Chapter 230: Breaking Your Enchanted Barrier
Even though he had exerted himself to the extreme, Zen was still out of his reach. Since the competition started, Zen had been combating only by the dint of his body and speed—he had not yet even exercised a single bit of his life vitality.
'Is this guy really at the grade two of nature level?'
'He must be a monster…'
Seeing Zen strutting towards him with a smile not quite reaching his eyes and a chilling gaze, as if he was staring at a dead man, York felt a shudder run up his spine. In haste, he yelled at the referee, "I…I give up!
I, York of Sea Peak, give up!"
Void of any expression, the referee announced the result of the combat. “Zen won, York lost!”
As the combat came to a conclusion, the light curtain of the enchanted barrier retreated sideways. Clutching at his chest, York blundered all the way off the arena as though there was a devil on his tail.
“Zen, you're awesome!”
“That's right! You have to be harsh to guys who eat their own words!”
The turnout of the combat left the disciples of Drizzle Peak pumped up. Meanwhile, those from Sea Peak were left quiet and ashen-faced.
This time, Sea Peak not only lost the match but also their reputation. 'If York defeated Zen, we would still have a chance to turn the situation around. In the world of martial arts practitioners, the winners are considered heroes. If Sea Park won, we would be victorious. So what if one guy broke his word? Will you Drizzle Peak disciples complain like a whining housewife?' thought the members of Sea Peak in their hearts.
Believing that they would win, many of the Sea Peak disciples were ready to make a counterattack against the potential accusation of they breaking their words with their snide remarks.
However, York lost to Zen. That was way beyond anyone's expectations.
It was utterly unimaginable for the disciples of Sea Peak. Even as they watched the battle unfold, they could not understand why York fell so weak that he could barely strike a threatening attack, even as he went above and beyond the three moves that he promised he would use to defeat Zen. Instead, he was vanquished by Zen in a single blow.
The battle turned completely different from their expectations, so the disciples were still left in shock. In the face of Drizzle Peak's mocking, they felt their prepared snarky replies and words fail them. Now that they had just lost the match and disgraced themselves, they couldn't rack their brains enough to even find a retort.
Although Zen didn't go all out in the match, he still undoubtedly drew much attention, continuously changing the masters' opinion of him.
Another participant piqued their interest—Rocher, a man that was said to be a once-in-five-centuries genius from Skytop Peak.
Roger had always been confident about his speed, having accidentally obtained a secret manual on the method of movement entitled The Mystical Pace. The manual spoke more of a special pacing method than a method of movements—it contained a set of very unique prospects which could bring one's speed to its maximum capacity.
Because he relied on the lessons of The Mystical Pace, Rocher was able to defeat an expert in the Illuminating Soul Realm in one quick strike of the sword.
After seeing Zen's demonstration of instant bursts of speed, Rocher noticed something odd.
Although it looked intimidating, Rocher was not impressed by Zen's speed at all since it was still much slower than when he used the Mystical Pace. Upon a closer look, he noticed that Zen did not resort to any method of movement when he was in motion but instead seemed to have been moving solely with his explosive force.
The fact that he had reached such a fast and flexible speed without practicing any method of movement was what astonished Roger the most.
'If Zen ever starts practicing those methods and picks up his speed…' Rocher contemplated Zen's potential. 'This guy really is a freak.'
Oblivious to how Rocher perceived him, Zen simply made his way back to the Drizzle Peak team and took a seat in the corner as if nothing had happened, waiting quietly for the next round.
Master Wen and the other disciples did not dare go to bother him. Having won the two matches he fought in, he was probably Drizzle Peak's only hope.
Battles in the arena proceeded, one round after another.
At this year's All Peaks Competition, several amazingly powerful disciples of Cloud Sect showed up.
Both the lower-ranked peaks, such as the Vulture and Billow Peaks, as well as the top-ranked ones, including Skytop and Blackrock, were proven to have some extremely gifted disciples participating in the matches. The competition in the group match stage was unusually fierce.
