THE MARTIAL KING, VOLUME 8 - Season 19 Episode 60

Previously whenever Zen threw a punch, he summoned his strength in two stages.

The first stage involved activating his own strength, the second pertained to activating the power of the dragon scales.

Right now, the situation was a bit more complicated. Zen’s physical body could carry more strength source than ordinary martial artists, or even than the Collapsing Mountain warriors.

Moreover, he had Eight Path Platforms.
Why was it that some of the martial artists from the other races had better performances than the Collapsing Mountain warriors in the test? It was because they had either opened the Eight Path Platforms with their body refining techniques, or had used some special ways to expand their acupuncture points. In short, they had unique ways of containing more strength source.

Therefore, Zen not only possessed the strength that came from his physical body, but also gained strength from the Path Platforms With these strengths combined, Zen’s overall strength was far more than that of ordinary martial artists. But the best source of his power came from the Nine Divine Stars.

The nine stars which were as brilliant as the sun hung in the sky silently, radiating dazzling light that illuminated Zen’s inner world.

Compared to the strength source absorbed by the Nine Divine Stars, the strength source of his physical body and the Path Platforms was minute. They were not at all in the same league. The strength source contained within the nine giant stars was probably hundreds of times greater than that absorbed by his physical body and the Path Platforms combined.

After a while, Zen activated the power within his body.

In the past, Zen had often borrowed the power of the dragon scales. He was all too familiar with the way of extracting power from the Path Platforms and his inner world. The only difference was that this time, the power he extracted did not come from anything external, rather it originated from his own body.

Huff…

As Zen’s muscles tensed up, the power in his body and his Eight Path Platforms was thoroughly activated.

He was akin to a giant rock that had been thrown into water. Because the weight of the rock was too great, it created pressure on the water around it, forming a strong flow that spread out.

Right now, Zen was that rock, and the air around him was equivalent to the water. Because of the sudden increase in his strength, the air around him was pushed away, forming spirals of wind that rushed forward.

Swoosh!

On the square, the people stared. Their hair began to flutter.

“This power…”

Chapman stood up and looked down at Zen below.

He had been sitting on the golden square stone and was the closest to Zen, so he was also the most sensitive to the formidable power that Zen exuded.

Moreover, as the leader of the Collapsing Mountain race, he had an extraordinary level of perception of power. He could feel the surging power within Zen’s body intensely.

‘That power is strong. It is as if tens of thousands of formidable beasts live in this boy’s body, ‘ he thought.

When he looked down at Zen, Chapman was in shock. He felt as if he ought not stand on top of the Magic Golden Stone at this moment, for the spot was rather dangerous for him.

However, just as quickly, Chapman rejected this idea that came out of instinct. It was too absurd.

Ever since Zen had entered the Collapsing Mountain race, he had been favored by Chapman and granted special treatment.

Perhaps he had developed well in his strength. However, the martial artists from the other races who had entered the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land were either elites of the other universes or came from the divine land.

Zen was excellent, but he was not at the top among the lot. Of course, that was only true when one did not consider his talent of being immune to flames.

After entering Sacred Spring Mountain, Zen had indeed improved by a large margin. However, even after having too much strength source, he was unable to absorb it all. To be able to absorb twenty-thousand to thirty-thousand drops was a feat quite astonishing.

It was impossible for Chapman to know that the strength source that Zen absorbed could no longer be measured by drops, for he had already absorbed almost half of the lake…

“Your Highness, I can now make a judgment of his strength,” Kennan said, unable to move his eyes away from Zen.
A strange light flashed in Laquisha’s eyes. “No need of your judgment! Hah, so now you believe me?”

“Are you talking about the Soul Suppressing Cliff?” Kennan’s expression froze.

Laquisha nodded with a face full of gratification. Ruminating on the past time when she had been miserably lying on the ground paralyzed, she figured it had been all worth it.

“It’s still impossible,” Kennan replied, shaking his head. “The Soul Suppressing Cliff has some ways of entering, but it’s incomprehensible that someone could break in with mere brute force. The warriors in the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land are unable to do that.

