Chapter 2658: Chapter 2658: Shadow On The Other Shore

Ten years ago, Geoffrey had made a name for himself in Zen's inner world. However, without warning, he then disappeared for three years.

For the years that he went missing, people living on the continent all thought that he had already passed away. But the truth was that during the times that he was away, he had returned to the floating island to cultivate.

Three years had passed and when Geoffrey returned, his cultivation base had dramatically increased along with his strength that had become more formidable.

When he showed up again, everyone was shocked to see his progress. Most of the people started to guess who and what force were behind Geoffrey's improvement. To them, it was a mystery as to what kind of clan was able to cultivate such an amazing warrior.

Now, the people didn't need to gossip around anymore. Geoffrey shocked the people when he called the man in front of him “Dad”. Did it mean that this man at the Life and Death Realm was the one responsible for his growth and training.

Meanwhile, as he was about to challenge the Heavenly Annihilation Demons, Zen, his father, came out to stop him. Feeling dejected, Geoffrey could not help but frown at his father's actions. This time, Zen had suppressed his own cultivation base to the Life and Death Realm.

He had to do it because if he revealed his true identity, then the people of the Heavenly Annihilation Sect would surely fear him and kneel down before him immediately.

“Heavenly Annihilation Demons! Wait and see! Be ready to fight when I come back!”

After Geoffrey's voice trailed off, he and Zen traveled to a desolate place using the Grand Teleportation technique.

“What is so important? It had better be more important than the demons that I was about to slay,” Geoffrey said, pouting his lips out of dismay.

Stretching out his hand, Zen showed his son two copper sheets both in the shape of an octagon.

He got one of the copper sheets from the tomb in the Excellence City. The things left behind by the former leader of the Sword Light Palace contained nothing valuable except for this shiny copper sheet that had attracted his attention.

When he poured the divine crystal's energy into the copper sheet, a map appeared on it with a note written in Sanskrit. But of course, Zen was not able to decipher it as he could not understand the language written on it.

On the other hand, it was not until Zen saved the Ear Mouse and got the second copper sheet that he realized it was called the Other Shore Key.

As the name suggested, these two copper sheets should be the keys that could unlock the gates of two places on the Other Shore.

Zen thought that he could easily reach the Other Shore soon and that he would need the copper sheets by then.

When Dorothy sent the Ear Mouse's Other Shore Key to Zen, she also told him that if he wanted to use the key on the Other Shore, he had to decipher the Sanskrit word in the key. If he wanted, she would help him.

The Oneness Sky Palace even hired some people to interpret Sanskrit words. However, it would take them several years or even over ten years before they could do it for him. Moreover, it would cost the Oneness Sky Palace a staggering amount of several million or over ten million divine crystals to make it happen.

Zen's eyebrows raised as he heard Dorothy's words.

Geoffrey was a talented boy. In fact, he could decode the Sanskrit words in a glance, as if it were his native language. If he took a position in the Oneness Sky Palace, then he would likely be rewarded with a lot of money for his work. Ṟ𝘼ɴ∅ΒƐs̈

Therefore, Zen refused Dorothy's proposal and instead brought the two copper sheets back to his inner world.

“What are these?” Geoffrey asked as he carefully observed the two copper sheets in his hand. He only saw countless stripes instead of Sanskrit words.

Soon, Zen cautiously stretched out his hand and took out a divine crystal from his space ring.

When Geoffrey saw the pure energy in the divine crystal, his eyes widened in curiosity. Wanting to know more, he asked, “Whoa, what is that? The energy within is actually so amazing!”

Zen could not blame his son for being ignorant about the divine crystal. In fact, he could still remember that he had the same expression on his face when he first saw it.

“Crack!”

Afterwards, Zen gave the divine crystal a little pinch and carefully put its energy onto one of the Other Shore Keys.

As soon as the energy touched the Other Shore Key, its lines began to slowly move in circles. Just like what happened during the first test conducted by Zen, a map emerged on the key.

Meanwhile, the Other Shore Key that the Ear Mouse gave him had the same reaction as soon as he poured the energy of the divine crystal into it.

In an instant, two maps appeared along with two Sanskrit words that seemed like they were written in gold.

Geoffrey could not contain his excitement upon seeing the golden words in person. However, right after he read both of the words, his excitement turned into confusion.

“As far as I know, the Sanskrit word on this copper sheet can be translated into the words 'Stage One' and some other strange sentences that I don't seem to understand...” Geoffrey said as he pointed at the copper sheet that the Ear Mouse gave to him.

“On the other hand, this copper sheet reads 'Stage Nineteen' and another long unintelligible sentence... Why can't I understand the whole of what's written in these copper plates?” Geoffrey stated further.

“What do you mean?” Zen furrowed his brows as he wanted to learn more.

