Chapter 685: Chapter 685: The Underground Palace

The Virtual Tribulation Realm warrior was only ten feet away. However, in the split second that it took him to discover Zen with his perception, the latter's body was already erupting with forceful energy.

Whoosh!

The warrior did not even have a chance to react as Zen shot towards him with unbelievable speed and appeared right in front of him.

“You…”

He had wanted to ask the man in front of him if he was Zen. Everything had happened so fast that he was not really sure of what was going on.

However, Zen did not give him the luxury of a reply.

Bang!

He felt a split second of intense pain as Zen's fist landed on his chest. The punch immediately deflated his chest and the warrior immediately slumped onto the grass - dead.

Zen's moves were precise, meticulous, but also powerful. He was able to defeat his opponent with one blow.

The sight shocked Margaret to the core. She was also a warrior and her cultivation level was by no means low, but the skills and strength Zen had just demonstrated left her slack-jawed.

Margaret was no stranger to martial artist fights. Competitions among warriors from Ethereal City's families were held every year and, as the young miss of the Xi Clan, a seat was always reserved for her in the stands. Her sharp eyes and reputation for predicting the winners with 80% accuracy were undisputed.

But now, after seeing what Zen just did, the fights she witnessed back in the arena seemed no more than child's play.

Margaret would've never expected someone who had just reached the Virtual Tribulation Realm like Zen to be able to decimate a warrior at the middle stage of the same realm so easily.

Nonetheless, Zen had no regard for Margaret's thoughts. He flew down and forcefully grabbed her by the arm. “Let's go!”

Zen no longer hid his life vitality. He let it combine with his forceful energy as it erupted from his body and transformed himself into a streak of light that shot across the Dreamy Swampland

His judgment had been correct. Simon and the other warriors at the Virtual Tribulation Realm were able to pinpoint his location the moment he killed that Orange Teeth Crocodile. He was able to cleanly kill one of them but it was no use. Simon knew where he was and he was coming.

Although Simon had instructed Eddie to scout the area first, the instructions were quickly thrown out the window the moment Zen made his presence known.

Lavender's light flashed beside Zen. There was no longer a need for her to hide now that Zen had already exposed his location. She gave Margaret a cold, resentful look. “Like I said, this girl is a nuisance. It's best if we just kill her now!”

If it wasn't for Margaret screaming, the Virtual Tribulation Realm warrior would've never found Zen. Given enough time, they would've soon given up and left the area. However, things didn't turn out to their favor, and Eddie was once again hot on their tail along with other Virtual Tribulation Realm warriors.

A thick, white fog impaired everyone's visibility, but the fluctuations of each other's breath and life vitality were enough to pinpoint their rough locations.

Zen was silent and focused on circulating his life vitality instead. As he travelled, the swampland scenery around him rapidly changed.

When he had first entered the Dreamy Swampland, everything was emerald and lively. After venturing deeper, the plants around him were now mostly dark brown instead of green, and the environment was deathly still.

As he was running, Zen could feel the life vitality fluctuations that followed him increase in intensity. From all the warriors that followed him, he could pinpoint two extremely strong and intense life vitality fluctuations.

“One is surely Eddie, but who's the other one? If he can travel as fast as Eddie, then perhaps he's also a Life and Death Realm master.”

This was definitely not good news.

Due to the fact that he couldn't use his forceful energy for prolonged periods of time, the gap between him and his pursuers gradually shortened until there was only 10 miles of distance between them.

“Ho-ho, Zen! Stop wasting your energy. You can't run away from me,”

an amused voice called out from behind him.

Zen ignored him. There was no way he was going to respond to Eddie during such a high-speed chase. He pushed on and continued forward even if he himself was not very optimistic about the current situation. Рαℕồᛒʧ

However, in that moment of helplessness, a strange voice spoke in his head, “Brat! Run to the right!”

Zen's eyes flashed and he immediately sent a message through his life vitality, “Who are you?”

“Who am I? Ho-ho!”

the person replied, not really giving him a straight answer.

The voice message had been transmitted through life vitality by one of the two strong fluctuations behind him. Zen had no idea where Eddie was due to the thick, dense fog but he was sure that the voice did not come from him.

'Who on earth was that? Why did he give me such advice?

His voice also sounds familiar, ' he wondered briefly.

He was someone with an extremely good memory and he could swear he already heard this voice two years ago. The only problem was that he was currently caught up in an extremely dangerous situation and could not really focus on remembering who the voice belonged to.

“Why are you helping me?”

Zen asked.

“Help you? I'm not helping you. I just don't want the girl with you to fall into Eddie's hands,” the voice answered with a laugh.

Zen let out a cold smile. “Looks like there are still other people who do not want to see Eddie become stronger.” He was very hesitant to follow the strange voice's instructions. If it turned out to be a trap, he wasn't too hopeful that he'd be able to find a way out.

“You're right,” the voice spoke. “I don't want Eddie to become too strong and I'm sure you don't want that either. The easiest way to stop him is to kill the girl. What do you think?”

“If I kill her, you will be satisfied, but I will be in danger. Is that right, Poison King Simon Wu?”

Zen remembered now who the voice belonged to. It was Simon Wu, also known as Poison King, who he met back in the Wheel of Fortune.

Simon was the one who dispelled the curse on the Holy Maiden of the divine kingdom.

Now that he knew who he was talking to, Zen now had more confidence in believing Simon's words.

As Zen was now being chased down by Simon and Eddie together, he would definitely die, so it was all completely unnecessary for Simon to help Zen. It seemed that the Poison King had joined forces with Eddie, but it did not seem like the two were exactly on friendly terms.

Masters like them were quite selfish and did not like to share their benefits with other people. Two tigers couldn't live on the same mountain, after all. Most warriors wanted to climb to the top of the world.

It was impossible for someone like Simon to submit to Eddie, and Eddie would never be able to tolerate Simon. Despite teaming up, there was unresolved and irreconcilable conflict that existed between the two of them.

If Eddie got Margaret, he'd successfully manage a breakthrough and Simon would suffer bitterly.

“To the right!” Zen immediately followed and turned to the right. “What now?” he asked through his life vitality.

“There's an underground palace ten miles ahead,” Simon answered. “I can't guarantee that you'll be able to get rid of Eddie once you enter, but it should at least buy you some time.”

Beneath the Dreamy Swampland was a large underground palace that nobody but Simon knew about.

It was an extremely dangerous place devoid of any treasures or opportunities. Simon had explored it twice but came up with nothing and almost died.

'The underground palace will also take both of your lives, ' Simon muttered coldly in his mind.

His best choice was to lead Zen into this underground palace and leave him there to die.