THE MARTIAL KING - Season 8 Episode 61

Drifting across the sky were dense clouds; smoky wisps curled up against the blueness of the atmosphere like genies. As the air in Cloud Hall became saturated with anticipation and the forthcoming of gloom, the hazy mist that enveloped the land slowly dispersed.

With the rays of golden light peeking through the scattering morning mist, a woman’s shadow materialized under the soft daylight. The silhouette of Letitia’s slender and elegant figure was suddenly apparent on the grounds.

As the woman silently stood there, she observed the young man deep in thought. Deeming it enough to survey for a while, she floated away gracefully.

Biting her lip anxiously as she rubbed her cheek with her palm, Letitia thought that what she had done was actually a reckless and unwise gamble. As soon as she had tersely placed the stakes at hand, she was confronted with an immense backlash due to the Cloud Hall elders pressuring her; and it was not long before she would crack.

Even though Imogen, Saint Morphens, and a small portion of the elders did not complain straight to her face, there were times when she had caught on fleeting moments of hesitancy as if they wanted to question her decisions. Letitia was almost definitely certain that they did not understand what she wanted to accomplish.

Exhaling deeply with a far-off gaze, she was well aware of the arduous consequences her actions could bring. As the stakes were too high, the odds were stacked against her. It was far from unlikely that she would end up losing the Cloud Hall for good.

As soon as she strode out of the Cloud Hall, she furrowed her eyebrows at the sight of Emanuel and numerous other elders aggressively walking towards where she stood. Shielding her eyes from the glare of the sun, she had also noticed that walking beside the big group of elders were various leaders of third grade clans and third grade sects.

These clan leaders and sect leaders were significant people, as they represented varying powers and authorities in the Cloudy City. Moreover, they had always been vassals of the Cloud Hall. Letitia had a definite guess of the reason why they had suddenly gathered together with the elders. If it ever so happened that the Cloud Hall was destroyed, whether it be from natural disasters like devastating earthquakes or sweeping tsunamis that could heavily impact the state of the whole city, all of the clans and sects would find themselves in great peril.

Sighing to herself as a headache started to work its way towards her temples, she thought that maybe what they were trying to tell her was true; maybe it was not a wise decision to pin all the hope on Zen to resist Eddie. ‘Ah, here they come, ‘ she thought warily, already expectant of the onslaught of protests from the elders.

“Miss Ning, please do think twice! How can a dignified fourth grade sect place all of its hope on a man like Zen?”

“Miss Ning, I have remained loyal and devoted to Cloud Hall for two hundred years and I am willing to serve Cloud Hall until I die,” one of them pleaded with earnest eyes. “However, I cannot bear to see it collapse just because of some cultivator at the Illuminating Soul Realm.”

Amidst the sudden chaos, a clan leader shouted from the side, “The only way is to hand Zen over!”

All kinds of voices echoed throughout the hall and the dissonance of it all rang in her ears aggravatingly. Words of anger, bitterness, and helplessness reflected on the way they raised their voices at the Cloud Hall leader. It was akin to a dam that burst from pressure, a raging river that uncoiled like pythons, as their vehement disagreements washed over and threatened to choke her under the current. Even though she was the respected leader of the Cloud Hall, nothing could have stopped the assault of sounds surrounding her, imprisoning her very being as she could not even find a way to escape the crowd.

After pushing and pulling through the throng of people, Letitia finally managed to inhale a bout of fresh air as she broke through and left them arguing over themselves.

Stumbling and breathing heavily, she returned to her Ice Palace and almost slumped against the door. The woman was nothing short of stupefied over what just happened. As she watched the ice phoenix float towards her and land softly on her right shoulder as a form of comfort, she sighed sadly. Biting her lip and drooping her head, she winced and unwittingly spit out a curse, “Damn it, I cannot lose..”

However, there was no one to blame but her own self. It was her own doing that she remained as stubborn as a mule–once she had chosen a direction, nothing would be able to change her mind.

Moreover, her personality was being resilient; even if she encountered numerous troubling difficulties on the road to her goal, she would still choose to suffer all kinds of consequences along the way, boundlessly bearing the burden and relentlessly advancing forward.

With all the commotion happening in the Cloud Hall, Zen clearly knew that Letitia was under so much pressure.

What was worse was the fact that Eddie could suddenly drop by unannounced in the Cloud Hall. And what was she going to do then? The man she had put her faith into, Zen, could only concentrate as of the moment on drawing the divine textures.

Reflecting heavily on the events that had occurred for the past days, it was getting more and more likely that she could not save Cloud Hall after all. Even if Zen had a soul which had already reached the Fighting Soul Realm, he would be exhausted by working intensively every day to draw the runes. Within twelve hours of each day, he spent eight hours continuously working on the runes, and the remaining four hours would be consumed for energy restoration.

Although he was a capable man, it took just about everything in him to painstakingly draw them; it definitely maximized the capabilities of Zen’s soul.
For the first and second days of working on the runes, everything had appeared to be fine as the man never complained or showed fatigue.

However, tragedy struck on the third day which gave them deep-seated worries and anxiety. When morning came, Zen almost did not want to wake up from his sleep. As they had all figured out, excessive extraction of his soul force drained him and made his soul extremely tired. Furthermore, the lack of sleep made it impossible for him to replenish his energy.

As the days progressed, Zen had no choice but to wear the Soul-nurturing Jade every day, the one that Dillon had gifted to him. At the same time, he started to take some soul nourishing pills.

Perpetually working on the runes severely exploited his soul force and exhausted him to the bone like no other. However, the silver lining of the whole process was the fact that his soul became more stable as time passed by and a faint coat of jade-green glow surrounded him.

The Fighting Soul Realm was admittedly not the highest level the soul could enter. This was because just above the Fighting Soul Realm was the Jasper Fighting Soul Realm. Although this was the case, it would still take nonstop rigorous training and interminable tempering of one’s soul to cross the threshold of the Jasper Fighting Soul Realm. With Zen’s current strength being used and depleted on the runes, entering the next realm was not something Zen could easily envision.

During the period when Zen worked incessantly, Letitia often took the time to visit Zen and observe his progress.

Dropping in to pay him a quick visit was something the woman did for reassurance. In the face of immense pressure coming from the different parties of the Cloud Hall, witnessing Zen work earnestly made her slightly relieved. Although she felt apologetic that the young man exhausted himself tirelessly, she was still responsible for the future of Cloud Hall.