King of Heng Mountain

Early the next morning, Zhou Cheng swallowed a Nine-Orifice Golden Pill. Under the pill's potent medicinal power, the final meridian was finally opened.

The moment the barrier in his Heaven Meridian gave way, Zhou Cheng's inner force roared wildly, surging through his ten meridians like a breached dam unleashing a tsunami.

He had finally reached Qi Refining Level Ten.

The instant he broke through, Zhou Cheng felt the rich, surging inner force within him and suddenly threw a punch.

His fist force turned into a streak of light, like a bolt of lightning, and slammed into a boulder the height of a man more than twenty meters away.

Boom!

The boulder shattered into countless grains of dust that scattered through the air.

This boulder was made of extremely hard meteorite iron, used by inner disciples to practice their palm strength. It could withstand the power of someone at Qi Refining Level Ten. Yet just now, from more than twenty meters away, Zhou Cheng had reduced it to dust with one punch.

With his current strength, he could easily kill someone at Xiantian Level Three.

Zhou Cheng checked the system's character panel.

Host: Zhou Cheng

Northern Dark Divine Technique: Qi Refining Level Ten, progress 11

Primordial Boundless Scripture: Spirit Wandering Realm, progress 64

Black Tortoise Divine Body: Minor Achievement, progress 1

Indestructible Vajra Divine Body: Minor Achievement, progress 1

These past few days, after continually swallowing Nine-Orifice Golden Pills, both Divine Bodies had advanced from Initial Achievement to Minor Achievement.

However, after both Divine Bodies reached Minor Achievement, he found that swallowing Nine-Orifice Golden Pills no longer had any effect. So they had remained at 1 for the past few days.

As for his three martial techniques, the Demon-Subduing Saber Technique had reached the pinnacle, while the Spirit Monkey Hundred Transformations Movement Technique and Taiyi Sword Technique had both reached the realm of perfection.

Just then, an inner disciple came to find Zhou Cheng. He said that the three great sects had earned merit by eliminating the Demonic Cult, and Emperor Zhu Xuan of Great Feng had invited the disciples who had contributed to the campaign to the Imperial Palace. He would personally reward the ten who had contributed the most.

"Reward us in person?" Zhou Cheng said, watching the inner disciple leave.

Before he knew it, he had been away from the Capital City for more than thirty days.

On this return to the Capital City, he could spend more time with his father and mother. That would be nice.

Before leaving, Zhou Cheng went to spend a while with his master, Xing Yao.

Afterward, he rode off from the Ten Thousand Stars Sect with Qin Meng and the other three.

On the mountain peak, Gao Yi watched Zhou Cheng and Qin Meng's group ride away, his eyes cold.

Three days later.

It was night.

As Zhou Cheng and the others passed Vicious Tiger Mountain in Central Province, they stopped.

Looking at Vicious Tiger Mountain, Zhou Cheng couldn't help remembering the scene from a month ago, when they had wiped out the Golden Snake Gang.

"Let's take a look up the mountain," Zhou Cheng said.

When Zhou Cheng and Qin Meng's group returned to Vicious Tiger Mountain, they saw ruin everywhere: shattered walls and burned-out buildings as far as the eye could see.

Zhou Cheng went to the Golden Snake Gang's main hall. He and Qin Meng's group tidied it up a little, then lit a bonfire.

Sitting cross-legged by the fire, Zhou Cheng meditated until he entered a trance. His spirit left his body and rose into the air.

Now that he had reached the middle stage of the Spirit Wandering Realm, his spirit had grown much stronger than before and could travel at night.

Zhou Cheng's spirit drifted outward like a falling leaf.

When it reached the wall of the main hall, Zhou Cheng willed it forward, and his spirit passed straight through.

The spirit was formless and intangible, so it could pass through solid objects.

Once outside, Zhou Cheng's spirit continued flying outward, and he gradually picked up speed.

Although his spirit had grown stronger day by day, Zhou Cheng still didn't dare fly too fast. If he did, the wind would tug at it, bringing a tearing pain.

So, even at its fastest, Zhou Cheng's spirit could only reach the speed of an ordinary person sprinting a hundred meters.

