Chapter Eighteen: Pursuit and Slaughter
Zhou Heng unfolded his Flying Cloud Step, moving at a speed as swift as lightning, and soon disappeared into the distance of several li.
He found a clean and secluded tree hole to hide in, continuing to recover his true yuan force. Half a day later, he reopened his eyes, and a cold gleam flashed by, like a flash of lightning.
His cultivation not only recovered completely but also made significant progress, reaching the peak of the sixth layer of Body Refining!
It's time to break through to the Refining Marrow Realm!
Zhou Heng had a belly full of anger in his heart, Shi Gang and the four others were ungrateful and treacherous, not only did they not have a single thread of gratitude, but instead they harbored greedy and murderous intentions towards him. People like this absolutely do not deserve to live in this world!
As soon as I break through to the seventh layer of Lian Ti, the first thing I'll do is kill those four ungrateful beasts!
Zhou Heng's mind was calm and peaceful, eliminating all distractions, instantly entering a state of no desires or thoughts. He only manipulated the True Yuan Force to start impacting the Refining Bone Realm!
Refining the skin is the easiest, as long as you're not stupid like a pig head, then within ten days you can enter the door and take the first step in martial arts. Refining the flesh is much harder to break through, at most only half of the ten martial artists can break through.
And the Refining Bone Realm is truly a watershed, enough to sift out 90% of martial artists!
The Zhou family has a total of 327 people in the Refining Flesh realm, but only 74 have reached the Refining Bone realm. As for those in the Refining Blood realm, there are only six!
The path of martial arts is getting harder and harder as you move forward!
From this point, it can also be seen that how important is the enlightenment, the higher the realm, the more prominent the importance of enlightenment.
Zhou Heng was not hurried or flustered, his body merged with the heavens and earth, his heart connected to nature. The Nine Heavens Divine Fist manual revolved in his mind, nine black broken swords danced in a dazzling starry river, as if able to suppress the boundless sands of countless ages.
He began to impact the barrier of the Refining Marrow Realm.
Refining the body to the twelfth level means storing the true yuan force one by one in the skin, flesh, bones, and blood, illuminating the entire body. After reaching the peak of refining the flesh, the muscle layer is extremely dense, making it extremely difficult to break through this barrier.
Ling Tian's Nine Styles surged within his body, transforming into a multitude of black swords that launched a fierce assault on the muscular layer. The muscles in his left hand were the first to be pierced by the True Yuan Force, advancing towards the bones.
Then it was the right hand, lower abdomen, left shoulder, and right leg, spreading throughout the entire body.
Boom!
His body shook, his eyes suddenly opened, and in the pupils appeared a pair of black swords that were even deeper than the night, which gradually faded away.
Refining Bone Realm!
Zhou Heng gazed up at the starry sky, and at this time, the bright moon had not yet risen to its peak. Breaking through the Refining Bone Realm took no more than three hours of time.
At that time, his father Zhou Dinghai spent almost a month!
Zhou Heng was not complacent, and after going out for a trip, he greatly increased his knowledge. In Yuanshi Town, his cultivation speed was considered monstrous, but when placed in the outside world, although still astonishing, there might be people who could surpass him.
He quietly waited for the arrival of midnight.
"Hum, the black broken sword in the dantian shook, releasing a large amount of free energy on time, which ran through the blood vessels throughout the body. Zhou Heng looked inward and immediately determined that the released amount had increased again."
The moon's shadow technique unfolded, and Zhou Heng absorbed these stray energies one by one. His skin and flesh layers were already saturated with true yuan force, while his bone layer had been opened up, like a hungry infant eagerly absorbing the true yuan force.
This absorption process is the process of tempering one's physical constitution.
Half an hour later, Zhou Heng stopped, the free energy in his body had been fully absorbed. He roughly estimated that it would take about a month to reach the peak of Refining Body Seventh Layer!
Zhou Heng stood up, moved his limbs and felt the power surging inside him after breaking through the limit. It seemed that even a high mountain in front of him could be blown to pieces!
He let out a loud shout and threw a punch, the large tree in front of him, as thick as a bowl, immediately fell down with a loud crash, kicking up a cloud of dust.
"The peak of refining meat probably has a strength of around three thousand catties, and now although I've only just broken through, my strength has already reached four thousand catties!" Zhou Heng revealed a satisfied smile. The period right after breaking through was the stage where one's strength increased the fastest, then it would gradually slow down until encountering the barrier of the next realm, at which point it could no longer be raised another step.
Originally, the enhancement of this thousand-jin strength would have taken at least a month or even longer, but since Hei Jian was a treasure, it directly gave Zhou Heng a large amount of pure free energy, shortening the process to just forty minutes.
He leaned against the tree trunk and slept for a night. After dawn, he set off immediately and came to the place where he met Shi Jia's four people before, only to see that there was a large piece of scorch on the ground.
It seems that the four people from Shi's family took away the valuable things on Jin Guang She's body and then burned the remaining corpse with fire, determined not to leave anything for him.
Zhou Heng carefully examined the surrounding marks, and then sprang out in a southeasterly direction.
The four members of Shi's family didn't walk far!
All the way running, Zhou Heng sometimes stopped to observe and make sure he didn't go in the wrong direction. After entering the Bone Refining Realm, his speed also increased greatly, and after about three hours or so, he arrived at a muddy ground, where four distinct footprints went straight forward.
