What if I hit them?

Zhou Heng looked at Shi Qingfeng with a half-smile, considering whether he should just beat this guy up first.

After all, he had the Frost Cold Sword—entering the Nine Spirits Sect wouldn't be difficult for him!

He walked over to Shi Qingfeng, and the two locked eyes, as if fierce sparks were flying between them.

Thump!

Just then, Zhou Heng suddenly threw a punch, incredibly fast, slamming heavily into Shi Qingfeng's abdomen.

At that moment, no words could describe the expression on Shi Qingfeng's face!

—This brat actually dared to strike him? Strike! Strike! Strike! You eighteen generations of ancestors!

"Ooh—" He couldn't help but open his mouth, his body arcing through the air before crashing heavily to the ground. Thump, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Everyone was stunned!

After being led into the inn, the first instruction they received was not to start fights within the city, or they would not only lose their qualification for the assessment but also face severe punishment!

That was why they had only dared to trade verbal barbs.

But Zhou Heng was simply too domineering—without a word, he struck directly, making Shi Qingfeng's stomach churn!

Too damn arrogant! Too damn overbearing!

"Aren't they afraid of the sect's punishment?"

"I think this guy isn't bold—he's just a reckless fool!"

"The unluckiest one is still Shi Qingfeng. He never imagined anyone would dare to fight in the city, so he was caught completely off guard! Even if it was a sneak attack, his face is utterly ruined!"

After the initial shock, the crowd started murmuring again.

Upstairs, a few people noticed a deeper layer.

"Shi Qingfeng may not have been on guard, but as a martial artist, he should have instinctive defensive reflexes!" Chang Kang's lips tightened with a hint of seriousness.

"That kid's punch was so fast that Shi Qingfeng didn't even have time to react!" Zhang Zijun tapped his fingers on the windowsill, a fierce fighting spirit burning in his eyes.

"Miss, what's so interesting about this? You're a Half-Step Blood Refining Realm existence—if word got out, it would scare them all to death!" On the third-floor window to the west, a maidservant said with a disdainful expression.

Beside her stood a stunning young beauty, one of the four universally recognized prodigies, and the only female among them—Shen Xinqi.

"This young man is no simpleton!" Shen Xinqi fixed her beautiful eyes tightly on Zhou Heng.

"He doesn't look like he has three heads and six arms, Miss. What's so special about him?" The maidservant remained unconvinced.

"Just a gut feeling!" Shen Xinqi said lightly, but a confident smile curled at the corner of her lips.

All these reactions happened in a very short time. Although Shi Qingfeng had fallen hard, with his Ninth Layer of Body Refining physique, he wasn't truly injured. He immediately got up, wiped the saliva from the corner of his mouth, and his face was terrifyingly dark.

He, the super genius of the Shi Family, had been knocked to the ground!

This bastard had some nerve!

Such a profound humiliation could only be washed away by tearing him limb from limb!

But he couldn't strike now—the Nine Spirits Sect would naturally send someone to suppress Zhou Heng. If he fought back, even if it counted as self-defense, he'd still be punished, just less severely!

Endure!

This brat had dared to openly violate the rules set by the Nine Spirits Sect—he would definitely be disqualified from the assessment. Once he was driven out of the city, Shi Qingfeng could make his move!

A figure walked out with hands clasped behind his back, his vigorous blood energy palpable, blazing like a furnace. Wherever he passed, the young men involuntarily stepped back, as if getting too close would burn them to ashes.

Blood Refining Realm!

The entire scene fell into silence.

It was a burly man in his forties. He walked up to Zhou Heng and Shi Qingfeng, furrowed his thick brows, and said, "Do you think this is some backwater town you came from? Both of you, get back to your rooms!"

What!

That's it?

Where were the Nine Spirits Sect's rules? Weren't they supposed to lose their assessment qualification and face heavy punishment for fighting in the city? Why was Zhou Heng spared? And from the man's tone, he was blaming Shi Qingfeng too!

Wasn't Shi Qingfeng wronged? He was the one who got punched hard, and he hadn't even fought back—so why was he treated the same?

This judgment left not only the young men baffled, but even the three geniuses upstairs—Chang Kang, Shen Xinqi, and the others—felt dizzy, as if they might fall out the window.

Biased! Too biased!

"I don't accept this!" Shi Qingfeng roared. In the Shi Family, he was a super genius, the center of attention, long accustomed to being above others. He thought his talent would be valued anywhere, but instead of being praised, he faced blatant injustice!

"What right do you have to refuse?" The middle-aged man coldly stared at Shi Qingfeng, then suddenly threw a punch.

"Ooh—" Shi Qingfeng's entire body curled up as another blow landed on his abdomen. He was sent flying again, arcing through the air before crashing heavily to the ground.

Punched again?

Tsk!

This guy was just too unlucky!

What identity did Zhou Heng have to receive such preferential treatment?

