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As the area around Zhou Hanzheng expanded, Li Yun"s Golden Toad Water quickly ran out. But they didn"t dare let the scope of their consciousness reach their opponent, so Yan Zhengming had no choice but to help Li Yun maintain the arrays while telling Han Yuan to carve plenty of basic wooden bird charms. This kind of charm was very elementary and had been enhanced by the animal-loving Li Yun, so without spending too much effort, the wooden tablets could become lifelike little birds. They could fly into the sky to serve as their eyes, and weren"t easy to detect.

… It"s just that Han Yuan"s hands were a bit clumsy, so the birds he made always seemed to have two extra legs. Flying was fine, but they would be stumbling around if made to walk.

For the entire night, Li Yun didn"t dare to let his mind wander the slightest bit, so he was extremely drained from maintaining the arrays. When he saw the colors of dawn rising on the east, he finally couldn"t help asking, “How long do we need to keep this up?”

“Almost there,” Yan Zhengming said calmly, “This person is always running around from place to place, he"s not some idle person who could hang around freely. He wouldn"t stay here to waste his time and energy.”

This time, Sect Leader Yan was right again — as expected, after daybreak, Zhou Hanzheng seemed less interested in staying around.

At that moment, the surface of the sea was reflecting the sun"s bright rays. One of the masked men carefully observed Zhou Hanzheng"s face and said, “Your Excellency, there is nothing to gain by staying here. Wouldn"t it be better for us to hurry back and refrain from causing new problems?”

Zhou Hanzheng clasped his hands behind his back, thought for a moment, and also believed that continuing to grapple with these unknown people would give him no benefit. He had accomplished all of the goals for his quest this time and could now retire after winning merit, so he nodded. He turned to look at the surroundings, which seemed shrouded in mist due to the illusion, and raised his voice to speak, “To the fellow cultivator on the island, this humble person has only dropped by to rest for a while, and harbors no evil intentions. If I have offended you in any way, please forgive my wrongdoing.”

Li Yun sighed heavily hearing this, almost letting loose with his arrays. He wiped the cold sweat on his forehead and said in a low voice, “Good heavens, he"s finally willing to leave.”

At the moment, the distance between them and Zhou Hanzheng was less than a hundred zhang. They were right behind a small hill, so even without those scouts, they could still hear Zhou Hanzheng"s words.

Yan Zhengming didn"t respond. He had been using charms to enhance the arrays for an entire night, and the only burin he carried on his person was given to Han Yuan, so he had to use a normal sword. When carving charms, there was a huge difference between using a specialized burin and using a sword. This was the first time for Yan Zhengming, so he occasionally lost control and caused the clear Qi in the charms to burst out. Fine wounds covered his hands because of this, but a constant gloomy air remained on his face the entire time. Even when he heard that Zhou Hanzheng was leaving, he still showed no sign of joy.

When would he finally be able to stand out with pride and fight that Zhou person like a man?

Zhou Hanzheng didn"t seem to mind the lack of reply, only saying, “Let"s go.”

Afterward, he led the masked men to fly on their swords. But Zhou Hanzheng had only gone halfway up when he felt eyes trained on him. His cultivation wasn"t weak, so of course his senses were very sharp. He instinctively reached out in the direction of those eyes and caught… a four-legged bird.

Zhou Hanzheng"s brows knitted. He truly had no idea what strange breed this was, but a thought suddenly occurred to him. He tightened his fingers around the bird"s neck to kill it, and the struggling bird turned into a rough charm under his scrutiny.

With a light squeeze of his fingers, the charm broke into two pieces, the clear Qi within it dispersing naturally. Any skilled person could tell that the carver"s cultivation wasn"t high.

Yan Zhengming"s heart immediately gave a loud thump as he thought, This is bad.

