THE MARTIAL KING, VOLUME 4 - Season 12 Episode 69

The many supreme worlds in the Upper World were rich in resources, be it cultivation methods, inheritances or the vastness of the worlds.

Thus, in regard to cultivation, the martial artists from the Upper World enjoyed far greater cultivation resources than the martial artists in the Lower World.

To the martial artists of the Upper World, the warriors from the Lower World were nothing more than country bumpkins that came from remote mountains. Only a few of them could advance to a very high level.

The Upper World certainly had its own advantage, but the martial artists in the Lower World also had their own unique advantages. For instance, the competition in the Lower World was less intense than that in the Upper World.

The martial artists from the Lower World would also avoid the Tribulation Flower at all costs, as it could increase the difficulty of tribulations. The Life and Death Realm warriors hoped that after surviving a few life and death tribulations, they would be able to enter the Soul Sea Realm. So they could not wish that the tribulations increased in difficulty.

On the other hand, for the martial artists of the Upper World, the Tribulation Flower was an absolute precious treasure. Even the value of a divine weapon would not match up to the value of the Tribulation Flower.

Zen was not willing to be confined to the small Lower World. So, in order to prepare himself to advance from the Virtual Tribulation Realm to the Life and Death Realm, he would have to build a solid and strong foundation.

However, the stronger a warrior was, the more difficult the Heavenly Tribulation the warrior would face. Since Letitia practiced the Sutra of Empyrean Goddess, her strength was far stronger than that of any other martial artists of the same level. Therefore, when Letitia broke through the Virtual Tribulation Realm and entered the Life and Death Realm, the small Heavenly Tribulation she suffered was unprecedentedly stronger. She even encountered rare nightmare tribulation.

Zen was only at the middle stage of the Virtual Tribulation Realm, and his strength was enough to fight against a powerful master of the Soul Sea Realm. If a powerful master of the Soul Sea Realm didn’t use a domain to restrict Zen, he would become invincible in the great world.

If Zen wanted to advance to the Life and Death Realm, he had to face difficulties beyond imagination. Adding the effect of the Tribulation Flower, he might not be able to survive.

Zen looked at the Tribulation Flower. It was a beautifully shaped object. Without hesitation, he walked towards it, grabbed his Black Star pickaxe and smashed it.

An invisible force suddenly burst out from the Black Star pickaxe. Zen knew it was powerful and wondered if there was anything in the Upper World that could resist it. In this great world, however, nothing could resist it. The Law of Causality contained in his Black Star pickaxe was too powerful.

“Clang”

The Tribulation Flower suddenly shattered under Zen’s blows. The polygonal petals broke into countless small fragments, revealing a small pistil in the center.

“Pick that flower pistil and drink the nectar,” said the cyan dragon, who had been very clear on the benefits that the Tribulation Flower could bring to Zen, so he hoped that Zen would make good use of this opportunity.

Many of the powerful warriors of the Soul Sea Realm hadn’t left yet. They stood motionlessly on nearby leaves and watched the scene unfold before their eyes. When they saw that Zen had broken the Tribulation Flower, envy filled their hearts and faces.

The flower had bloomed for many years on the top of the mineral tree. No one knew exactly how long it had been there. Many powerful warriors of the Soul Sea Realm had speculated about what this flower could do. The flower stood at the top of the tree immovable like the leaves on the tree. So far, no one had figured out a way to pick it up. Now Zen had easily smashed the flower and taken away its pistil and they had every reason to be jealous.

Zen ignored them. This pistil was as thick as a human wrist, similar to the natural crystals of ores. The pistil was filled with a light green liquid. As soon as Zen took the pistil, he could smell the intoxicating fragrance coming from it.

“How fragrant!” Zen gasped in admiration before putting the pistil to his lips. He then drank the whole light green liquid.

When the light green liquid entered his mouth, Zen felt an intense burning sensation spreading from his mouth all the way down his throat, chest and stomach. It was as if a flame was burning in his body.

Zen was able to endure the scorching burning pain, but what followed was unbearable. He felt as if all his internal organs were on fire. His stomach started aching severely. At the same time, the life vitality in his cinnabar field and the forceful energy in the Hundred Meetings Platform also became uncontrollably erratic.

