Six-Legged Giant-Headed Beast

This was the first existence Zhou Heng had encountered that could survive the First Form of Heaven-Soaring. He had never expected it not to be human, but a demonic beast!

A demonic beast at Bone Refining Peak was indeed powerful! But more importantly, he was still too weak. The power of heaven and earth he could gather was pitifully small, leaving him unable to unleash the true might of the Heaven-Soaring Nine Styles.

If he were in the Bone Refining Realm now, this sword strike would surely have pierced straight through the Six-Legged Giant-Headed Beast's neck!

Zhou Heng slid his foot, unfolded the Flying Cloud Steps, and easily evaded the demonic beast's furious counterattack.

While he stood there wallowing in self-pity, Lin Fuxiang was so shocked that her little mouth fell open.

Over the past ten days, although she had not gotten to know Zhou Heng very well, she knew that this brat was only at the Sixth Layer of Body Refining.

But who had ever seen a Sixth Layer of Body Refining cultivator this fierce?

"Roar—" The Six-Legged Giant-Headed Beast kept letting out low growls, its bell-sized eyes radiating bloodthirst. Pain drove it mad, bloodshed enraged it. It had to swallow this damned human alive!

Zhou Heng lightly tapped the ground and unfolded the Flying Cloud Steps. Once more, he merged with heaven and earth. With every stride, it was as though the earth itself sprang him forward, as though the air pushed from behind, sending his speed soaring as he weaved freely through the Six-Legged Giant-Headed Beast's attacks.

But without a sword, he could no longer attack either. For the moment, neither side could do anything to the other.

"Brat, catch the sword!" Lin Fuxiang finally came to her senses. With a flick of her right hand, a streak of cold light shot toward Zhou Heng.

Zhou Heng reached out and caught it, and a longsword appeared in his hand. Its blade was like a pool of autumn water, its cold gleam dazzling. The moment he grasped it, his confidence surged. As he raised the sword, it seemed to stir all of heaven and earth!

Swish! He swung his sword!

A flash of fear passed through the Six-Legged Giant-Headed Beast's eyes. It had suffered under this sword before.

It clearly saw the sword stabbing toward it, yet it could not summon even the slightest thought of dodging. It was as though it ought to be struck by this sword; otherwise, it would be making an enemy of heaven and earth! But a powerful will to survive surged through it, and at the very instant between a spark and flint, the Six-Legged Giant-Headed Beast let out a thunderous roar and shifted its head and neck a few inches.

Pfft!

Blood splashed. This sword stabbed into the demonic beast's neck, the blade entering its flesh as though plunging into tofu. The tip emerged directly from the other side!

Unfortunately, the sword had been off by a fraction and failed to pierce straight through the demonic beast's throat!

The Six-Legged Giant-Headed Beast roared and swung its claws at Zhou Heng with utter disregard for everything else.

Having learned from the previous experience, Zhou Heng immediately yanked hard, pulling the longsword from the demonic beast's body and bringing out a spray of blood. He could not help secretly praising this sword as truly extraordinary. Otherwise, it could never have pierced the Six-Legged Giant-Headed Beast's head and neck!

Still, this demonic beast was indeed worthy of being a Bone Refining Realm existence. Having suffered from the first sword strike, it actually gained some ability to resist the second!

With the Flying Cloud Steps unfolded, Zhou Heng kept circling around, dodging the Six-Legged Giant-Headed Beast's frenzied counterattacks.

The first sword had not caused the demonic beast too much harm, and the sword remaining in its neck had even slowed the loss of blood to some extent. But the second sword was different. It had pierced straight through the Six-Legged Giant-Headed Beast's neck, and blood sprayed wildly as it drained at an alarming rate.

Though the Six-Legged Giant-Headed Beast was enormous, even it could not endure such a mad torrent of blood loss.

"Roar!" This demonic beast was no fool. After attacking for so long without even touching Zhou Heng's sleeve, it decisively gave up the entanglement and instead turned to attack Lin Fuxiang.

Lin Fuxiang's face immediately drained of color. Though she too was in the Bone Refining Realm, how could she contend head-on with a demonic beast of the same realm? Moreover, she did not know the Flying Cloud Steps, and she had lent out her weapon. What could she use to stop it?

She pushed off the ground and darted diagonally to the left.

Whoosh! A mass of shadow fell over her head. Lin Fuxiang looked up to see that the Six-Legged Giant-Headed Beast had already leaped above her, blood spraying from it like a fine rain.

How could she possibly compare to a demonic beast in speed?

As the demonic beast's savage giant head drew ever closer, Lin Fuxiang cried out sharply and raised both palms, striking out with all she had.

She would die!

Though it had not happened yet, Zhou Heng could already infer the final outcome from the Six-Legged Giant-Headed Beast's posture and force as it pounced, just as he could easily see through Lin Fuxiang's swordsmanship. Everything could be deduced!

He thought of how she had coquettishly called him Senior again and again, of her furious embarrassment when she learned the truth, of how her clumsy hands could turn even a roasted pheasant into charcoal. A fierce stirring rose in Zhou Heng's heart.

She did not deserve to die here!

Zhou Heng roared furiously and gave chase with the Flying Cloud Steps. In that instant, a new understanding suddenly came to him, as though all the mysteries of heaven and earth had unfolded before his eyes.

Heaven-Soaring Second Style!

He desperately unleashed every bit of strength in his body, changing the thrust into a slash and swinging viciously at the Six-Legged Giant-Headed Beast. With the First Form of Heaven-Soaring as his foundation, he had mastered the form of the Heaven-Soaring Second Style in only ten days, but he had never been able to comprehend its essence.

But now, enlightenment came in a rush!

Heaven and earth rumbled, sword light flashed like lightning!

