Who Was This Man?

Zhou Cheng said coldly, "That's right. I ordered the Four Great Dharma Kings killed."

The Demon Face Left Envoy's eyes blazed with murderous intent. He laughed, his voice like a night owl's, then suddenly shot into the air and swung his long saber at Zhou Cheng again.

This time, he was even faster, and his blade aura was even stronger!

"Two Xiantian Seventh Level fighters are nothing!"

"Today, all five of you will die!"

Zhou Cheng had brought only Qin Meng and the other three with him, making five in total.

As the Demon Face Left Envoy's saber came slashing toward Zhou Cheng, a streak of light appeared without warning. With a shrill whistle, it shot toward the Demon Face Left Envoy's throat.

The Demon Face Left Envoy was startled and twisted aside in a desperate dodge. The streak of light just grazed his throat before piercing a large tree dozens of meters away.

He broke into a cold sweat.

When he looked over, he saw a great bow in Jiang Chen's hands. He had no idea when it had appeared.

Another Xiantian Seventh Level fighter!

Qin Meng and Lin Ru leaped forward at the same time, attacking from either side with saber and sword.

Yang Yu thrust out his spear as well. In an instant, eighteen spear shadows appeared, enveloping the Demon Face Left Envoy from head to toe.

When he saw Yang Yu attack, the Demon Face Left Envoy's expression finally changed. Another Xiantian Seventh Level fighter!

Who was the owner of the Demon God Smithy? How could four Xiantian Seventh Level experts be at his side?

Suddenly, two more flashes of cold light streaked toward him. He dodged in a panic as two arrows skimmed past his face. Jiang Chen drew his bow and fired again.

With Qin Meng, Lin Ru, and Yang Yu attacking at close range, and Jiang Chen raining arrows down from afar, the Demon Face Left Envoy was forced back again and again, his fury mounting.

"Mad Demon Blade!"

He leaped into the air and spun his long saber. Blade aura whirled like a spinning top, grinding toward Qin Meng and the others.

But Qin Meng and the other two used a Roc Spreading Its Wings move and sprang into the air, dodging his blade aura one after another.

In the blink of an eye, the five of them had exchanged more than a dozen moves. Every strike was deadly, every move perilous. Under their blade aura and Sword Qi, the trees in the surrounding woods were shorn down one after another.

Yang Yu's spear repeatedly pierced through the trunks of trees so wide that a man could barely wrap his arms around them.

What shocked the Demon Face Left Envoy was that Qin Meng and the others were far stronger than he had imagined. Though all four were Xiantian Seventh Level, their combat strength was in no way inferior to that of many Xiantian Level Nine fighters.

And Jiang Chen's arrows from afar were impossible to guard against. After exchanging blows for a while, the Demon Face Left Envoy found himself constantly on the defensive, barely able to attack.

After more than thirty moves, Qin Meng's blade aura cut across the Demon Face Left Envoy's right arm, instantly staining his sleeve red.

As the battle wore on, his injuries steadily grew worse.

Whenever the Demon Face Left Envoy tried to escape, Jiang Chen's arrows drove him back.

After a hundred moves, more than a dozen wounds marred his body.

Blood had nearly soaked his entire upper body.

Instead, he calmed down. He knew that if things continued like this, he would surely die. He had to find a way to turn the tables. Suddenly, he spotted Zhou Cheng standing some distance away.

He hurled his long saber, forcing Qin Meng and the others back, then darted toward Zhou Cheng and struck out with a grappling technique, trying to seize him.

Just then, a deafening phoenix cry rang out through heaven and earth. The inconspicuous little ice-blue bird perched on Zhou Cheng's shoulder shimmered with light, then transformed in an instant into a ferocious beast more than ten meters long.

The Ice Snow Phoenix struck the Demon Face Left Envoy squarely in the chest with one claw.

The Demon Face Left Envoy was sent flying, spewing blood.

