Chapter 1302: Chapter 1302: Shock

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 torture. 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 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 battle of the Illusion Battlefield, so they had to be extremely careful.

Suddenly, the mysterious girl's voice echoed throughout the area again.

“Warriors, please enter the blood-red castles.”

Upon hearing those words, the originally hesitant martial artists all circulated their life vitality and rose from the ground, then flew towards the city gates. Their hesitations were gone and they seemed to fight each other now. Ꞧ𝐀𐌽O͍ʙЁʂ

Meanwhile, Zen had already started walking towards a gate when they had first opened.

His lips curved into a faint smile when he saw the warriors who had surpassed him planned to seize the initiative in the main city.

There was an open passage in front after entering through the big mouth of the beast head. They followed the passage which led to the center of the blood-red castle. In the center was a huge hall, and in the middle of the hall was a pyramid.

There were concave caves on top of the pyramid, which measured 10 feet deep and 10 feet high. There were many sculptures displayed inside the caves.

“This... It's a sculpture of me!”

“There is also a sculpture of me!”

“Why does this pyramid have a sculpture of everyone?”

“Rankings! I am ranked 170th on the Illusion Battlefield, and my sculpture is also in the pyramid, ranked 170th. This is… This is everyone's ranking!”

Once everyone had realized the secret, they all began to observe the sculptures.

The warriors could only check their own rankings back then, and they had no idea who in the front and behind them were.

Now, everyone could clearly see their rankings in the pyramid.

Zen approached the pyramid and his gaze swept over the huge edifice.

His eyes landed on the bottom of the pyramid and found Janet's sculpture.

“Two thousand and thirty-first…”

He smiled a little when he saw her ranking. She had finally made it into the top rankings, and entered the second stage of the Illusion Battlefield.

As Zen looked around, he saw the sculptures of Jeffrey, Hailey, and the others. However, he didn't see Coleman's sculpture.

Had he failed and been eliminated?

After he scanned the bottom row, his eyes slowly moved upwards. Of course, the higher one's ranking was, the higher their position would be.

He continued to look at the array of sculptures when he stopped at a certain spot in the pyramid. His gaze froze and his eyes widened. He couldn't believe it.

“I didn't know he would be here as well...” Zen murmured.

He jumped up to the fifth floor of the pyramid, where a sculpture of a human martial artist stood before him.

This martial artist held a sword in one hand, his face filled with heroic pride and arrogance. Under his sword-like eyebrows were two eyes that seemed like stars. He was Rocher Hua, who came from the same great world as Zen!

There were over a hundred thousand supreme worlds in the universe, and numerous Soul Sea Realm warriors who lived in them. However, only two thousand five hundred warriors present represented all the supreme worlds. In other words, only one Soul Sea Realm warrior in four supreme worlds had entered the second stage of the Illusion Battlefield.

Yet, two people from the Lower World where Zen was from had made it into the top two thousand five hundred.

Another smile had made its way to Zen's face. He looked at Rocher's sculpture and noticed that there were a few traces of vicissitudes on it. His aura had become even more mature.

But he didn't know where Rocher had ascended to, and which supreme world had he entered to get in the Illusion Battlefield. If he had entered the top 2, 500 rankings, then he might even have the strength of an ace talent!

The youth who wielded the sword had actually caught up to him so quickly.

When they were in the Lower World, Zen had been much ahead of Rocher. At that time, the gap between him and Zen was almost too big to be estimated.

Still, Zen never thought that one day, after almost seven years had passed, that Rocher would be able to catch up!

It should be noted that Zen's speed of improvement these years was not to be underestimated. He still had the fairy palace to back him up, which further increased the gap between him and Rocher. However, Rocher was ranked in the 540th place in this pyramid now. It truly surprised Zen.

“I think Rocher must have met a lucky chance during these years. Otherwise, no matter how strong his talent is, it would have been impossible for him to progress so quickly! It's a pity that he isn't in this blood-red castle. 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.