Chapter 232: Defeated Mack
“Fire...where's the fire?”
Mack stuttered, with a look of disbelief.
The fire on the stone men was not ordinary at all.
Even in the Heaven-Fire killing array, the power of different kinds of heavenly fire varied. Meanwhile, the effect of the force depended on the realm.
Mack had always been confident about the fire. Once, when he had gone out for cultivation, a meteorite fell and made a big hole in the ground. The flame had burned for three days and nights in the pit. During this time, Mack had observed and contemplated the flame.
Mack was lucky because not every practitioner had the opportunity to observe a meteorite's flame. Since then, the fire had become a powerful weapon for him.
However, Mack was unable to use the meteorite's flame at will. Only after the killing array had been arranged, could he transform his life vitality into this powerful flame and release it through the illusion.
While the stone men was an illusion created by Mack, the meteorite's flame was real.
At that moment, Zen stood before him, unscathed and surrounded by a strong aura. 'Why is he safe from the flame of the meteorite? Is he immune to fire?
No, it's impossible! Even the legendary son of fire can't be immune to fire. He can only offset the damage from the flame of a meteorite after his understanding of fire has reached a certain degree, ' Mack thought.
“I can't believe the flame didn't burn you! Stone men of flame, come on! Go!” Mack ordered with gritted teeth. The stone men rushed at Zen from all directions.
When attacked by fire, Zen's body would produce warm currents that would absorb the damage. During this time, Zen would be in a peaceful state. However, Zen noticed that the meteorite's flame had not changed his body much. He looked at the dense golden Sanskrit words on his body and shook his head.
At the very beginning, his body had been refined by Evil Lan's fire, then by the fire of the Earth's core, and the demon's holy fire.
Although the flame of the meteorite was powerful, its purity degree was much lower than that of the fire of the Earth's core and the demon's holy fire. Besides, since Zen's body had reached the middle-grade level of a spiritual weapon, the flame of the meteorite was not powerful enough to refine his body. That was why his body hadn't absorbed this flame.
In other words, Zen's body had refused to absorb the flame of the meteorite, because the level of the flame was too low. Instead of forming a golden whirlpool to absorb the flame, his body had released some golden Sanskrit words to protect him from harm.
With tens of thousands of Sanskrit words attached to his skin, Zen looked like a golden man. Now, he was fearless in the face of the stone men of flame.
A sneer appeared on Zen's face when he saw the stone men coming toward him.
“Break!” Zen shouted.
Then he reached out and punched them.
“Bang! Bang! Bang...:”
In the blink of an eye, Zen crushed a few more stone men of flame.
Now, the remaining stone men of flame had gathered around Zen. With a roar, Mack triggered the explosion of all stone men at the same time.
“Explode! I don't believe you can survive this explosion!”
In the illusion, a red flame roared hundreds of feet into the air.
Fortunately, the explosion had been triggered in an illusion.
According to the rules of the magic array, all the energy would be firmly controlled within the illusion, and not even a touch of energy would escape from it. If the magic array broke and began to leak energy, it meant that the magic array no longer worked.
The soaring flame lasted for a few seconds before it burst into the fire of the meteorite. Then it gradually faded.
Mack took a deep breath. 'I made it! I didn't expect Zen to be so difficult! I had to trigger the flame of the meteorite that I have fostered for so long! If a practitioner at the second-grade of the nature level like Zen is so powerful, then I will be no match for him when he reaches the pinnacle of the nature level!'
In fact, the illusion was Mack's spiritual projection. Now, since he was basking in the joy of success with a calm mind, the illusion was quiet.
However, a short while later, the wind rose, and clouds began to gather in the illusion. Mack couldn't keep calm any longer. Just like his mind, the peace in the illusion had been broken. The nearby ground began to shake, and the cracks on it expanded gradually. These changes reflected Mack's restlessness.
“Although the flame of the meteorite lit up at the same time, he remains unhurt!” Mack murmured, a touch of horror flashing in his eyes.
After blocking the flames of the meteorite, Zen waved his arm, and then the golden Sanskrit words gradually sunk into his body. He strode out of the huge hole in the ground and stared at Mack with a sneer. “Up until now, you have taken the initiative to attack me. Unfortunately, you couldn't hurt me! Now, it's my turn!”
Mack panicked. What scared him was that he didn't know what was going to happen. He couldn't figure out what kind of skill Zen would use and how powerful he was.
