Chapter 150: Entering The Nature Level
Zen's wish had come true. If he could get closer, he would have a better chance.
Zen smiled. The dragon power erupted from his body. He lifted the armored man and intended to throw him on the ground.
If the armored man was only a half-step into the nature level, he certainly couldn't survive this.
However, before Zen had the opportunity to do so, the armored man wriggled free from Zen's arms. His body was as soft as a snake.
Zen had already decided to smash the armored man with his arms and fists. However, since the armored man clung to him closely, both of them lost their balance and fell to the ground.
Meanwhile, Zen stretched out his right hand and attempted to grab the armored man's neck. He failed because the armored man's throat was slippery. The armored man got away. He rolled over and pinned Zen under his body.
“Contortion!”
An idea suddenly popped into his head.
The armored man's moves reminded Zen of a bodybuilding martial art form that the Eastern Region called contortion.
Ordinary people would practice several martial arts styles before entering the skin-refining level, and contortion was one of them.
However, after they entered the skin-refining level, these people would commit themselves to becoming a real master and they would give up practicing contortion. This was because the martial arts style was used for bodybuilding and it was useless for the careers of real masters.
Zen had learned contortion in his childhood.
However, after he reached the skin-refining level, he started to learn Purple Light Fist, a method cultivated by his ancestors.
Zen had never thought that an ordinary armored man could use contortion this way. In his mind, contortion was only used for bodybuilding.
Zen found his martial arts useless when battling this armored man.
'A strand of the immortal's soul can possess such unbelievable strength, ' thought Zen. Zen felt very depressed after being pinned by the armored man.
But Zen wouldn't give up easily as he was determined to get the fifth Contemplation Picture.
The armored man put his foot behind Zen and didn't move. Actually, he was motionless and extremely quiet.
He looked a bit arrogant. A strand of the immortal's soul still existed in his body, and it was intelligent.
“Idiot!” Zen cursed.
Zen erupted into fury and struggled to get free.
However, no matter how hard he tried to get up, the armored man pinned him down with his knee against Zen's body.
This time, Zen held his breath and waited for his opportunity. Before he toppled to the ground, he stepped forward suddenly and then turned a somersault. Then, Zen finally rose to his feet.
The armored man saw this and attempted to stop him. He followed Zen and stubbornly tried to pin him down again.
“Kill yourself,” said Zen, smirking unpleasantly.
Zen's breast suddenly burst, and red blood splattered everywhere. From his bloody chest, the broken flying knife appeared and flew toward the head of the armored man.
It cut through his head.
He was standing too close to Zen. Although he was agile and strong, the armored man couldn't see or avoid the broken flying knife. The armored man swayed and fell. A few seconds later, a beam of green light shot through the dead man's head.
The light flew around Zen and then disappeared in the blue sky.
Zen sighed when he saw the wound on his breast. Before he began to wrestle with the armored man, Zen had worked out a way to defeat him.
As the phantom of an immortal, the armored man had cultivated much better martial arts than Zen. Besides, he was extremely powerful and clever and could foresee all of Zen's moves in the fight. Thus, Zen had found it challenging to stop him.
However, the armored man seemed to be dull, mostly because he lacked the immortal's memories. Therefore, Zen bet that he could not remember anything else apart from the battle and the fight.
Finally, Zen used the broken flying knife to penetrate his chest and kill the armored man. The dull phantom would never think of such a vicious trick because no sane human being would hurt himself before killing the enemy.
“Haha,” Saul's laughter echoed. “Such a treacherous man. I bet you would not have won had you challenged this armored man fairly,” said Saul.
“I agree with you. Even I can't fight with an immortal, not even with a part of his ghost. Please, tell me. Have I passed this test?” asked Zen. The pain was overwhelming. Although the pain would disappear as soon as the battle was over and he left there, his breast wound was bloody and painful.
“Yes, you won. The Sun Moon Stars Picture is yours now. You have the honor of being the second man to possess this picture. The first man was the first host of the fairy palace. This is an achievement of which you should feel proud.” After Saul said these words, a big opening appeared in the sky, and a ray of light shot down on Zen's body.
After the stars changed their position, Zen once again returned to the hall.
