Apotheosis

There was only a Picture Slab outside the Cloud Road, and whenever Frank and her disciple, Lois appeared in the slab, Lady Long would be all smiles and praises for them.

She regarded Frank as though he were her son, whereas she treated the other disciples participating in the Cloud Road like they were worthless. Besides, in her opinion, only Lois was qualified to stand beside Frank.

As an elder of Cloud Hall, Fernandez was quite familiar with all the disciples of Cloud Hall. He knew of Frank's and Lennon's skills and background. Naturally, his focus was on other disciples, such as Zen, Lewis, Rocher, Patrick, and a few others who performed outstandingly well in the test.

Funnily enough, whenever Zen appeared on the Picture Slab, Lady Long could not help but disparage him.

It would be fine if she only expressed her contempt for Zen once or twice. After all, she was a woman, not only of bad temper but also of great strength. It was unexpected for Lady Long to have a deep prejudice against Zen, and for her to belittle Zen every time. How could Kenneth tolerate her irrational behavior?

When Kenneth finally spoke up, the other sect leaders felt greatly elated and applauded him secretly.

Although Lady Long's caustic remarks were mostly directed at Zen, she was also rude to the other disciples. This, of course, had triggered dissatisfaction among the other sect leaders, but they all held their anger like Kenneth before.

"Humph! What's the future for a guy from that little place in the east? Eastern Region? Eastern Region? Humph! How can you call that place a region? How ridiculous! What are you staring at? Yes, I'm criticizing the Eastern Region as well. Zen has already offended Lennon, which is tantamount to provoking the union of the Wang Clan and the Zhao Clan. What will he achieve in the future? How ignorant and stupid he is! I think Lewis is smarter than Zen. At least he covered his face when he robbed the treasure chest..." sneered Lady Long, knocking her cane on the ground.

Kenneth, who was a forthright and impetuous man, appreciated Zen's courage to fight Lennon openly. So he protested against Lady Long, not caring about the consequences. "What's so great about the union of the Wang Clan and the Zhao Clan?" he argued gallantly after a short laugh. "The fact that someone offends the South Wang-Zhao Family doesn't mean the person has to worry about severe consequences instead of continuing with their practice. The union of the Wang Clan and the Zhao Clan is significant. However, they will be a third-grade family. Lady Long, don't forget that our Cloud Hall is a force at grade four. Can a member of this big family suppress an elite from Cloud Hall? You're overestimating the union! You boosted the morale of the other side and lowered our own! Lady Long, are you still a member of Cloud Hall?"

"You! When did I endorse another side and lower our own?" Lady Long snapped back.

Kenneth intended to use Cloud Hall's power to put pressure on Lady Long. If Zen successfully passed the Cloud Road, he would become an elite disciple of Cloud Hall, and then he would natural

this situation.

"Clank! Clank..."

The noise grew louder, and soon, a strange thing appeared at the mouth of the cave.

"Is this a puppet?" Zen mumbled.

It was hard for him to define what it was.

It looked like a puppet made of pillars. Zen couldn't think of anything to compare it to. Given that it could move automatically and didn't breathe like a living creature, Zen could only call it a puppet.

But the puppet's arms and legs were made of shiny metal pillars, at the end of which there were no hands or feet but sharp blades that gleamed in the cold light. Obviously, these blades were of high-grade material. Besides, its head, shoulders, and many other parts also had a lot of blades.

Apparently, this puppet was made for killing. It was a puppet killer!

As soon as the puppet exited the cave, it rushed toward Zen.

With every step it took, the blades on its feet were driven deep into the stone platform.

As it quickly approached Zen, its thin, and metal column torso suddenly began to spin. In the same instant, its arms also rotated at high speed, like a windmill, trying to injure Zen.

"What should I do to deal with it?" Zen whispered as he racked his brain.

Puppets didn't have weaknesses as human beings did. Zen reckoned that the puppet would have a core to power it, so he just needed to smash that core.

The problem was that Zen didn't have much time to observe the puppet and find its core. At this moment, he was standing on the edge of the platform, and if he could not withstand the puppet's first attack, Zen would fall off the cliff and lose the test.

"Its waist!"

Excitement flickered in his eyes as Zen abruptly bent down like a tiger that was readying itself to attack its prey! This ready stance of attack was called the Crawling Tiger Move. When the puppet rushed forward, Zen kicked his feet off the ground like a pouncing tiger. At the same time, he pushed his Streamer Sword horizontally.

The puppet's waist was a long, slim iron pillar. Zen felt confident that he could cut it off with this move!