He had never felt such strong pain, even when he was refining his body. As the pain became unbearable he couldn’t help but let out a loud groan.

“Ahhhhh”

Zen tried to control the pain with breathing and entering the state of forgetting himself.

Usually it was an easy task but not this time. This time the pain was too strong and took away his focus. He failed to enter the state of forgetting himself. Zen fell to the ground and rolled around, curled up with his knees up to his chest.
A sneer surfaced on War Emperor York’s face as he stood on the other leaf and watched Zen. “You are so bold to randomly eat something without even trying to figure out what it is! It serves you right!”

Other than War Emperor York, Turner and a few others looked worried. They did not know whether the flower of the mineral tree was poisonous or not. If it was poisonous it could be deadly.

As Zen rolled around, he fell from the leaf.

Seeing that Zen had fallen everyone else left the leaves too.

Zen appeared once again on the outside of the pyramid. The pain in his abdomen became more and more intense, and he twisted his body vehemently. Fortunately, his body was very strong but as he rolled around on the ground in pain, the ground suddenly became full of bumps.

“Thad, what happened to you?” When Fiona and some others saw Zen in pain, they gathered around him trying to understand what was wrong with him.

Randy was worried and decided to call a few other warriors to come and help. Randy frowned and said “Do you think he has been poisoned?”

Fiona shook her head and said, “No, that’s impossible! Even the Dragon Arsenic couldn’t hurt Zen. What kind of poison could cause him so much pain?”
Turner, who had just left the tree and landed on the ground, said blandly, “He drank the nectar in the flower pistil at the top of the tree. I don’t know why he has such a strong reaction to it!”

“That pistil is probably the most poisonous thing in the world. It will kill anyone who drinks it. This kid has brought it upon himself,” War Emperor York said after Turner.

When War King Wind heard this, he coldly said, “If Zen dies, no one else knows how to control the Black Star pickaxe. No one in the four divine kingdoms will be able to break the leaves on the upper floors and get the Soul Cores. What will we do without him?”

So far, with the help of Zen, they had harvested enough Soul Cores, but these would eventually be consumed. Since the four divine kingdoms didn’t have the control of the Heavenly Stellar Secret Land, then they had to rely on the Soul Cores to enter it. If the Soul Cores were used up, they would have to return to their old ways of capturing the mineral-devouring bugs to get Soul Cores. That way they were only able to obtain one single Soul Core every few years. The worst situation they encountered was when they spent nine consecutive years without finding even one Soul Core.

“This year we have already gathered so many Soul Cores that would for sure allow our four divine kingdoms to occupy the Heavenly Stellar Secret Land. In the future, we won’t need Soul Cores anymore!” War Emperor York fell silent. This was all he could come up with to defend himself.

As the other powerful masters of the Soul Sea Realm kept on discussing, Zen suddenly stopped rolling on the floor and his body started emitting a stronger aura.

“What is happening? Thad’s aura is getting stronger!” a mighty warrior of the Soul Sea Realm said.

“He pulled through and made it. Now his cultivation has reached the late stage of the Virtual Tribulation Realm!” another master said.

“He actually made it at this critical stage… It is unbelievable!”

Zen’s pain had disappeared and his life vitality had gathered in his lower abdomen and condensed to an unprecedented form. After being highly compressed, his life vitality which had been in the form of gas started to liquefy.

Only martial artists at the Life and Death Realm were able to condense their life vitality. In other words, now that Zen entered the late stage of the Virtual Tribulation Realm, he immediately started preparing himself to enter the Life and Death Realm.

The life vitality within Zen’s cinnabar field continued to condense and it started to flow slower and slower.

For most Life and Death Realm martial artists, the condensation process of life vitality was extremely slow. Not only that but the condensed life vitality would flow just like water. However, as Zen’s life vitality condensed, it actually became thicker and thicker, just like paste.

“It’s getting harder for me to make the life vitality circulate! It seems like it’s going to freeze…” Zen frowned while sitting on the ground.

The cyan dragon was shocked by what Zen said. “The life vitality is solidifying, this is so strange… I can’t believe the life vitality started to solidify when you just broke through to the Life and Death Realm!”

Zen was in a state of confusion when he heard the cyan dragon’s words, “Does life vitality solidify? What do you mean?”