Zhou Hanzheng brought his nose close to the charm, as if he were a hunting dog, and gave it a sniff. His facial expression shifted slightly, and then he seemed to have recalled something. The deep knit between his brows loosened immediately, a malicious half-smile spreading on his face. “I was wondering who it could possibly be. All my efforts up until now aren"t for naught…”

Before this, he hadn"t dared to spread his consciousness over the island because he was worried that there was someone whose cultivation was higher than him. If a person"s consciousness had been detected by others and suppressed, it would immediately turn back against its master. At the moment, Zhou Hanzheng had somehow figured out that the people on the island were Yan Zhengming"s group, so he no longer had anything to fear. Before he even finished his words, his consciousness had spread over the entire island with a pressuring aura. Li Yun"s illusion was only a bluff, it couldn"t withstand any sort of attack, and there was no hiding their current location.

Zhou Hanzheng stood on his sword in the air above them and smiled leisurely, “Sect Leader Yan, no matter what, I"d given you a lesson once in the Lecture Hall. Isn"t there the saying ‘A teacher for a day is a father for a lifetime"? Why do you hide, refusing to come out and meet me?”

With a flick of his sleeve, the Sansi Fan instantly produced a series of lightning bolts, which broke right into Li Yun"s arrays. In an instant, the superficial illusion was shattered.

Li Yun collapsed on the ground, as if he had received a critical attack, and couldn"t get up for quite a while.

Yan Zhengming reached out to help him move aside. His complexion seemed worse than Li Yun"s, but he still stood without a word, grabbed his sword, and started to walk out.

Han Yuan turned pale in fright, “Dshixiong, what are you doing?”

Yan Zhengming"s face was dark as he kept walking, “Don"t follow me.”

Up until that point in life, Han Yuan had never been a courageous person. He looked at Li Yun, and then Shuikeng. He was at a complete loss, standing still with a blank mind for some time. And then he inhaled deeply before running to catch up.

Zhou Hanzheng gave Yan Zhengming a rather appreciative look, “During the years we"ve spent apart, Sect Leader Yan seems to have casted off your old self and become an entirely new person. This old friend of yours feels quite gratified.”

Yan Zhengming suddenly understood Cheng Qian"s sentiment of never wasting his breath on words before drawing his sword. In his entire life, he had never loathed a single person so much. The taste of hatred was frightening, but it also seemed to pump adrenaline into his veins, becoming a source of endless power.

The vast stretch of the sky was bright and clear over the island. The young sect leader"s heart was filled with murderous intent.

He still had his Shidi and Shimei behind him. No matter what, this battle was unavoidable. Yan Zhengming didn"t want to waste his breath on talking nonsense, so he drew his sword and charged forward.

But Zhou Hanzheng didn"t respond to the attack. Instead, the two masked men rose into the air on both sides of him, cutting off Yan Zhengming"s path.

Zhou Hanzheng watched without a care and sighed with emotion, “Fuyao — back then, the chain of mountains could go straight into the clouds, the sect was full of formidable masters. With just a stomp of their feet, even the heavens and the earth would tremble. Such power and prestige, one wouldn"t have expected it to fall so far that its members would wander the wilderness without aim. The turns of fate are truly hard to predict.”

With a strike from his sword, Yan Zhengming broke through the two masked men"s defenses. His body turned into a flash of light, charging straight toward Zhou Hanzheng. The wind from his sword caused Zhou Hanzheng"s clothes to flutter, but Zhou Hanzheng remained unruffled and didn"t even unfold his fan. A light tinkling sound was heard as the Sansi Fan produced a bolt of lightning and flames, cutting a c.h.i.n.k into Yan Zhengming"s sword.

“If it were in the past, with Sect Leader Yan"s cultivation, you might not even be able to become an inner disciple,” Zhou Hanzheng smiled, “You"re always wearing the sect leader"s seal around your neck, isn"t it too heavy for you? Why don"t I help you carry the burden —”

His fingers suddenly curled into claws. There seemed to be a black cyclone in the palm of his hand, and he reached straight for Yan Zhengming"s chest from above.

