THE MARTIAL KING, VOLUME 4 - Season 12 Episode 42

Zen didn’t know the value of this stone. He thought of the stone as a simple trinket he could give to Fiona in return for her gift to him.

However, based on the reactions of everyone around them, there was clearly something more to this seemingly simple stone.

Could it perhaps be something very valuable?

Seeing that Zen remained silent, Randy swallowed and continued to ask, “Zen, are you sure about this?”

“Of course,” Zen replied as if he was merely giving a simple dishrag away. “But the value of this thing is immeasurable…”

Randy reminded him.

He wanted to tell Zen that the life stones were completely incomparable to the cubic stone he was currently giving away, but he didn’t want to be too straightforward and make things awkward.

“I came here for the life stones. This cubed thing isn’t really important so here you go Fiona!” Zen said, throwing the shiny, cubic stone to the princess.

Many of the other warriors wanted to stretch out their hands and catch the stone but Zen had thrown it in such a way that it precisely went to Fiona’s direction and no one else was able to get it.

Meanwhile, Fredric and several of his friends wore visible scowls on their faces. They were most likely jealous of this good opportunity but they couldn’t just go up to Fiona and take the stone.

After all, the rules of the four divine kingdoms were much stricter than those of the Central Region. They knew what would come to them if they broke the rules.

Fiona caught the cube with her soft, gentle hands, “Thad, do you really have no idea what this is?”

Zen shrugged and shook his head.

“Nope.”

Fiona let out a bell-like laugh at his casual dismissal of the cube, “You really aren’t from our four divine kingdoms!”

Zen didn’t recognize the stone meant that Zen was most likely not someone from around here but it wasn’t really important. Fiona simply meant it as a passing remark.

Zen smiled in silence. He now started to think that he might have indeed excavated something special.

“This shining stone is the Eye of Jaylen! Hmm…

You know what? This is way too precious. I can’t accept this!” Fiona then tossed the cube back at Zen before smiling at Randy, “Lord Randy, it’s better that you explain it to him. The Harlen Divine Kingdom knows it best.”

Randy smiled at Fiona’s display of kindness and tact. He turned to Zen and began to tell him of what this cube was, “Even the best weapon refiners in our Harlen Divine Kingdom are only able to forge semi-divine weapons. Even if they used up all the kingdom’s resources, they could never hope to forge a real divine weapon.”

The Harlen Divine Kingdom was well known for its expertise in weapon forging and refining.

It was considered the best out of all the four divine kingdoms but even they could only produce semi-divine weapons, which meant that nobody was able to forge a divine weapon within the four divine kingdoms.

Until one day, a Life and Death Realm master excavated a shiny stone from the Feather Emperor Secret Land!

The stone was first considered useless since it couldn’t be merged with the weapons. However, it had interesting properties that tickled the fancy of the weapon refiners. It was extremely tough and no weapon could ever break it, it was also resistant against fire and lightning corrosion. The useless stone might not really be useless after all.

It took a while to figure out how special this stone actually was until a weapon refiner named Jaylen Zhong was finally able to unveil the mystery behind it. He was the one who used it to refine the first divine weapon of the four divine kingdoms.

They named the stone after him and called it the Eye of Jaylen. However, this refiner didn’t have an easy life and suffered many mishaps.

Every time a warrior brought back an Eye of Jaylen from the Feather Emperor Secret Land, it signaled the birth of another divine weapon for the four divine kingdoms. There had been seven recorded instances of people bringing home an Eye of Jaylen from the Feather Emperor Secret Land which meant there were seven divine weapons that were forged in the four divine kingdoms.

The Eye of Jaylen was a key component in producing a divine weapon. It could even be said that there could not be a divine weapon if there was no Eye of Jaylen. The value of an Eye of Jaylen was equal to the value of a divine weapon!

If one looked at it this way, then the mere cube stone that Zen found was actually special and extremely valuable. No wonder everyone’s eyes burned with passion at the sight of the stone.

