Apotheosis

Imogen pointed her walking stick toward the door and tried to ram it.

Boom!

Aside from a muffled sound, the small door simply remained unscathed.

All of the people shot glances at each other in utter horror. God knew what Letitia could have come up against upon entering that door.

The look on Zen's face went dark. Stretching out his arm, he reached for another small door right next to the one Letitia had chosen, and opened it. He went in just as well, but on the very instant he had done so, he felt an immense force dragging him further in. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't resist the mysterious force pulling him in, so much so that he didn't have a chance to go back anymore.

The door immediately flung shut behind him.

Now, it wasn't as surprising that Letitia somehow let the door shut behind her as well. There was no way for her to go back where she came from upon walking into the door after all.

At the end of it, Zen had found himself in the middle of a jet-black space. Setting aside the light shining in front of him, everything else had been swallowed by the darkness.

"There's nothing else I can do but to grit my teeth and keep moving forward." Zen paced forward and got himself engulfed by the darkness, with nothing but the light at the end of that passage guiding him. Soon enough, he stepped into the light and exited the dark tunnel. By then, he suddenly found himself on some kind of platform, which was about ten feet long and five feet wide.

"Zen!" Letitia's voice came from his left side.

Confirming that Letitia was safe and sound, Zen was finally able to feel at ease. She was there standing on a platform right next to the one he was on.

The gap between the two platforms was but a couple of feet. A mature person could probably make it through with just a single step, but the second Zen tried to walk over to where she was, an emerald green enchanted barrier stopped him in his tracks.

"What's the meaning of this?" Zen had confusion writ

"Zen!" A somewhat playful voice called out to him from the Ethereal Spirit Sect.

Zen shifted his gaze over to where the voice was coming from and let out a feeble smile. As it turned out, it was Brent, the one who was a divine-level talent from the Ethereal Spirit Sect.

"You still owe me a fight!" No matter how childish the voice sounded, it was still rather coherent and firm.

Shrugging it off, Zen replied, "We'll see about that if the opportunity presents itself."

When Zen had actually withdrawn from the Martial Arts Contest at the last minute, Brent was the one who had gotten most dispirited. He had always lamented the idea that he wasn't able to get the chance to fight Zen head-on. It reached the extent that he even mentioned it repeatedly upon coming back to the Ethereal Spirit Sect.

"I'm going to take your word for that!" Brent blurted out while pulling a face.

"Hmm." Zen just gave him a weak response. In this situation, he couldn't be bothered to worry about the little child.

During the Martial Arts Contest, Eddie had mentioned at some point that he was a holder of an enchanted lamp. With that in mind, he should also be showing himself any minute now.

And while he had been pondering about that, a strong and powerful voice suddenly resounded throughout the chasm, "It seems we meet again, boy."