Chapter 221: Meditation On The Stars
Three days before the All Peaks Competition, all the thirty-three peaks' ranking lists would be frozen. During these three days, challenging someone to a duel was forbidden to determine the name list of the competitors.
Due to that, the day before they scheduled to suspend the ranking lists, competitions transpired in all the thirty-three peaks' arenas.
Some disciples appeared to rank low by hiding their true abilities from past matches. It was often on the last day when they would go all out, as they hoped to become the candidates of the All Peaks Competition.
Those who had already been on the list would also try their best to maintain their rankings for the reason that once they lost, they might fall out of the list.
Intense competitions were also going on in the arena of Drizzle Peak.
Apart from Zen and Yehudi, the other disciples who ranked from third place to the seventh place received a challenge to duel. The disciples who ranked ninth and twenty-second had even replaced the disciples who ranked sixth and seventh!
As soon as the ranking lists had been frozen, the name list of the participants for the All Peaks Competition was settled before the master of Drizzle Peak handed it in.
In the last three days, Zen did not go to the Lake of the Magical Fish and Seven Star Sword Light Platform for cultivation, but stayed in his room for meditation instead.
Both cultivation methods of Heavenly Ogre Fist and Spiritual Thorn were extensive and profound. The former represented the most basic method of life vitality attack, while the latter represented the method of soul attack.
In addition to meditating these two books, Zen continued to study the Sun Moon Stars Picture.
The first time he had seen the picture, Zen felt his eyes drawn to it. However, when he had seen it again later, he exhibited no such feelings anymore.
Among the Contemplation Pictures in the fairy palace, the Sun Moon Stars Picture placed first. It was evident that he couldn't completely comprehend the content it contained. Even so, he tried his best to contemplate.
In the first two days, besides practicing Heavenly Ogre Fist and reading Spiritual Thorn occasionally, he neither ate nor drank and put all his efforts into the study of the Sun Moon Stars Picture.
However, after over forty hours of contemplating, he felt he had achieved nothing.
On the morning of the third day, everything around him seemed suddenly distorted as he looked at the Sun Moon Stars Picture.
'Why am I dizzy? Is it because I stayed up too long?' Zen thought to himself, carefully patting himself on the forehead. In his present physical status, he would not have felt dizzy even if he did not eat or drink. Then it occurred to him that perhaps the origin of his dizziness had something to do with the picture being so exhausting. Although his soul was much stronger than the average after being refined in the fire, the Sun Moon Stars Picture was by no means ordinary, and his soul could not stand it after consuming so much energy.
To his surprise, after a blink of an eye, he found the surrounding space even more distorted. And as time went on, it had spun more and faster.
'What happened?'
Finally, he felt something was amiss.
When he had calmed down, he found that he was standing in front of that Sun Moon Stars Picture. After a short moment, with a stroke of confusion, he was sucked into the picture.
In the Sun Moon Stars Picture...
When Zen got his bearings, he found himself standing in a space, which was neither in the sky nor on the ground.
Not far away from the space, an enormous fireball glowed. Its flames emitted a dangerous deterrent.
'Is that... the sun?'
The man could not help but be in awe.
Although the Eastern Region had a very long history, no one from there had ever figured out what the sun was yet.
Thirty thousand feet above the ground was the tallest mountain of the Eastern Region. Rumors had it that because it was too high, there was hardly enough air at the top, and almost no one could endure it.
However, despite such a harsh environment, some remarkably powerful masters were still able to conquer it.
After climbing around ten thousand feet, there were strong gusts of wind. They were so powerful that even gold and iron would be crushed into pieces by the wind.
As a result, even those powerful masters could not repel its strength.
Even so, some masters had come for the sake of exploring. It was said that once a great master had broken through the hurricane and flown up with his very high power and robust body.
As much as he had thought that he could see the sun and the moon finally, after passing through the hurricane, he only found endless entwined cracks in the space, like a layer of thick fish scales standing straight up in the sky.
As for what had lain beyond this cracked zone, even the ancient master could not have provided an answer.
As humans could not explore the sky, legends about the sun, the moon, and the stars were more perplexing for them.
Thus, there were countless stories with sun, moon and stars as the theme.
Although he was far away from the sun while standing in the space, Zen was still shocked by its intimidating force when he looked at it.
'My current consciousness is in the Contemplation Picture. It must be God's intention that I get in here. It's a shame that I could only comprehend so little about the Sun Moon Stars Picture. With my current ability, it's too hard for me to contemplate the sun!' he thought to himself.
When Zen cast his eyes onto another ball, he saw a bright light, which was much quieter and softer than the feeling of tyranny that the sun had conveyed.
When looking at the sun, his eyes felt sour. On the contrary, as he gazed at another ball, his eyes felt a pleasant coolness and comfort.
It was the moon.
Zen noticed that a shadow had appeared on the moon. The shadow outlined the curve of the ball and caused it to present different shapes, which were the so-called first quarter moon, the last quarter moon and the like.
Behind these two giant balls were countless stars.
