Chapter 571: Chapter 571: Yolande

The process of becoming a war general from a simple war fighter was quite a complex one. It was equivalent to making a breakthrough in the Illuminating Soul Realm and reaching the Internal Elixir Realm.

However, it was not as easy as it sounded. If one wanted to take a significant leap forward and achieve the higher level, they would need to accumulate a considerable amount of Lucky Light.

In the Tower of Sin, it was certain that warriors were capable of growing at an incredibly fast pace. Although this was the case, even those saint-level talents would need to temper themselves through continuous fighting before they could take a step further and attain a higher level.

It was fortunate that Zen would be less likely to be spared from any challenge from now on and his speed of being promoted to the next floor drastically slowed down. Fortunately, the amount of light he had accumulated was steadily increasing. With a strategic planning, Zen did not rush into refining all of the Lucky Light he had acquired. Instead, he gathered them together and planned to utilize them to break through to become a war general.

In the hierarchy of the Tower of Sin, the martial artists on the seventh floor consisted of war generals ranging from the third level to the sixth level. As for the martial artists on the eighth floor, they were ranked marginally higher with them ranging from the fifth level up to the eighth level. Moreover, the ninth floor consisted of war generals of the seventh to tenth level.

As a matter of fact, it was not much of a challenge for Zen to conquer the first nine floors of the Tower of Sin with his current prowess and ability.

In spite of this, the trouble arose at the fact that these war generals came to challenge him one after the other, rarely giving Zen the chance to have a default victory. Naturally, he spent more energy than he intended to and thus, became more exhausted as time passed by.

This was because in the perspective of the war generals, they had only granted the individuals who were 'war lord' level masters to get the default victory. Moreover, the fact persisted that the war lords were much stronger than them, while Zen was just perceived to be a small war fighter. Although the strength he had displayed so far was indeed remarkable, he was not exceedingly strong that they felt daunted enough to not challenge him, or be fearful of his presence. Due to this conception, Zen had to constantly rise to fight them.

Whenever the young man stepped foot into the arena and saw that nobody came to the stage, he immediately assumed that he could be spared from being challenged that day. Unluckily, his days almost ended in the same way. Before the moment the time drew to its end, some reckless war general would appear out of nowhere and stand up to challenge him.

Regardless, Zen still managed to gain enough points to progressively climb to the higher floors of the tower.

A full month had passed by when finally, Zen entered the tenth floor of the Tower of Sin.

From this floor onwards, Zen would only be able to encounter two kinds of opponents, one of which were war generals with divine-level talent, and the latter being powerful war lords.

With anticipation thrumming in his veins, Zen spiritedly walked down the stairs and reached the tenth floor. Upon entering his destination, he noticed Olivia approaching him with a group of human warriors dawdling behind her. Sincerely smiling at the new arrival, Olivia said with vigor, “It took you one month to reach here, a little earlier than expected!”

Chuckling, Zen scratched his nape absentmindedly and replied, “But I have expected to reach here earlier than this.”

“Follow me. After you enter the tenth floor, the opponents you are about to encounter will be much stronger than those you have battled before,” Olivia's eyes glinted as she stepped closer to Zen and spoke with a gentle tone. As the woman moved closer, Zen coughed awkwardly at the admittedly close proximity between them. At this distance, Zen could smell the faint but sweet fragrance that seemed to cling to her body.

The young man gave a brief nod and directed a wry smile towards her before following behind.

The war general who went by the name of Dylon had kept his head drooped on one side. Pouting by himself, he was truly miserable but reluctantly admitted to himself that Zen's strength was exceptional. This was due to the fact that the young warrior was powerful enough to catch the interest and attention of the Purple Heart Sacred Place.

Up until that moment, Zen's remained to be a tenth level war fighter. Impressively, there had never been such a warrior who could achieve such a feat in the human race. This was definitely an unbreakable record that would be talked about for decades to come. No one had achieved the astounding record before and the probability of another human fighter being able to surpass it in the future was low.

What was even more inconceivable was that up until the present, Zen had not displayed his full strength or all of his capabilities to his opponents.

Whether it was to fight against a simple first level war general in the sixth floor, or the tenth level war general in the ninth floor, Zen seemed to have the same poise and behavior. The young man remained calm and exuded composure while he defeated them with ease. Upon further inspection, it looked as if those war generals did not pose that much of a threat to him because he had not bothered to evoke his real strength.

