Chapter 999: Chapter 999: The Mental Predicament

After he had killed the three warriors, Zen got lost in some deep thought. Something was itching in the back of his mind.

Even Freya, who was standing beside him, could feel that something was wrong with him. It seemed that Zen was not in a good mood and after Freya continued to try talking to him for a while, Zen began to ignore her.

The truth was that the problem that Zen was thinking about wasn't really a problem in the eyes of other warriors.

That was because even though they could work hard to achieve numerous kinds of things, they often lacked an ultimate and definite goal.

In the early days, Zen had indeed been guided by Yan. Perhaps this was a kind of arrangement by his fate. And even now, Yan was still the main impetus to make him move forward!

However, searching for Yan was something that Zen only had to accomplish, and not his ultimate goal. No. His ultimate and definite goal was something that came from the most resolute determination in his mind.

His obsession was indeed to pursue mastery in the martial arts. He wanted to see what level of strength he could achieve as he continued his cultivation. Would he be able to control this world, or would he be able to go on and create his own world?

After he had flown into the Upper World, it had come to his discovery that the rules here were similar to those in the Lower World.

A feeling of disgust arose in his heart as he thought about that, and this sort of disgust would accumulate into confusion soon. If he still had to see the same scenery and go through the same experiences even after he reached higher cultivation levels and ascended to the Upper world, then he simply could not be interested in anything!

What even Zen himself didn't know was that he had fallen into a mental predicament now. He was at a loss for what to do.

This so-called mental predicament was a shackle of the warrior spirit!

When Eddie had taken Yan away, Zen had gotten trapped into a similar type of mental predicament too, but one that was caused by his opponent. If he wanted to break out of such a dilemma, all he had to do was to defeat Eddie and get Yan back. After that, his warrior spirit would recover and be unimpeded!

But this time, the problem had originated from within Zen himself. The man, for the first time in his life, had doubts about the goal that he had been pursuing this whole time. In fact, he was even feeling tired about something.

Such a kind of dilemma and confusion was far more serious and troublesome than the one caused by Eddie's actions. It could even break Zen if he let it. The way out last time was to set his mind towards his opponent and win over the latter. This time, what could he do?

This time, his opponent was himself.

And as was often said, the most powerful opponent of a man was his own self. It wouldn't be easy for Zen to defeat himself and escape this time. He had to have a plan.

While he was searching for life vitality crystals in the mines, he hadn't chosen to enter the bottom layer, since he didn't have much of an interest in that.

Thus, he had hastily finished mining, only finding a few supreme life vitality crystals in the process and then getting out.

After seeing Zen's indifferent and morose expressions, Freya didn't ask him anything. He wasn't replying anyway. However, after witnessing Zen's strength, she knew that it was fortunate for her to be able to obtain Zen's protection before she could find her uncle. If it wasn't for him, she might have had to rely on some other powerful warrior like other women who had ascended to the Upper World. And she wasn't sure she could have found a decent one in time.

After returning to the gathering place, Zen casually found a place and sat down with his legs crossed. However, he did not cultivate.

He was still racking his brains, trying to come up with an answer to the big question.

Many warriors would encounter this kind of problem. A warrior, who worked hard in his cultivation would, one day, suddenly lose the motivation to move on, and ask what the meaning of life was. What was the point?

If the warrior couldn't find an answer to that, it was very likely that he would be utterly defeated by his own self, and his temperament would undergone a huge change. His strength could come crumbling down like paper castle. However, once he found the answer, his mind would undergo a transformation and he would be elevated to a higher level!

Right now, Zen was trapped in that limbo between the two possibilities.

While he was sitting, lost in thought, Riyad, wearing a black cape, strutted through the gathering place and headed straight towards Zen.

Some of the newcomers didn't know about Riyad's power, but most of the warriors there knew clearly that even though he was also from the Lower World, it was better for them to not provoke him. This guy was known to be even harder to deal with than the armored warriors of the Spiritual Force Sacred Place. And that was saying something.

The reason behind that was that those armored warriors were bound by the rules of the Spiritual Force Sacred Place. But there was nothing restraining Riyad's behavior and he could do whatever he wanted. Although he was just a warrior who ascended from the Lower World, he had the power to decide the life and death of everyone else in this mine! R̃Ã𐌽ỌВÈS

Zen was still sitting quietly on the spot with his eyes tightly shut. He kept on pondering over the question which was puzzling him.

Even the cyan dragon noticed the change in Zen's mental state.

However, he did not say anything and only carefully watched Zen's every move. He had already guessed that Zen was in a mental predicament, and this was a very troublesome state to be in. What was worse, the more confidence and persistence Zen had before, the more difficult this predicament would be!

