Apotheosis

Zen leaped to his feet and stood at the top of the pagoda. From where he was standing, he could see the horizons unfold before him. It was a breathtaking view to see.

However, when he turned his eyes to the end of the grassland, he saw something strange. As he looked carefully, he realized that it was a group of ogres running violently towards him. The ogres were wearing silver armor with one shoulder exposed. Each ogre was holding a spear in each hand. They marched towards Zen in formation.

"They plan to use spears to launch long attacks!" Zen was rather impressed than worried. He raised his brows, and then rushed towards his enemy without any hesitation.

The ogres ran surprisingly fast. If these ogres got any nearer to Zen's pagoda, they could just throw their spears simultaneously and destroy the pagoda. So, Zen was left with no choice but to launch an attack and kill them all before they could get any nearer.

"Zap…"

The two bowmen on the pagoda covered Zen and killed two ogres with their arrows.

Meanwhile, Zen rushed to the ogres and was about to launch an attack, but something unexpected happened.

The ogres roared at that time.

"Brouhaha!"

It was so loud that anyone within a mile radius could break their eardrums. After the roar, the ogres' eyes turned crimson red. Then, they raised their spears and started to attack Zen.

"What the heck? So, now they can attack on their own!"

Zen initially thought that the ogres were only after his pagoda, but it turned out that they were also after him. He wasn't prepared but quickly dodged them. He flashed through the rain of spears, brandishing his Blood Drinking Sword to return the favor.

The ogres were far stronger than the three-eyed spiders. They were also different in some ways. The three-eyed spiders only targeted Zen's pagoda and didn't launch a direct attack on him. The ogres, on the other hand, were actively attacking Zen while running at top speed.

Fortunately, the number of ogres was smaller than that of the three-eyed spiders.

"Charge!"

While he was avoiding the spears, he was swinging his sword at the ogres, cutting their throats. He could cut four ogres' throats with just one swing.

Zen could have killed these ogres instantly, but he chose not to. He had a new insight about the minimalist way when he practiced in the Upper World. It was a set of basic swordsmanship which he thought could still be further simplified.

Right now, Zen still didn't know the limits of minimalist ways. So, he had no idea how far the set of basic swordsmanship could be further simplified and what further changes could be made.

With his little understanding of the minimalist ways, he needed a lot of practice before he could make breakthroughs. So, he was forced to use the basic swordsmanship to kill these ogres although it was quite inefficient.

While he was on it, he suddenly realized something about the minimalist ways.

During the first stage of the pre-qualifying match, Zen had no intention to exert so much effort. Given that this was only the second wave of attack, there was no need for him to fight hard.

Zen didn't mind if he was taking too long to kill those ogres than any other practitioners. The ogres were scattered everywhere in the grassland. In the first stage, Zen had it easy because nothing gave him a problem.

gh and hard. They could be used to make great defensive armor. Excellent weapon refiners could even turn the black turtle armor into fairy weapons.

The number of black turtles around Owen was starting to decrease. In a blink of an eye, almost half of black turtles were already killed. If he could keep this pace, Owen could get the first place in the third wave of attack. Michael's pride was about to burst, but when he accidentally glanced at the edge of the Picture Slab, he was stunned. He saw the progress of other participants and couldn't believe his eyes.

Zen's name was on it. Michael saw something surprising.

The Picture Slab showed that Zen had successfully withstood the third wave of attack.

"What just happened here?" Michael could hardly believe what he was seeing.

Xiao and the middle-aged warrior eyed each other, wondering what Michael meant.

Michael didn't say a word but just switched the Picture Slab to show Zen's images. When they looked at the Picture Slab, they didn't see anything special. But when they kept looking, they kept their emotions to themselves. They saw that Zen had already killed all the black turtles around him!

When the ogres almost got Zen, they had given up all hopes for him. So, they switched to Owen and watched his progress. However, unexpectedly, Zen had killed all the black turtles.

Owen's speed of killing black turtles was still the fastest, but Zen had finished. Surprisingly, Zen was twice faster than Owen. They didn't expect this because of his previous performance.

Michael and others just realized that they had missed something wonderful.

"Take a look! What's that?" the middle-aged warrior said as he pointed at something besides Zen.

Beside Zen, there was a stunning girl tiptoeing on the ground and holding a huge sword. It was 30 feet long.

Michael didn't expect this to happen. He was rooting for Owen moments ago, but then Zen outperformed Owen. A bitter smile crossed his face. He said prudently, "I take back everything I have said. Zen is an unpredictable warrior. His talent isn't limited in drawing runes. We can't just regard him as a runic expert. The girl beside him is a sword spirit, and this sword spirit has a human figure!"