Chapter 1500: Chapter 1500: Gigantic Badger

According to Teigan, although the paths of the Sacred Spring Mountain were quite complicated, they would still lead to the main road at the bottom of the mountain. One could follow the main road from the bottom of the mountain to the top and find their way back to the Collapsing Mountain race.

If this was true, then the path that Zen had taken should lead them to the main road. From his calculations, they should be at the bottom of the Sacred Spring Mountain by now.

However, it seemed that they were led to a dead end. Instead of the main road, the two discovered a cave in a sealed-off area - a place that no one had entered before.

Looking around, Zen realized that the door in front of him was the only way out. Would he be able to leave this place?

The situation was starting to get frustrating. But Zen had already made up his mind. If this place turned out to be a dead-end, he would turn back to where he came from and start again!

The most challenging and difficult part of the Sacred Spring Mountain was the solid silver rock. Its surface was extremely smooth, not even a curb or a lump that one could hold onto, thus making it hard to climb.

In this situation, all the strength source that Zen had absorbed could be put to good use. Now that his power had increased drastically, it had changed the course of the situation.

Standing at the front of the stone door, Teigan was the first to try his luck. He placed his hands against the stone door, took a deep breath, and pushed it.

Ha-ha!

Teigan put all his energy into his arms and hands; and as a great force flowed into his body, his veins and muscles suddenly bulged.

The strength source had increased Teigan's strength exponentially, and he felt reborn. He pushed against the door with all his might, but the stone door did not even budge.

Teigan knew that he had exhausted his strength to the limit, so when he saw that nothing had happened, he gave up and jokingly said, “I guess I'm not worthy!” He looked around to find Zen. The latter had already absorbed so much strength source and was readying himself for his turn. There was no way he would surrender as Teigan did. A member of the Collapsing Mountain race would always be proud of his strength and would never depend on a man from another race.

On Teigan's mark, Zen slowly approached the stone door with an indifferent expression in his eyes.

Zen had achieved many breakthroughs: he refined his body with preternatural flames, absorbed the strength source, constructed Eight Path Platforms and forged Nine Divine Stars in Collapsing Mountain race.

The power that he harnessed was quite different from the power he would usually borrow from a Genuine Dragon.

It felt even more real. This hidden power from his body was so extreme that whenever he made a move, it would naturally explode from every part of his body.

Another thing was, Zen could not yet use the full potential of the borrowed power.

But the power that he had harnessed right now felt like water smoothly flowing out of his body.

Zen now stood at the front of the door. He then slowly extended his hands and placed them on the stone door.

“Open for me!” Zen commanded.

In an instant, an enormous force was released from his hands.

The power suddenly spread out and blew like a strong wind!

Swishy, swishy, swishy!

Teigan felt strong pressure from the power that Zen had released. He tried to keep his ground but lost his balance and was pushed back. If he hadn't used his left foot to fight the pressure, he would have rolled to the ground several steps away from the door. The place was suddenly covered in dust, and Teigan had to shield his eyes. 𝘙Ａ₦ỔBĚŞ

With the strength that Zen had exerted, Teigan was positive that the door would move. When the dust finally settled, Teigan immediately looked at the door. But to his surprise and dismay, the door had not moved even the slightest.

The strength source that Zen's physical body harnessed was several times greater than Teigan's, but in the end, it still wasn't enough.

“Eight Path Platforms!” Zen commanded

And the Eight Path Platforms on his body began to radiate brightly.

The strength frantically spread out from the Eight Path Platforms, causing Zen's strength to increase by another fold!

Zen already showcased an unimaginable power from mere body strength, and now that he used the Eight Path Platforms, that immense body strength had become more powerful.

Rumble!

A muffled rumble could be heard from the stone door in front of him as it revealed a small crack. Zen had finally pushed the door open.

And there was hope. The rumbling sound of the door continued as Zen exerted the same force onto it. Then it went silent. Zen drew his arms back, looked at the door, and smirked. Alas, the door was finally open. It wasn't fully opened, but the crack was enough for the two of them to pass through.

“I knew you could do it! Awesome!” A ray of hope shone from Teigan's eyes.

It was a custom in the Collapsing Mountain race to revere Hercules. The ideology of this race was quite simple: they honored the strongest. Aside from the prophet, the Collapsing Mountain race also worshiped the most powerful and strongest being. Even outsiders would get a chance to lead this race if they proved themselves worthy.

The world on the other side of the door was dark. But Zen didn't hesitate and went into that dark side through the door. Teigan followed suit.

But the moment Zen stepped into the other side of the door, something unexpected suddenly happened – a bright light emitted from within the Eight-diagram Ball in his hand. Zen could sense bizarre aura coming from the ball. In an instant, the ball escaped from Zen's hand and rapidly flew outside the door towards the direction where the two came from. After flying a great distance, the ball fell into the lake of strength source and a loud splashing sound could be heard.

