As Zen came out of Quenching Peak, he saw it was raining.
Rainy days were rare to come by in the dead of winter.
He looked up at Hell Mountain, located not so far off in the distance, and his eyes instantly hardened.
He used to think the mountain too far to get to. But as his strength increased day-by-day, he knew it
wouldn't be too long before he finally rescued his sister.
Moving his eyes away from the mountain, he turned around and took off.
The All Peaks Competition would be a golden opportunity for him to display his talent. It would be the
ultimate test of his strengths. Although there was still a long time to go before the competition was held,
Zen was eager to make the best of every minute and second till then to prepare himself.
The competition was held every three years, and as it drew nearer, all the disciples began to feel a
sense of urgency.
The outer disciples were anxious to shoot ahead of others and become inner disciples; while the inner
ones were seeking to be awarded the higher rankings. The top-ranked ones in the inner circle were
training themselves to obtain good scores in the competition.
Whether it was Skytop Peak, that ranked the first among the Peaks, or Drizzle Peak, that ranked the
last, all the disciples including the mediocre and the highly talented ones were training hard.
Of course, Zen was no exception to it.
Entering the Lake of the Magical Fish would cost him a slew of points. Zen had practiced in it for two
hours each time before, but now, he would need four, or even six hours in total. The points it would
deduct from his card was rather astonishing. Each time he entered the lake, hundreds of points were
on the line.
To ensure there were sufficient points in his disciple card, Zen had to trade away his cubic crystals. He
had no choice but to let the Cloud Sect demand an outrageous charge from him—ten thousand cubic
crystals in exchange for five thousand points. However, in order to practice, he had to make do with the
deal.
Zen practiced continuously in the Lake of the Magical Fish for about a week. After hours spent fighting
against the deadly Murlocs, he finally experienced a new breakthrough.
Having entered the nature level from half a step, he had already broken through a critical bottleneck on
his road to the martial arts. Contrary to that, breaking through the first grade of nature level to reach the
second was way easier.
But nature creatures faced the same bottleneck subsequently as well. For instance, breaking through
the ninth grade to reach the tenth, which was the consummation of the nature level, was a constriction
very difficult for them to sort out. Advancing from the consummation of nature level to the Illuminating
Soul Realm was even more challenging. As a matter of fact, only one out of a hundred who reached
the consummation of nature level could successfully leap into the Illuminating Soul Realm, while most
of them found themselves stuck and unable to cross the choke-point.
It was a major achievement on his part to reach the second grade of nature level, but the points in his
disciple card were almost depleted by now...
"Now I'm in trouble," murmured Zen as he returned to Drizzle Peak once he was done training in the
Lake of the Magical Fish. His brows were deeply furrowed, and one could not see the joy of the
breakthrough on his face. His points were quickly running out. It was not too severe a problem, but it
was a tricky situation to get himself out of.
Zen could cultivate his body in the Lake of the Magical Fish, but the Streamer Sword he had acquired
could not be honed in that place, which meant that he could not brush up on his swordsmanship there.
At the Cloud Sect, the most suited place for practicing swordsmanship was the Seven-Star Sword Light
Platform. That place did not consume as many points as the Lake of the Magical Fish did. Every two
hours in the lake docked him two hundred points, while the sword platform would only deduct eighty.
Zen guessed that it was probably because the Seven-Star Sword Light Platform had room for multiple
people to practice simultaneously, whereas the Lake of the Magical Fish only had provisions for one
person at a time.
His dilemma was that there were only about a hundred points left in his disciple card, which would
enable him to practice at the platform for only two hours tops, and that was far from enough for him...
Feeling rather gloomy, Zen climbed onto Drizzle Peak, about to have a sumptuous meal before taking
some rest. To his surprise, he ran into Wurth right after finishing dinner.
When Zen caught sight of Wurth, he felt like he had come across the God of Rain after enduring a
lengthy drought. If Wurth had sold the heavenly essence Zen had entrusted him with last time, it would
satisfy Zen's crying needs!
"How was the auction?" Zen was always calm and rational, but at the moment, he asked the question
rather urgently.
Wurth was bewildered to see Zen so edgy. Previously, when he had auctioned the crystal core, Zen
obtained a large number of cubic crystals. To the other outer disciples, that amount would be quite
substantial. But now, looking at Zen's anxious face, Wurth deemed that his friend was badly in need of
more cubic crystals.
Despite his confusion, Wurth didn't ask him about it directly. He merely gave a smile and said, "I did sell
all your goods in the last auction."
"What was the final price of the deal?" Zen probed him. Even though he did not attend the auction, he
would not be fooled on the price, because the sky-high rates of each of the items the Blessed Auction
House sold off soon passed down among folks via word-of-mouth. Zen could easily inquire about the
information from anyone.
Wurth grinned teasingly, choosing to keep Zen in suspense. "Take a guess!"
Watching his beaming face, Zen knew the selling of the heavenly essence was a success. The price
should be good, certainly not lower than the price at the prior auction. After giving it a thought, Zen
offered his guess, "One hundred and fifty thousand, right?"
Wurth shook his head, his expression unfathomable.
"Two hundred thousand?" Zen blurted, simply guessing a higher number.
"Not high enough!"
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