Chapter 3417: Chapter 3417: Surpassing

Under the Other Shore creatures' gaze, Zen rushed right into the innermost circle.

There, the Void Sand was dark purple, having stronger corrosivity than that in outer circles. As though it had its own intelligence, the sand flew all over the sky, swarming toward Zen like a cloud of bloodthirsty mosquitoes.

Buzz!

The once solid protective light then began swaying violently like candlelight flickering in strong gusts of wind. Now, it could be extinguished at any given moment.

If it weren't for the fox girl's special requirement, Zen might have already chosen to stop at this point. A bloodline in the innermost circle had met his initial expectations, after all.

To the left nearby Zen lay a hexagram array. Once he entered it, he'd be able to arrive safely at the room behind it, where a strange, flat pattern would be awaiting him — it likely had something to do with obtaining a bloodline.

But the fox girl's warning lingered in Zen's ears. He had no choice but to obey her — if he wanted to pass through the innermost circle smoothly, he had to speed up.

“I just have to charge without stopping!”

While he attempted to quicken his pace, the Void Sand reacted even more intensely, preventing him from advancing altogether.

Numerous clouds of Void Sand seemed to have materialized, forming a great monster that enveloped Zen, leaving no space for him to escape.

Countless grains of this unique sand counteracted Zen's protective light, corroding it in the field. Zen's protective light merely continued to shrink and dim.

“I can't hold on for much longer…” Zen muttered with a frown.

As he watched the sand dance along the surface of the painting, a thought suddenly sparked in his head — he then tried to lift his entire presence out of the Eternal Scroll Painting, leaving behind only his feet.

“Eh?”

“What happened?”

“Did he just leave his feet behind? Is it possible that...”

“Maybe the sand already eroded the rest of his body!”

The Other Shore creatures observing him speculated and bemoaned regretfully.

The members of the Three Eyes race glanced at the Oneness Sky Palace's people pitifully.

“What a shame. He should have chosen to integrate with a bloodline the moment he reached the innermost circle.”

“Alas, maybe the boy was just far too greedy for a good rank. But the rankings in the inner circles don't matter all that much. He's still too young and doesn't know when to give up.”

“This human's failure is far more regrettable than that of the warrior from Life race. He could have become an excellent master…”

Meanwhile, Pearce, Auden, Libby, and the rest of the Oneness Sky Palace stood as motionless as statues. They were all holding their hearts in their mouths the moment Zen made it into the innermost circle.

As always, Zen continued to surprise them with his excellent performance.

But they never expected Zen's advance to end so abruptly — he had only just taken a few steps into the circle.

It was an unacceptable fact, most especially for Pearce. He was stunned frozen in place, picturing the significant changes Zen's death could bring to the Oneness Sky Palace. They could easily be forced to migrate from the Bloom Divine Province. Not to mention that they had to save Eastern Emperor Taiyi and Madam Yasmin without Zen's power? All of a sudden, the future seemed far too dangerous. ṟÅℕỖ𝐛ËS̩

Whether or not he admitted to the fact, the young man had become an indispensable existence to the Oneness Sky Palace.

The other races' remarks of regret pierced their ears like needles, overwhelming them with grief and distress. For a moment, none of them dared speak a word, only staring at Zen's footprints on the painting.

“Wait. But his protective light hasn't dissipated. He shouldn't be dead yet, right?” Suddenly, Libby chimed in.

While the Oneness Sky Palace's people had never entered the painting themselves, they did have a general understanding of it. Before eroding one's body, the Void Sand had to first break down one's protective light completely.

But Zen had disappeared so suddenly, leaving behind only his feet. Naturally, everyone assumed his body had been quickly devoured by the grains of sand. But upon further consideration, they began to realize that there was something wrong. His protective light was indeed weak, but it was still intact.

Following Libby's lead, the rest of the crowd in the Grand Plain Stage also noticed the inconsistency.

“They moved! His footprints moved on the painting!” Someone suddenly shouted with utter shock.

“They're disappearing every now and then… this seems familiar…”

“I see now! It's the Worm Tapirs' mysterious ability! This boy must have the means to lift himself out of the painting!”

The Worm Tapirs' mysterious style of movement was widely known— they were believed to have the ability to separate themselves from the painting while keeping their painting form. They would disappear and appear repeatedly as they moved across the painting.

Such an ability was nothing short of incredible — it allowed the Worm Tapirs to move in a higher space that ordinary people couldn't see with their bare eyes.

No one had ever expected Zen to carry the same kind of ability. How on earth did he learn it, they thought?

Many knowledgeable warriors of the Eternal Realm widened their eyes in astonishment as they observed Zen's footprints that appeared on the painting from time to time.

Once Zen separated himself from the painting, he heaved a deep sigh of relief. The Void Sand had finally lost its target, turning instead to corrode Zen's feet, the soles of his feet that kept him in contact with the painting, to be exact.

As Zen leaped high off the surface, his entire presence completely disappeared from it.

'I should've just tried this earlier. I could've saved so much effort!"

At this point, Zen was complacent enough to wonder such things. But the space above the painting suddenly began trembling. Much to his surprise, clouds of dark purple Void Sand had also left the painting to surge toward him.

“What? I didn't know it could also separate itself from the painting!”

After a moment of shock, Zen's alarm kicked in as the wave of sand was just about to swallow him whole. His body sank downward as he once again returned to the painting.

A deafening cheer erupted from the Grand Plain Stage the moment he returned. Pearce, Auden, and the rest could feel all their worries fade away at the sight of his arrival.

Just as Libby had surmised, Zen wasn't damaged at all. The Eternal Realm masters' reaction told them that Zen had obtained an extraordinary ability to separate from the painting at will.

The minute Zen returned to it, though, the Void Sand followed suit and continued swarming toward him.

But the interval it provided when the Void Sand shifted between forms gave Zen a break.

Without any hesitation, Zen lifted himself out of the painting once again before the Void Sand followed him out.

And so Zen continued moving in and out of the painting continuously. The motion was somewhat like swimming — it was as though he was repeatedly diving into the water and bobbing up. The Void Sand was still on his tail. But with this strange means of movement, he managed to avoid getting eroded and getting his protective light broken down.

Soon enough, Zen had already passed by the many hexagram arrays along the way that his predecessors had entered.

Once Zen surpassed the record of the spider spirit from the Star Spider Civilization, the Element Spirit race's Eye Spirit was the only one left who held a higher rank. For countless years, the Eye Spirit was in first place — he was known as one of the most powerful beings on the Other Shore.