Yan Zhengming dodged to the side and brandished his sword to slash, but the impact caused his wrists to shake violently.

Zhou Hanzheng"s claws seemed to contain an impenetrable force. After receiving a sword attack, not only did it remain unharmed, it increased greatly in size instead and came down on Yan Zhengming with a pressuring aura.

Right then, Yan Zhengming heard Han Yuan exclaim, “Here! I"ll give you some big slap!”

Yan Zhengming"s heart throbbed. He lowered his face and saw that Han Yuan, Li Yun, and everyone else had come out from behind the small hill. The two masked men went straight for them and quickly broke into a fight with Li Yun, who was barely holding on, and Han Yuan, who was useless to begin with. In an instant, the situation turned dangerous.

With just a moment of distraction, Zhou Hanzheng"s gigantic hand had closed the distance between them. Yan Zhengming had nowhere to hide, so he could only push himself despite his injuries and lashed out with a strike of ‘Backfire", intending to drag Zhou Hanzheng down with him.

And yet, even though he was willing to bet it all, Zhou Hanzheng valued his own life greatly. He was forced to back off, thinking, How fascinating, so it"s true that rabbits could bite when pushed beyond their limits.

But right as he retreated, the frost-like flash of a sword suddenly came toward him from behind. A chill came over Zhou Hanzheng"s heart. The Sansi Fan was finally unfolded, producing a pillar of lightning and flames as it struck forth.

The pillar of lightning fell into the sea. The raging waves seemed to have produced a water dragon, producing a rain of salt as droplets of moisture fell on the island.

Zhou Hanzheng carefully backed off. When he saw the person behind him, his pupils shrunk — it was Cheng Qian.

When Cheng Qian first ended up on the reef island earlier, he"d already looked like a thoroughly drenched beggar. Added with Wen Ya Zhenren"s beating, his clothes had practically been reduced to rags. He couldn"t have possibly looked any worse for wear. But as soon as Yan Zhengming saw his outrageous form, the murderous intent filling his chest was immediately swept away.

In that instant, Sect Leader Yan finally realized how ‘mature" he was — the moment he saw Cheng Qian, he almost broke into tears. He opened his mouth, but for a while, he couldn"t speak a word.

Cheng Qian swept his eyes over Yan Zhengming"s unguarded look and suddenly had the feeling that someone had always kept him in their mind, longing for him and worrying for his well-being. He knew that this wasn"t the right time and place, but he couldn"t help the corners of his eyes curving slightly.

In a person"s lifetime, wasn"t it natural to wish that when they came home at the end of the day, worn out from the hardships of life, there would be someone to open the door for them, scolding, ‘Where have you gone this time"?

Zhou Hanzheng hadn"t seen Cheng Qian before this, but he didn"t particularly care — in his eyes, other than the sect name that they were carrying, these half-baked brats had no worth for him to remember. He wouldn"t have expected such a surprising turn of events.

Back then in the Lecture Hall, Zhou Hanzheng had taken a liking to Cheng Qian"s gaze. Now, after a few years" growth, the youth had become more restrained on the outside, but his inside remained the same, which made a surprising match with the aura of his frosty sword — and yet, despite his admiration, Zhou Hanzheng didn"t care to acknowledge Cheng Qian"s mediocre cultivation. He smiled slightly, “What, the little fellow cultivator also wants to exchange blows with me?”

“Senior Zhou has misunderstood, I have no such intentions.” Cheng Qian held Shuangren in his hands as he nodded at Zhou Hanzheng with ceremonious deference, but the next moment, without warning, he activated the Spirit-Condensing Jade from Wen Ya Zhenren.

When Zhou Hanzheng felt his entire body turn heavy, he already had a bad feeling. And then he realized that his core seemed to have been layered with ice, so its circulation was sluggish. His cultivation had been suppressed by at least sixty percent.

Zhou Hanzheng was shocked. What kind of cursed technique was this?

