THE MARTIAL KING - Season 7 Episode 60

At the very beginning, when they came into the third ring, Zen felt the pain extremely unbearable under the mighty oppressing force once he left the protection range of an oil lamp. So he must move swiftly to every oil lamp ahead basically for protection. But then, as he was able to stop at every other oil lamp, and then every other two oil lamps, the distance between them widened.

At last, Zen had finished his first circle in the third ring and was just closely behind Christopher. It was only then Christopher came to realize what the distance there was between him and Zen. Upset and disgraced by the fact, Christopher turned around all of a sudden to pursue Zen in the other direction.

The funny scene provoked a loud fit of laughter and howling cheers among all the warriors watching. Christopher seemed stupidly confused at Zen’s tricks.

The two of them had played the game of run-and-chase in the third ring for nearly four hours. At last, Zen seemed to have had enough fun in this game. He flashed a brilliant smile at his opponent before he casually slipped into the fourth ring. In this circle, the oppressing force was eightfold as powerful as that in the first ring!

With Zen infiltrating the fourth ring, Christopher was burning with anger in eagerness to follow him as well. He was determined not to lose his face at this round. So he fixed his mind solely on how he would exact revenge with Zen.

Only then would he give up! At the spectator side, all of his three companions were observing him keenly. They started to feel uneasy as they stared at him, giving Zen a black look. Anticipating his intention, they yelled at him. He needed to be stopped.

“Christopher, what are you doing? There’s no way for you to bear the oppressive force in the fourth ring. Do you understand?”

Christopher had suffered exhaustion under the attack of the mighty oppressing force in the third ring. His cyan light, a powerful shielding weapon that he was so proud of, had become useless in front of the fourfold oppressing force. How could he deal with the massive force in the fourth ring that was eightfold as powerful?

Approaching the tiny oil lamp for Zen in the fourth ring was as easy as falling off a log, so Christopher followed suit, totally ignoring the warnings from his companions. Never did he expect that a disaster was waiting for him as his soul began to collapse swiftly soon after he had set his feet into the next ring.

Audible gasps were heard from his companions as their faces turned ashen. They became dazed as they stood motionless, frightened at such a catastrophic accident. Panic gripped them, but they were unable to do anything. They had no abilities to enter into the third ring, how could they reach the fourth ring to save Christopher?

They were left with no choice but to helplessly watch Christopher’s soul shatter into fragments in front of them.

The sharp, throbbing pain from his soul finally awakened him. His obsession with defeating Zen and killing him had landed him in a blinded irrational state. He was so furious at his ruin and at Zen himself.

So he had sworn to defeat him no matter what it took him—even at the cost of his life. The catastrophic incident brought back his rationality. Now, it registered to him that the fourth ring was indeed a cruel realm, with a very slim chance of survival. More so, if he would be unsuccessful in his attempt to reach any oil lamps or he failed to return to the third ring, his soul would definitely shatter into pieces. Then his body would become nothing but a soulless shell.

At this critical moment, he seemed to be at a crossroads. He remained kneeling on the ground while he made up his mind. Contemplating that his decision would have a long term consequence, he immediately engulfed himself into silence.

Soon after, his body went rigid as he summoned his inner core to use his family’s secret method to burn his soul.
With a crackling noise, a light flame was ignited on the surface of his soul. That was the flame of the soul!

This method of burning the soul would bring much severe damage than the burning of the blood in the body. But he had no better choice. He had to do this to survive. By burning the soul, the flame of the soul could produce massive energy to resist the overwhelming power from the intensified oppressing force in the fourth ring. Taking this opportunity, Christopher retreated to the third ring, where he fixed his soul with the help of the healing power of the oil lamp.

Although the oil lamp could heal the damaged part of Christopher’s soul, the burned part of it could never be recovered. Therefore, this kind of self-salvage through the burning of the soul would bring substantial damage to him forever.

His face turned pale after such a disastrous accident. Though he was deathly frightened, he quickly masked his fear. He continued to gaze at Zen.

The oil lamp that Zen occupied was not far away. But the power of the intensified oppressing force was far beyond his ability to bear. If he had kept going on regardless of all the risks, his soul would collapse before he could reach the oil lamp.

A bad sense of frustration surged in Christopher’s heart when he looked at Zen’s smiling face.

He had already been defeated by Zen when they competed with each other in comprehending the Law Power. As a capable practitioner in the field of the forging of soul, he was confident that Zen was by no means his match.

But he lost again, in such a demeaning way in the field he was capable of and in everyone’s presence. The sharp gap between him and Zen disgraced him to the extreme. And nobody could ever understand how frustrated he was at this shameful moment! Christopher let out a sigh in helplessness. That was the only thing he could do at the most humiliating moment in his entire existence.

Zen paid no attention to his opponent after he had entered the fourth ring. He focused on his sole purpose—to forge his soul.

The fourth ring was quite close to the owl beast devil spirit. Its body looked like a bear, but the length of its face closely resembled that of a dragon. And a sharp beak was protruding replacing its mouth. The fierce-looking ugly creature fixed its gigantic eyes on Zen, watching his every move.

Suddenly, the owl beast devil spirit opened its huge beak to let out a strange wild scream.

“Ga…”

With that loud piercing cry, a group of black smaller devil spirits rushed into the fourth ring in quick succession.

Those devil spirits were not too big and seemed like a miniature version of the owl beast devil spirit that had let out the scream. They ran and wandered about in every corner of the fourth ring.

“What…” exclaimed Zen with a frown at this unexpected sight.

The fourth ring was strategically situated near the owl beast devil spirit. On top of that, its mighty oppressing force had grown to eight times as powerful as that in the first ring. He had conquered this great challenge by channeling his utmost attention and energy in dealing with this massive force. What could he do now with so many devil spirits swirling?

The devil spirits dared not approach nearer him because they were fearful of the oil lamp illuminating the sphere, making Zen safe as long as he was within its protection range.

But whenever he tried to walk out of it, the devil spirits would rush over him like overwhelming water. Zen shook his head, realizing he was in a difficult situation now.

Unpredictably, the cyan dragon, who had kept in silence all the while, spoke in Zen’s mind.

The cyan dragon had sunk into silence the moment when Zen began to practice. Zen didn’t think his sudden utterance would be a good omen.

“Zen, I’ll devour that owl beast devil spirit after you run into the sixth ring,” the cyan dragon said unexpectedly.

“Eat that owl beast ghost?” Zen exclaimed with a doubtful expression splattered in his face, as the cyan dragon’s words had startled him. The owl beast devil spirit possessed a far-fetched and unimaginable power. It was already hard to burst into the Fighting Soul Realm, but it would be harder to cope with the owl beast devil spirit which was in a realm higher than the Fighting Soul Realm in power.

“How is it possible?” Zen prompted.