Apotheosis

Once past the hall for tier two cultivation methods, Zen looked around. Only four other people had accompanied him. One of them was the towering strongman who always held a great sword.

Zen knew that this strongman was physically powerful and had boundless energy. He had not expected this strongman to also have a mighty soul. As Zen suspected, Cloud Sect had many outstanding disciples.

As Zen walked ahead, the hall that housed tier three refinement methods came into his sight.

An eerie purple light radiated from this hall.

Five people entered this hall. Except for Zen, all other people looked unwell.

One of them had turned ghastly pale as soon as he had stepped into the hall. From his attire, Zen guessed this was a disciple from a noble clan. Judging from his pallid face, it was evident that he was finding it difficult to resist the intent of the Vengeful Beast. This disciple reached into his pocket and pulled out a dark grey pill. Then, he closed his eyes and swallowed the pill. When he opened his eyes again, gold rays of light radiated from his eyes. At this sight, Zen realized that the pill invigorated the soul and helped the disciple withstand the intent of the Vengeful Beast.

"Disciples from noble clans are so fortunate!" Zen murmured and shook his head. Then he thought, 'How can disciples from ordinary clans acquire such pills?'

The five disciples surveyed the hall. Since they had entered the hall, tier 3 cultivation methods were accessible to them.

In the Eastern Region, cultivation methods were classified into four tiers.

Of these four tiers, tier 1 cultivation methods were the most common. Since there were innumerable tier 1 cultivation methods, they were the cheapest and could be acquired at martial arts clubs.

However, tier 2 cultivation methods were limited in comparison to tier 1. In general, these were inherited by small clans. For instance, the Purple Light Fist that Zen practiced was just one of many tier 2 cultivation methods. The Luo Clan was neither rich nor big. For such a clan, a book on Purple Light Fist was fairly precious. Hence, they generally didn't share their kno

dy. However, Zen discovered that these shadows were attacking his soul with every blow to his body.

Deep in his brain, Zen felt a sharp stabbing pain.

For others, this kind of pain might be fatal. But Zen had a far stronger soul.

In spite of this, he was in deep agony.

Every shadow bumped into him like an awl and Zen felt a sharp stab in his head. As a result, Zen felt intense pain deep in his brain.

Such pain was not physical, but spiritual. There was nowhere for Zen to hide and escape from the shadows. As a result, he had no choice but to endure the pain caused by the shadows.

His soul couldn't withstand the attacks, and it throbbed every time a shadow attacked Zen.

He could bear the attack of one shadow. But since all the shadows were attacking Zen one after another, the pain was unbearable.

At last, Zen felt as though he would succumb to the pain of being attacked by many shadows.

Spiritual things were rather mysterious, and he had never heard of attacks against a person's soul. Naturally, Zen didn't know how to counterattack the shadows.

Zen gritted his teeth and closed his aching eyes. The pain was so terrible that Zen felt as though his eyes would pop out. At that moment, he even considered giving up.

But after further thinking, Zen realized that he must be persistent.

Before coming to Cloud Sect, he had been subject to inhumane levels of mental suffering.