Chapter 577: Chapter 577: A Fish In The Space

It did not take a long moment before Zen had arrived at the sixth row, easily surpassing Dylon.

Who knew which row Zen would eventually manage to reach in the end?

Among everyone at the Tower of Sin, this fact was undeniable; Dylon was the most talented disciple from the Purple Heart Sacred Place besides Olivia. Although it was clear as day that his talent was not as good as Olivia's, Dylon was already well aware of this notion and acquiesced to it.

Ever since he was a young child, Dylon had always considered Olivia as the only other warrior who could match him when it came to strength. Moreover, Olivia had also been the woman in his heart for the longest time.

As luck would have it, that mongrel named Zen appeared out of nowhere and stole everything Dylon once had and yanked the rug under his own feet. To his displeasure, it seemed as if Zen was replacing him.

In the Purple Heart Sacred Place, Olivia was regarded as nothing short of a noble and superior goddess. It was borderline ironic however, as much as she had kept herself aloof from Dylon, her behavior towards Zen as well as every single thing he did was the exact opposite. The woman had been unwaveringly enthusiastic about his endeavors and exuded such patience with him that it made the whole thing laughable; how could she not see that the guy was extremely cocky? The fact that Zen was given the attention that he had always wanted made extreme jealousy bubble up Dylon's chest. Therefore, every time Zen's name came up one slot on the stone tablet, Dylon gritted his teeth in annoyance and barely suppressed trembling with frustration.

The Space Law on the stone tablet had proved to be of great help to Zen.

According to what he just learned from it, the mastery of the first layer of the Space Law could enable the cultivator to travel through space, hence why it was termed as 'traveling'. After being able to comprehend the first layer of the Space Law, an individual could travel a short distance that made it possible for the cultivator to attack the enemy before he knew it and consequently take him by surprise.

Furthermore, the second layer of the Space Law was called 'tearing'. If one managed to completely comprehend the second layer, then that individual could easily be able to tear apart space itself. What happened was that the fractured space would form cracks--which could not only help in blocking all attacks, but it could also form a powerful space blade. The cultivator could use the space cracks as a form of weapon and shoot them out according to their will.

It was obviously a good opportunity for Zen to be able to comprehend the second layer of the Space Law, so he must seize the chance and throw himself into studying it right away. Determined to succeed, Zen focused his undivided attention on comprehending the Space Law on the stone tablet.

Unexpectedly, things started to go wrong in the middle of him trying his best to master the second layer of the Space Law. If he was given enough time, Zen would be able to completely master it.

However, after less than a quarter of an hour, he stared disbelievingly at the stone tablet which had begun to gradually vanish before his very eyes!

“What is going on?” he muttered to himself, blinking his eyes in surprise at the disappearing tablet.

Once again, Zen was left speechless and unable to put coherence to his thoughts. 'What's going on with this Talent Tablet?' he contemplated, truly bewildered by this sudden change when it completely faded away.

The time given to Zen was too short for him to do anything useful. Despairingly, he sighed at the reality that he had only comprehended about ten percent of the second layer of the Space Law!

In a desperate moment of hesitation, Zen thought that he would rather give up the test of the Talent Tablet in exchange for the chance to comprehend the second layer of the Space Law. Unfortunately, the Talent Tablet was already gone from the Tower of Sin.

“Is this the end of the test?”

Zen muttered to himself, scanning his eyes from side to side.

Just as Zen's voice faded away, the dark space surrounding him began to morph itself and change its form once again. In the blink of an eye, beams that reflected brilliantly colorful lights started to shine from every direction.

Crack!

Within the sudden commotion, a crack materialized in front of Zen, which he immediately assumed was a space crack.

The exact moment the space crack became visible, it instantaneously shot towards Zen at the speed of lightning.

With a jolt, he noticed that it was a sight that could definitely induce fear and anxiety due to its appearance akin to the mouth of a monster. Moreover, its movements seemed like it was trying to devour Zen's body.

Upon seeing this, Zen's figure suddenly flashed. Sighing in relief, he was lucky he had managed to avoid being consumed by the space crack--he had no desire whatsoever to know what would have happened to him if he did not evade in time.

With his heart pounding in his chest, he asked himself, “Is this also a part of the test?”

Doubt was visibly shown across Zen's face. Biting his lower lip unconsciously, he came upon the realization that perhaps this was meant to test up to what extent he had comprehended the Space Law.

Initially, Zen had assumed that the Talent Tablet contained some secret method that could directly assess a warrior's talent and then promptly produce the result after. At that moment, however, it seemed that Zen's idea was just plain naïve. Ultimately, Zen took note of the fact that talent originally referred to one's ability to comprehend something.

It went without saying that the ability of comprehension varied from person to person. Adding to this, people had different preferences, as well as speed, when it came to learning the same thing. 𝐫Áℕo͍ᛒÈ𝒮

However that might be, what was marvelous about the Talent Tablet was its ability to automatically and consistently discover each person's strong point. Moreover, it was dedicated in giving them something to comprehend according to their respective strong points. After a period of time, the Talent Tablet tested the effectiveness of their comprehension. Through this method, it could determine the rank of the examinee's talent without preamble.

For example, if an individual was particularly good at Fire Law, the stone tablet he chose would most probably contain the Fire Law. Due to this, the specific test for the examinee would involve the constant attacks by all sorts of fire.

“But, such test is still not accurate.” Zen hummed and pouted as he shook his head vehemently.

Just now, Zen had just employed the power of the first layer of the Space Law and traveled for a relatively short time to dodge the space crack that came at him just a moment ago. Despite that, Zen was certain that it had nothing to do with his talent and he believed that his success was attributed to his real strength in cultivation.