"Everyone back to your rooms! What's the point of crowding here?" The middle-aged man said coldly. "Whoever stirs up trouble again will be immediately expelled from Fengyu City!"

His light words brushed aside everything Zhou Heng had done before.

Shi Qingfeng struggled to his feet. Zhou Heng was only at the seventh layer of Body Refining, so his damage was limited, but that middle-aged man was a genuine twelfth-layer Body Refining cultivator. With full force, he could have blasted a hole straight through Qingfeng's abdomen!

Though he had held back, the blow still left Qingfeng dizzy and disoriented, retching on the side as if he might vomit up even his stomach fluids.

Feeling pairs of eyes—some sympathetic, some gloating, some contemptuous—sweep over him, Shi Qingfeng clenched his fists in hatred. He swore he would kill Zhou Heng!

And with the cruelest method possible!

Zhou Heng smiled faintly, stepped into the inn, and returned to his room.

—That he received such differential treatment was certainly due to Feng Tengyuan's instructions to the innkeeper. He just hadn't expected the disparity to be this extreme.

Never mind that. First, he would refine the two Gathering Essence Pills and see how effective they were.

Zhou Heng sat cross-legged, took out one Gathering Essence Pill, peeled off the wax paper, and tossed it into his mouth. The pill dissolved upon entry, quickly reaching his stomach, where it transformed into billions of streams of heat that spread through his body.

These heat streams immediately turned into strands of free-floating energy, which could be directly drawn and refined.

But... Zhou Heng frowned inwardly. This free-floating energy was quite impure. He needed to first remove the impurities before refining it into True Essence Power. Compared to the free-floating energy released by the Black Broken Sword, it was on an entirely different level!

It took him an hour to refine the energy from this single Gathering Essence Pill. Roughly estimating, it was equivalent to three days of sitting in meditation and cultivation.

Though it couldn't compare to the Black Broken Sword, combined with his own hard training, it was like four days of ordinary cultivation. If he could keep getting Gathering Essence Pills, his cultivation speed would be terrifying!

But the pills contained too many impurities. After taking one, he had to expel those impurities from his body first, or they would accumulate and cause great harm to a martial artist.

The human body would naturally expel impurities, but that took about a day. So even if he had a mountain of Gathering Essence Pills, he could only take one per day at most.

Still, the energy from the Black Broken Sword would eventually run out. The Gathering Essence Pill was still an excellent resource for Zhou Heng. Unfortunately, it was too expensive, and his purse was light!

Zhou Heng's room suddenly grew lively. Crowds of young men came to visit him, first to find out what his connection to the Nine Spirits Sect really was, and second to try to build a relationship with him.

At first, Zhou Heng managed to cope, but eventually he couldn't take it anymore. He simply left the inn and wandered around this ancient city. After all, it was a large city with many novel things that Raw Stone Town didn't have.

For example, the auction house.

The auction house sold everything—beast cores, pills, techniques, weapons. If you could think of it, they had it! Of course, the prices weren't something ordinary people could afford. Zhou Heng weighed the less than ten taels of silver in his pocket and retreated in defeat.

The next day, he took his second Gathering Essence Pill. The meager six days' worth of cultivation boost couldn't even match one-tenth of the energy the Black Broken Sword released at once—a drop in the bucket!

Of course, if he could take one every day, the effect couldn't be ignored!

But one Gathering Essence Pill cost two hundred taels of silver. One pill a day meant over seventy thousand taels a year—more than the Zhou Family's entire annual income!

Indeed, poverty for scholars, wealth for warriors. The Zhou Family could be called a wealthy clan in Raw Stone Town, but in Fengyu City, they weren't much better off than beggars.

"It looks like the remaining seven days won't be enough to push my cultivation to the eighth layer of Body Refining!" Zhou Heng sighed. He paused, then suddenly realized he still didn't know what the Nine Spirits Sect's assessment actually involved.

He guessed it was probably a test of strength. After all, they were selecting martial arts prodigies, not civil examination champions.

He didn't dwell on it and instead focused on studying the Heaven-Soaring Nine Styles. Unfortunately, mastering each style required a specific breakthrough moment. He remained stuck outside the fourth style, just one step short, which gave him an urge to tear down the house in frustration.

Shi Qingfeng rarely appeared in the inn these days. According to a few people who came to visit and chat, that guy had gone to train in the Gravity Chamber at the Treasure Pavilion.

The Treasure Pavilion owned the city's only auction house. It had no connection to the three great sects, yet somehow it had seized control of this most profitable business. Strangely, the three sects hadn't grown greedy over it—a truly puzzling oddity.

The Gravity Chamber was quite remarkable. It looked like an ordinary room, but with the operation of a formation inside, the gravity was several times greater than normal. Training in such an environment didn't help increase cultivation level, but it made True Essence Power more condensed.

Moreover, by adapting to greater gravity, a martial artist could jump higher and run faster under normal conditions, genuinely boosting combat power!

But the Gravity Chamber's fees were outrageously expensive!