Apotheosis

At the very beginning, when they came into the third ring, Zen felt the pain extremely unbearable under the mighty oppressing force once he left the protection range of an oil lamp. So he must move swiftly to every oil lamp ahead basically for protection. But then, as he was able to stop at every other oil lamp, and then every other two oil lamps, the distance between them widened.

At last, Zen had finished his first circle in the third ring and was just closely behind Christopher. It was only then Christopher came to realize what the distance there was between him and Zen. Upset and disgraced by the fact, Christopher turned around all of a sudden to pursue Zen in the other direction.

The funny scene provoked a loud fit of laughter and howling cheers among all the warriors watching. Christopher seemed stupidly confused at Zen's tricks.

The two of them had played the game of run-and-chase in the third ring for nearly four hours. At last, Zen seemed to have had enough fun in this game. He flashed a brilliant smile at his opponent before he casually slipped into the fourth ring.

In this circle, the oppressing force was eightfold as powerful as that in the first ring!

With Zen infiltrating the fourth ring, Christopher was burning with anger in eagerness to follow him as well. He was determined not to lose his face at this round. So he fixed his mind solely on how he would exact revenge with Zen. Only then would he give up! At the spectator side, all of his three companions were observing him keenly. They started to feel uneasy as they stared at him, giving Zen a black look. Anticipating his intention, they yelled at him. He needed to be stopped. "Christopher, what are you doing? There's no way for you to bear the oppressive force in the fourth ring. Do you understand?"

Christopher had suffered exhaustion under the attack of the mighty oppressing force in the third ring. His cyan light, a powerful shielding weapon that he was so proud of, had become useless in front of the fourfold oppressing force. How could he deal with the massive force in the fourth ring that was eightfold as powerful?

Approaching the tiny oil lamp for Zen in the fourth ring was as easy as falling off a log, so Christopher followed suit, totally ignoring the warnings from his companions. Never did he expect that a disaster was waiting for him as his soul began to collapse swiftly soon after he had set his feet into the next ring.

Audible gasps were heard from his com

m. They ran and wandered about in every corner of the fourth ring.

"What..." exclaimed Zen with a frown at this unexpected sight.

The fourth ring was strategically situated near the owl beast devil spirit. On top of that, its mighty oppressing force had grown to eight times as powerful as that in the first ring. He had conquered this great challenge by channeling his utmost attention and energy in dealing with this massive force. What could he do now with so many devil spirits swirling?

The devil spirits dared not approach nearer him because they were fearful of the oil lamp illuminating the sphere, making Zen safe as long as he was within its protection range.

But whenever he tried to walk out of it, the devil spirits would rush over him like overwhelming water. Zen shook his head, realizing he was in a difficult situation now.

Unpredictably, the cyan dragon, who had kept in silence all the while, spoke in Zen's mind.

The cyan dragon had sunk into silence the moment when Zen began to practice. Zen didn't think his sudden utterance would be a good omen.

"Zen, I'll devour that owl beast devil spirit after you run into the sixth ring," the cyan dragon said unexpectedly.

"Eat that owl beast ghost?" Zen exclaimed with a doubtful expression splattered in his face, as the cyan dragon's words had startled him. The owl beast devil spirit possessed a far-fetched and unimaginable power. It was already hard to burst into the Fighting Soul Realm, but it would be harder to cope with the owl beast devil spirit which was in a realm higher than the Fighting Soul Realm in power.

"How is it possible?" Zen prompted.