I Cheated While Cultivating

“What do you mean?” Nie Yu looked at Zhou Heng and said, “Are you suspecting that it was me who drew the ghost that possessed Ah Jin?”

“I did not say that,” Zhou Heng shook his head and chuckled. “Mr. Nie is not young anymore, right? And being a martial artist of the Secret Six Rank True Energy Realm, having taken a lawful wife and two concubines, how come you don’t have even one son?”

“Killing a person is no more than a nod, why must you mock me so?” Nie Yu huffed coldly.

“It seems Mr. Nie is unwilling to answer this question,” Zhou Heng stood up, shook his head gently, and looking down at Nie Yu, said, “You know I am a disciple of Pure Yang Palace, and you have seen me wield Pure Yang True Qi, so you should know I have a special sensitivity to Yang Energy.”

In the process of the prior engagement, through the contact of True Qi, he had sensed a deficiency in the Yang Energy within Anhe Prefecture Governor Nie Yu’s body, which seemed to be caused by some strange injury, or as if he was under some kind of ban.

Such a level of Yang Energy deficiency could very well lead to a situation where one only has daughters in their offspring.

Furthermore, the garden array of Nie Yu’s mansion called “Forest Protects the Mountain”, has not only defensive capabilities but also follows the principle of the Five Elements generating each other, where wood generates fire, thus nurturing Yang Energy.

Then, recalling what he had learned from the constable Qu Tai earlier.

Zhou Heng then had some speculation.

“You, I…”

Nie Yu wanted to explain further, but since Zhou Heng had already made his point so clear, he had no room to quibble. He shouted loudly, “I just wanted a son, what’s wrong with that? I never expected that ghost to target Ah Jin, I never did!”

“So it really was you who brought the ghost!” Zhou Heng’s eyes narrowed slightly, his initial guess now confirmed by Nie Yu’s reaction. He immediately squatted down and stared into Nie Yu’s eyes, “How did you summon it?”

Previously, at Zhou Tian Boundary Officer, he had learned some information about “humans attracting ghosts.”

Normally, it was almost always the ghosts who would seek out the people with weaknesses in their spirit and then tempt them to complete a possession, thereby gradually taking over the body.

However, there were also some abnormal cases.

That is when people, misled by evil spirits, might come to possess some means of summoning ghosts.

And for certain objectives, they would deliberately bring forth ghosts.

Typically, these individuals do not realize that what they have summoned are ghosts; they tend to believe they have summoned mysterious entities that could help fulfill their wishes.

But Nie Yu was different; as the Governor of Anhe Prefecture, a local administrator aware of frequencies of ghosts, evil creatures, and demon entities.

He should not have been so easily deluded, nor should he have actively summoned ghosts.

“I, I don’t know, don’t know, don’t know…” Nie Yu’s voice trembled, a look of utter terror suddenly appearing in his eyes, he murmured, “Half a year ago, yes, it was half a year ago, I heard a voice whispering in my ear, what it said… what it said… Ah!!”

All at once, he screamed, and from his mouth came a blackened ancient finger, as if growing directly from his throat, pinning down his tongue.

Then, the teeth in Nie Yu’s upper and lower jaws twisted and changed, turning into bony fingers!

These dozens of fingers flailed above and below, like eerie palms extending out from his mouth, grabbing onto his upper and lower jaws.

With a fierce prying motion!

Crack!

The upper half of Nie Yu’s head, a martial artist of the Secret Six Rank Innate, was directly torn open by these dozens of grotesque fingers, and the upper part split at the mouth, was completely flipped away.

Rolled on the ground, his eyes wide open, filled with fear, as if he had seen something unspeakably horrific just before death.

This sudden change sent chills down Zhou Heng’s spine, and raised the hair on his skin as he made a split-second decision to leap back and propel his flying sword into the sky.

“What is that? An evil creature?!” Zhou Heng stood midair, looking down in shock and consternation at “Nie Yu’s” corpse.

All that remained of the head was the jaw, as the dark bone spikes that had transformed from teeth scratched incessantly at the surrounding flesh.

In the blink of an eye, the remaining skin on the head began to split apart, with more dark bone spikes emerging from within. Soon after, bone spikes grew from every part of the body—neck, shoulders, arms, torso—crowded and numerous, creating a scene of horrifying eeriness.

The initial spike that had grown from the throat was the thickest, seemingly the core among the multitude of bone spikes.

It swayed gently, and between its movements, it suddenly split open to reveal an eyeball.

At the same time, the tips of the countless spikes all split open to grow eyeballs, turning their ‘heads’ in unison to stare at Zhou Heng, who was flying above.

Zhou Heng felt as if his thoughts had been frozen by an extremely sinister power, rendering him unable to move. Under the gaze of the numerous eyes, he couldn’t even twitch a finger.

However, at that moment, a warm and gentle power suddenly surged from within him, spreading outwards and dispelling the sinister force, allowing Zhou Heng’s thoughts to return to normal.