Within the span of a month, the stories that involved Zen now spread like a storm that swept across the entire Sea God Continent. It came to the point wherein one would not be able to go anywhere without hearing someone uttering Zen's name and exclaiming at his unbelievable accomplishments.

Even if Zen had not done anything purposefully for the name of the Purple Heart Sacred Place, truthfully, he had already contributed greatly to them in certain aspects. This was due to the fact that in the Purple Heart Sacred Place, they had been vigorously discussing almost daily about the human who suddenly showed up in the Tower of Sin and left them flabbergasted.

In order to boost up the moral within the place, the human race had made sure to dutifully record the scenes of Zen's battles with other races. Moreover, they proudly and religiously broadcast them through the Picture Slab that could be viewed by the entirety of the Purple Heart Sacred Place. Therefore, although Zen had never even stepped foot into the place, he had already become the role model for numerous human martial artists!

The obsession for Zen had continued to be unrelenting in the Purple Heart Sacred Place and there were absolutely no signs of it calming down in the slightest. On the contrary, Zen became more and more of a heated topic in the sacred place. With every passing day, there were even rumors spreading like wildfire through word of mouth about Zen possibly being the holy son of the human race. Little by little, such rumors enabled Zen to become a legendary figure in their minds. ȓåＮȮᛒĘś

Before Zen had emerged, Dylon and Olivia appeared to be a perfect match in people's eyes. Moreover, those two individuals were regarded as the most talented among the younger generation in the Purple Heart Sacred Place. However, it was acquiesced by all of them that Olivia's talent was marginally stronger than Dylon's.

Nowadays, with the arrival of Zen and the humans marveling at his strength, both of them were overshadowed.

Upon noticing this, Olivia did not seem to care about such trivial matters. It was quite the opposite, as she had spoken highly of Zen every time he was brought up in her conversations. This fact was infuriating to Dylon who picked up on the girl's unbridled excitement whenever she talked about Zen. Clearly irked by the recent development, Olivia paying attention to another man surprisingly left a sour taste in his mouth. These days, having a simple conversation with Olivia had been aggravating. This was because the girl always managed to avert whatever topic they were talking about into another discussion about the newcomer. Needless to say, Dylon always found himself gritting his teeth and glaring at his shoes after Olivia finished fussing over the other guy. With each passing day, he withheld his bitter jealousy to himself as it grew more and more.

What was more disheartening was that he had not thought of any effective methods to change his current fate. The young man had desperately cultivated during this period of time and within the last month alone, he ventured into the arena four times and won all of those four matches. If the circumstance had been exactly the same as it was in the past, such an impressive achievement would have already left the entirety of the Purple Heart Sacred Place absolutely speechless. In addition to this, the human race would have definitely praised him endlessly and even significantly rewarded him.

Unfortunately for him, all the attention of the people were all on the mighty Zen now, as if they had seemingly forgotten the existence of Dylon's divine-level talent and impeccable strength.

Upon discerning the sudden change of heart of the people lately, his displeasure was obvious in his face as he donned a stoic expression upon spotting Zen.

The structure of each floor inside the Tower of Sin was similar to its other floors. After having followed Olivia down the stairs and around a corner, they were immediately greeted with the sight of the large arena. Just by scanning his eyes across the arena, he felt a shiver from the bottom of his spine and he suppressed a sudden tremble.

Situated on the arena was a petite figure constantly moving around and hovering above in the air. Needless to say, the form attracted his attention to no end.

Tilting his head to one side, Zen mused that it must be a woman from the human race. The lady currently fighting in the arena was dressed in a colorful long skirt that did not seem to hinder her at all as she constantly dodged the attacks from an orc gracefully. Given that the orc was also a tenth level war general, being short and stout was not indicative of his power due to the strength he harbored in every muscle.

Every time the forceful energy burst out from the orc's body, the axe he held tightly in his grip would follow through with a swing akin to a deathly cyclone that he directed towards the woman without hesitation.

Bang!

