Chapter 243 Endless Steps

The most significant difference between them was that Zen was the only one on his side, whereas there were about a hundred people on his rival's side.

Here, Zen had an advantage as it would be impossible for so many people to act in unison as there must be a difference among a hundred people when they exerted their strength.

To overcome this shortcoming, they would roar when exerting themselves, and this roaring unified their efforts.

'This must be the so-called details Saul mentioned!' Zen was suddenly enlightened. Since Saul had reminded him, it must be the key to pass the test!

'Strength, unity...

I must find a way to disrupt their efforts so that they are unable to exert their strength simultaneously!' Zen thought.

He looked at those men with a weird smile and then gradually withdrew his strength.

After Zen reduced his strength by thirty percent, he was pulled toward the cliff edge, little by little.

After moving forward a few steps, Zen suddenly applied himself.

All his strength erupted in an instant!

Then, he was able to drag the rope back.

"Hey! Ha!"

The men roared when they found that Zen was striving to use all of his power. They deployed their strength at the same time to compete against Zen.

'It is just as I have thought!' Zen thought with a slight smile. When the men exerted themselves, Zen withdrew his strength again.

As he felt the rope loose, Zen applied more force.

Because he was alone, Zen could exert or withdraw his strength freely.

On the contrary, the men on the opposite side had to rely on their roaring to unify their movements.

After Zen had repeatedly exerted and withdrawn his strength, the roaring rhythm of the men finally became chaotic.

"Hey! Ha..."

"Ha..."

"Hey..."

Everyone was roaring according to their rhythm, so their strength wasn't unified at all.

Just then, Zen summoned all his strength again.

Even if the total strength of these men were equal to Zen's, because they were inconsistent in utilizing their power, they seemed to be weaker than Zen.

As a result, the men couldn't keep their balance any longer and slid toward the edge of the cliff, one by one.

As soon as one man fell off the cliff, their team would lose one percent of their strength. When Zen deployed all his power, more than thirty men fell. The strength of the remaining seventy men was only equal to seventy percent of Zen's power at that moment. And so, Zen had nothing to fear.

Zen felt more and more relaxed as with each exertion there were fewer people left on the other side. Finally, all hundred men had fallen into the ravine. And thus, Zen won the strength competition.

After pulling the whole length of the rope to his side, Zen felt the surrounding environment change. When he looked around, Zen noticed that he was back in the hall.

A smile appeared on Saul's face. Except for his lifeless breath, the puppet of the immortal was just like a real person.

"Well done!

the black fire, he would have fainted from the pain of being pricked by the soul thorn.

His soul was strong enough, but his face still twisted in pain, as though he had tasted a bitter melon.

Zen raised his head and looked at the steps that extended to the skyline. 'How much pain would I have to suffer if my feet are pricked at every step I take?

It seems I have no choice but...'

Zen suddenly leaped forward. After several jumps, he had crossed twenty-three steps.

Although Zen was being smart by jumping, he was invariably pricked by the thorn when he did place his feet on a step. Zen gritted his teeth and continued as he rationalized that this was better than getting pricked at every step.

After jumping across dozens of steps, each time he placed his foot on a step, Zen would feel the pain of his soul being attacked by the thorn.

After leaping more than ten times, his soul had been pricked more than ten times too. Even though Zen's soul was much stronger than the average person's, he felt dizzy from the pain. Zen couldn't help but cover his head with his hands.

He had to sit down and rest.

Looking at the remaining steps, Zen took a deep breath. After he had recovered, Zen continued to climb.

After leaping across several hundreds of steps in one breath, Zen reached the two-thousandth step.

The moment he stepped on it, the environment around him changed.

Clusters of crimson flame replaced the soul thorns.

Zen guessed that they were not real flames as he couldn't feel any heat coming from them. However, when he stepped on them, Zen felt as though his soul was being grilled.

He would have preferred it if they had been actual flames. After all, Zen had developed a certain resistance to fire and could even absorb their heat as he had been refined by the lotus fire, the fire of the Earth's core, and the demon's holy fire.

However, the flame on the step was special as it wouldn't hurt his body, but it did attack his soul.