I Cheated While Cultivating

Layers upon layers of the thunderous world fell with the saber light, as if intent on turning the human world into a Thunderbolt Purgatory.

This was the strongest move in the Purple Thunder Blade Skill that Zhou Heng could perform.

In a flash, it completely engulfed Wei Yang.

This peak of the Seventh Rank expert seemed to have no chance to resist and was defeated by Zhou Heng on the spot.

But Zhou Heng’s brows were slightly furrowed.

In his spiritual perception, he could confirm that Wei Yang had used a strange power to influence the “Winter Thunderbolt,” affecting the attack of his saber technique.

It seemed to involve the manipulation of principles on a fundamental level, weakening the attack of his saber from just now.

However, in reality, this did not affect the lethality of that saber strike.

When the lightning dissipated.

Wei Yang still stood there, with only his clothes a bit scorched; he seemed to have suffered no injury, looking at Zhou Heng with a face full of mockery.

From the other side of the courtyard, Hong Jiaren walked out, pinching a spell in his hands, followed by more than twenty men dressed as medics, yet with sinister expressions on their faces.

The sky had been obscured by a hazy fog at some unknown time, and the invisible air of plague had already spread, filling every corner around Zhou Heng.

This was the Plague Array of the True Medicine Sect.

“It seems that your strike was rather hollow,” Wei Yang shook his head and chuckled, “Zhou Heng, you are tainted with the aura of plague. Within this Plague Array, it’s impossible for you to harm me in the slightest.”

“Now it seems that the rumors in the martial world, even the rankings on the warrior lists, all have their mistakes,” Hong Jiaren shook his head and sighed, “I’ve always heard that Zhou Heng once fought against three Seventh Rank experts alone at Ninth Grade, and forcefully killed a peak Seventh Rank at the peak of Eighth Rank.

“I thought you would be an exceptionally strong young hero, but as it turns out, fame is not always indicative of reality, meeting you reveals the truth, and your Purple Lightning Thunder Blade, it seems, was nothing special after all.”

The other twenty-plus True Medicine Sect disciples also laughed up a storm, mocking Zhou Heng for overestimating his abilities and courting death by coming alone to Qingquan Town.

The family inside the courtyard, witnessing this scene, turned pale with fear, kneeling on the ground, shaking uncontrollably, no longer daring to speak.

Was Zhou Heng actually no match for the True Medicine Sect?

All three were in despair.

Clang!!

At this moment, a sudden ringing of a saber blade was heard; it was Zhou Heng flicking his Purple Thunder Sword with his finger, smiling as he said, “Truly a good sword, incomparably sharp.”

1

No sooner had he spoken than the previously smiling Wei Yang’s face suddenly changed, showing a look of terror in his eyes, staring at Zhou Heng in disbelief as his facial expression began to twist.

Splat!

Splat, splat!!

Immediately after, the sound of blood splattering ensued non-stop.

Bloodstains, like fountains, erupted from Wei Yang’s body, turning the ground red along with the surrounding trees and walls.

Wei Yang’s body, as if slashed open by a saber edge, crumbled into more than a dozen pieces; bones and viscera fell down, blood flowed into pools, and his death was terribly tragic.

This sudden turn of events shocked the True Medicine Sect’s people to the core; they all opened their mouths wide as if they were about to drop their jaws in fright.

Hong Jiaren’s expression also changed dramatically, as he instinctively stepped back several steps, looking at Zhou Heng with uncertainty while simultaneously activating the spell to check if there was any issue with the Plague Array.

Clearly, Wei Yang had been sliced into pieces by Zhou Heng at the end of their previous encounter; it was only due to some technique Zhou Heng employed that had delayed the outbreak of the wounds, creating such an astonishing scene.

But the question was, how did Zhou Heng damage Wei Yang?

Obviously, within this Plague Array, a person tainted with the aura of disease was absolutely unable to inflict substantial damage on them!

How could this be?

“Are you wondering how I managed to kill Wei Yang, thinking I shouldn’t have been able to cause him any real harm?” Zhou Heng’s voice suddenly came from behind Hong Jiaren, lightly chuckling as he said, “Is that so?”

Hong Jiaren turned pale with fright and hastily moved to avoid Zhou Heng behind him, then turned around in a panic and said, “You, how did you do it? You haven’t broken the formation, and you’ve been in contact with the townspeople, you must have been tainted with the aura of disease.”

“Heh, turns out you’re a fool as well,” Zhou Heng shook his head, threw the long blade in his hand, which immediately vanished, and in its place appeared a three-foot green peak.

Cross Mysterious Door Sword!

He pinched a sword gesture with his left hand and gently turned it. The Cross Mysterious Door Sword immediately transformed into a ray of sword light and shot out.

It made a complete loop around the necks of those twenty-plus True Medicine Sect disciples.

Heads dropped to the ground en masse.

Not one spared.

This was no longer Hundred Steps Soul Sword; this was bona fide Sword Control Technique, a secret martial art of the Sixth Rank with ten layers.

Although Zhou Heng had only cultivated to the sixth layer, it was already much stronger and more flexible than the original Hundred Steps Soul Sword, and its power was incomparable.

Clang!!

As the sword sang, the sword light that the Cross Mysterious Door Sword had transformed into stopped in front of Hong Jiaren’s forehead. It didn’t strike down but dissipated the sword light and hovered there.

