Chapter 967: Chapter 967: Becoming A Disciple

In the martial arts world, undergoing greater risk and exerting greater effort would often lead to greater rewards and it was this principle that Zen lived by.

However, even if, at the end of this path, it was revealed that this grueling test that pushed him to the limit three thousand times was only an elaborate prank by the owner, he would still accept it. He didn't need any reward, he just wanted this trial to end.

He might have been blessed with exceptional luck but Zen knew he would have to undergo some pretty challenging obstacles every once in a while. This test was proving to be an exceptionally challenging obstacle for him right now but he could only keep the faith and move forward.

Each step was excruciating and it was a struggle to even lift his foot forward. There was no doubt that this might be one of the most dreadful experiences in his life.

Zen had considerably slowed down upon crossing the halfway mark of the road. It took him longer to rest and recover for each step as his body took on a toll from all the suffering he was made to endure.

It was a good thing that there was no time limit set for this task. A time limit would've truly made it impossible to cross this path.

After he had taken two thousand steps, Zen would have to rest for several hours for each pause. After two thousand and five hundred steps, he would have to rest one day and night every hundred steps forward.

His three ladies faithfully accompanied him every step of the way, alert and always ready to give him aid. He was their husband and they were more than ready to serve him in whatever way they could.

As for Saul and Immortal Book, the two of them had existed in this world for far too long. The amount of time it took Zen to traverse this path was nothing but a blink of an eye to them.

Zen took a hundred steps a day.

So seven hundred steps took him seven days.

It was at the end of the seven days that Zen was finally able to step onto the very last footprint…

He would've breathed a sigh of relief, perhaps even lain down, but he was not given any chance as a bright ray of light suddenly burst out from behind him.

This bright light coalesced into a figure that stood at the starting point of the path. This figure followed the footsteps Zen had also taken but he crossed the distance of over three thousand steps in an instant - much faster than Zen did.

The figure quickly brushed past Zen and walked towards the huge book, reaching out to flip the cover they had initially failed to open.

“It's opened!” Immortal Book squinted at the figure, “This… Could it be the master?”

Saul also tried to make out a face from the glowing figure, “Maybe it is? I can't be too sure.” None of them could make out any defining features from the figure. Perhaps what they saw was merely a shadow left behind by the owner.

The book opened on the first page, revealing a door.

It was only a book, and the door was only a picture, though it looked incredibly lifelike for Zen.

The figure, however, reached out his hand and touched the picture. To everyone's surprise, the figure gently pushed the door and opened it!

“It moved! The picture actually moved! It's so interesting!” Margaret laughed.

Letitia frowned beside her. She too thought that everything that happened was amazing, magical even, but she disapproved of Margaret's playful attitude towards the situation. Zen had suffered greatly just to open this door, after all.

From the opened doorway was a pitch-black space which the figure readily stepped into. Before he fully entered, the figure turned around and pointed at Zen.

“Me?” Zen asked, pointing to himself.

The figure nodded in confirmation.

Zen did not hesitate and immediately followed the figure to the door. He had suffered a great deal to get this far. The only thing he felt now was curiosity as to what this book and this door hid from them all.

“I want to go in too!” Margaret whined.

“No, you can't!” Immortal Book said, hurriedly stopping her.

Letitia was also quick to scold her, “Do you want to die?!” This fairy palace wasn't dangerous but it was incredibly strange. It was only after suffering and being driven to his breaking point three thousand times was Zen able to earn the privilege of entering this door. Those unqualified to enter, such as Margaret, might face serious repercussions if they attempted to go inside. 𝙧ᴀΝôᛒĚŝ

Margaret stuck out her tongue. “I was just joking,” she said playfully.

Letitia rolled her eyes at her childishness while Aura tittered on the side.

Zen and the shadow both entered through the door and he found himself in a different world. Just as Zen entered, the picture started moving again.

The door behind them closed and light that had come from outside of the door immediately vanished, plunging Zen in pitch-black darkness.