Nevertheless, the performances of the Drizzle Peak disciples were far from satisfactory. Other than Zen who won two matches in a row, and another who lost two matches and won one, all the others ended in defeat.
Soon, it was time for Zen to fight his third match.
“Drizzle Peak's Zen versus Blackrock Peak's Mack!”
Upon hearing Mack's name, Master Wen's expression hardened, along with those of the Drizzle Peak disciples, who let the fury surface onto their expressions.
As a magic array master, Mack was not only highly powerful but very resourceful. Above all, he was a cruel man. It was Mack who tortured Yehudi, a seeded player of Drizzle Peak, right in the arena until he was unforgivably maimed.
During the group stage of the competition, the loss of one match was not so much of a big deal. As long as one won his following battle, he still had a chance to enter the next round. However, after being mauled in such a way, even if some mystical medicine could work its magic and heal Yehudi, it was impossible for him to take on another battle within such a short time.
It was no wonder that everyone from Drizzle Peak hated Mack.
“Zen, pay attention to Mack's magic array. The array that mongrel sets up could be wicked,” Yehudi reminded Zen before he went up to the stage. After having fought him previously, Mack's magic array still made Yehudi's heartbeat stutter with fear.
With a nod, Zen agreed. “Got it. I'll be more careful.”
In addition, Master Wen advised, “If you find yourself no match for him, just throw in the towel. No need to force yourself to persist to the very end. This guy is a real monster inside.”
Given that Zen had gained two consecutive victories already and was almost guaranteed an opportunity to make it to the next round, Master Wen didn't want Zen to push himself too much and he hoped his advice would keep Zen safe and sound until the next battle.
Though Zen nodded, he did not take the advice seriously. When it came to participating in such combat-based competitions, more often than not, the contestants were merely fighting for their esteem. Now that Zen had entered the All Peaks Competition, he was determined to win.
With fiery eyes, Zen stepped into the arena.
"Eh?
Why another Drizzle Peak disciple? I seem to be destined to take on the whole of Drizzle Peak today." At the sight of Zen, Mack faked an innocent smile. Beneath the harmless expression lay his brutal, unconcealable nature.
“Yeah, it's sort of destined,” Zen responded coolly. Although the disciple did not show much emotion when he witnessed Yehudi being tormented by Mack, in truth, a strong impulse took hold of him—to rush to the center of the arena and smash Mack to pieces. Still, this was the All Peaks Competition. With several saints, elders, and even head of the sect present, Zen couldn't dare to charge and attack Mack as he wanted to, no matter how confident he was about his explosive force.
Licking his lips maliciously, Mack asked, "That guy named Yehudi…he's the best in Drizzle Peak, isn't he?
Did you see how he ended up? If you're scared, don't worry, you can admit your defeat right now!"
As he taunted Zen, Mack pointed at the referee to the side of the battle ground with an genuine smile on his face.
No one could deny that Mack seemed like a sanguine boy. His tanned skin and strong build made him look very healthy and full of vitality. However, his style of fighting entirely contrasted his image.
“Admit my defeat?” With a drastic arch of his brows, Zen strolled up to Mack, cracking his knuckles. “I sure want to see what on earth you can do to make me admit my defeat.”
Zen's body was nearly as hard and strong as a medium-grade spiritual weapon, so the periosteum in his knuckles was also peerlessly firm and tenacious—a loud crack could be heard from every flex of his knuckle.
Snap!
Snap!
Snap!
The cracks reverberated across the arena like thunderclaps.
Although the other eight pairs already started battling and their weapons crashed and clattered against each other, still, their crashing sounds, shouts, and barks were all drowned out by the cracking of Zen's knuckles.
Many disciples darted curious looks at Zen, hardly able to imagine that a man could cause such loud, thundering sounds as he flexed his knuckles.
“That's nothing impressive! For a man who focuses on refining his body, the highest level he can reach is the marrow refining realm. Even if your corporeal body is strong, how much stronger can you possibly get? Ha!”