His face filled with terror and disbelief as he stared at the enormous beast. "A divine phoenix!"

At that moment, Qin Meng's long saber flew through the air and pierced straight through the Demon Face Left Envoy's chest.

Blood gushed from his mouth. Lying on his back, he suddenly grinned. "I never thought that after roaming the world all my life, I'd die here."

Zhou Cheng stepped up to him and flicked a finger, lifting his mask and revealing a gaunt face. The man looked to be in his fifties.

"Who are you?" the Demon Face Left Envoy asked weakly. "Why oppose the Demonic Cult?"

Zhou Cheng dispelled the Demon God Array from his Demon God Garment. The demonic aura around him vanished, revealing a youthful face.

Seeing Zhou Cheng's true appearance, the Demon Face Left Envoy's eyes widened. He had never imagined that the owner of the Demon God Smithy was a boy of just thirteen or fourteen.

"Why oppose your Demonic Cult?" Zhou Cheng said coldly. "My name is Zhou Cheng."

The Demon Face Left Envoy trembled. "Zhou Cheng! You're Zhou Wei's son!" He gave a bitter laugh. "So that's why. So that's why."

Just then, he suddenly yanked Qin Meng's saber free with his right hand and, with all his remaining strength, struck Zhou Cheng in the chest with his left palm.

Thud!

With his dying strength, the Demon Face Left Envoy launched a final counterattack. His palm struck Zhou Cheng in the chest.

The moment the Demon Face Left Envoy's left palm hit Zhou Cheng's chest, an astonishing force of absorption welled up from within Zhou Cheng, and the man's palm was firmly stuck to him.

Immediately afterward, the Demon Face Left Envoy was horrified to discover that the inner force in his body was pouring into Zhou Cheng's chest without end.

What was happening?!

He tried to pull his hand back, but it was stuck fast. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't free it.

Zhou Cheng was just as bewildered.

At that moment, the system's voice rang out.

"Your Northern Dark Divine Technique automatically absorbed one year of your opponent's inner force, helping you open the third meridian, the Thrusting Vessel, and advance to the third level of Qi Refining!"

Zhou Cheng's body shuddered. His third meridian, the Thrusting Vessel, had opened, and inner force surged through his Conception Vessel, Governing Vessel, and Thrusting Vessel.

But just then, Lin Ru's sword shot through the air. Zhou Cheng had only just started to call out when the blade pierced the Demon Face Left Envoy's throat.

The Demon Face Left Envoy's life force ebbed, and he fell. By the time he hit the ground, he was already dead.

Looking at the dead Demon Face Left Envoy, Zhou Cheng felt rather helpless.

If the Northern Dark Divine Technique had kept absorbing, who knew? It might have helped him open a fourth meridian, or even a fifth or sixth.

Zhou Cheng went to the corpse and searched it, finding a martial arts manual and a stack of banknotes. They were from the Great Feng Bank and had a hefty face value: one thousand taels each, more than ten thousand taels in total.

Zhou Cheng had Qin Meng take the man's long saber, then left with Qin Meng and the others.

Not long after Zhou Cheng and the others had left, a large crowd hurried over, evidently drawn by the commotion of Qin Meng and the others' fight.

They were experts from the Grand Tutor Mansion and the Six Fan Sect.

At their head was Gao Yi, the Grand Tutor's grandson.

When Gao Yi and the experts from the Grand Tutor Mansion and the Six Fan Sect arrived, they saw the devastation all around and were secretly shocked.

"What astonishing blade aura and Sword Qi!"

"That was definitely a Xiantian Grandmaster!"

"Who was this man?"

They stared at the Demon Face Left Envoy's corpse.

A Six Fan Sect constable picked up the mask beside the corpse and examined it. His expression changed. "It's the Demon Face Left Envoy's mask!"

The others were startled and crowded around.

A moment later, Gao Yi and the others turned their gazes toward the corpse.