Apotheosis

It didn't cross Zen's mind that another soul would try to kill him while his soul was in the black ball.

Now, Zen had to deal with the Owl Beast's evil spirit which was suppressing him while simultaneously dodging Christopher's attacks.

"You can go to hell!" shouted Christopher passionately as he lunged at Zen, swinging his sword.

As agile as Zen was, he was able to weave and dodge around the place, not only narrowly escaping the strikes as Christopher came at him, but, Zen also healed his soul in between attacks by quickly getting closer to the oil lamps.

The second circle of the black globe was ring-shaped. Christopher chased Zen in the ring, and after several rounds, Zen acclimated to the ring and suppressed the forces. A few times, he noted, he could even skip an oil lamp and wait to mend his soul at the next oil lamp.

When Christopher failed to catch Zen, he became infuriated. He raised his blades that were transformed from his two hands as he growled, "Spiritual fighting skill! Ghost Fighting Blades! Let's see how you escape now!"

Christopher was a refiner at the ultimate level of the Illuminating Soul Realm, and had used this precise technique before to slay the soul of a master in the Internal Elixir Realm.

Burning green sparks shot from the two blades and Christopher's shadow snuck up on Zen. While he lunged forward, he swung his blades at Zen's soul.

He came towards Zen at lightning speed, making it impossible for Zen to dodge the blades. If they struck him, they would slice his soul to pieces.

"Oh? Spiritual fighting skill? I can do that!"

Since Zen couldn't shake the incoming assault off, Zen focused, changing a portion of his soul into a sharp thorn and sending it at Christopher.

"Spiritual Thorn!"

Strictly speaking, changing a soul into a thorn was similar to turning a soul into a blade which was a skill employed by Christopher, and it was not considered a spiritual fighting skill. It was used to transform part of his soul to attack.

But, since Zen had spent his time evading Christopher's attacks, steadily, he hadn't taken the time to employ his Spiritual Thorn which left Christopher with the impression that Zen was a coward, unable to fight and unwilling to do more than run.

From the moment he employed the spiritual fighting skill which he took great pride in, Christopher was determined to destroy Zen's soul and focused his full attention on maintaining his blades.

Suddenly, Zen countered Christopher's attack with a violent onslaught which left Christopher no time to dodge the sharp soul thorn headed at him.

It took only a second from the moment he saw the soul thorn for it to pierce Christopher's soul.

"Aaahh!"

Christopher howled in pain as his blades crumbled, and turned to dust. He had held off using his spiritual fighting skill until he thought the time was perfect, but only to find it to be a complete failure. Instead of continuing his assault, Zen put some distance between himself and Christopher

Taking a large big stride forward, Christopher rushed toward Zen as he screamed, "You! You can go to hell!" He balled his hand into a tight fist, ready for a fight.

Facing a master at the ultimate level of the Illuminating Soul Realm, Zen was calm and smiled gently, "Are you sure you want to fight me, here?"

Christopher's face fell as he glanced around and noticed the armed guards. He paused, holding his fist mid-air.

Since arriving, Christopher was still unable to see the armed guards' and elders' strengths, and he found that very odd! But, needless to say, the level of strength that the Upper World masters possessed was beyond imagination. It definitely wasn't a good idea to fight in front of the armed guards.

"Hey! What are you doing? No one's allowed to fight here! Anyone violating this rule will be sentenced to a thousand years in prison!" chided an armed guard.

Christopher loosened his fist in resignation. He pointed at Zen and said, "Sooner or later, I'll get you! If you don't want that, you had better stay out of the dark globe forever!" Afterward, Christopher took a step back.

In the face of idle threats, Zen smiled, and flexed his muscles. Then he jumped back into the black globe.

The minute he was back in the first ring of the black globe, Christopher jumped in from the other side. Zen quickly went to the second ring and according to his plan, began practicing.

However, Christopher was persistent, and was set on defeating Zen. As long as Zen was in the second ring, Christopher would stalk him!

Zen seized every chance to practice. He planned that if he found he wasn't able to dodge Christopher's spiritual fighting skill, he would pull his soul out of the black globe.

Christopher was obstinate beyond reason. Even knowing it was in vain, he went continuously after Zen. They played mouse and cat many times. When Zen's soul finally was able to withstand the suppression of the second ring, he went to the third ring without hesitating.