In a daze, Geoffrey shook his head and said, “I don't know. I've never seen such strange Sanskrit words. This could only mean that they are gibberish and don't contain any meanings.”

Geoffrey was able to decode almost every Sanskrit word he met in the past. But today, even if he had decoded these two words, he still wasn't able to understand the meanings of them.

Zen thought for a while and asked, “Read those words to me. I'll try to remember them.”

“Okay.” Geoffrey proceeded to read the words written on the copper sheets.

But as Geoffrey spoke every word, all Zen heard were a bunch of strange syllables that sounded bizarre. Just hearing them made Zen want to laugh out loud.

Despite the humor and the strange words, Zen still managed to memorize them completely.

“Okay, that's it. I'm done.” Geoffrey shrugged. It wasn't only Zen who thought that the words were quite odd, for Geoffrey felt the same way. “Can I go back now?”

“Yes, you can!” Zen gave his son's head a soft pat and smiled. “I see that you have a good taste in women. If you really want to marry the woman you like, then you have to tell me first!”

“Got it. But I don't have time for that now. I'm busy.” Geoffrey pursed his lips and his figure flashed, disappearing in front of his father as he used the Grand Teleportation technique.

Meanwhile, Zen stood there with two Other Shore Keys in his hands as he tried to figure out what the Sanskrit words meant.

“What the Ear Mouse gave me is an Other Shore Key of Stage One. It means...” Zen muttered to himself.

The Other Shore Key of Stage Nineteen might be much more valuable than the one that he got from the Ear Mouse. Given this, he thought, 'That Ear Mouse from the Mice League is indeed cunning!'

However, Zen had to endure climbing up one step at a time. Once he stepped on the Other Shore, the Other Shore Key of Stage One would certainly be the most suitable for him.

Little did Zen know that there was a huge gap in the value of the two different Other Shore Keys.

In fact, the value of the Other Shore Key that he had acquired from the tomb would dramatically increase to over a hundred million divine crystals once the Sanskrit word written on it was decoded. On the other hand, the one that he got from the Ear Mouse was deemed much less valuable.

After giving it some thought, Zen flew away and disappeared.

But before he had gone, he laid his eyes on his son who had just used his spear to defeat one of the Heavenly Annihilation Demons.

“This guy...”

The apple didn't fall too far from the tree. His son was strong-willed and talented just like himself. In fact, his son was more willful than Zen was when he was Geoffrey's age.

But at some point, there was no fair comparison between them. In Zen's case, he grew up in his father's inner world and he did not know much about the outside world. As for Geoffrey, he also lived in his father's world but had an adequate understanding of both worlds. As a result, he became fearless. In his heart, he believed that no matter how stubborn he was, someone would come to his aid and support him when he needed one.

Meanwhile, after learning the secret of the two cooper sheets, Zen immediately left his inner world.

A day after, he went to the Sea of Truth to help Evaristus break the huge whirlpool and by doing this, he also got the third candle.

Evaristus had been stuck in the Sea of Truth for so many years. After being rescued, he did not have enough motivation to move forward. Despite this, Zen and Dorothy still wanted to move onward. After they had successfully crossed the sixth line, they soon began heading on to the seventh line.

Zen had produced numerous bottles of Sword-reading Liquid and sold them. After days of selling the merchandise, he and his men noticed that the volume of the sales slowly calmed down. But in fact, they could still earn about one million divine crystals on a single day! Even if the price was only fifteen thousand divine crystals a bottle, only a few people could be able to afford it.

After Gant obtained some divine crystals, he entered the Dragon City much often than he used to. As he had said, he could still enter the city without being a Flag Master.

After three months, Zen's Soul of Light got better and stronger.

For a period of time, he stayed in the Sea of Truth day in and day out, no matter the cost. During that time, he neither moved forward, nor stepped back. In the Sea of Truth, he just quietly endured the chill of the sea water in order to strengthen his Soul of Light.

At that moment, his Soul of Light was not much stronger than that of the others. He wasn't able to do much but cultivate. Fortunately, the water's chill was enough to constantly help him in strengthening his Soul of Light.

During the past three months, he had accomplished crossing the seventh and eighth lines together with Dorothy.

Crossing the eighth line meant that he had almost reached the end of the Sea of Truth. There, he placed his gaze on the blue sea water and saw small crystals that floated in it. These crystals might seem pretty, but they were ruthless enough to erode the Truth Boats that they were in. Despite this strong obstacle, he remained calm as he knew that this was a test for his Soul of Light.

After Zen crossed the ninth line, he would finally be on the Other Shore.

Meanwhile, from a distance, he faintly saw a vague shadow on the Other Shore. Not being able to clearly see what it was, he became determined to rush over as fast as he could to investigate.