But Cheng Qian gave him no time to react. Carrying the force of the tides, Shuangren moved forward and struck Zhou Hanzheng head on.

Zhou Hanzheng continuously retreated with no shred of dignity. Because his cultivation had been suppressed, the protective aura around his body was dispersed without a trace. Shuangren mercilessly tore the front of his robes open, instantly exposing the skin underneath.

“This junior hasn"t come to exchange blows,” Cheng Qian continued his words with a temperate voice, “I"ve come to do away with a certain person.”

This turn of events had stunned everyone. Han Yuan, who had been cast away by the masked men, coughed a few times, stretched his neck for a better look, and mumbled, “That"s Little Shixiong? Is he being possessed by something?”

Shuikeng opened her mouth, but accidentally inhaled a mouthful of seawater and hurried to spit them out.

“It"s not that Xiao-Qian has become stronger, it"s Zhou Hanzheng,” Li Yun quickly reacted, “Look, he suddenly couldn"t even stand just now. The protective aura around him has disappeared too!”

Yan Zhengming thought anxiously, What kind of suspicious person did this brat meet while he was missing? What kind of shady practices had he learned?

At the same time, without missing a beat, he cut off the masked men trying to help their master.

Water vapors on the island were agitated by the Tide Swordplay, the fine fragments surging in the air before frosting over. Zhou Hanzheng realized with a jolt, “Wait… That"s Shuangren, the lethal sword? Why is it in your possession?”

Cheng Qian didn"t care to answer him. With a swing of his sword, the fine frost in the air had condensed into a vortex. The bottom was sharp like an icicle, pointed straight at the spot between Zhou Hanzheng"s brows.

Zhou Hanzheng had never expected such a young person to not show the slightest hesitation toward killing, and let out a furious howl. The Sansi Fan was buffeted by the sea wind, the flames and sparks around the fan visibly stifled by the cold frost filling the air. He waved his fan violently, almost failing to catch his breath. He"d summoned a gust of wind, which carried sparks of lightning within it, to blow away the icicle bearing down on him. But the next moment, the ice fragments returned like tides to the sh.o.r.e. In the blink of an eye, they had pieced themselves back together, and seemed even more powerful than before!

Zhou Hanzheng continued to be pushed back. While trying to break through the ridiculous restriction on himself, he glared at Cheng Qian maliciously, “Little brat, I suggest to you not to pa.s.s the point of no return with anything in life, otherwise you will definitely have regrets.”

Hearing this, Cheng Qian almost broke out laughing. He thought, Why don"t you tell yourself those words while you were trampling on others?

He made a sword seal with his hands, sending Shuangren after Zhou Hanzheng like an arrow released from its bow. The agitated water vapors were halfway between real and fake, their momentum so frightening that even the bystanders were stunned.

Zhou Hanzheng forced himself to meet the attack. Lightning sparks collided with solid frost. With a loud booming sound, the heavens and the earth seemed to quake. At that moment, Cheng Qian"s core was in better condition than Zhou Hanzheng"s, which was being suppressed by the Spirit-Condensing Jade. He had also just found the essence of Tide Swordplay, and gave his opponent no s.p.a.ce to breathe.

After receiving three consecutive attacks, Zhou Hanzheng coughed up a mouthful of blood.

As expected, Cheng Qian"s ‘do away with a certain person" wasn"t an exaggeration. Those three consecutive attacks had almost drained his own core, but he couldn"t care less. With his Spirit-Condensing Jade, he once again forced himself to move. He leapt up, reached for Shuangren, and gathered all his pent up grudge and vengeance in this one strike, intending to end Zhou Hanzheng under his sword.

Zhou Hanzheng"s pupils shrunk to the size of a needle"s point. In his desperation, he tossed away the Sansi Fan and made a series of complicated seals with his hands. The boundless clear skies abruptly turned dark, thick clouds rolling in as they gathered. Zhou Hanzheng"s fan was only enough to hinder Cheng Qian for a split second — the lightning-imbued fan couldn"t withstand the force of an ancient lethal sword. It broke in two with a splitting sound, falling onto the ground miserably.