In spite of everything, Zen had underestimated the power of the Talent Tablet!

Not a long moment had passed before more space cracks began to appear from all directions Zen could see. Abruptly positioning himself to get ready, he knew that when those space cracks fully emerged, he only had a split of a second to evade before they all came ferociously to crush him. In an instant, it was as if hundreds of monsters in the shape of a huge mouth were suddenly materializing in the darkness.

“There are so many of them!”

Just like flashes of light, Zen's figure constantly shuttled high and low through the space as he quickly dodged the aggressive space cracks hurtling towards him.

However, Zen began to feel the pressure due to the fact that with the constant increase of space cracks, the space Zen initially used to evade the vicious attacks became more and more limited.

This space where Zen was situated in was not large enough to begin with, so there had been an inadequate space for Zen to move freely. With the continuous multiplication of the space cracks, he realized that he would be engulfed by them sooner or later.

Zen remembered that when he had faced the giant swords summoned by Marilyn from the Purple Power World in the past, he had also utilized the Space Law to avoid the onslaught of attacks. Even though she had summoned over a hundred giant swords that glinted wickedly, Zen was always able to find a foothold to stand. Right now, the situation was vastly different given the fact that it was more and more difficult for Zen to find a place to stand. With a start, he furrowed his eyebrows in concentration--if he would not be able to avoid those space cracks, he would soon fail and be kicked out of this test.

'Space cracks, huh…'

Zen narrowed his eyes and deeply pondered, trying to find an immediate solution.

Albeit his study of the second layer of the Space Law was brief, Zen acquired a general idea of the space.

The first layer was ultimately for individuals to be able to travel through space. In fact, the logic behind this was to condense two spaces together. Through the perspective of an outsider looking at his movements, Zen could appear to travel a certain distance in an instant, when in reality, Zen had only taken a single step. How he had achieved this was by bonding two consecutive “nodes” using the Space Law.

In other words, Zen had bent the space around him and cleverly taken a shortcut.

On the other hand, the space cracks on the second layer operated on different terms.

Some tremendously powerful masters could tear the space apart through brute force. Because of this fact, this meant that space actually could hold the strength of an attack to a certain degree. Therefore, the smaller the space, the more fragile it was, and more importantly, the easier it was for people to tear it apart.

A good example of this would be the space on the Cloud Road, as it was particularly unstable. Even though no one had ever torn it apart, some Space Cracks and its weak parts naturally appeared in the space due to its unstable property. At that time, Zen had been able to use those weak parts in the space to move.

In the real world, space was exceptionally indestructible. Someone who was a Virtual Tribulation Realm master would even be unable to tear up the space, and the best they could do was to resort to a secret method to weaken it. For instance, Saint Morphens was one of those who could use such a complex technique. The man was at the medium stage of the Virtual Tribulation Realm and was skilled enough to disrupt the space. As a result of this, some parts in the space were significantly weakened. By taking advantage of the weak parts, he could subsequently use his Mystical Pace to move around in the area.

Despite this, Saint Morphens ultimately was not capable of tearing space apart.

To be able to tear the space of this world open was probably an impossible task to accomplish, even for the terribly powerful master Eddie, unless one managed to completely comprehend the second layer of the Space Law!

If Zen was just given a few more days, he would probably be able to comprehend it with certainty. The situation was dismal--the time that Zen used just now to comprehend the Space Law was astonishingly short as the chance of mastering the second layer just slipped through his finger in a moment.

At the present, Zen could only rely on himself to overcome the problem and comprehend it alone.

In the midst of constantly dodging the space cracks, he also urged himself to find any sort of clue or form any theory to solve this hitch. 'The space here is fractured and has formed many space cracks, ' he thought to himself as he observed his surroundings while evading. 'But why would they attack me in the first place?'

The realization suddenly dawned on him that everyone was simply like a fish swimming in space. If there was any kind of blockage or impediment that occurred in the water, the common fish would naturally swim in a certain direction! It was akin to a light bulb turning on in his mind because from this particular point of view, the space and water were similar in some ways.

“The fish in the water?”

As soon as the theory formed in his head, Zen rapidly activated his life vitality. With a determined expression on his face, he began to utilize the second layer of the Space Law.

Although Zen had not fully comprehended the second layer of the Space Law, what he had just realized moments ago was enough for him at that instant!

In any case, Zen did not plan to tear space apart in the first place nor did he expect that he could have a perfect command of the second layer of the Space Law in such a short time. What he sought to do was to transform himself into a little fish which persisted in swimming--not a fish aimlessly moving in the water, but a fish resolutely advancing in the space.

“Let me give it a try!”

Zen uttered to himself while he gritted his teeth and balled his fists tightly at his sides. For this very moment, he did not attempt to travel through space. Instead, he exhaled a quick breath and stood still.

The moment Zen halted his movements, the space cracks that were similar to the abominable mouths of monsters quickly approached, aiming to engulf him from all directions. Upon perceiving the incoming brutish attack of the space cracks, Zen firmly closed his eyes.

If there were anyone else in the area and noticed the still form of the boy, they would have undoubtedly believed that Zen had given up the fight, not knowing he had a plan in his head.

“In the second layer, the first point of tearing space is to integrate oneself into space itself. In fact, this key point has already been touched upon in the first layer of the Space Law, but it barely skims the surface and it doesn't discuss the actual definition in detail,” he started to explain to himself in the darkness, profoundly resolute at the logic of what he was about to do. “I will try to combine the first layer of the Space Law with what I realized just now. I know I can do it!” Zen exclaimed. It was a do-or-die situation and he was certain of his presumption; he had no time to hesitate.

Within a second, the first space crack steadily zoomed towards Zen's immobile form, aiming at his head about to devour him!