Die!

Pfft!

With one slash, the Six-Legged Giant-Headed Beast's entire head was severed, and blood immediately gushed out like water from a pump.

Zhou Heng felt a fierce wave of weakness wash over him and involuntarily collapsed onto the ground. Pop, pop, pop—blood vessels beneath his skin burst one after another, every muscle in his body seeming to groan in pain beyond description.

With the strength he currently possessed, he was not truly qualified to execute the Heaven-Soaring Second Style. Thus, it had inflicted a tremendous backlash on him as well. Fortunately, only some insignificant blood vessels had burst, and the bleeding soon stopped, though he was still dyed into a man of blood.

Yet Zhou Heng felt even more delight. He had finally learned the Heaven-Soaring Second Style!

Only after hearing his heavy panting did Lin Fuxiang come back to herself. When she saw the headless demonic beast, she was so shocked that her eyes widened in disbelief.

One sword strike had severed the head of a Bone Refining Realm demonic beast? Hiss, this was a Ninth Layer of Body Refining demonic beast! Its bones were as tough as refined iron. Though Zhou Heng had used her treasured sword, could he truly have cut through the Six-Legged Giant-Headed Beast's neck bones with one stroke?

The facts lay right before her eyes. Believe it or not, she had no choice but to believe!

After the terror faded, Lin Fuxiang gradually recovered herself. She could not help kicking the demonic beast's corpse with her lotus feet to vent her anger. It had frightened her so badly—it was simply detestable!

After venting enough, she burst out laughing. "Father will definitely be shocked when he sees that I hunted a Ninth Layer of Body Refining demonic beast! Hmm, I'll skin it and make Father a robe!"

This heartless woman—could she not see that there was still a severely injured patient lying beside her, covered in blood?

Zhou Heng reluctantly sat cross-legged and circulated the Moon Shadow Heart Art to restore his True Essence Power.

Cultivation techniques did not necessarily require a fixed posture, but sitting cross-legged seemed to open the meridians throughout the body more fully, making it easier for True Essence Power to circulate. Thus, most people cultivated in this position.

One cycle, two cycles—only after circulating his True Essence Power through four or five cycles did Zhou Heng barely recover a little strength.

He rose to his feet and headed deeper into the cave.

Demonic beasts possessed a powerful sense of territory, so there could absolutely not be a second demonic beast nearby. There was no need to wait until he had fully recovered.

"Hey, where are you going?" Seeing Zhou Heng walk away, Lin Fuxiang hurriedly asked.

"Our agreement has been fulfilled. I helped you kill a demonic beast, so we're even!" Zhou Heng did not look back, merely waving a hand.

"Hey, hey, hey—" Lin Fuxiang chased after him and walked shoulder to shoulder with Zhou Heng.

Zhou Heng frowned. "Why are you following me?"

"Who said this young lady was following you?" Lin Fuxiang snorted disdainfully. "Demonic beast lairs usually hide treasures. This young lady is going to inspect the spoils!"

Zhou Heng shrugged and ignored this young miss, making Lin Fuxiang wrinkle her nose again in irritation.

The cave was neither dark nor gloomy. Every stone gave off a faint glow. Zhou Heng had heard that these were called Star Stones. They could shine in darkness and were quite valuable materials.

However, the cost of cutting these stones out and transporting them down the mountain would have long exceeded their selling price. No fool would do such business.

After walking more than a hundred meters, three branching paths appeared ahead. Following the direction indicated by the Black Sword in his Dantian, Zhou Heng headed into the middle cave.

"You know the way?" After staring blankly for a moment, Lin Fuxiang immediately followed after him again.

"No." Zhou Heng replied coolly.

This conceited bastard!

Lin Fuxiang gritted her teeth and followed behind Zhou Heng in a huff without saying another word. But why was she following this brat? Even she could not figure it out.

This cave was vast and complicated. Before they had gone far, another fork appeared. Zhou Heng merely memorized the route they had traveled while advancing in the direction indicated by the Black Sword.

Around twenty minutes later, Zhou Heng stopped. This was the direction the Black Sword had pointed toward.

"Haha, you're lost too?" Lin Fuxiang had long since become utterly disoriented. Seeing Zhou Heng stop, she immediately rejoiced—she was happy whenever she saw Zhou Heng run into trouble.

Zhou Heng ignored her and simply searched the surroundings for anything that might resemble a treasure.

Clink, clink, clink. He began tapping the rocks with the tip of his sword.

"Hey, that's my sword! Don't damage it!" Lin Fuxiang hurriedly shouted. This Frost Cold Sword had taken her father enormous effort to forge for her, and she treasured it dearly.

Though the Frost Cold Sword was embedded with incomparably precious Molybdenum Gold, making it immensely hard enough to cut gold and jade, how could she not feel distressed seeing it used as a hammer on rocks?

Zhou Heng ignored her and made a few more cuts. Crack! A slab of stone was forcibly sliced off.

It truly was a treasured sword!

Zhou Heng was almost too fond of it to return it to Lin Fuxiang. Swish, swish, swish—after several more strikes, he carved a huge hole into the cave wall.

"What exactly are you doing?" Lin Fuxiang did not believe Zhou Heng could be bored enough to carve rocks for amusement.

Zhou Heng reached into the large hole. After feeling around for a while, he withdrew his hand holding a small stone shard, entirely white and crystalline, like a fine piece of jade.

"Eh, this is—" Lin Fuxiang snatched the shard away. After examining it carefully in her hand for a while, an expression of boundless delight immediately appeared on her face. "Do you know what this is? Do you know what this is?"

She was just short of jumping up and down.

"I don't." Zhou Heng shook his head.

"This is Earth Rock Cloud Stone!"