Chapter 1508: Chapter 1508: The Third Category

Upon hearing the prophet's words, Zen felt rather skeptical.

In his mind and in his current state, the divine land was something very distant and abstract to Zen.

As for what the divine land was going to face shortly, that was even less likely to have anything to do with Zen at all.

Zen therefore felt very flat and uninterested while the prophet spoke. The words had little meaning to him. If something like that did happen, the True Gods were still there. And then again, let's not forget the Holy Beings, who were even more powerful than any True Gods anyway.

Despite the little attention Zen spent on his conversation, the prophet's last sentence still made his heart skip a beat. Did he just hear what he thought he heard?

Did this prophet fellow even know how much strength source he had recently absorbed?

After all, the strength source came from the Holy Being's power. It was already amazing that a simple warrior, an ordinary martial artist had absorbed tens of thousands of strength source drops. It was more than just a considerable amount!

This year, it was safe to say that the amount of strength source absorbed by any random martial artist was probably equivalent to what had been absorbed in an entire year in the past.

When it came to Zen alone, he himself had absorbed as much as an entire third of the strength source. He had depleted the lake of strength source to near nothingness.

And what if the Holy Being were to discover how much strength source Zen had truly absorbed? Was it too much and would he be asked to give it back?

Feeling a little flustered now, Zen refocused his thoughts and convinced himself that such a thing would never happen.

Within the Sacred Spring Mountain sat a large lake brimming with strength source. Along with it one could find an Eight-diagram Ball that could reverse gravity, forcing the warriors who had entered this place to turn around and leave, back to where they came from. As mentioned by the prophet earlier, this should be the arrangement of his master. And seeing as he had already arranged it as such, it meant that the master didn't care whether or not warriors entered and absorbed strength source.

The underlying problem here was that Zen had absorbed too much, for one martial artist alone.

If this lake's strength source was a Holy Being's full strength, then Zen, having absorbed an entire third to himself, had taken much more than his fair share.

It was then that the prophet noticed a trace of unease on Zen's face. “The amount of strength source you've absorbed is strictly your own business. You obtained the strength through your own capacity and ability. My master doesn't mind.”

Zen stared for a brief moment, trying to read his expression. Then he asked, “Are you sure he really won't mind?”

The prophet smiled. “My master has divided the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land warriors into two categories. It doesn't matter whether they're from the Divine Land or from the universes.”

“And what are these two categories?” Zen asked.

“Simple. Those who are promising, and those who aren't,” replied the prophet.

Zen kept silent.

This kind of classification was too general, and Zen didn't know what to say. He thought for a moment and then asked, “What category do I belong to? The promising?” ℟Ãℕ∅ᛒËS

The prophet shook his head briskly. “No,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.

“Ah! So I'm not of the promising kind,” Zen said with a bitter smile. He was being snarky, despite not knowing what the so-called promising actually meant.

Unexpectedly, the prophet let out a short but stern sigh. “You don't belong to either of these two categories. My master set up six great sacred places and he equally arranged six prophets. The six of us, including myself, help him select martial artists from other races that have entered Divine Refinement Forbidden Land. By doing so, we are better capable of distinguishing which category a martial artist belongs to. However...,” he trailed off. “You belong to the third category.”

“And what's the third category?” Zen asked.

“A unique category created for those who can transform hope into reality,” the old prophet said as he smiled, the lines and wrinkles on his face deepening as he did so. “In total, we have found seven warriors in the six great sacred places who belong to the third category. Unfortunately, at least until now, I hadn't found a warrior that is qualified to be in the third category in the Collapsing Mountain race. The day to change this has finally come.”

At that, Zen began to truly understand why there were restrictions in the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land. The Divine Refinement Forbidden Land was created by a Holy Being. That same Holy Being had created several cultivation places of various sizes - the six great sacred places - and even further created six different races to guard these sacred places. Following such, he then created six extraordinary prophets to quietly observe the numerous outsiders that had entered the sacred places for trial.

In secret observation, the prophets estimated and measured every warrior's strength, capacity and development.

Martial artists who could obtain purple trial tallies in the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land were already considered outstanding. While improving themselves personally, they equally displayed their strength and talent. This method of selecting warriors based on the standards they demonstrated proved to be effective.

In the past, it had crossed Zen's mind how the trial tallies didn't seem to be useful to the Collapsing Mountain race, though the foreign warriors needed to hand over them as a pass to enter the sacred place.

Why did they ask for those trial tallies then? It didn't make sense to him.

It was not as if the trial tallies could be served for much: they weren't a source of edible food and could only be used as a currency and exchange system for resources with the other races. That said, the Collapsing Mountain race was completely self-sufficient and lacked no resources whatsoever.

The truth was that the trial tallies were qualifications. They blocked, or prevented, the incapable warriors from entering the six great sacred places just because they wanted to. The trial tallies thus saved them the trouble that might occur in the selection of talents they desired.

