THE MARTIAL KING, VOLUME 4 - Season 12 Episode 49

From the 45th floor upwards, the hardness of all the leaves had reached an unimaginable level. Even a powerful master of the Soul Sea Realm couldn’t do anything about them. Perhaps even a warrior who was stronger than a powerful master of the Soul Sea Realm wouldn’t be able to break them either.

After seizing the Feather Holy Sea, the four divine kingdoms had obtained a great deal of legacies from the four secret lands. Among them were a few ancient books that explained how the leaves from the top floor could only be broken by the Black Star pickax that was kept in the golden leaf.

The big challenge was retrieving the Black Star pickax from the golden leaf and so far no one had been able to do so.

This meant that it was impossible for them to obtain this supreme divine weapon and, therefore, it was less likely that they would be able to break the leaves on the top of the tree. It was all the more impossible to obtain the Soul Cores located inside.

It was only when someone discovered the bugs that lived on the tree that they felt hope again. These bugs had no names but once the people of the divine kingdoms discovered that they ate ores to survive, they began calling them mineral-devouring bugs.

The leaves that daunted even the most powerful masters of the Soul Sea Realm were an easy task for the mineral-devouring bugs. So, the warriors of the divine kingdoms stopped worrying about how to obtain the Black Star pickax and focused on studying the mineral-devouring bugs. Their hard work paid off and, in the end, they got the Soul Cores, which enabled them to enter the Heavenly Stellar Secret Land.

The rumor that the Black Star pickax was impossible to get spread widely so everyone in the four divine kingdoms gave up on looking for ways to get it.

Zen, on the other hand, had no idea about it. He had never heard of such a thing as the Black Star pickaxe, so he did not understand how challenging it was to obtain and he thought he might be able to get it out from the leaf.

“Well, now I know why I failed to take it out from the leaf.” Zen exhaled gently, feeling a little regretful for trying so hard in achieving something nearly impossible.

He then decided to forget about it and move on. He got up and went back through the narrow door of the pyramid to search for the life stones.

Zen’s pickax was broken but his fists were as strong as a sacred weapon. He just had to use a little more strength and put in a little more effort to break the leaves.

For two hours he tried hard but had no results.

In order to find the life stones, Zen gave up on mining other ores. The value of ores on and above the 35th floor was high but he did not have the patience or time or energy to waste on gathering more. He kept going in and out of the pyramid in order to look for the life stones in the tree.

From the 35th floor all the way to the 40th floor, the number of leaves on each floor decreased. Zen went back and forth over a thousand times, carefully inspecting every leaf, but he still couldn’t find a single life stone.

During the search for life stones, Zen had encountered a few green mineral-devouring bugs and they seemed to have become smarter. As soon as Zen fell on the leaves, these bugs flapped their wings and carefully flew away to avoid him. Zen didn’t have a chance to catch any of these bugs.

He realized that it was going to be an arduous task, so his heart slowly sank as he furrowed his brows.

It was getting harder and harder with every passing minute. If this continued, it might be a problem for him to collect even five hundred life stones. Thinking of this, Zen decided to go straight up to the 40th floor of the pyramid.

“Zen!” As Randy saw that Zen was about to enter the 40th floor, he tried to stop him and give him counsel. “The 40th floor and above are only for the powerful masters of the Soul Sea Realm. If you go in, I’m afraid you may not be able to return!”

The purple mineral-devouring bugs on the 40th floor and above were ten times more powerful than the green mineral-devouring bugs Zen had encountered so far. Even the top masters of the Life and Death Realm would find it difficult to deal with them, not to mention Zen. And even if he entered the 40th floor, it would be impossible for him to break the leaves on this floor.

“That brat is going after his own death. Just let him go! The ores in the 40th floor are priceless. If someone can get one of them, that person would make a giant killing!”

“He was able to injure War Emperor York, maybe he can dig out something from the 40th floor!”

Some of the divine-level talents kept on talking to each other and whispering about how Zen was a show-off.

Meanwhile, Zen was quickly climbing up the pyramid without paying any attention to them. After all, the 40th floor and above were like forbidden zones to these divine-level talents of the Virtual Tribulation Realm but Zen was daring to cross that line.

Without caring about other people’s opinions he kept on fighting for what he wanted. “I will quickly go in and take a look. It won’t be long. Don’t worry, I will be careful!” Zen shouted to Randy.

