THE MARTIAL KING - Season 8 Episode 45

Both Zen and Marilyn stood in the middle of the battlefield, the deafening silence adding to the thick tension as the two stared each other down. At that moment, both Zen’s and Eddie’s plans were slowly coming to fruition.

Because of what he did to Eden, Eddie had been itching to kill Zen. He needed to do his duty as a father to avenge his son and Marilyn was an extremely valuable chess piece for Eddie in that regard. The cleanest way to dispose of Zen was through defeat in a formal battle.

For Zen, who had been plotting Marilyn’s death way before, the battle was a critical stage for his plan to buy himself more time and save his sister, Yan.

The Martial Arts Contest was a competition to find out the best cultivators in terms of skill and power.

Many who particularly liked killing and simply taking out those weaker than them participated in the contest, but this battle wasn’t anything but simple. It wasn’t a fight to find out who was stronger, nor was it a fight for simple gratification—it was a fight of old grudges and deep-seated hate.

Marilyn flexed her wrist, breaking the silence as purple life vitality surrounded her, the energy humming with power. “I don’t care why you wanted me to choose you as my opponent, but I warn you, there’s no backing out now.”

Zen did not answer. Marilyn narrowed her eyes and willed the purple life vitality surrounding her to suddenly expand, surrounding and enveloping the entire battle ring like a dome.

This put Zen on high alert. He had already shown about sixty-percent of his strength, but Marilyn still looked calm and composed. ‘She’s quite confident with her strength, ‘ Zen thought to himself, observing his opponent closely. ‘What other skills is she hiding?’

The purple light she had cast around them was not something that Zen was familiar with but some of the cultivators in the audience let out a gasp.

“I-I can’t believe it! It’s Purple Power Domain!”

A series of discussions buzzed through the crowd. “Domain? I thought only masters who have reached the Soul Sea Realm could exhibit it. What the heck’s going on?”

“Perhaps Marilyn could display this because of her Purple Power Body. It is a special physical constitution after all. That should explain why Eddie went to great lengths to employ Lustful Demon Array!”

“Zen’s no match for her at all! There’s no way he’ll survive this fight.”

Zen heard all of this. He frowned as he glanced up at the purple light. “Domain?”
The somewhat stunned expression of her opponent made Marilyn chuckle. As she raised her arm, a soft purple light glowed and dissipated in her palm, revealing six, sharp flying knives.

Wasting no time, she immediately threw her knives in various directions.

“Shoo, shoo, shoo, shoo!”

The knives were all meant for Zen.

The blades came from different directions, surrounding him and leaving him nowhere to run.

However, Zen remained composed, moving to his left as the first flying knife came for him. Unfortunately, he wasn’t in the clear as the knife suddenly bounced back from the wall and aimed towards him again.

Zen squinted in annoyance. Running out of options, he quickly bent down to avoid the attack.

He wasn’t fast enough though as the blade whipped past his cheek and left a small scratch that stung and bled.

Marilyn smirked. “You’re in my Purple Power Domain now,” she declared. “Here, you’re doomed to die.”

Zen scoffed, no patience for Marilyn’s nonsense. The six flying knives she threw weren’t ordinary weapons but possibly top-grade fairy weapons. A scratch was one thing but he could suffer serious injuries if even one knife managed to lodge itself into his body. He had dodged one blade, but there were five more out to get him.

As a knife got close, Zen made a move to leap into the air to dodge but before he could even get off the ground, a wisp of purple fog appeared, solidifying into a hand that pulled at his leg and held him down.

Even a slight tug was enough to stop Zen from exerting his skill to take care of the annoying knives.

It was at that moment that a knife flew past his arm.

“Zing!” It was quick, and his sleeve was cut off cleanly. He was lucky that it wasn’t his arm.

In this Purple Power Domain, Zen was truly beginning to feel trapped. It was not difficult to avoid one flying knife but handling all six at the same time was a different matter. If he didn’t act fast or got distracted then he would be in big trouble.

Though he managed to move with great agility and avoid getting any of his limbs severed, the knives still managed to leave multiple cuts all over his body that stung.