Even your brother couldn’t do it back then.”

“Yes, my brother couldn’t do it. But what if Zen surpasses my brother?” Laquisha asked again.

…

Kennan did not know what to say to that. He could feel the momentum of the strength that Zen activated grow stronger by the second. The power was so outrageous that it stunned him.

The audience, who had been talking nonstop, fell silent at this display.

Even before Zen threw out this punch, they had conviction in their hearts. The boy’s strength probably far surpassed that of all the previous martial artists.

The small old man known as Theodore was particularly enchanted by this display of power. His eyes, the size of little soybeans, glittered brightly as if he had discovered a novel treasure.

Whoosh!

Zen’s punch was slow.

He was able to utilize the power within his physical body and the power within the Path Platforms with ease. However, this was the first time he had used his inner world to summon the power contained within the nine stars.

In the past, Zen had only extracted life vitality from his inner world, and later, he had taken out his chaotic energy.

However, this time, the strength was too much. He had to be careful. This test did not have a limit on time in any case.

Slender colorful ribbons escaped each of the nine stars and started to gather above Zen.

‘One-twentieth…’

In the span of a few seconds, Zen had extracted a twentieth of the strength from the stars.

Although it was only a twentieth of the share, the power was beyond Zen’s imagination. He did not dare continue extracting further.

What slightly surprised Zen was the way the power of the nine stars operated. The power was unique. It did not flow through Zen’s veins, muscles, or bones. It seemed to come directly from the distant space and could be directly controlled by Zen, whichever way he wanted and however he wished.

‘If I can turn this power into a fist, won’t I be able to make it appear anywhere on my body?’ Zen wondered.

What Zen did not know was that this was one of the methods of Holy Beings.

In the divine land, it was known as the Cross-world Theurgy.

For martial artists below the level of the Holy Being—including many True Gods—their inner worlds existed within their own bodies.

But the inner world of a Holy Being was, in truth, placed around the divine land. It was like a large boat with many small boats loitering around it, each small boat representative of an inner world.

But no matter how far a Holy Being was from a universe, it only took a single thought for him to use its power.

This seemed like a type of Space Law, but it was an existence that far surpassed it. This was because distance still existed in space. It seemed like that there was a distance between a Holy Being and the universe he or she built, but in reality, there was no actual distance whatsoever. This was why some True Gods referred to it as ‘Cross-world Theurgy’.

Zen’s inner world was different from that of the Holy Beings. It had been formed somewhere in the chaos, still quite a distance away from the divine land.

If he extracted the power from his inner world now, the power within his inner world would follow Zen’s wishes and appear wherever he wanted.

It was something that Zen had figured out himself, which was why he was somewhat astonished.

One-twentieth of the power of the Nine Divine Stars was gathered in the spot half an inch before Zen’s fist, turning into an invisible ‘glove’ that wrapped itself around his right arm.

At this moment, the onlookers felt as if all of that power had originated from the fist. They wondered if Zen had practiced a special fist technique and gathered all of his power into the region in front of his fist.

Even the martial artists of various races from the divine land similarly could not readily ascertain what was happening.

The thought that Zen was able to display the Cross-world Theurgy of Holy Beings did not enter their heads.

In an instant, Zen’s punch landed right in front of the Magic Golden Stone.

When this unimaginably enormous power came into contact with the Magic Golden Stone, it created an intense vibration.

Before this, the Magic Golden Stone had received numerous punches from other warriors, but no matter if they were warriors that had obtained the title of outstanding warrior, mighty warrior, or super powerful warrior, regardless of which body refining techniques they used, the explosive power they unleashed did not leave a single mark behind. The surface of the stone was still as smooth as ever.

However, before Zen’s fist could land on the Magic Golden Stone, being only half an inch away from it, the invisible ‘glove’ compressed it, forming a visible indentation on the stone.

And as Zen’s fist continued to move forward, the indentation continued to deepen.

At this moment, the priceless, previously indestructible Magic Golden Stone looked as if it was made out of mud.