Just as he was about to feel the onset of early panic, a voice rang out from the darkness, “You were able to cross my Limit Road which shows your incredibly strong willpower. You are a promising young man! However, you didn't know what was inside the book in the first place. Just what was it that made you hold on so fiercely in reaching the end?”

The voice stunned Zen for a moment and it didn't help that the question posed was quite complicated to answer, “Well,” he said, gathering his thoughts for a second. “I just thought the reward will be high considering the difficulty of walking through this road...”

The voice let out a sound of approval. “You're quite frank! I like this straightforward manner of yours! Hahaha!”

he laughed maniacally. Slowly, the darkness receded as a rainbow-colored light broke through the void, forming irregular patterns across the space. The figure that had opened the book earlier reappeared right in front of Zen.

“The cultivation method I created needs to be practiced before entering the Soul Sea Realm. Once the cultivator opens up a Soul Sea, the embryo of a world will be formed within his body. By then, it will be too late to exchange chaos for life vitality...” the figure told him.

This greatly explained things.

Immortal Book contained a wide range of knowledge and knew the fairy palace owner quite well.

He knew how the owner spent a lot of time creating a cultivation method that he himself could never use. The reason why he wasn't able to use it had been unknown to Immortal Book, until now.

It seemed the prerequisite for learning such a method involved not having opened up a world within a warrior's body.

Warriors at the Life and Death Realm liquefied their life vitality in their cinnabar field, and they could form a Soul Sea after they entered the Soul Sea Realm. Zen's life vitality had already started to liquefy way back when he was still at the Virtual Tribulation Realm and it had actually started to solidify after he broke through to the Life and Death Realm. However, he would still need to achieve the Soul Sea Realm to fully form a world within his body.

“I must warn you, the cultivation method I created is only theory through deduction. It is a mere embryo and the only way to cultivate it to the later stages is up to you. You will have to find the path yourself and it is highly possible… that the cultivation method will lead to a dead-end and ruin you! However, it is also possible for you to open up a new path. Do you dare practice it?” he asked Zen.

Judging from his words, the cultivation method had only been deduced based on the creator's own vast and profound knowledge. It hadn't yet been applied nor adopted by a living person yet.

The Central Region and Eastern Region both had countless cultivation methods, some were tried and true, others a bit more obscure.

This one, the one being proposed by the fairy palace owner, could not even be considered a full-fledged method, it was just a mere concept!

For example, someone in the Central Region proposed the idea of “using stars to refine body”. This proposal might be correct since Zen himself had been able to activate the power of the stars through the cultivation of Stellar Body. So it might work if he used the power of the stars to refine his body. The concept was possible but merely proposing it was not the same as actually doing it in practice. The presenter of the concept might not necessarily fully compile all the processes and practices that came with his proposal. In short, all he really presented was the idea of the method.

Theory and praxis were different. And the difference could be too enormous that what came out of theory might be completely irrelevant from what had been originally proposed.

But of course, a mere warrior from the Central Region was different from the fairy palace owner whose theurgy had already surpassed the range of the world and possibly even the heavens. So the concept that he deduced based on his knowledge would naturally be more reliable.

There was incredible confidence coming from him in proposing this concept.

Zen nodded his head, “Yes, I do!” he answered with no hesitations.

The figure smiled at his ready answer, “Very well then, kneel down!”

Zen couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, “Kneel?”

The figure laughed at his reaction, “Why? You don't want to? You want to practice my cultivation method but you're unwilling to become my disciple?”

Become this person's disciple…

Truth be told, ever since he embarked on the road to martial arts, Zen had never truly had a master.

Aura was his master but not in the traditional sense. Letitia, meanwhile, was the leader of Cloud Hall so he was more or less her subordinate.

He did not really have anyone he could formally acknowledge as his master. He never would've expected that he would get one after suffering three thousand times and entering a door inside a mysterious book. The amount of things currently happening overwhelmed him a bit so Zen was quite hesitant.

“Hahaha… I also did not expect that I will one day have a disciple. You seem hesitant to make me your master. Don't tell me you want me to beg you?”