Chapter 2836: Chapter 2836: A Hundredfold

As soon as Zen arrived—in his corporeal form—at the Oneness Sky Palace's temple, he saw a group of disciples stationed at the entrance of the temple. They all had grim expressions on their faces.

Zen quickly deduced that they were guarding against a strong enemy.

“What's the matter?”

he demanded, going straight up to one of the disciples.

Although they didn't know who he was, they knew he had helped them before.

“Before you came, something serious happened!” said the disciple, sounding frantic.

“Tell me quickly. Did the Bearing race come to make trouble again?” Zen asked, looking around him for signs of danger.

The great loss suffered by the Bearing race should have taught them not to go against the Oneness Sky Palace. Could they have dared to make trouble again so soon after their recent failure? Or was this the work of another race?

The disciple shook his head. “There was a man, but he didn't belong to the Bearing race... We don't know where he came from. He can devour the souls of others!”

“A man who devours souls?” Zen repeated, startled.

“Yes!” The disciple sounded extremely upset. “He wanted soul crystal, and when we refused—he swallowed one of our members! We had to retreat to the temple.”

The temple was protected by a variety of powerful restrictions. Apart from Zen, who could come and go as he pleased, even the strongest souls would be burnt to ashes.

“Then he left?” Zen asked.

“He went to the Bearing race. We think he went there for soul crystal too,” the disciple answered.

Soul crystal was very difficult to obtain.

At the moment, there were a lot of elite disciples of the Bearing race here, but they were busy rebuilding their destroyed temple. This meant that no restrictions were yet in place to protect them. And so the man attacked them, eating at least seven souls before the rest of the members of the Bearing race fled from the Other Shore completely.

Once they were gone, the man went through the ruins of the Bearing race's temple.

However, he had come too late. The temple had already been plundered by Zen, and whatever valuables remained had also been taken away by the Bearing race. He wasn't able to find anything useful.

He refused to give up. He went next to the temple of the Divine Farmer race.

But by then, word had reached them of the danger on the Other Shore, and the temple was heavily guarded. Indeed, in the battle that ensued, the disciples of the Divine Farmer race managed to lure him inside the temple and almost succeeded in killing him. The man managed to escape the temple.

After hearing the story, Zen asked, “So where is this person now?”

“He has probably left the Other Shore. His power to devour souls is terrifying, but apart from that one ability his soul does not seem very strong. He is also alone. He will find it hard to stand against many elite disciples united against him. When the Bearing race realized what had happened, they cooperated with the Divine Farmer race to send a few Indigo Souls to hunt him down. Unfortunately, they did not succeed in capturing or killing him,” said the disciple.

“The power to devour souls... This world is so vast, so full of so many mysteries!” Zen muttered to himself, deep in thought.

That kind of power was formidable. It seemed their unknown enemy was not afraid of any kind of counterattack or adverse reaction from the souls he had devoured. Ȓ𝘼ꞐỐᛒÊⱾ

This man's Soul of Light might not be very strong now, but if he kept on swallowing souls, his cultivation speed would probably not be much slower than that of a warrior absorbing soul crystal. Zen wondered how this man had obtained such a power.

The silver lining was that at least their enemy didn't come from the Bearing race or the Divine Farmer race. Better yet, he had apparently struck a severe blow against the Bearing race.

Since Zen had learned what he needed to know, he left the temple and headed straight to the star ring. Dorothy was still waiting for him in Stage Twelve of the Other Shore.

On the way up, Zen didn't stop. He reached Stage Ten in less than an hour. Soon after that, he stepped into the star ring again.

Several members of the Separate Abyss race stood on the square of Stage Eleven.

They had the task of driving the Souls of Light to the other side to wait in line.

With a glimmer of light, Zen's body appeared in the center of the square.

“You! This way!” one of the men shouted at Zen, coming closer to him. He was about to usher Zen into his proper place in the line when he noticed something strange. He stopped in his tracks, looking stunned. “A corporeal body?”