These stars were the exact objects that Zen had wanted to observe and study.
Through his meditation the last time, he had already been able to condensate a small number of stars from his demonic life vitality.
When those stars exploded, they would release overwhelming energy.
However, the power of the stars was definitely more than that. It made Zen feel obliged to learn the mystery behind the Sun Moon Stars Picture a little each day.
Since he had already come in, Zen sat down with crossed legs and began to contemplate the bright stars in the distance.
'What a magical picture the Sun Moon Stars Picture is! How could the master who drew it construct the vast universe with only a picture?' he could not help but exclaim to himself.
Then, he began to sit still for meditation, eyes gleaming.
Suddenly, with horrible and overwhelming energy, a star rushed towards Zen over from a mysterious distance.
'Is it going to hit me?' he wondered and planned to dodge the star.
However, since it was his consciousness that had entered the picture, and not physically himself, he was unable to evade at all.
“Whew!”
In the blink of an eye, the star darted past him and knocked another star in the distance. As the star was so big, it looked as though it was going to strike him when, in fact, it was still far away from him.
These two stars collided and exploded. The overwhelming energy they released increased even more than tenfold!
The light emerging from the overwhelming energy formed a gigantic ring, brilliant but loaded with the breath of death.
'Stars collision?'
The only way Zen had triggered the explosion of the stars before was with his life vitality.
The overwhelming energy released from stars collision was more powerful than the one he had seen before. At the moment, he seemed to be in the midst of spiritual enlightenment.
After a long time, Zen pulled his consciousness back from the Sun Moon Stars Picture.
When he came out, he found the light of dawn had scattered out across the sky.
Through the meditation after entering the Sun Moon Stars Picture accidentally, he had improved in the use of star power.
Since today was the first day of the All Peaks Competition and it was already dawn, it was time for him to set out for the competition with the other six disciples of Drizzle Peak.
When they arrived at the platform on top of the Drizzle Peak, three masters were already waiting for them. Beside them was a middle-sized flying chariot.
To Zen's surprise, however, Aura was not among the three masters.
Before she left before, Aura had told him that she would come back before the All Peaks Competition.
'Why didn't Aura show up? Is she in trouble?' he wondered to himself.
After looking around, he asked, “Master Wen, it seems that Master Su isn't here. Do you happen to know why she didn't come today?”
Master Wen shook his head, and then answered, “Master Su hasn't been back to Cloud Sect ever since she asked to take a leave. I do not know why.”
Although his response did not make him worry less, Zen had no choice but to nod. It seemed that Master Wen was oblivious about Aura's current situation.
When he got on the flying chariot with the other six disciples, his face showed a clear sign of concern. With a light blue glow, the chariot soared towards the west.
The All Peaks Competition was taking place in the west of Cloud Sect, and it had a big battle ring.
With all the excellent disciples of Cloud Sect in them, flying chariots came from every direction.
The minute the flying chariot had halted, Zen, Yehudi, and the other disciples jumped out.
Then, under the guidance of Master Wen, they went towards the battle ring. Suddenly, a voice caught everyone's attention.
“Hey, Wen!” a skinny old man greeted. “Are these the disciples of Drizzle Peak for the competition?”
He wore a skeptical look. “Just them?” The man was Master Wang. He was the leader of another team which came from Sea Peak.
Sea Peak was quite low on the ranking list. The team ranked twenty-ninth among the thirty-three peaks of Cloud Sect. Nevertheless, they appeared a little better than Drizzle Peak, as the number of their disciples who came for the All Peaks Competition was thirteen while Drizzle Peak only had seven disciples.
Upon hearing Master Wang's words, the three masters from Drizzle Peak had grim expressions on their faces. After all, Master Wen and the other masters came from Drizzle Peak. If their disciples did not perform well in the competition, it would reflect on them, and they would feel ashamed.
In the last competition, with Aura as the team leader, no one had dared to mock her. If they did, they knew that she would have instantly humiliated them back. However, since Aura was not there today, things were different.
Due to the name list showed the number of participants of each peak, Master Wang must have received the name list of all the participants for the All Peaks Competition in advance. So, it was clear he had only asked Master Wen to embarrass Drizzle Peak deliberately.
Likewise, the disciples behind Master Wang also measured up Drizzle Peak's disciples with mocking stares.
Snorting, Master Wen retorted, "What do you mean by 'just them'? Although Drizzle Peak only has seven disciples, each of them has their unique skills!
You think you'll do better than us merely because you have more disciples? Think again, Master Wang.
I highly doubt that matters!"
Master Wang looked at Zen and the rest of Drizzle Peak's disciples, and said in derision, “Unique skills? Are you serious?” he questioned, laughing loudly as he did so. “It seems you don't have many powerful disciples at all! Otherwise, why did you even bring someone at the second grade of nature level?”
The skinny old man continued to laugh in their faces.
As Zen had been walking in the middle of the team, nobody had noticed his cultivation level in the beginning. Now that Master Wang had pointed it out, however, he immediately became the focus of discussion --- and everyone's attention.