No one could help Zen right now; even the cyan dragon's simple teachings were meaningless. Zen could only rely on himself to convince himself and defeat himself. During the struggle, he had to fight with his mind and attitude and no one could meddle in it; unless they had a way of changing his mind. And changing someone's mind meant changing their very soul and foundation. They would lose their memories and become a different person altogether.

At that moment, Riyad walked up to Zen.

Zen opened his eyes as he felt the presence of a Soul Sea Realm warrior in front of him. He then looked at Riyad indifferently. Although he hadn't met him before, he could easily figure out his identity and guessed that the man in front of him was the one who had sent the three warriors to kill him today.

“Where are they?” Riyad asked coldly with an icy stare at Zen.

“Where are who?” Zen asked.

Riyad laughed coldly and replied, “The three warriors. Who else do you think I am talking about? Will you pretend that you don't know them?”

“Ah yes. Them! Well... I killed them.” Zen shrugged.

“You killed them? On your own?” Riyad was skeptical.

Zen let out a long sigh, and then responded, “Yes, just me. On my own...”

When they heard the conversation between Zen and Riyad, a stunned expression appeared on the faces of the other warriors, who were busy cultivating or resting nearby.

There seemed to be a conflict between Zen at the Life and Death Realm and Riyad at the Soul Sea Realm.

Furthermore, Zen had actually killed three warriors who worked for Riyad...

Was this guy really that powerful?

If he tried to provoke Riyad, wouldn't he be courting death?

Riyad seemed to be thinking the same. “You're courting death.” Although he already knew Zen had killed his men, he got even more furious after hearing the confirmation from his enemy's mouth.

“Everyone has to seek a road for himself...” Zen suddenly raised his head and looked up at the sky. It was a cloudy night, and the sky was covered in fog.

Hearing Zen's words, a strange expression appeared on Riyad's face. “What do you mean?”

“I want to know the meaning of and what lies at the end of this road...” Zen responded.

This time, not only Riyad, but everyone was also confused. Was this guy crazy? Or had he lost his mind out of fear. Did Riyad scare the heck out of this guy?

Seeing Zen's indifferent face, Riyad laughed. “It's useless to act like a madman now. There are two choices for you. You can either be enslaved and work for me, or you can wait until tomorrow. By then I will surely kill you when you go to the mines.”

Zen looked at him as indifferently as before. His gaze was extremely clear. Suddenly, he smacked his head and muttered, “I know why I feel tired of something. I've heard these kinds of words countless times!” As he spoke, he also smiled. His smile was pure and simple.

This time, Riyad was left speechless with annoyance. He even had a shroud of doubt that Zen was not pretending to be crazy, but had really become insane after being scared by him.

“Even though I know why I am tired of something, I still can't find out the meaning or a way out...” Zen frowned as he stared at Riyad.

Since there were so many warriors from the Lower World and armored warriors of the Spiritual Force Sacred Place around them right now, it was not appropriate for Riyad to take any action. If this place was empty, Riyad would have begun the fight long ago.

“This Life and Death Realm warrior seems to be quite crazy...”

“He must be scared very much and is too terrified to face Riyad; but it is useless for him to do that; act like a fool, I mean! Riyad never lets off anyone who offends him. It's useless for anyone to beg for mercy, and even more useless to pretend to be insane! That man, is dead!”

“I don't feel like he has lost his mind. His words sound a little strange, but he seems to be thinking about something.”

The warriors didn't dare get close to Zen and Riyad, but they didn't leave either. They knew that Riyad wouldn't kill people right now, so they didn't need to worry about being involved in the fight. Of course, they still lowered their voices anyway as they discussed, so that Riyad wouldn't be able to hear them.

“What is the point of pursuing to be powerful? Do you know the answer?” Zen suddenly asked as he stared at Riyad.

Riyad's eyelids twitched and he clenched his fists. He couldn't tolerate Zen and was almost about to lose control. At the beginning, he just wanted to put psychological pressure on Zen so that he would obediently become his slave. He did not expect that Zen would not only ignore him, but also talk nonsense!

He really wanted to attack Zen there and then but alas!

In the end, he managed to suppress the anger inside and not say a word. Tomorrow, he would think of a way to deal with this idiot. Promising that he would kill Zen for sure, Riyad turned around and left.

However, Zen did not let him go. Instead, he moved and in the blink of an eye, was standing in front of Riyad. He stared at him and asked, “What's the point in pursuing to be powerful? Do you know that?”

Riyad wanted to leave, but Zen blocked his way once more. The former was almost mad with anger now.

As for the nearby warriors, their eyes were wide open as they watched this scene. One of them remarked in a low voice, “He is probably out of his mind after being scared by Riyad. Otherwise, he wouldn't have the gut to block his way...”