Apotheosis

The archers pulled their bowstrings as three giant turtles reached Zen's small tower attack range. Shots were fired as twelve sharp arrows were let go by the archers. Towards the sky the arrows went, aiming for the three giant turtles.

The archers were very alike, from their looks to their behavior, to the color of their eyes, to the sizes of their hands and feet. There were no questions as to how they all looked alike for they evolved from the same magic array.

"Woosh, woosh, woosh…"

The arrows had different colors wrapped around them. The twelve arrows looked like the rainbow as they traveled the sky and were about to land on the turtles. A very loud sound was heard as a turtle got hit.

"Crack…"

The shot was so strong that Zen could feel the sharpness of the arrows. He looked as if he could feel the pain gush through his system.

The power of the twelve arrows could be compared to that of the masters in the first level of Virtual Tribulation Realm. They were as fatal and destructive as they could get.

As the arrows hit the giant turtle, it screamed in pain and fell to the ground. A loud thud was heard. It became a big helpless creature that lay on the ground, hurt and fractured. The intensity was so massive that it even shook the tower where Zen stood.

'Wow. I never thought that only one round of arrows can take down the giant turtle, ' Zen thought to himself. He was in disbelief with what he saw. No words came out of his mouth. The level 12 tower was definitely stronger than the level 11. To his advantage, he found the loophole that had existed since the day the array was designed and took advantage of it. And that made it easier for him to conquer the beasts.

Zen was lucky enough to have that advantage over other cultivators who had to endure more difficulties in defeating the giant turtles.

The giant

nt of the magic array, Zen was the first one to do such thing. But the most important question of all that boggled Cole's mind was whether Zen would be the one and only person to do such thing. Would he be the last to do it?

Round after round, cultivators were eliminated. Arrows were shot, and landed on the beasts. In the tenth round of the attack, only 22 cultivators remained, but only 3 would proceed to the main draw match.

Seeing the changes in the magic array, Cole announced, "On to next level!" He raised his hands, and started to operate the magic array.

All eyes were on Zen. Would he make it? Letitia was nervous. She fixed her eyes on the Picture Slab, which showed the most important part of the qualifying test. Zen's performance in this test would determine Zen's passing or failing. Zen had upgraded his tower to level 12 far beyond what the other cultivators could do. As for other cultivators who also defeated the giant turtles and won some points, the best they could do was to upgrade their towers to level 10. Letitia looked up to and admired the archers in level 12 tower. Those archers were comparable to the masters in the first level of Virtual Tribulation Realm. They were the best in their level.