Zhou Hanzheng couldn"t break through the restriction around his body despite his efforts. A desperate man would risk anything, so he used his own physical body as a guide and summoned the Divine Thunders from the Ninth Heaven!

Blinded by his murderous intent, Cheng Qian didn"t even raise his face despite the heavenly might bearing down on him. The only thing occupying his mind was getting rid of Zhou Hanzheng, everything else was beyond his care.

Yan Zhengming, who had just finished beating the two masked men down, turned around after hearing the movement and could feel his soul leaving his body.

He accelerated the worn sword under his feet to its limit and cut right into the battle, catching Cheng Qian around his waist and tackling him to the side. It felt like the divine thunders had brushed against him. The fine hairs on Yan Zhengming"s back stood on their ends, sending shivers down his spine.

The uninhabited island quaked so violently that even the ocean was affected. A large charred hole was blown into the ground.

For a moment, Yan Zhengming"s ears were deafened by the thunder. He felt around for Cheng Qian"s collar, gripped it in his hands, and roared, “What the h.e.l.l were you doing!”

Cheng Qian was in no better condition. He could only feel the tremors in Dshixiong"s chest, but couldn"t hear a word of what he"d said, so he howled back, “What are you yelling? I can"t hear!”

Yan Zhengming gave the back of his head a merciless smack. Cheng Qian had almost lost all of his strength with the earlier strike and wasn"t prepared for this, so his head was smacked forward, causing his forehead to b.u.mp against Yan Zhengming"s shoulder.

But before he could raise his face, the offending hand had pressed on the back of his head without any room for argument — Yan Zhengming was firmly holding him in his arms.

At that moment, Yan Zhengming"s grip was so tight that he was trembling. It felt as if he was waking up from a nightmare, or as if he had just survived a deadly calamity.

In this world, nothing could bring him such immense comfort that this dirty body in his arms did.

Thousands of words suddenly burst forth in his heart. For a while, he didn"t even know where to start. Vaguely, he felt as if he was grasping onto something, but he also couldn"t help feeling dazed. Before he could sort things out, the thunderous roars had pa.s.sed. Cheng Qian, the insensitive little thing, pushed him away while rubbing the back of his own head. He announced to Yan Zhengming"s recovered ears, “I haven"t gotten rid of that Zhou person, I"ll talk to you after.”

Yan Zhengming, “…”

Even though he himself wasn"t sure what he wanted to say, the sensation of being blown off was quite unpleasant.

Zhou Hanzheng was being suppressed by the Spirit-Condensing Jade to begin with and had suffered injuries afterward. He had then used his own body to summon the Divine Thunder, so his meridians were practically ruined at this point. Even if the effects of the Spirit-Condensing Jade had pa.s.sed when Cheng Qian lost his strength earlier, he was still paralyzed on the ground, unable to get up anymore.

Mouth filled with blood, Zhou Hanzheng glared at the approaching Cheng Qian scornfully. His throat could only produce gargling sounds. He repeatedly tried to get up, but would always fall back onto the ground. His bony hands dug into the soil, leaving trails of blood, producing a horrifying image.

Unfortunately for him, Cheng Qian had an immovable heart. Facing this person, he wouldn"t feel pity or fear. He went straight for him, fully meaning to end Zhou Hanzheng with one strike of his sword.

But right in that moment, the corners of Zhou Hanzheng"s lips suddenly curled into a demonic smile. Something in his sleeve produced a sharp sound. Cheng Qian"s brows furrowed as he realized with a jolt that something wasn"t right. The next moment, a malicious wind came from behind him.

Cheng Qian knew that he should dodge, but because he had been straining himself too much earlier, he couldn"t gather his strength —

Pain erupted from the middle of his back. A hand had pierced his back, cutting through his body and coming out of his chest.

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