He unfolded the flying cloud step, light as a goose feather, and flew over the wet ground. Each step fell down, leaving only a shallow footprint on the ground, which was quickly restored by the elasticity of the wet ground itself.
It was seven or eight hours later, the sky had darkened, and the pursuit suddenly became difficult. At this time, Zhou Heng saw a faint light flashing in the distance.
Found it!
He sprang up, whooshing, after a dozen or so ups and downs, the firelight in front of him grew brighter and brighter. He saw Shi Gang and three others sitting on the edge of a bonfire, roasting chunks of meat, the savory aroma wafted all the way to where he was.
That's Golden Crowned Snakehead!
A surge of anger suddenly rose in Zhou Heng's heart, and although he had been despised by his clansmen in the Zhou family before, he had never seen such despicable and ungrateful behavior as that of the Shi family's four people, which made him furious!
He leaped down from the tree and strode towards the fire, shouting: "You four beasts in human skin, lend me some fire!"
"What!" Shi Gang and the other three jumped up in unison, looking at Zhou Heng with incredulity, as if they had seen a ghost!
This kid actually dared to come back on his own?
How dare you scold them?
"Oh, to call you livestock would be an insult to those four-legged creatures. You... are not even worthy of being called livestock!" Zhou Heng smiled faintly, but his face was shrouded in a cold and murderous aura. "You're just wasting food by living in this world!"
"Looking for death!" The four members of the Shi family were all furious, clanging sounds, their weapons drawn, pointing directly at Zhou Heng.
Shi Gang's eyes were cold, his thoughts even more profound. Since Zhou Heng dared to take the initiative to attack, he must have had something to rely on. No one was foolish enough to come and die on their own!
Could it be that the other party's great killer of the Golden Crowned Snake can be used again?
Is it possible? It's just been over a day!
No way, this kid's aura... Bone Refining Realm!
Shi Jia and three others also sensed the obvious change in Zhou Heng's aura, each of them revealing great shock!
It's not that remarkable to talk about the Bone Refining Realm, but Zhou Heng was clearly still at the 6th layer of Body Refining yesterday! To know that from the 6th layer to the 7th layer is a huge leap in realms, how could it be completed overnight?!
What a freak!
Absolutely impossible! There's no such freak in the world, this kid must have used some special method to conceal his aura yesterday! That's right, that can also explain why he was able to take down the Golden Crowned Snake!
They finally understood this section and felt relieved.
"Who are you?" Shi Gang walked towards Zhou Heng, his green sword drawn and shining with a cold light.
"A butcher of chickens and dogs!" Zhou Heng said calmly, without batting an eyelid.
"He's all talk!" Shi Gang gave a signal, and the other three scattered, surrounding Zhou Heng. Once they were in position, he revealed a ruthless smile, "Kill!"
Four people rushed out at the same time, their sharp blades cutting through the night sky, chopping off Zhou Heng's head, neck, shoulder and chest.
Zhou Heng let out a long whistle, his Flying Cloud Steps unfolding as he suddenly appeared right in front of the person. His long sword shot out, aiming straight for the opponent's chest.
The man from Shi Jia suddenly revealed an extremely terrified expression, because this sword completely broke through his defense, as if the weapon in his hand was just a decoration, unable to play any role at all.
"Help..." He opened his mouth to cry for help, but just as he had only spat out a single word, he suddenly stopped, and everything before him turned black, never to open again!
Zhou Heng drew his sword and struck back, a stream of fresh blood suddenly spraying out from the other person's chest. He was only at the sixth level of body refinement, he didn't need to use the Ling Tian Jiu Shi's sword intent, with one glance he could see through the flaws in the opponent's moves, one strike and it was fatal!
"Half-breed!"
"How bold!"
Shi Gang and the other two were both angry and shocked, never expecting Zhou Heng's combat strength to be so terrifying. Although a sixth-layer cultivator of the Refining Body stage was indeed crushed in front of a Refining Bone stage martial artist, but to kill with just one move was also too exaggerated!
"Wind rolls up the remaining clouds!" Shi Gang was even more furious, swinging his knife and sending out a terrifying gust of wind that seemed to tear through the air itself.
He is a genius of the Shi family, and Zhou Heng killing someone in front of him is equivalent to slapping his face!
"Die—" He must kill this kid, otherwise there will be others in the family who will follow him? Can't even keep his own men safe!
He can be called one of the two geniuses of Shi Jia, and naturally has a place beyond others. This knife was swung out, and the whole sky was filled with sharp knife energy!
This guy is really strong!
Zhou Heng's eyes narrowed slightly, but his mind instantly entered a state of absolute calmness. With one swift motion, he drew out his sword and executed the Fei Pu Sword Technique.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
A string of fire flashed by, Zhou Heng retreated five meters, a cautious expression on his face.
Shi Gang's face looked even more unsightly, although he didn't retreat a single step, his left arm had an additional wound, which was inflicted by Zhou Heng's sword. If he hadn't reacted in time, it wouldn't have been just one wound, but his entire hand would have been chopped off!
This kid's power is inferior to mine, but how can his ability to find weaknesses be so terrifying!
Feng Juan Can Yun is one of the three strongest moves in the Shi family's two ultimate Wind Cloud Knife Techniques, but this move not only failed to behead Zhou Heng, but also left him with a minor injury!
And... he raised the knife in his hand, and saw that a small notch had actually appeared on the blade!
