Chapter 1234: Chapter 1234: Eyeballs

Upon checking his ranking, Zen couldn't help but sigh.

In the Illusion Battlefield, there were just too many competitors to take on.

Putting strength aside, each of these warriors at the Soul Sea Realm had their own individual chances and fortunate encounters.

Such warriors with both strength and luck could easily monopolize places like the Deadwood Gate, plundering Illusion Points. Naturally, they could obtain the points much faster than the ordinary warriors.

If it wasn't for Amber's sake, Zen could have easily chased away this group of Demon Night warriors to monopolize the Deadwood Gate by himself. When the gate opened, he could enter it himself and take away four million Illusion Points like it was nothing. Lucille, who had occupied an entire city and forced the warriors to pay her Illusion Points, couldn't be compared to Zen in how he obtained the points.

Because of the fear that something like this would happen, Aurora had been rather wary of Zen. Being a world lord descendant, she'd had her hopes up for getting a good rank—it was probably a tad painful to volunteer the 21 fruits to him.

“Hey, look at this! There's a plate leading to the thirteenth branch. Why don't we move forward?” Zen asked the group as he stared at the area.

“We can't go there.” Amber shook her head.

After a blink of her eyes, Aurora smiled, “Zen, you can challenge it if you really want to. But the thirteenth branch is the apex of the Sacred Ailanthus. It'll be difficult beyond what we're capable of. Though, I suppose the reward is quite promising.”

Hearing her words, Zen nodded. “I want to give it a try!”

Although he was already in the top twenty thousand in the entire Illusion Battlefield, this rank was by no means the end of it.

“We've climbed onto the thirteenth branch once. It should be the place of inheritance of the sorcerer race. We were attacked by some strange spells when we entered. The spells took some of us out before we retreated. Zen, you must consider this carefully,” Amber said with a now worry-stricken face.

With a nod, Zen smiled. “Even if it doesn't work, I can still leave.”

Since he already made up his mind, Amber could no longer hope to stop him—she knew there was no point in trying to do so once he was determined to do something.

As for the other Demon Night members, they couldn't help but feel some sense of anticipation. While they had all been through the Deadwood Gate a number of times, none of them ever dared to set foot atop the Sacred Ailanthus. They wanted to see if Zen could really make it.

Under the crowd's watchful eyes, Zen stepped onto the plate. Along with some sort of cough sounds from the small skulls, another set of words appeared under his feet. Without hesitation, he flew toward the top of the tree at full speed.

At the top was a huge, gray treetop. At this point, the white clouds were already swirling around it, turning it into a leaden gray.

A strange feeling rose in Zen's gut the moment he set foot on the surface.

'This feels familiar…

Where have I felt it before?' he wondered.

For a moment, Zen stayed still and tried running through his memories, but he couldn't find the answer among them.

A brown-yellow branch spread out from the top of the giant tree, forming a flat platform. On the platform were skulls that stood dozens of feet wide.

“These skulls… They should be the skulls of the Giants, appropriated by the sorcerer race to build houses…” Zen murmured as he sized up the massive structures.

He knew little of the Giants. The warriors of this race were double the size of the ogres, but they moved slowly and didn't have much talent. The only thing they could really brag about was their innate supernatural strength—almost every Giant had it.

But in the Upper World, where many talents roamed, it was impossible for the Giants to contend against another race by merely relying on brute force.

So in the Upper World, the Giants could only be considered a small race.

After he was satisfied examining them, Zen began exploring along the treetop.

Perhaps it was because he was alone, but the surrounding atmosphere felt particularly gloomy.

Suddenly, the Sacred Ailanthus was extremely quiet. Earlier, Zen hadn't felt this way because he was accompanied by the Demon Night warriors. Now that he was standing there alone, he could hear even his own heartbeat. 𝘙𝐀𐌽ỒＢÈȘ

Plop!

Plop!

Plop!

After taking a few steps forward, he stopped.

Then, something made him frown.

The sound of his heart seemed too loud for comfort.

But just as he stopped walking, his heartbeat seemed to slowly sink in again. After a few seconds, it couldn't be heard anymore.

What was going on?

After a moment of thought, he moved his feet again.

Plop! Plop! Plop!

Just as he took another step forward, his heartbeat turned loud again.

“Ha-ha! Interesting!”

A sneer surfaced on Zen's face. Now, he was certain that he had fallen into some sort of strange spell.

These days, spells were considered a relatively small part of cultivation methods. When the sorcerer race disappeared, their inheritance spells disappeared along with them. Only very few spells had been passed down since then, but none of them was particularly known.

The power of the spells lay in their oddity. A spell could often kill people without them noticing, making it impossible to even hope to guard against.

Zen was well aware that he wouldn't be able to see through the spell, but he decided not to think too much about it. Instead, he allowed the sound of his heartbeat to grow louder and louder as he took each step.

Plop! Plop! Plop!

As he took more steps forward, the sounds grew more intense as if someone kept punching him right in the heart.

But Zen's body refinement worked from the outside in. The strength of his body wasn't limited to only his tendons, bones, or skin; even his internal organs had absorbed all sorts of flames, making themselves as tough as a divine weapon.

If it were any other warrior with their heart gripped by this strange force, they probably would have already been severely injured and rendered unable to move. But Zen was completely at ease—it was no big deal ignoring the heartbeat resounding in his ears.

But after about five minutes, he stopped once again.

“This path doesn't seem right. I think I'm walking in circles.”

On the road atop the tree, there were sixty to seventy gigantic skulls. After circling a few times, he soon found himself walking in circles.

He felt trapped in the space.

With this thought, Zen closed his eyes and then a layer of green light flashed through his pupils.

He activated his magic vision and swept his gaze in a circular motion.

Zen's eyes widened as he looked through the faint, lead-gray fog—he couldn't help but suck in a sharp breath of cold air.

In the depths of the fog, huge eyeballs were floating about.

Unable to gauge the distance, Zen couldn't tell the exact size of the eyeballs, but they were undoubtedly enormous compared to him. They floated silently in the air as their gaze remained fixed on him.

No matter what kind of creature these eyeballs came from, anyone who was targeted by them would undoubtedly feel their blood run cold—Zen was no exception.