Not anyone could simply acquire a divine weapon. Fredric who was the crown prince of York Divine Kingdom did not have one. The crown prince of Wind Divine Kingdom did not possess such a weapon, either. Not even Bram who was the crown prince of the Harlen Divine Kingdom – the kingdom considered the best at weapon refining, had one.

Bringing back an Eye of Jaylen raised the possibility of obtaining a divine weapon. They would also be greatly rewarded for simply bringing the stone home.

It was a pity for those that were unable to find the Eye of Jaylen first.

Zen dug the cubic stone out and it rightfully belonged to him.

The other princes wouldn’t dare to openly rob him. Still, that could not be said for the divine-level talents from the martial houses. They were the ones who were willing to fight tooth and nail for something that could give them high rewards.

Ah, but were they even qualified to rob Zen? He might not be royalty but he was still too strong for these divine-level talents. They would never stand a chance against him. These divine-level talents knew there was no use in fighting a battle they could never win.

Randy’s explanation enlightened Zen on the importance of the stone but he remained calm. Truth be told, a divine weapon did not matter much to him. For Zen, there was no point in an excellent weapon if one’s body was subpar.

Seeing that Fiona would not accept his gift, Zen simply put the stone in his space ring to think about later.

“I’m going to continue mining!”

Zen said cheerfully.

Randy nodded, “Okay. But make sure to stay below the 30th floor.”

Zen looked at him in puzzlement, “Why?”

“It’s too dangerous for Virtual Tribulation Realm warriors to explore the 30th floor and the floors above it. Only Life and Death Realm warriors can go there,” Randy explained.

The tree had 47 floors. Floors above 30 were for the Life and Death Realm warriors while those above 40 were exclusively for the Soul Sea Realm masters. Only the floors below the 30th floor were suitable for Virtual Tribulation Realm warriors.

The higher the floor, the higher the quality of ores. However, the leaves above the 30th floor were extremely hard and strong. Virtual Tribulation Realm warriors simply did not have the capacity to break them.

“Afraid to go to the 30th floor? Haven’t you already defeated that little monster? Why would you be scared of anything now?” Fredric jeered as he scurried up the pyramid. He carried an unusual mining pickaxe with two horns at the front and back that continuously erupted with flames. This mining pickaxe was actually a top-grade sacred weapon.

As if to drive a point, Fredric leapt up and went directly to the pyramid’s 30th floor, entering through a narrow door at the side.

“Ignore him,” Randy said. “You can find enough life stones without going to the 30th floor.” He tried to pass it off casually but in truth, he was worried about Zen taking Fredric’s bait and also climbing up the 30th floor.

Zen smiled. He wasn’t a fool. Of course he knew the implications behind Fredric’s dare.

Besides, he had to search for as many life stones as he could with the limited time they were given.

So, without wasting any more of his precious mining time, Zen leapt up to the 29th floor once again to search for more life stones.

His luck wasn’t so bad. He didn’t get that much on his second try but found a lot on his third attempt.

He gathered all the life stones he found and put them all inside his space ring.

The life stones usually appeared in a cluster. Finding one life stone meant finding a dozen of them all at once.

There were at least a dozen of them in a cluster and sometimes there would be as many as several dozens in one discovery.

With this knowledge, Zen continuously went in the narrow doors of the 29th floor and fell out from the light circles ten, twenty, thirty times…

His tenacity rewarded him with two to three hundred life stones but he didn’t feel that it was enough. He had turned over every single leaf on the 29th floor so he knew there wouldn’t be any more.

The 28th floor gave him a small pile while the 27th gave him nothing at all. As time passed, Zen had only been able to hit one-fourth of his goal. He glanced up the 30th floor and Randy’s voice echoed in his mind about how difficult the floor was for Virtual Tribulation Realm warriors to explore.

He wasn’t an ordinary Virtual Tribulation Realm warrior so he figured that maybe he had a shot. He wasn’t all that interested in exploring the 30th floor earlier but now that he got all possible life stones on the 29th floor, he figured that there was really nowhere to go but up.
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