“You are the only warrior in our Collapsing Mountain race that meets the requirements of the third category. Therefore, I can give you this,” the prophet said, as a black trial tally appeared in his hand. “I believe you're aware of this trial tally's value,” he said with a smug smile on his face.

The prophet wasn't exactly sure how Zen had entered the Collapsing Mountain race.

Under regular circumstances, once a martial artist had appeared in a teleporting area, he would begin completing various missions, striving and working hard to earn various trial tallies.

These trial tallies were divided into five kinds and were ultimately characterized with different colors: black, purple, red, green, and white, In the eyes of any outsider, and to any warrior who had any knowledge on the subject, the purple trial tallies were considered top-level.

In the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land, the black trial tally was nothing more than a grand legend. They had only heard of it a few times, but no one had ever seen one before!

With time, everyone simply believed that there was no black trial tally in the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land, and it was a myth that they had carried for years on end. As a result, the purple trial tally became the top-ranked.

What they didn't know though, was that the black trial tally actually did exist! Only that, obtaining such was extremely rare and very few ever held one in hand.

In fact, it was only the martial artists of the third category earlier spoken about by the prophet that even had the right to obtain a black trial tally.

In other words, only seven martial artists had actually obtained a black trial tally before Zen.

It was all thanks to Laquisha that Zen had entered the sacred place for body refinement. He held the black tally in his hand, flipping it over in his palm. He didn't have a complete grasp of the colors classification when it came to the trial tallies.

The prophet had stayed here for so many years and had imagined countless times how he would hand this black trial tally over. In the imagined scenarios, he expected Zen to be extremely shocked and excited upon seeing the black trial tally appear before him.

The prophet felt somewhat disappointed. In contrast to what he had expected, Zen's face was expressionless. He casually took the black trial tally from the prophet's hand.

“This is the black trial tally!,” the prophet emphasized. His tone was flat, but he still wanted to remind Zen of this trial tally's true value.

“Is this better than a purple trial tally?” Zen asked. He had seen Kennan take out purple trial tallies before and hand them over to the Collapsing Mountain race. To Laquisha, a purple trial tally was pretty common. If this black trial tally really was better than a purple one, then it would certainly be of a higher rank as well.

“Of... of course...” The Collapsing Mountain race prophet stuttered. He didn't know how to reply. Clearly, Zen had no understanding of the trial tallies classification if he was asking such a question. How did this brat even get his hands on a purple trial tally and enter the Collapsing Mountain race in the first place, thought the bewildered prophet.

At least, this guy would eventually discover the astonishing benefits of the black trial tally! His thoughts pressed on resentfully. The prophet made an attempt and got over his disappointment.

“As for what Chapman and others are seeking, if you can help them, such will be considered a form of training for you. However, we creatures of the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land will ultimately never be able to leave this place. My master hasn't given us a way to surpass the heavens.” The prophet shook his head with a bitter smile.

The other Holy Beings had set up the heavens in such a way that allowed the martial artists in the universe to cross over and enter the divine land.

However, the master of this Divine Refinement Forbidden Land had never even constructed heavens. There was no Supreme Lords here, and the creatures living on the land would never be capable of leaving.

What Chapman and the others pursued was something the other five sacred places equally aimed for. It was just that the prophets of these six sacred places were all well aware that what they were seeking was nothing more than an illusion!

From this point of view, the many races in the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land couldn't come close to comparing to even the secondary creatures.

Hearing this, Zen finally understood Chapman's thoughts, as well as that of all the others living in the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land.

Martial artists fought for mastery. If there was no opponent, then there was no reason to fight. If such was the case, then martial artists couldn't get very far in the pursuit of martial arts.

No matter how strong Chapman and the others were thanks to the abundance of the strength source they absorbed, they were restricted to only one small corner. They couldn't compete with the martial artists of the divine land. And they would quickly lose the necessary motivation to achieve higher!

Zen had actually guessed at the idea that whatever Chapman had asked him to take from the flame, didn't even exist. It was merely an impossible mission set by the Holy Being. It had a mysterious attraction to the races that guarded the six great sacred places, giving them something to strive for, a reason to push forward - but like a banana hanging off a rod in front of a donkey, they would never be able to actually reach it.

Of course, this had nothing to do with Zen personally.

Zen had promised Chapman that he would help him retrieve the item in the flame.

And with the black trial tally in hand, Zen left the prophet's tent.

The test was already over, and Chapman had already set a date with Zen to set off. He never dared ask Zen what the prophet had said…

Even if he had asked, Zen wouldn't have told him a thing. In any case, the prophet had warned him not to speak of their conversation to the Collapsing Mountain race, especially to Chapman.

That night, a strange feeling struck Zen, one that stemmed all the way from his inner world. His eyes popped wide open, slightly startled by what he had seen in the inner world.

He had never expected that in such a short period of time, the inner world within his body would evolve so quickly that a war would erupt!