Apotheosis

By the rules set forth for the Cloud Sect disciples, they received one point for twenty blade locusts. Such a pile of blade locust corpses was a vast number of points in the disciples' eyes!

However, the bodies of blade locust were too big to drag, so the Cloud Sect stipulated that it was necessary to dig the crystal core from the chest of blade locust.

Since everyone had fought hard for such a long time, they were eager to get some booty.

But, Martin was pushing them to leave. Of course, all of the disciples were upset.

The fact that the relationship between the imperial army and the Cloud Sect wasn't a harmonious one didn't help. They didn't like each other, and incidents of group brawls erupted at times for no reason.

Someone said to Martin, "Can you wait for just a little while? We need to..."

Martin interrupted, "Hmmph! I know what you want to do, but, you'd better think it over prudently! We've detected legions of blade locusts swarming here, and our lives are worth more than yours! You don't have to go if you don't want to. But, we are leaving!"

Feeling they had no choice, the Cloud Sect disciples prepared to set out with the troops.

They had to follow the imperial army.

With so many blade locusts corpses, several cultivators of the nature level decided to stay and collect some crystal cores. They thought they'd be able to break through the encirclement alone, but, looking up they saw the increasing amounts of blade locusts, and

in the rain forest was a world too difficult for humans to explore.

Every year, tons of beasts emerged from the rain forest to attack the Burning Sky Empire for unknown reasons.

It was the Dragon Fort's role to keep these beasts from the rain forest at bay.

Among the various beasts, the most troublesome was the blade locust.

The Dragon Fort was rudimentary in appearance, boasting no ornament for either the walls or the moat except for one huge sculpted dragon head hanging on the wall.

The sculpture was entirely black, and the dragon's eyes sparkled when they caught the light. The sculpture radiated incomparable majesty.

While passing under the dragon head sculpture, each disciple of the Cloud Sect felt a sense of awe.

When Zen walked closer, he stood, staring up at the dragon's eyes for a while with a hint of doubt rising in his heart.

Zen could feel the 'intention' from within dragon head sculpture, the spiritual pressure it was emitting.