But everyone knew.

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This sword could pierce down at any moment, penetrating his skull.

“You, you?! I…” Hong Jiaren opened his mouth wanting to speak, but he stammered and couldn’t articulate anything, a sign of extreme fear in his heart.

Why has it come to this?

Everything had been calculated perfectly, with the plague seeds spread by sacrifices and the array set up in secret—Zhou Heng’s power should have been completely suppressed!

So why did all these preparations seem to have no effect?

Impossible!

He couldn’t believe the reality before his eyes.

“Even the Plague Emperor Sect’s Secret Six Rank’s influence of disease was ineffective against me, who gave you the courage to use such methods against me?” Zhou Heng shook his head and chuckled, “Having heard of my reputation, you should know my track record, and yet you still dare to scheme against me. Are you tired of living?”

He slowly walked up to Hong Jiaren.

Gave him a slight look-over.

And asked, “Is your True Medicine Gate an offshoot of the Plague Emperor Sect?”

“No, it’s not,” Hong Jiaren, terrified by Zhou Heng’s beating, said with a trembling voice, “Twenty years ago, my sworn brother, Wei Yang, and I accidentally entered a mountain cave abode, where we found a pile of bones and a secret manual. That’s how we obtained our martial arts heritage.”

“All self-taught, and you reached the Peak of the Seventh Rank in twenty years?” Zhou Heng frowned slightly upon hearing this.

He could see that these two were not exceptionally talented individuals, and their martial arts were not particularly outstanding. Yet without any guidance, they had managed to self-learn up to the Peak of the Seventh Rank of the Martial Path in just twenty years?

The trainers in the major prefectural cities would all be green with envy.

Even for a transcendent sect of the Martial Dao like the Pure Yang Palace, with a Divine First Rank sect master, its outer sector disciples and even some inner sector disciples couldn’t necessarily reach the Peak of the Seventh Rank on their own within twenty years.

This was not normal.

Moreover, this wasn’t the first time Zhou Heng had encountered such circumstances. The three evil sects he had eradicated before had similar experiences.

They would chance upon a secret manual and within ten or twenty years reach the Peak of the Seventh Rank, only to emerge and wreak havoc.

Even the purpose for causing chaos was the same.

It was the requirement of the martial arts they practiced.

They wanted to advance their martial skills further.

They wanted to jump from the Peak of the Seventh Rank to the Secret Six Rank.

Mere self-cultivation was not enough.

They had to go out and do certain things.

Unfortunately, Zhou Heng hadn’t been able to find out the reason behind the three minor Evil Sects previously.

As for those individual Martial Artists who walked alone and practiced evil arts, they were almost always killed by a single sword strike from him, leaving no opportunity for questions.

This time, the True Medicine Gate seemed to be the most structured and systematic of all, presenting a good opportunity to clear things up.

“I, I’m not lying,” Hong Jiaren said in a panicked voice, “It’s just that, this martial arts seems very suitable for us, and we hardly encountered any major barriers.

“Moreover, while cultivating, there would be an inexplicable flow of qi gushing from our dantians, nourishing our qi, blood, muscles, bones, and even spirits.

“It’s because of all these reasons that we were able to progress so quickly. Young hero, no, Daoist master, Lord Daoist, I swear I’m not deceiving you.”

“Hmm,” Zhou Heng nodded lightly and continued his questioning, “In addition to the secret manual, what else did you find?”

“There were also several black gemstones…” Hong Jiaren hesitated for a moment but eventually told the truth, “It seems that the flow of qi from our dantians is due to those black gemstones.”

“Do you still have those black gemstones?” Zhou Heng asked. He always felt that so many similar instances of evil heritage coming to light were not normal and might hide a deeper secret.

“No, they’re gone. After we reached the Peak of the Seventh Rank, those black gemstones all turned to sand,” Hong Jiaren shook his head, then suddenly fell to his knees with a thud, his mouth gaping in a plea for mercy.

But as soon as he knelt, his entire body suddenly trembled and then began to shake violently; pus-filled blisters rose on his exposed skin and muscles, and lumps also kept appearing under his clothes.

“Ahh! Ahhhh!!” Hong Jiaren let out a heart-wrenchingly shrill scream, agony to the extreme, as he collapsed on the ground, his limbs twisting to unnaturally abnormal angles.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!

There was a sound like a hot iron branding flesh coming from Hong Jiaren’s body, and wisps of pitch-black smoke rose from his nine orifices. His back suddenly arched sharply.

Rip!

With a grating tear, Hong Jiaren’s back split open, spewing out dark green blood, and his entire flesh rapidly withered away until his body became a skeletal corpse in the blink of an eye.

And from the corpse of Hong Jiaren’s back, a mass of pitch-black light rose, instantly spreading an extreme dark, evil, and filthy aura.

The plague miasma that pervaded the area, suddenly as if finding its master, converged towards the black light, quickly turning it from a three-foot diameter sphere into an over ten-foot diameter pitch-black orb.

“Ahh!!”

From within the black orb came a sharp, piercing cry, and immediately the black orb cracked open, a vague figure attempting to emerge, ready to stretch out the body it had barely managed to condense.

But just as it extended its senses from within the orb, it was met head-on by a force both supremely solid and yang, both immensely powerful and domineering as if to shatter the heavens and collapse the earth—an incredible power!

“Heaven and Earth Toppling!!”

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