As Mack's smile disappeared, a flag appeared in his hand which he then tossed onto the ground before rapidly drawing back.
Technically, Mack's combat ability was not outstanding compared to all the others who had reached the nature level consummation. If he took on Zen purely with force, he was bound to lose.
Still, Mack held Zen in contempt because ultimately, the most pivotal factor the combatants of the Eastern Region counted on was life vitality.
When a man reached higher realms, he could strengthen his body to the extreme by solely exercising his life vitality. This would give him the power to destroy an entire land with a single blow. With that kind of power in mind, the combatants of the Eastern Region chose to refine their bodies only because they were getting their bodies prepared for the entry to the nature level.
Once they entered the level and acquired the power to control life vitality, no one would want to spend their time and energy refining their bodies, would they?
Given that, Mack was rather dismissive about body refinement. In fact, most of the martial arts practitioners in the Eastern Region had the same thought.
After shooting a look at the flag on the ground, Zen felt the corners of his mouth twitch. He then stomped his feet hard and abruptly darted towards Mack. Taking Yehudi's failure as a lesson, Zen definitely wouldn't let Mack set up his magic array so easily.
“Barging Fist!”
In the group stage, Zen had no intent to utilize his Heavenly Ogre First, so he accordingly adopted the most ordinary fist skill.
Although the Barging Fist was of the common kinds, when paired with Zen's horrifying force and speed, it was rather menacing.
When Mack saw Zen hurtle directly at him like a whirl of wind, a hint of terror flitted across his face but he recovered quickly. After all, the biggest threat to a magic array was not a powerful opponent. No matter how strong the enemy was, Mack could always find a way to win the fight as long as he manipulated the array properly.
What a magic array master feared the most was the lack of an opportunity to set up an array during a fight. Without it, he would be like a swordsman without a sword or a saberman without a saber. At that point, Mack was totally at his wit's end.
When he detected Zen's speed, his life vitality began surging in his hands. The man stuck out a finger and gently pointed at the flag on the ground as he exclaimed, “Grow!”
A bright light flew over the flag. Against the strong wind, it instantly grew into a huge flag and positioned itself in front of Mack to shield him.
However, Zen didn't care about the flag. He simply sidestepped and dashed straight into Mack. Much to Zen's surprise, though, the flag swooshed in front of his eyes the moment he swept past the flag and now he was left in a circle once again.
"Huh?
There's something funny about this flag…"
Clearly heading forward, Zen could see that the flag billowed, guiding him to walk around it. If he hadn't experienced kinds of magic himself, he would have thought the flag to be quite eerie.
“So this is also a kind of magic array? I'll just destroy your flag and see what else you've got? Do you want that?” At this track, Zen stopped and immediately punched a fist into the flag of magic array.
Boom!
Under the immense impact of Zen's punch, jets of emerald green emerged below the flag—there was an enchanted barrier attached to the flag, keeping it protected.
“By the way, this magic array flag of mine is a top-grade spiritual weapon, called Star-shifting Flag. How could you possibly damage it?” Mack yelled smugly.
Now, he had bought himself plenty of time to lay out a large-sized magic array to handle Zen. His smirk was replaced with a languid expression as he took out another flag in no hurry, ready to build a new magic array.
“You said I can't damage it?”
With a sneer, Zen landed a ruthless blow on the Star-shifting Flag.
Wham!
Zen's left hand slammed hard into the flag. Apart from the pure force, he added a bit of energy from the Emerald Crystal in it.
The enchanted barrier of such little magnitude was nothing to Zen. Compared to the enchanted barrier of Yolande, this one was a far cry from it.
With that in mind, Zen believed that only a tiny amount of the Emerald Crystal energy would be enough.
In almost no time, red cracks began sprawling across the flag and its enchanted barrier collapsed in an instant.
“What?”
Across the arena, Mack still had several flags in his hands that had not yet been arranged in the proper positions. At the astonishing scene, Mack's eyes went so wide as if they could fall out of his eye sockets at any moment.