Apotheosis

"One is a fifteen-year-old at the ultimate level of the Illuminating Soul Realm," the crowd whispered conspicuously. "The other one is a seventeen-year-old at the fourth grade of Illuminating Soul Realm," more of them muttered privately. Judging by the disgruntled expressions of the people who had come to watch the fights, it was not just Brent who had been let down. The two warriors were amazingly powerful and no one could deny it.

"Maybe Zen did have his reservations, fighting with Brent? So far into the battles, I don't think he would be that kind of a coward, though."

Most cultivators present at the arena expressed their disappointment at the refusal of Zen to accept Brent's challenge. Just when they altogether predicted that the two would be in a match eventually, they regained some of their sense of anticipation back.

The officiator of the battles, Xiao, drew lots and lo and behold, Zen's name appeared on the board once again.

"Zen Luo of Cloud Hall is now hereby called to fight Davis Meng of Black Mountain Sect!" Xiao announced.

A grin adorned the face of Davis Meng, for he was satisfied with the person he was about to battle. Just before he jumped off the platform, Zen's melodic voice resounded. "Wait!"

Without taking a step forward, Zen raised his voice again in order to be heard. "I refuse!" Reaching into his pocket once again, Zen waved his second exemption card to the baffled gasps of many.

"Why did he refuse again?" some of the cultivators murmured, scratching their nape in bewilderment.

"Is it his plan to turn down all challenges he deems unworthy?" Glancing towards the uncaring man, Zen idly took out the cards in his pocket, showcasing the several exemption cards in his hands. "Refusing to fight seems to be his only method since it looks like he has many exemption cards," one of them pondered.

"Davis Meng of Black Mountain Sect is a cultivator at the primary level of Internal Elixir. He is not a formidable opponent and definitely much weaker than Eden or Brent." Leaning his head to one side with a puzzled look on his face, a cultivator tried to guess Zen's intentions.

What happened next made all the spectators of the battles more perplexed and surprised. On the span of thirteen fights afterwards, Zen's name had popped up twice. However, he had kept on waving his exemption cards even though a sure victory was in his hands due to the opponents being weak independent warriors.

During the flummoxing period, Marilyn herself had participated in two matches and undoubtedly defeated her opponents. After her victories, she had chosen both an exemption card and a challenge card.

Weighing her options, Marilyn decided not to use her challenge card just yet. She returned to her platform with a plan in her mind.

Noting that Zen had no exemption cards left, M

acement for her tattered one, ripped from her previous match. Staring at Zen with a fascinated look on her face, she ought to clarify something before they started fighting. "Hmm, you know, I really don't get you."

"What do you mean?"

Zen countered with a frown.

"Did you purposefully use all of your exemption cards to wait for me to challenge you?"

A teasing smile was etched on her face.

Acknowledging the intelligent observation of the woman, Zen noted that her quick wit made her admirable at some point. The man chuckled with mirth before speaking. "I cannot get a challenge card in order to challenge you myself." With half-lidded eyes and a careful twitch of his mouth, he continued. "I had to wait for you to challenge me instead."

"Are you not afraid of dying? Or do you have the same purpose here as that weakling.. Owen? Now that I think about it, you have the same surname as that beguiling little lady called Yan," the woman teased him, seeing how far she could push his buttons before he snapped. "It's not a coincidence, is it? You must be related."

Eddie had not thoroughly explored Yan's family background. After all, she used to live in the Eastern Region, far away from the Central Region. He had never paid a visit to the Cloud Sect to find out Yan's family members.

More importantly, Eddie did not fathom that anyone could pose a threat to his position back then. His power and reign reached far and wide, therefore he did not give much importance to the lineage of Yan. Furthermore, the only thing that ever mattered to him was that Yan possessed a Purple Power Body.

In hindsight, this was the ultimate reason as to why Zen was familiar to him but he could not remember such a face or persona. After all, Zen was just an unremarkable existence to him back then, someone who did not stand out or attempted to rise among the ranks- a wallflower.