The best way to judge a practitioner's competence was by the realm and cultivation level he had reached. Of course, it didn't mean that one could rely on these completely. Access to better cultivation methods and weapons meant that those practitioners were more likely to challenge higher ranking practitioners. Sometimes, they would even challenge practitioners several levels higher.
Even so, they would have a limit! Practitioners at the Illuminating Soul Realm would have been bedraggled had Mack attacked them.
However, Zen wasn't. It was an incredible achievement for a practitioner who had just reached the second-grade of the nature level.
'Has he already broken through the Illuminating Soul Realm? Is he hiding his competence just for the Cloud Road and the reward? That's impossible! Everyone participating in the All Peaks Competition would have had to pass various tests. And their skeletal age would have been checked before the competition. So it would be impossible for Zen to hide his real cultivation level. Furthermore, those elders and saints are not that gullible!' Mack rationalized.
Mack felt tremendous stress and pressure since he couldn't gauge Zen's real competence.
“Go to perdition! Hundred-men magic killing!”
Mack shouted and waved his hand. Then a hundred shadows appeared. They looked just like Mack and possessed about the same level of competence as him.
As soon as they jumped down, these shadows rushed toward Zen. They waved the spears in their hands. Mack wanted to overwhelm Zen with these shadows!
Zen's expression didn't change. The energy of the Phoenix Crystal on his right arm suddenly gushed and circulated through his body along his meridians. Now, Zen's body was as light as a piece of paper.
Next, he transformed himself into a thin line and dashed toward Mack.
“Stop him!”
Mack ordered. He waved his hand, and the shadows stood in Zen's way, blocking him.
Zen narrowed his eyes, and the dragon scales in his body were half lit. Even if only half of the dragon scales had lit up, the energy they would release would be incredible. Now, Zen seemed to have transformed into a ferocious wild beast. What was more horrible was that he was not only powerful but extremely fast as well.
“Puff! Puff! Puff...”
When Zen charged forward at a random angle, both the spears and the shadows turned into starlight and faded away in the magic array before becoming a touch of energy and returning to the array flag.
Soon, Zen had broken through the shadow wall made by the hundred shadows at the peak of the nature level. Then he aimed for Mack.
As the hundred-men magic killing was not his most powerful attack method, Mack hadn't meant to rely on these shadows to fight against Zen. In fact, the flame of the meteorite was his most effective weapon. However, since it could not harm Zen, Mack meant to buy himself some time when he summoned the shadows.
To his surprise, a hundred shadows at the peak of the nature level didn't cause Zen the least bit of trouble. Now, Zen was charging at him.
“Bang!”
Mack suddenly found everything turn blur. Then he flew out and slammed on the ground.
Outside the magic array, this round of the competition had ended. Since no other battles were ongoing, the audience focused on the fight between Zen and Mack.
Yehudi sat still and adjusted his breath. After eating the Red Cloud Pill, he needed to mix it with his life vitality so that the pill would spread through the meridians of his body. Only in this way could the effect of the Red Cloud Pill be activated.
Now, in spite of focusing on the Red Cloud Pill, he kept an eye on the battle ring.
Yehudi had always kept calm no matter what the situation. Because his mother was a concubine, he had been mistreated since he was a child. Later, he had become the best disciple of Drizzle Peak, step by step, through his efforts and extraordinary talent. Although Drizzle Peak ranked last among the thirty-three peaks, his cultivation was beyond most disciples of all the peaks.
Yehudi had never been self-content. He had seen many high-level cultivators, so he knew that his achievements were not worthy of being celebrated.
No matter what the conditions, he had always dedicated himself to his martial arts and climbed the peak of cultivation practice. However, he had received a setback from Mack today. Not just Yehudi, all the disciples from Drizzle Peak looked sullen and defeated.
Except for Zen. Yehudi was Drizzle Peak's principal disciple. In fact, many disciples didn't know Zen, but they had heard of Yehudi.
Yehudi was filled with shame. As the disciple with the highest cultivation level at Drizzle Peak, he had been defeated by Mack. And he hadn't been able to fight back. A sense of shame, like a ghost, hovered in his mind.
He felt as if a stone was being pressed against his chest and he could hardly breathe.
If Yehudi couldn't stop thinking in this way, he would be stuck at the pinnacle of the nature level, and he would be unable to make further progress in the future.
Now, he could only rely on himself or Zen to get rid of his mental burden. If Zen could teach Mack a lesson on behalf of Drizzle Peak, Yehudi would be relieved.
“Zen, you must win!” Yehudi encouraged Zen.
At the other end of the battle ring, Master Yu was talking with Saint Yang. The atmosphere of their conversation seemed very relaxed.