Any faster, and his spirit couldn't take it.

Because Zhou Cheng cultivated the Primordial Boundless Scripture, his spirit was sturdier than that of others in the same realm. Other Spirit Wandering Realm cultivators were even slower; they could only jog along like ordinary people.

Zhou Cheng's spirit drifted over the mountainside and through the dense weeds and woods, finally reaching the edge of a cliff.

Just as Zhou Cheng's spirit was about to fly across to the opposite bank, a sudden gust blew up from the bottom of the cliff. His spirit was struck like a carriage had slammed into it and sent flying.

Then another gust blew, knocking Zhou Cheng's spirit away again.

After several consecutive gusts, Zhou Cheng's spirit nearly scattered.

With great difficulty, Zhou Cheng's spirit finally returned to his Life Palace.

Even so, the several gusts had injured his spirit.

Zhou Cheng felt dazed, his head splitting with pain.

Suddenly, an enormous deity appeared above Zhou Cheng's Life Palace. Divine light poured from the figure, and only after bathing in its radiance did Zhou Cheng's spirit recover.

This deity was Primordial Heavenly Venerable, one of the three supreme deities of Taoism.

Only after Zhou Cheng's spirit had recovered did the statue of Primordial Heavenly Venerable disappear.

Zhou Cheng let out a sigh of relief. His back was drenched in cold sweat. Though he was now in the middle stage of the Spirit Wandering Realm and his spirit was sturdier than it had been a few days ago, it still couldn't withstand a gale like that. He would have to be careful from now on.

No wonder people said that cultivating the Dao was a hundred times more perilous than practicing martial arts. If one's spirit wasn't sturdy, it could be blown apart by a powerful gust while traveling through the night.

If one's spirit was blown apart, there was only one outcome: death, body and soul.

Just then, the Primordial Boundless Scripture began cultivating on its own, drawing the power of the stars from the night sky. One stream after another plunged down into the top of his head.

Cultivating the Dao meant meditating, visualizing, and drawing in the energy of heaven and earth to temper one's spirit, making it ever sturdier and stronger.

Other Daoist scriptures could generally draw in the power of the stars only at night to temper the spirit. But the Primordial Boundless Scripture could draw in all kinds of energy from heaven and earth to temper his spirit, whether it was night or day.

That was why Zhou Cheng had advanced to the middle stage of the Spirit Wandering Realm so quickly.

At the rate his spirit was cultivating now, by the time he returned to the Capital City in a few days, he should be able to break through to the Object Manipulation Realm.

A night passed.

Zhou Cheng and Qin Meng's group descended Vicious Tiger Mountain and continued on their way.

But when they passed Salt City near Vicious Tiger Mountain, they heard many people discussing the Golden Snake Gang.

"The Golden Snake Gang's leader, Nangong Xie, is the younger brother of Nangong Xiong of Heng Mountain! After Nangong Xie was killed, Nangong Xiong sent experts to investigate the culprit."

"Nangong Xiong? The King of Heng Mountain?"

"Who else would dare call himself Nangong Xiong, if not the King of Heng Mountain?"

Listening to the crowd's discussion, Zhou Cheng remained calm.

Nangong Xiong?

In the south of the Great Feng Dynasty lay Heng Mountain, a paradise for bandits. There were three or four hundred thousand bandits in the hills.

The largest and strongest gang in Heng Mountain was the Flying Dragon Gang, with forty or fifty thousand members. Its power was formidable, no weaker than the Demonic Cult at its peak decades ago.

The Flying Dragon Gang's leader, Nangong Xiong, was hailed as the King of Heng Mountain.

At the mention of Nangong Xiong, the various sects of the Great Feng Dynasty blanched. Even the three great sects wouldn't lightly provoke the Flying Dragon Gang.

With hundreds of thousands of bandits entrenched in Heng Mountain for years, and the terrain steep and dangerous, even the imperial court could not wipe them out. So the court could only turn a blind eye.

Zhou Cheng rode without stopping. Four days later, the Capital City appeared in the distance.

By then, it had been seven days since Zhou Cheng broke through to Qi Refining Level Ten.

Zhou Cheng had already reached the late-stage peak of Qi Refining Level Ten.