It was clear that the members of the Separate Abyss race had never met a corporeal body here.

Zen gave him an indifferent glance and walked past him.

The square was full of members of the Separate Abyss race, as well as people of other races who were waiting in line. One by one, as they saw Zen and realized he had a corporeal body, their faces changed and became full of shock and suspicion.

“What is that?”

“This guy doesn't seem to be a Soul of Light...”

“Yes! It's simply a corporeal body!” “But how did he enter the Other Shore?”

“What is he? Is he a ghost?”

In their eyes, “ghosts” referred to souls that had left bodies. To this group, a corporeal body on the Other Shore was at least as mysterious and terrifying as a ghost in the outside.

Of course, Zen had no intention of waiting in line. He bypassed everyone and walked up to the group of people in front who seemed to be in charge.

“Excuse me, what can I do for you?” asked one of the men as Zen drew closer. The man was a member of the Separate Abyss race, and seemed to be the leader here.

Given their status in Stage Eleven, these members of the Separate Abyss race tended to have an arrogant attitude towards the new arrivals. Most of the others found them overbearing and supercilious. But Zen was unlike anyone they'd encountered here before. Faced with a corporeal body, they became polite and deferential.

Zen scowled and spoke in a threatening voice, “Repay me a hundredfold for the amount of soul pills you just took! You have charged me a million soul pills, so you must return a hundred million—otherwise, I fear this situation will not end well for you.”

The Souls of Light who were waiting in line watched the scene avidly. They felt puzzled at Zen's words. They had no idea what had happened before, but right now Zen's ultimatum was very clear. He was extorting soul pills from the Separate Abyss race.

Within Stage Eleven of the Other Shore, the Separate Abyss race was the most powerful, and they were the only ones who could blackmail other races. Especially here, no one dared to fight back.

The Separate Abyss race had extorted soul pills from all the super forces and powerful people. It was rare that someone went against them. This stranger was daring.

The members of the Separate Abyss race exchanged astonished glances with each other. The truth struck them like a blow—this man in front of them was the person who had just given them soul pills and soul crystal.

The leader was silent for a moment, thinking hard. Then he said to Zen, “We apologize for failing to recognize you. If you want them back, we will return the soul crystal and the two hundred thousand soul pills you gave us.” He turned to one of his companions. “Alberto, take out the soul crystal.”

He and the others who were in charge of the square didn't have a high position in the Separate Abyss race. They had made a mistake in extorting Zen. Should the leader and elders of the Separate Abyss race ever learn that they had been foolish enough to offend a person capable of coming to the Other Shore in corporeal form, they would be severely punished.

They decided it would be best to avoid further trouble and just return everything to Zen.

The Souls of Light waiting in line couldn't hide their pleasure at seeing the Separate Abyss race humbled.

They who had always been so tough, who had always acted so superior, had finally met their match!

Zen gave the members of the Separate Abyss race a cool glance. “No. One hundred million soul pills, or a hundred finger-size chunks of soul crystal.”

The leader's face changed, and his companions looked worried.

The Souls of Light who were watching couldn't help but feel uneasy too. What would happen if the Separate Abyss race couldn't meet the stranger's demands? They felt that something big was about to happen.

The leader squared his shoulders and glared at Zen. “Are you joking? It's enough that we will return everything to you. Alberto, hand it over.”

Alberto stepped forward and gave the soul crystal to Zen. Zen grasped it in his hand, and squeezed hard.

The soul crystal burst into pieces and splattered around. Some of the fragments shot into the Souls of Light in line, and they were extremely satisfied with this unexpected development.

Without the space ring, Zen could not store soul crystal. And he did not intend to take this finger-size chunk of soul crystal.

At the waste of the soul crystal, the members of the Separate Abyss race groaned.

Zen stared coldly at them. “Send one hundred million soul pills to Stage Twelve. If there is even a single pill missing, I will raze the Separate Abyss race to the ground.”