On the 40th floor and above there were purple mineral-devouring bugs, which were equivalent to eleventh-level fierce beasts and could be compared to powerful masters at the Soul Sea Realm. As long as these purple mineral-devouring bugs didn’t use their domains to cut off the connection between him and the great world, they still wouldn’t be able to kill Zen.

Zen could also use the power diversion technique to divert the attacks from the purple mineral-devouring bugs to other locations.

Since the life stones were so scarce in the first thirty floors, Zen assumed that the chances of finding the life stones on the 40th layer were much lower. But he had no other choice but to go in and look for them.

After stepping through the narrow door, Zen instantly fell on a leaf on the 40th floor.

Standing on it he looked over his surroundings. There weren’t any of the legendary mineral-devouring bugs on the leaf he was standing but he found six of them on a leaf next to him.

A purple mineral-devouring bug was twice bigger than a green mineral-devouring bug and it had one more pair of compound eyes on its head than a green one had. The purple mineral-devouring bugs emitted a cold and gloomy aura from their heads.

The six purple mineral-devouring bugs kept their heads down on the leaf. It looked like they had just dug open the leaf and were swallowing the ores inside. Their huge purplish black bellies were raising high on the other end.

The noise of Zen landing on the leaf caught the attention of one of the purple mineral-devouring bugs. As it heard the noise it lowered its abdomen. Its body worked like a lever as it lifted its head high up. The tentacles on the top of its head shook slightly. All of a sudden it turned its head to look at Zen with its four black compound eyes.

Zen was confident that he could escape a mineral-devouring bug but he wouldn’t challenge it or pick up a fight for no reason. With his strength, Zen might not be able to cut open the outer shell of the purple mineral-devouring bug.

When Zen realized that the purple mineral-devouring bug had noticed him, he looked quickly to the leaf under his feet trying to figure out what was inside. Each of the ores inside was as big as a head and some were even faintly emitting various Law Powers. Zen did not know the exact type of ores he had found but he could tell that these ores were priceless.

‘There are no life stones in here. It’s pointless, ‘ Zen thought. He expected this outcome but he couldn’t help but feel disappointed. He hadn’t found any life stones on the 35th floor and some floors above. It was becoming less likely he would find one on the 40th floor. Zen didn’t want to give up. He promised himself he would keep looking until he found all the life stones he needed.

“Squeak!”

The purple mineral-devouring bug on the nearby leaf suddenly let out a sharp chirp and started waving its slender and sharp forelegs and pointing them towards Zen.
The other five purple mineral-devouring bugs that had been eating the ores without noticing Zen’s presence, suddenly stopped and stared at him. All of them flew up and quickly charged towards Zen in an attempt to surround him.

The strength of these purple mineral-devouring bugs ranked them as eleventh-level fierce beasts, which meant that these six purple mineral-devouring bugs were equivalent to six mighty warriors of the Soul Sea Realm.

Zen didn’t feel the power of any domain from these bugs but he was still taken by surprise by their abrupt attack. Without a second thought, he turned around quickly and leaped out of the leaf.

“Squeak squeak squeak…” the chirping continued.

The moment Zen leaped out, the leading purple mineral-devouring bug which was just three feet away from Zen, used its slender feet under its abdomen and tried to capture Zen.

If Zen was seized by it, all the other five purple mineral-devouring bugs would immediately surround him and attack him together. Then Zen would be in great trouble. He had to handle the situation quickly.

“You want to capture me? You are dreaming!”

Zen twisted his waist in midair and a cold light flashed in his hand. He drew his long sword and slashed the purple mineral-devouring bugs with it.

“Clank!”

To his surprise, the invincible top-grade sacred weapon didn’t work. The purple mineral-devouring bug didn’t suffer a single scratch, not even a slight bruise from his sword. The purple mineral-devouring bug’s legs were not very thick, only about the size of a human arm.

When Zen charged its top-grade sacred weapon into them, it only produced a crisp sound and a few sparks.

“How come the armor of these bugs is so hard?” Zen was shocked. Suddenly he felt like he was pushed down by the reverse force of his strikes.

He was falling extremely fast being pushed down by the reverse thrust of his strikes and the force of gravity. The purple mineral-devouring bugs kept on chasing him as he was falling. In fact, they were in a hot pursuit and actually dove down towards Zen.

“Whoosh!”

As he saw the bugs coming after him, he hurriedly sped up to run for his life. He frantically revolved his life vitality and, at the same time, he released the forceful energy in his body. These, combined with the forces dragging him down, made him fall at an incredible speed.