As Zen walked by the stone slab, his jade pendant slowly turned from green to blood-red.
A big smirk appeared on his face as Zen turned and waved his jade pendant at the four men behind
him.
The four men following Zen were enraged when they saw his victorious smile.
Before the start of the initial exam, someone gave them the task of dealing with a boy at the organ
refining level.
As the men were more powerful, they had scoffed at the mission. They believed that dealing with a
person at such a low level was beneath them.
They had assumed that they would be able to defeat Zen. However, they did not expect that he would
be able to escape. Moreover, Zen dared to provoke them by being openly triumphant. How dare he
behave like that?
The four men fumed at the humiliation.
The scholar-like man glared viciously at Zen as he spoke, "Guys, let's terminate this boy by any means
necessary!"
"He passed the initial exam, so killing him in front of the examiners may be too..." The strongest of the
four men grunted in response. On his face was an expression that conveyed his hesitance.
The scholar-like man was furious. "Billy said that he could deal with any consequence. This boy is not a
native of the Imperial Capital. He doesn't have a high social background either. Even if we kill him, who
will take revenge on us on his behalf?"
The other three men glanced at each other when they heard the scholar-like man's explanation. What
he said seemed to assuage their fears.
Without further hesitation, the gang acted on the resentment they were feeling. In a heartbeat, they
lunged at Zen. Their expressions conveyed that they were going to rip him to shreds.
Zen was pleased to see their reaction. In fact, he had deliberately enraged the four men.
At the moment, there were two ways of improving his power rapidly. The first was to let the black fire
swallow many mysterious weapons in order to light up the dragon scales. But Zen had found it difficult
to procure the many mysterious weapons it would take to do it.
The second way was to let other people beat him. In receiving such a beating, the warm currents would
be produced and they, in turn, would remove impurities in his viscera.
Each member of this gang had the strength of cultivators at the marrow refining level. And so their
attacks were just moderate in degree for Zen.
If cultivators at a lower level were to beat him, there would be no effect.
Equally, if a cultivator at half of a step into the nature level was to beat him, the force might be too
strong to bear, and Zen might even be killed. Thus, these four men could be regarded as the perfect
'blacksmith' for Zen.
That was the reason why Zen had turned the jade pendant red and then immediately implemented his
plan to provoke them.
Seeing the four men rushing toward him, Zen turned around and ran forward. Aside from angering the
four men, Zen wanted to use this opportunity to stay on the path as a test to see how much pressure
he could actually withstand.
After running 20 miles, Zen found the pressure had increased from 2, 000 to 4, 000 pounds. It was now
twice as high as it had been a moment ago!
Under such high pressure, he felt as though his whole body was being dragged to the ground by a
great force. If it had not been for his great strength, his body would have collapsed under the weight.
At the same time, the four men chasing him had also slowed due to the pressure.
For a bystander, the scene would have been entertaining to watch.
Zen was running slowly, and four men were pursuing him equally slowly. It appeared as though
someone had put on a slow-motion film.
Zen could have run faster, as so far, he had only used his strength. He hadn't as yet, used the power of
the two dragon scales. He was sure that he could be twice as fast had he employed his hidden powers.
However, he was motivated to give the four men an opportunity to catch him. After all, his body would
only undergo further refinement if they were able to beat him.
The scholar-like man was the first to catch Zen. As soon as he was within striking distance of Zen, he
blustered, "I'll kill you, you son of a bitch!" He used all his strength to make eight successive palm-
strikes. Under the pressure of 4, 000 pounds, even though he was at the marrow refining level, the man
was still out of breath from the effort.
The man's palm connected with Zen's back. Not only did the force of the impact push Zen forward, but
it also helped release the warm currents. Zen moaned with satisfaction when he felt the warm currents
remove impurities in his body.
By the time Zen had absorbed the warm currents, the rest of the men had caught up to him.
"Frost Wolf Fist!"
"Bursting Elbow Strike!"
"Vigorous Collapsing Fist!"
The four men attacked Zen; each strike landing on his back and pushing him forward. The impurities in
Zen's body mixed with sweat and were released from his skin at an incredible rate. The result was a
dark-red mixture that was being exuded.
The more the four men attacked Zen, the more upset they became.
Zen's body seemed unusually firm! Even the body refiner of the Ogre race did not have such a strong
body.
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