This was the power of the Cave Sky.

No sooner had he regained the ability to move than Zhou Heng, without hesitation, formed a sword technique with his hand, once again invoking the Taoist formulas with the Treasure Soldier Purple Lightning Flying Sword.

“Divine Sword Thunder Control!”

“Five Thunder Righteous Method!”

The resplendent thunder and lightning illuminated heaven and earth, almost turning the Prefectural Lord’s garden into a world of lightning itself, where gold and purple light intertwined, penetrating the firmament and allowing everyone in Anhe Prefecture City to see clearly.

Martial artists and ordinary people alike were left dumbstruck by the thunder that seemed like a heavenly punishment, feeling their hearts palpitate even just watching it.

Sheng Xinrou was also completely astounded, her pupils reflecting the purple-gold lightning as she murmured, “This, this is not martial arts, this is the work of an immortal among men!”

Jade Flower Jewelry Store.

Weng Kang walked out of the shop with his spouse, staring blankly at the distant purple-gold lightning, seemingly moved by the sights. He gently closed his eyes and sighed, “Thank you, Uncle-Master, a thousand thanks, thank you, my sect!”

But no matter how shocked the outside world was by the power of the thunder, Zhou Heng himself was acutely aware that the bizarre evil creature that had transformed from Nie Yu’s body had not been killed.

Under the assault of Five Thunder Righteous Method and Divine Sword Thunder Control executed by the Treasure Soldier Purple Lightning Flying Sword, less than thirty percent of the bone spikes had been extinguished. The remaining spikes continued to writhe, their eyeball-tipped ends still roving.

Normally, such an attack unleashed by Zhou Heng at his full power, added to the boost from his base attributes, should be enough to obliterate even a peak Secret Sixth Rank demon entity.

Yet this bizarre evil creature remained mostly intact!

It was simply inconceivable.

Or could it be that this bizarre creature was already infinitely close to, or perhaps had even reached, the level of a Sect Fifth Rank?

“Humans, you, cannot kill, this lord,” the friction of the bone spikes strangely produced a talking voice, though it was sharp and grating to the ear which could muddle one’s thoughts.

Nonetheless, Zhou Heng was unaffected. His expression unchanged, he raised a hand and summoned the Purple Lightning Flying Sword to his palm. With a light flick, it transformed into a longsword wrapped in purple lightning.

“Whether I can kill you or not, we shall only know once you’re slain!

“Kill!”

Zhou Heng shouted fiercely, his body’s golden light surged wildly towards the heavens, and the purple lightning sword in his hand blazed brightly. The sky and earth roared incessantly with thunderous noise!

His eyes locked on the bizarre evil creature below, he swung down his sword in a powerful slash!

“”

This sword unleashed all the True Qi within his body, whether it be Longevity True Qi or Pure Yang True Qi, all flowing into this sword like rivers reversing into it.

This sword, as if an Immortal commanded thunder, the moment it slashed down, conjured up all the thunder light pervading heaven and earth, transforming into a fierce and tyrannical blade light, leaping through the sky and enveloping the entire mansion garden.

This sword, in just an instant, completely exhausted all of Zhou Heng’s True Qi.

But immediately afterward, a stream of extremely pure heaven and earth vitality surged forth as if out of nowhere, and after being refined in his dantian, Longevity True Qi and Pure Yang True Qi were once again plentiful.

Thus, Zhou Heng suddenly withdrew his longsword and immediately slashed downward again, no different from the previous sword stroke, and once again exhausted all the True Qi in his body.

As the Cave Sky vitality replenished again, Zhou Heng unleashed another sword strike!

One sword!

Two swords!

Three swords!

…

Nine Swords!

Zhou Heng fought with all his strength, each sword draining all his True Qi, pushing beyond what his current cultivation realm could possibly sustain. Nine consecutive swords, yet each and every one was like a saber, and every sabre stroke as thunder!

Boom!!

Purple-gold thunder light followed the “blade light” down, supremely unyielding and yang, infinitely domineering, strike after strike, as if piercing through the nine heavens!

As if to deliver heavenly punishment and shatter everything in the human world!

Turn the sword into a saber!

Purple Thunder Blade Skill!

Wild Thunder Shakes the Nine Heavens!!

These nine purple-gold thunders, like heavenly punishments, struck the ancient and strange evil creature precisely, intertwining like purple-gold thunder dragons coiling and grinding it into the center!

“Congratulations! You have slain the unbeatable demonic contaminant ‘Nie Yu,’ Fortune Bag [Silver] +3.”

Finally, the reward prompt sounded.

This signified that the bizarre evil creature with countless dark bone fingers, which had made one’s scalp tingle, had finally been killed by Zhou Heng’s Wild Thunder Shakes the Nine Heavens.

The fifth form of the Purple Thunder Blade Skill was a genuinely legitimate force of heaven and earth, essentially an Upper Third Rank Divine Skill, and its power was indeed extraordinary.