The loud noise echoed throughout the floor but the human girl managed to dodge the forceful attack from the heavy axe. As the weapon of the orc missed its target, cut sharply through the air, and subsequently sliced through the floor with an immense force instead, it was briefly stuck in the surface of the arena. The moment the orc pulled his heavy axe out of the battling platform, the huge crack it left on the ground automatically narrowed as it gradually closed, the ground itself vibrating while doing so. Not a long moment had passed before the floor returned to its normal state.

It was fortunate that the Tower of Sin possessed such a miraculous ability to mend the damage caused by intense battles. Otherwise, the tower would have been riddled with various holes and misshapen floors after so many years of ravaging.

Zen's gaze continued to be fixed on the human woman from the beginning up until the end, confused by the sight of the lady in a colorful skirt. Then it finally hit him as he muttered to himself, “Isn't that Yolande? What is she doing here?”

The other warriors who were busy spectating the match with him did not hear Zen, but Olivia, who happened to be standing the closest to him picked up on what he asked. Turning her head towards his direction, Olivia looked at him with clear surprise written on her face before asking, “Did you just say Yolande? How do you know her?”

It was reasonable for Olivia to be startled at the young man because he did not originally come from the Purple Heart Sacred Place in the first place. However, Zen apparently knowing Yolande was undeniably strange. Although Yolande came from the Purple Heart Sacred Place herself, not many people knew her personally as her background remained mysterious and shady. One of the only certain facts about her was that she had always been at the upper floor of the Tower of Sin together with another few individuals in the Purple Heart Sacred Place. Given that point, it was next to unfathomable and practically impossible that Zen could know about Yolande.

At the mere sight of the woman, a vague memory of when they were in the White Emperor City popped up in his mind.

Just after leaving the White Emperor City, Zen had immediately participated in the All Peaks Competition. In addition, he had not stopped there and directly took the Cloud Road test--since then, he had never got a chance to see her again. Fate seemed to be a funny thing, as Zen assumed that if he were to see Yolande again, it would be when he rescued Yan from the hands of Eddie and returned to the Eastern Region after that.

In the Eastern Region, there were still some matters that Zen had to deal with.

At that point in time, Zen's strength was admittedly not powerful enough, hence, he could only put aside the matter of Aura as there were still Internal Elixir Realm masters in the palace which he stood no chance to fight against back then. With the current state of Zen's strength now, he could definitely return to the Eastern Region but he still had to face Eddie, a formidable opponent!

Never would Zen's wildest imagination even conjure the sudden appearance of the young girl in a colorful dress and wooden clogs, especially on a continent that was drastically far away from the Central Region. Dumbfounded, Zen frowned and thought to himself, 'Why would she suddenly appear in the Tower of Sin of the Sea God Continent?' Shaking his head, he furrowed his eyebrows and looked up once more at the arena. What exactly was going on?

On the battling platform, Yolande's vibrant and long skirt constantly fluttered about in the air like a leaf dancing in the wind, as she nimbly avoided the forceful attacks of the orc's axe. With precision and grace exuding from her frame, her jade-like fair-skinned hand gently waved in the air. Interestingly, what she used to attack was not the power of her life vitality, nor had she summoned an enchanted barrier; it was more like a kind of finger movement.

“Swoosh!”

Bursting forth from Yolande's finger was a forceful energy that heavily hit the orc's giant axe.

It was unknown to all of them how heavy the huge axe had been as it seemed to take great strength for the orc to hold it in an upright position. However, after being hit by the energy that sprouted from Yolande's finger, the top-grade fairy weapon was suddenly pitted all over on its previously sharp surface.

“Is her name really Yolande?”

The young man slowly asked with apprehension.

Nodding at the still man, she affirmed, “Yes”. In the meantime, Olivia glanced at Zen in confusion, feeling a bout of oddness well up in her chest from Zen asking such a strange question. Since he knew Yolande's name from the start, why would he be so uncertain and have her confirm the name once again? Such thoughts echoed loudly in her mind as she tried to figure Zen out.

As a matter of fact, Zen was really not that sure himself.

The Yolande that was currently in his line of sight had the same name and appearance as the Yolande in his memories from the White Emperor City. Strangely, the Yolande before his very eyes made him feel distant. As he exhaled deeply and bit the inner side of cheek anxiously, he asked himself quietly one more time, “Are you really the Yolande I know?”