Apotheosis

Dazzling bright light glittered around Zen as he wandered around the golden space. It was like walking in a glowing, holographic palace.

After a long time of traveling in it, he finally saw the end of the space.

Zen walked towards the golden door of light and as soon as he stepped out of it, three blood-red castles appeared in front of him.

"Three blood-red castles... I got it."

Back when Zen had obtained the Teleportation Token, he had found three main cities marked red in that special place. However, those three main cities had been inaccessible during that time, and even the Teleportation Token couldn't bring him to those three cities.

It turned out that those three main cities were the second stage of the Illusion Battlefield.

Buzz!

There was a loud but grand howling sound when golden doors behind Zen opened one after another. Then, the martial artists from all throughout the fifty supreme worlds passed through the doors.

They all reacted like Zen had the moment they passed through the golden doors of light--which was to look at the three huge blood-red castles in front of them curiously.

All of them sized each other up after, their eyes filled with a strong sense of vigilance.

None of the top two thousand five hundred warriors present were easy to deal with.

They represented their own clans, their own forces, and their own races in their quest to strive for the highest glory.

A deep, rumbling sound echoed from within the blood-red castles.

At that moment, the blood-red castles suddenly began to tremble.

The gates of the blood-red castles were three gigantic beasts' heads. Each of them was extremely ferocious like it came out straight from the depths of hell. It crawled on the city gate's grounds as it emitted a dark aura from the savage land. Its two huge eyeballs quietly scanned the area in front of it, which made the people who looked at it shake with nervousness.

When the beasts opened their mouths, the castle gates were opened as well.

"The gates are open!"

"Shall we go in?"

"What the hell is this? It's just a statue, yet it's so terrifying!"

The gates of light opened one by one. The warriors gathered on the plain in front of the blood-red castles and looked at the gates in apprehension.

The two thousand five hundred warriors were divided into three groups, and each group entered three different blood-red castles. There were more than seven hundred warriors in each group in front of the castles.

Some of the warriors were quite decisive and didn't stop at all. After the city gates were opened, they started to walk forward.

Many of them were hesitant. After all, they were only a step away from the ultimate b

le. I still have some good wine in my space ring. If I meet him, I'll have to drink a hundred pots with him first!" Zen muttered.

The two thousand five hundred warriors were distributed into three groups in the three blood-red castles. The warriors who were put in this specific castle were all gathered in this spacious hall. Since Zen couldn't see Rocher at first glance, he must be in another blood-red castle.

Zen had been really surprised to see Rocher's sculpture. However, he didn't know that something even more jaw dropping would come up later on.

As Zen climbed up the pyramid, he wanted to carve all the appearances of the people he met into his mind. They would all be his opponents, so he naturally wanted to remember their characteristics.

'Why are these sculptures here? What's the purpose?' he thought.

Zen was truly curious about it, but he and everyone else could only guess since the girl in charge of this Illusion Battlefield didn't give any hints.

"This is my sculpture," Zen said as he finally found his own sculpture and looked at it. He reached out his hand and touched it, then used his consciousness to immerse himself in the sculpture. However, he still couldn't find anything special about it.

After a few more moments, Zen couldn't come up with anything else. Thus, he continued his ascent upwards.

Just as he had climbed up to the next floor, which was the top of the pyramid, a sculpture of a woman caught his eye.

When he looked closer, he couldn't help but be wide-eyed in shock.

When he had seen Rocher's sculpture, he was surprised but also relieved. He knew that it wasn't impossible for Rocher to have reached this stage because of his talent and perseverance.

Seeing this woman's sculpture however, only brought Zen utter shock and disbelief.