Saul stretched out his right hand and pointed to the Contemplation Picture far away. Then, the Sun Moon Stars Picture automatically flew toward Zen and stopped over his hands.
“Is this the Sun Moon Stars Picture?” asked Zen curiously. He stared at the picture hard and tried to figure out its mechanism.
However, it was strange that he couldn't look away from the Sun Moon Stars Picture. A magic power seemed to attract him so much that he couldn't remove his glance from the picture.
“What's happening?” asked Zen. Zen stared at the Sun Moon Stars picture and asked Saul, “Why can't my eyes move?”
He couldn't remove his eyes from the picture, which made him feel extremely strange. Zen couldn't even raise his head, not even if at that moment, an opponent rushed at him with a sharp knife in his hand. A powerful magic was attracting both his eyes and his mind.
“Haha! The picture does that to anybody who sees it for the first time. Be patient, and you will be able to look away after a while. The Sun Moon Stars Picture will grant you the power of the moon, sun, and stars. Besides, it will help further your martial arts practice. Since the picture is yours, you can look at it carefully for a few moments. Then, you'll control it, and it wouldn't be strange anymore,” said Saul.
Zen found this occurrence to be both funny and annoying. He didn't expect this to happen at all.
Somebody had drawn a sun, a moon, and some stars on a piece of parchment.
Although it looked ordinary, the sun, moon, and stars were moving. The moon moved around the sun slowly, while the stars moved around the moon.
Zen attempted to look away from the picture and roll it up but failed every time. He had lost control of his body.
He had to listen to Saul's advice. Zen sat down and concentrated on the picture.
Sitting on the ground and looking at the picture carefully, he was lost in thought.
Demonic life energy began circling inside his belly. The longer Zen stared at the picture, the quicker the demonic life energy moved.
The energy flew to Zen's head, dispersed through his eyes, and finally shot into the Sun Moon and Stars Picture.
After the life energy entered the picture, it mixed with the stars and made them shine more. Then, the life energy once again wormed its way into Zen's belly.
In this way, the life energy went in and out of Zen's body and the picture again and again.
One time.
Two times.
A hundred times.
Saul saw this and appeared shocked as well.
“It's unbelievable... that you looked at the picture for the first time and you were capable of taking power from the stars and using it for yourself. Unbelievable!” Although Saul had never seen anybody use the power from the Sun Moon Stars Picture, he once witnessed the second host of the fairy palace learned from the Nine-day Cycle Picture.
This second host was a genius as well. Before he came to the fairy palace, he was much stronger and more powerful than Zen.
This formidable master could enter the first level of the Nine-day Cycle Picture only after contemplating the Nine-day Cycle Picture for half a year.
However, there were nine levels in the Nine-day Cycle Picture. In contrast, the Sun Moon Stars Picture only had three levels, which meant the sun, moon, and stars.
In respect of this, practicing the power and skills according to the Sun Moon Stars Picture seemed to be more difficult.
Zen just started to contemplate a few minutes ago, and now, he was capable of taking the power and strength of the stars. He was a genius!
Time passed. Three days later, Zen was still sitting on the ground.
After 3, 000 circles, Zen suddenly closed his eyes. He contemplated for a while and then reopened his eyes. The stars were still shining brilliantly.
'The Sun Moon Stars Picture is marvelous. After absorbing the power from the stars, my spirit was lifted, and my soul was purified, ' thought Zen. He sighed deeply at the thought.
This was Zen's intuitive feeling. However, as one of the immortal's best pictures, the Contemplation Picture could do more than that.
Zen exerted his energy and allowed it to flow inside his belly, forcing the demonic life energy to come out of his body. He found that some starlight was shining in the dark and purple demonic life energy. It was beautiful.
“The demonic life energy can swallow all other life energies and life vitality, but it gets along with this starlight well... Wait!”
All of a sudden, something abnormal happened.
The demonic life energy disappeared from his hands.
“What's happening?”
Meanwhile, Zen felt the demonic life energy that was slowly flowing inside his belly began to give out heat. It was as though somebody had set a fire inside his body.
The demonic life energy was flowing more and more quickly in his belly, and the heat was accumulating.
The demonic life energy radiated from his belly and quickly rushed to all of his meridians.
The nature of the demonic life energy had changed. It had become much thicker and smoother.
“Am I... entering a new level?”