As the Eight-diagram Ball continued to submerge, it began to rotate underwater. The force of its rotation created a whirlpool and the strength source in the lake shot up, then eventually landed into the lake on the ceiling.

Zen was dumfounded as it happened so fast that he didn't have time to react.

He realized that someone was preventing him from taking the Eight-diagram Ball beyond the door. Fortunately, he hadn't stored the strength source in his space ring, otherwise, he couldn't imagine what could have happened.

There must be an almighty elder watching over this place and whoever would step in this place.

Beyond Zen's knowledge, the Eight-diagram Ball didn't just return to its original location, but the mountain was also completely repaired. Even the hole that the barbarian bee queen inflicted on it had vanished like it didn't happen at all.

As soon as the ball exited, the stone door slowly began to close. Once again, Teigan and Zen were covered in complete darkness. Their eyes adjusted to the dark, but they still couldn't see anything.

There was only one path on this other side of the door and each side was covered with silver rocks. They figured that it was the only path they could take. Without saying a word, Teigan and Zen had thought of the same thing – all the bizarre things in this place were orchestrated by a person and that person could be by their side right now.

The two decided to move forward along the path in silence. But before they could even take a step, a blinding light suddenly flashed in front of them. They felt as if they had passed through a dark and narrow tunnel before finally entering an extremely wide cave.

As their eyes adjusted to the light, they looked around and was surprised to see piles of silver rocks behind them.

Zen and Teigan realized that they were already outside of the dark world. Someone had used some special method to send them out.

Between the two of them, Zen was more stunned. He had mastered the Space Law and could easily detect it, but when the light flashed earlier, he didn't sense any fluctuations of the Law Power at all.

It could only mean that the theurgy of the person who sent them out was beyond Zen's comprehension.

'Maybe it's the one who built the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land, ' Zen pondered to himself.

There couldn't be anyone more interesting to Zen than the master of the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land. He badly wanted to understand the master's purpose of generously giving away strength source.

The strength source of this master existed in six great cultivation places, but it followed nature's law of balance. If the life forms in the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land were to devour the energy, they would have to return it eventually. Even the powerful warriors in the universe who couldn't cross the heavens would have to return whatever was given to them to the universe. Dust would turn back into dust. Everything gained in this universe would eventually be returned to the universe.

However, when a foreign warrior entered the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land and obtained the strength source, it was a real loss for the master. The master of the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land was quite generous.

While Zen was lost in his thoughts, Teigan could not believe that they made it out of the dark space on the other side of the door. His face was filled with excitement. He beamed at Zen and said, “This is the road at the bottom of the Sacred Spring Mountain, and it extends from the deepest part of the underground to the exit!”

But just as he finished, the smile on his face faded. Teigan suddenly pointed his finger towards the road ahead, then said, “But I'm afraid the exit is too deep and narrow…”

The road led directly to the exit of the Sacred Spring Mountain, but the strength source here was extremely sparse. Most of the strength source was gathered towards the higher areas of the mountain up to its peak.

It was a phenomenon that was hard to explain. But to simply put it, the Sacred Spring Mountain had an inverted gravity that affected the strength source's flow. This was the reason why the strength source normally gathered towards the higher areas of the mountain.

The densely packed caves in the middle of the road would lead to the peak of the mountain. However, Zen and Teigan were now on the other side of the road which was at the bottom of the Sacred Spring Mountain.

This place housed plenty of powerful beasts and their growth had something to do with the strength source.

“Hey! Those are gigantic badgers,” Teigan commented.

Common badgers were as small as regular kittens, but these monstrous badgers were the size of a raging bull. They were huge but agile. These monstrous badgers had a killing aura as they slowly approached the two. Teigan was not yet prepared to face this kind of creature. In the Collapsing Mountain race, only grown-up men could kill monstrous badgers.

Zen nodded. Unlike Teigan, Zen was equipped with skills to defeat these monstrous badgers. He was just worried that there was not enough space to use all his strength. With a push at his feet, he rushed towards them.

Zen and Teigan were easy prey for these monstrous badgers. They split up, intending to surround their prey so they wouldn't escape.

But they didn't expect that Zen had no intention of escaping. Instead, he was the first to launch an attack at them.

Roar!

One of the badgers roared as a warning to the rest. Three of the badgers quickly responded and, they attacked towards Zen.

These badgers had an unbelievable intelligence unlike any other creatures in the mountain. They could quickly react against an attack and knew how to work as a team to defeat their enemies.

Their extraordinary strength and agility were their advantage over any creature. With these, they could easily triumph over any ordinary warriors.

But their luck had seemingly run out as this time, it was no ordinary warrior. They had finally met Zen!