Chapter 174: Real Strength
“Icy Seal! Freeze!”
“Crackle!”
After reaching the sword tip, these snowflakes suddenly turned into ice crystals. In an instant, they covered Zen's right hand. Soon, the right half of Zen's body was frozen.
Zen frowned as these ice crystals covered his hand. He used force to break them. However, these ice crystals were not normal. Even with the enormous power running through his body, Zen couldn't do anything to them.
“Ha-ha! They are not standard ice crystals. You can't break them with brute force. So what are you going to do with them this time, little boy?” Bob smiled coldly as his Icy Seal froze Zen.
Instead of panicking, Zen looked at Bob with calm eyes. There was even some contempt in his expression. With a sly smile, Zen raised his left hand. In the next instant, the Emerald Crystal in his arm suddenly erupted in bright red energy.
“Bang!”
Zen used his left fist to pound his right arm. A blood red mark glowed on the ice crystals covering his arm. And then, the blood red mark spread like a cobweb.
Next, Zen clenched his right fist and freed himself from the ice crystals.
“Lash...”
The Icy Seal on his right arm and body was instantly broken into tiny pieces of ice crystals.
“That's impossible!” Bob couldn't believe what he had just seen.
The Icy Seal was the quintessence of his power. He had spent a lot of time and effort making it work. The Icy Seal was so challenging to master that Bob hadn't succeeded until recently.
This was the first time that he had used the Icy Seal to fight against his enemy.
Bob's father had once told him that only burning life vitality of a person at the Illuminating Soul Realm could break the Icy Seal. It couldn't be broken by other kinds of force, let alone brute force. That was why Bob thought he could defeat Zen by using the Icy Seal.
'What is he?
How could he break my Icy Seal?'
Bob felt as though he was going crazy. What had happened was an unprecedented blow to a proud man like him.
Bob was sure that Zen could see through all his moves. Any counterattack by Zen could push him into the abyss of death. He didn't know what to do.
'Why can't I defeat him? I've never lost to anyone!' Bob questioned himself.
Bob was a proud man. It was his pride that made him improve in martial arts so quickly.
He never allowed himself to lag behind others in any way.
But at the moment, the fact that he had lost to Zen had destroyed his pride and self-respect, which plunged him into melancholy.
At the thought of this, his eyes turned red, and the expression on his face grew ferocious. A wild voice shouted in his heart, 'I will never allow myself to fail!'
“Go to perdition!” It was a fact that Bob had lost to Zen. The only way to rectify that was to kill Zen.
Although Bob might not be able to kill Zen using his strength, as a child of a top seven noble clan, he had an ultimate weapon with which to save his life.
Bob dropped his sword and lifted his hand. A golden rune, namely, the Golden Holy Rune, appeared in his palm. This was his ultimate weapon.
The Golden Holy Rune was small in size, but it cost the Pei Clan a fortune to have it tattooed on Bob's hand.
They had instructed Bob to use it only as a last resort.
Bob's life was not in danger and Zen didn't intend to kill him, so there was no need for Bob to use the Golden Holy Rune.
Bob, however, was now in complete turmoil. He didn't want to reflect on and face his failure.
He wanted to kill Zen. Only by killing Zen could Bob face himself.
Just as Bob was about to raise his hand, Zen kicked him in the head.
Zen had felt the horrible power contained in the Golden Holy Rune. If Bob used it against him, Zen would either die or be seriously injured.
A minor matter such as the fight between Bob and Zen was not reason enough to kill a person. So Zen thought that knocking the crazy man out was the best thing to do.
After being kicked, Bob felt as though he could not see anything. He stumbled back a few steps and then fell to the ground.
“Oh my goodness! Bob is down!”
“What are we going to do if he dies?”
At that moment, the disciples that had accompanied Bob shouted. All this while, they had remained silent.
Each of these inner disciples was well-respected.
Some of them were members of noble clans, but they couldn't compare with the lineal descendants of the top seven noble clans like Bob and Roger.
