Apotheosis

For Zen, at his current level, the Spiritual Thorn could play two roles in his battles.

The first role was to attack his opponents stealthily. The soul thorn had surprisingly good effects on the cultivators who were weak in their souls, or those who lacked strong protection and soul-defense. As Zen's soul thorn attacked the cultivators, merely an instantaneous loss of consciousness could mean failure, or even worse—death in battle.

The second function was to punish people. The feeling of penetration into one's soul was excruciating, the agony indescribable. To give a perceptible measurement, the pain it imposed on one's soul was at least ten times greater than that caused by penetration into one's physical body. The human body's capacity to bear pain was restricted. So, when people felt a lot of physical pain, their minds stopped controlling their bodies. Without commands from the nervous system, they simply fell into a state of shock. A person did not experience pain when he or she passed out. Coma was the best elixir one could hope for when one was in that kind of physical pain. However, one's soul could never lose consciousness, no matter how much pain it endured. The soul thoroughly tasted every single splinter of that pain.

Whew! Zen released his soul thorn without hesitation.

As the soul thorn hissed and made its way to stab into Bryson's head imperceptibly, a low groan escaped Bryson's lips at the pain he felt. His distorted facial expression told the others of the suffering he was enduring. Bryson's affliction also warned the others how terribly sorry they would be if they dared disobey his orders and betray the Luo Clan.

Yet, Bryson still kept his mouth shut, not giving out the information tha

clan, they would be afraid that Bryson would rise to power again. He would have come back in the future if Zen hadn't killed him today. Each one of the members would have a price to pay by then. So they wanted Bryson dead—it was the only way they would feel safe in the Luo Clan. For the youngsters, as well as for the good of the clan, Zen had been committed to wiping out this concern of theirs.

Bryson Luo had to die.

Zen was all too aware of how everyone released their harsh breaths as they witnessed Bryson's death.

Several wisps of malicious aura escaped Bryson's corpse. Zen knew Bryson had been the disciple of the Blood Prisoner. He had learned the Blood Evil Force from his master. Still, Zen did not expect Bryson had that much amount of malice aura amassed in his body. It seemed that in order to improve his strength and levels, Bryson had killed a lot of people, much more than Zen had expected.

Eventually, the malicious aura that broke loose from Bryson's body gathered and condensed into a blood-colored crystal.

Adding up the blood-colored crystals Zen had collected before, he had four of these crystals in total now.