Marilyn laughed as Zen continued to frantically avoid her knives inside her Purple Power Domain. “Where’s your sword spirit now?” she jeered. “Why don’t you summon that beautiful sword spirit? If it weren’t for that sword spirit, you probably wouldn’t have been able to beat Eden. But that won’t work on me, no.” She shook her head, a crazed, manic look in her eyes. “Even if you call out that sword spirit now, you still won’t be able to break my Purple Power Domain.”

Zen was too busy dodging to listen. With a single stride, he saw an opening—a chance to end this annoying ordeal. He took a leap and landed right in front of Marilyn. “You talk too much,” he said before throwing a punch square to her face.

Marilyn was totally caught off guard. As his fist came towards her, she closed her eyes.

This show of weakness did not deter Zen.

“Go to hell!” he shouted. He wasn’t about to show her any mercy just because she was a woman. Without any hesitation, he focused his energy onto that one punch.

His fist was imbued with the power of 300 dragon scales that not even a cultivator at the Virtual Tribulation Realm could bear the hit, much less a cultivator at the Internal Elixir Realm like Marilyn.

However, the moment his fist landed on her face, she immediately vanished into a puff of purple smoke.

Zen’s fist went through the purple cloud, landing onto the floor instead.

A deafening crunch was heard as a huge pit appeared in the middle of the ring.

The battle ring was specially designed to be power-resistant so that it couldn’t ever get damaged by any external force during the match. However, Zen’s fist changed all that.

On the other side of the arena, the purple smoke re-materialized once again and revealed a giggling Marilyn. “That was very impressive Zen,” she said.

“You’ve even mastered Space Law, the most complicated among the rules. I don’t know how you did it but it’s still a pity. You can’t beat me, not even with that.”

Only a handful of cultivators had comprehended Space Law. Even the Saint Morphens of the Cloud Hall only had a superficial understanding of the rule.

It was, after all, the most powerful and most complicated compared to the other original laws. In fact, it could even be said to be on par with the most mysterious Time Law.

It was understandable how dumbfounded the audience was when they saw Zen use Space Law.

“He… he has actually learned all law powers…”

“The comprehension of rules differs from person to person. It’s impossible for one individual to comprehend all of them.”

“Someone who could master two rules can already be called a divine-level talent, but to comprehend all rules… Which level did Zen reach?”

None of the cultivators knew anything about baptism by laws. Truth be told, even before going through a baptism of laws, Zen had already shown some talent in Space Law which pushed him to make the decision of starting with Space Rules.

However, after the baptism, he had earned a better understanding of the other rules and was able to grasp and comprehend them all.

Zen’s sudden display of Space Law shocked and irked Brent of the Ethereal Spirit Sect. “Didn’t you say there was no need to fight Zen because he was too weak?” he blurted out. “Look at what he did. Did you see just what he did? He’s mastered Space Law! I have comprehended the first layer and been so proud of it too, but he actually mastered it!”

And it was true. Brent had always thought highly of himself for comprehending the first layer of Space Law.

In fact, he was the only person in the Central Region who had accomplished such a feat despite only being at the ultimate level of the Illuminating Soul Realm. Of course, he would feel proud.

Zen, however, had learned Fire Law, Wind Law, Thunder Law, and now, it seemed he also comprehended Space Law. It was a huge blow to Brent’s ego. Even before fighting him, the divine-level talent of Ethereal Spirit Sect was already feeling frustrated by Zen’s shocking potential.

Philip, on the other hand, was rendered speechless.

He was also a heaven-level talent and used to be the pride of the Ethereal Spirit Sect—until Brent turned up and took his place. The youngster’s skills had already shocked and humbled him.

He had always thought that Brent was the most talented cultivator in the Central Region and that nobody would ever be a match for him.

But Zen just had to come in and shatter all their preconceived notions of skills and power. Though his cultivation level was lower than Brent’s, he could already unleash skills as powerful as his. Zen truly shook Philip’s resolve. At that moment, Philip wasn’t sure if he still thought Brent was the most talented cultivator in the Central Region.