So after Bob and Roger argued, they stood quietly. They knew what would happen if they got involved in a dispute between noble clans.
Although they were hesitant to interfere in the fight between Bob and Roger, they were still worried about Bob.
In their eyes, Zen and Roger couldn't match Bob at all. So they were very confident about this battle.
However, none of them expected that Zen's counterattack would change the battle's outcome.
Was Bob, a man who had reached the consummation of the nature level, so vulnerable to a man who had only reached the first-grade of the nature level?
This was crazy!
As the inner disciples gazed at Bob who was lying motionless on the ground, they began to worry.
However, as Zen stood next to Bob, they didn't dare to shout or approach him.
Zen cast a cold glance at them and thought, 'These people are smart enough not to admonish me. If they dare to say anything, I'll never forgive them!'
Steward Cao, who was standing nearby, went silently to Bob to check on his injuries. He was relieved to see that Bob was all right.
He realized that both Roger and Zen were not amateurs.
Steward Cao slowly helped Bob up and handed him to the inner disciples who were with him.
If ordinary disciples fought in Cloud Sect, then they would surely be expelled. This rule applied to members of ordinary noble clans as well.
However, the disciples of the top seven noble clans, especially a lineal descendant had many privileges. The top seven noble clans were the seven pillars of the Burning Sky Empire. Although Cloud Sect claimed to treat all people fairly, this was not the case. After all, Cloud Sect was in the Imperial Capital of the Burning Sky Empire. So it would naturally give them numerous privileges.
Cloud Sect would always turn a blind eye to influential people, such as Bob and Roger, as long as they didn't kill other disciples.
Steward Cao was terrified by the incident. He did not expect that in this fight Zen would render Bob unconscious.
“When we parted ways at Dragon Fort, I didn't think that you would improve so much. You beat Bob, who has reached the consummation of the nature level. And to think that you are only at the first-grade of the nature level.” Roger still felt what had happened was incredible.
“I did make progress after leaving Dragon Fort,” Zen said with a smile, “But I can't match you. You are much better than me.”
Zen was talking about the difference in grades.
Compared to Roger, Zen's progress in grades was really slow. From the time they left Dragon Fort to the present, Zen had progressed from being a half-step into the nature level to the first grade of the nature level.
Roger, on the other hand, had moved up to the fifth-grade of the nature level in that short period, which surprised Zen.
Zen was born in an ordinary family, and everything he had achieved was through his hard work. Therefore, his speed of improvement was not as fast. His strengths were all honed in actual combats.
Ever since Roger returned from Dragon Fort, he started his retreat.
A training tower had been dedicated to his retreat. Everything became easier in the tower. During the retreat, he had taken a variety of elixirs. The Meng Clan knew that Roger was a smart man. So they gave preference to his cultivation and growth. Hence, it was not difficult for him to make tremendous progress in a short time.
Roger shook his head and said, “I did increase in terms of grades within the nature level, but I'm far worse than you when it comes to real strength.”
Grades were not equal to real strength. Every martial artist accepted this universal fact.
Numerous people had reached a high level but had no real strength.
Roger had reached the fifth-grade of the nature level, but he still couldn't compete with Bob. While Zen who had only reached the first-grade took Bob down easily. Clearly, Zen was much better than Roger.
“You're not an inner disciple?” Roger was surprised to see Zen in a white robe.
If a genius like Zen existed in other peaks, he would have been an inner disciple by now.
Zen shook his head and said, “No, I am not.” Since entering Cloud Sect, Zen had spent very little time at the sect. He had used most of his time to accomplish other things and had ignored sect-related tasks completely.
Zen didn't care if he became an inner disciple. Although he was just an outer disciple at Drizzle Peak, because of Aura, his treatment was comparable to an inner disciple.
Roger didn't know why Zen was still an outer disciple. In his opinion, the mentors at Drizzle Peak were just too stupid not to promote Zen. So he said, “In that case, you might as well come to Daylily Peak.”