Of course, the consumption was also immense.

Let alone an ordinary Secret Six Rank Innate, even a martial artist like Zhou Heng, who had cultivated two streams of True Qi, could actually not unleash its full power. He still needed the replenishment of Cave Sky vitality.

“Unbeatable, for me, such caliber of enemies are probably already infinitely close to Sect Fifth Rank,” Zhou Heng said as he took a deep breath and felt somewhat drained in spirit.

True Qi could be replenished by Cave Sky vitality, but the exhaustion from intense battle wasn’t limited to just True Qi. The weariness of the spirit had no way to be replenished; one could only rest and recuperate.

“Hm? What is this…”

At this moment, Zhou Heng’s Divine Sense stirred, suddenly sensing something.

He felt a strand of extremely fine Yellow Mystery essence entwined around his hand holding the Purple Lightning Sword.

The Absolute Fourth Rank Taoist Formula “Yellow Mystery Pagoda Manual” that was originally completely impossible to cultivate, suddenly made a little progress.

“Congratulations! You’ve collected meritorious qi from the Yellow Mystery, enhancing your comprehension of the Taoist Formula ‘Yellow Mystery Pagoda Manual’ [Absolute Fourth Rank], proficiency +0.001.”

It’s actually meritorious qi!

Zhou Heng felt somewhat surprised. Although this bit of meritorious qi was extremely faint, even negligible, it was nonetheless a start for his cultivation of the formidable Taoist Formula ‘Yellow Mystery Pagoda Manual’.

Afterward, he slowly descended from the sky and arrived at the spot where the grand demon contamination had been, which was now nothing but a patch of charred land, not even ashes remained.

“Since I could receive meritorious qi as feedback from heaven and earth, it means that thing was indeed comparable to a Sect Fifth Rank.” Zhou Heng looked at the scorched ground and thought to himself, “And it didn’t fight back or defend at all throughout the ordeal…”

This also meant that what he had fought with all his might to kill was actually just a target comparable to a Sect Fifth Rank, and it was also subject to the restraint of his basic attributes.

If he were facing a true Fifth Rank Sect Master, relying solely on his own strength, he would undoubtedly die.

“Grandmasters, their strength is indeed terrifying.”

Zhou Heng slightly composed himself and then turned to look at the other side where Nie Yu’s half-head lay with dozens of pitch-black bone fingers still attached, though they no longer moved.

These pitch-black bone fingers looked very much like the half of a pitch-black finger that had broken out of the seal in Huangtong Mansion City. Just half a bone finger required the projection of Yan Shouyi, a Celestial Man, to suppress it.

However, since then Zhou Heng hadn’t found a chance to inquire about the origin of that grand demon bone finger; unexpectedly, he encountered something very similar to that bone finger this time.

—For demon entities of the Upper Third Rank, they are generally called great demons, demon lords, and demon gods, corresponding to Heaven Third Rank, Taoist Second Rank, and Divine First Rank respectively.

“A grand demon contamination, could it be that Nie Yu was contaminated by that half of the grand demon finger bone from Huangtong Mansion City?” Zhou Heng guessed in his heart and also felt somewhat worried, “If Anhe Prefecture city is contaminated by that demon finger bone, then what about Huangtong Mansion City?”

With this thought, he felt an urgent need to return, wishing he could rush to Huangtong Mansion City right away.

“No, sharpening the knife does not delay the chopping of firewood, I should first return to Purple Tenuity Palace to inquire about the origin of this thing,” Zhou Heng took a deep breath and settled his scattered thoughts.

Hum!

Just at that moment, the head that had previously stopped moving suddenly trembled, emitting purplish-black smoke from its seven orifices, and the dozens of pitch-black bone fingers began to move again.

Boom!

Zhou Heng casually threw a Palm Thunder to continuously convulse the dying head, preventing it from moving again, but he didn’t overconfidently approach the half-head directly.

Instead, he crafted a sphere of lightning to contain the half-head, and threw this sphere into his Cave Sky world for storage.

With his current cultivation realm, a thunderball condensed from True Qi should be able to last half an hour.

After that, Zhou Heng returned to the Yuhua Treasure Shop, briefly explained the situation to Weng Kang, informing him that the truth was uncovered and the real culprit had been killed, but he couldn’t divulge more details.

Weng Kang was already very satisfied with the outcome, thanking Zhou Heng profusely, and gave him a silver note worth a hundred thousand taels. Zhou Heng couldn’t refuse it and thus reluctantly accepted it.

As for the matters of the prefectural city’s yamen, they would be handled by the County City yamen.

…

Zhou Heng arrived in front of Purple Tenuity Palace and met with The Supreme and Tian Li.

After giving a respectful bow, he took out the thunderball, retrieved the half-head from it, and asked, “Do you senior predecessors recognize this bone finger?”

“Is it that one?!”

The Supreme and Tian Li exclaimed in unison, both stepping back several steps.

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