively defeating rivals of nature-level consummation, Illuminating Soul Realm, and those personal disciples. And yet he still had some new tricks to show. Zen had instantly become an unfathomable figure in everyone's eyes.

His mysterious image was a result of his endless powerful means of fighting. After he employed many different skills to beat his rivals, the audience became unclear about the limit of his real power or whether it had a limit or not.

When the audience saw Tracy's Blue Phoenix, they thought that Zen would be defeated this time. However, when Zen pulled out his sword, the result of the fight became uncertain again.

'They are really amazing!' many disciples thought to themselves. Most of them would never be able to reach the same level as the ones in the competition field right now.

Among the audience, Rocher quietly watched the match on the stage. His sharp gaze fixed on Zen who was holding a sword in his hand, and his eyes were filled with eagerness to fight.

Rocher and Zen had something in common.

They were both a dark horse in this All Peaks Competition. Both were skip-level challengers, although Zen did it better by defeating an Illuminating-Soul-Realm practitioner; while Rocher performed just as expected with his level at nature-level consummation.

But it didn't necessarily mean that Zen was far more powerful than Rocher. The latter was a sword practitioner, but he hadn't used his sword in front of any of his rivals yet, which made him as unfathomable as Zen.

Rocher was interested in Zen after he saw the latter's Sword Step. He was eager to fight Zen, but it was a pity that they hadn't encountered each other in the round

"Sword intent, shield my body!"

In the danger of Tracy's sudden attack, Zen surrounded himself with sword intent to protect himself.

"Ding ding ding..."

The collision of Zen's sword intent with Tracy's weapons created a pleasing sound.

Zen's sword intent was strong, but it couldn't force Tracy to step back. As a blue light flashed in Tracy's eyes, she suddenly strengthened and her Emei pricks cut through Zen's sword intent and stabbed directly at him.

"Poof!"

When he realized that the sword intent wasn't strong enough to stop Tracy, Zen quickly used the power of the Phoenix Crystal in his arm to increase his speed. He tried to avoid Tracy's attack but to no avail. The Emei pricks stabbed his shoulders and they started to bleed.

"Damn it! She's powerful!" Zen wiped off the blood from his wounds and coldly stared at Tracy.

"I planned to leave only two injuries in your body, but now I changed my mind. I'll make you bleed to my heart's content!" Tracy announced in cold tone. Her voice and character changed after she had used the power of the Blue Phoenix, but her willfulness remained the same.

"Oh really?" Zen said sarcastically.

"I'll stab you one more time for every smile you dare to show in front of me! That's eleven stabs now!" Tracy warned with the same cold tone.

"It's not fair to increase the price!" Zen said, acting as if complaining. He wasn't threatened by Tracy's warning. He just did that to tease Tracy and see her full potential.

"Twelve now!" Tracy spat angrily, gritting her teeth.

"You can just stab as much as you want! But only if you have the power to do it!" Zen lifted the sword in his hand and assumed an attacking posture. Earlier, he was just testing if his sword intent would pose a threat to Tracy or not. But this time, he meant serious business.

When Zen wielded his sword in that manner, the audience, including Kenneth, was stunned into silence.

"That's basic swordsmanship!" everyone broke the silence.

To their surprise, Zen was performing the first movement of the basic swordsmanship.