Finding Herk

Half an hour later, Zhou Zheng arrived near the Grand Canyon where he had been before.

Zhou Zheng descended to the bottom of the Gorge and quickly returned to the cave where they had previously hidden.

All he saw were remnants of formations.

Zhou Zheng rapidly scanned the cave, hoping to find some clues. However, from the entrance all the way to its deepest reaches, he found nothing of value.

It seemed that Herk had truly been focused solely on fleeing at the time, with no intention of reuniting with Zhou Zheng and the others. Naturally, he had not left behind any clues.

Still, it was not strange. As the only Transcendent in the group, even Herk had fled. In his eyes, Zhou Zheng and Feng Zhuhong probably had little chance of surviving.

Moreover, the time limit for this mission was about to expire. There was no real need for them to regroup.

This bastard!

Zhou Zheng silently added another mark against Herk in his heart.

He understood the other man's actions, but it was only natural that he was displeased by them as well. After all, Zhou Zheng was the one who had been abandoned.

If there was a chance in the future, Zhou Zheng would definitely settle today's score with Herk.

As Zhou Zheng pondered this, he prepared to leave the cave. However, when he reached a patch of darkness within it, he suddenly seemed to sense something and sharply turned to one side.

Whoosh!

A shadow slowly emerged from the darkness.

The shadow solidified and became humanoid in the blink of an eye. It was Feng Zhuhong.

"Lightning Swordsman, I didn't expect you to survive as well!" Feng Zhuhong said with considerable surprise.

"That should be my line!"

Zhou Zheng's expression was somewhat strange. He had only escaped the pursuit of Transcendents after breaking through again and again, yet Feng Zhuhong had somehow survived too.

"I had set up this Concealment Formation here beforehand, which was how I managed to deceive those two Transcendents," Feng Zhuhong explained. Zhou Zheng nodded slightly.

However, now that he had broken through to the Transcendental realm, he naturally understood how astonishing a Transcendent's five senses were.

An ordinary Title-level formation could never deceive a Transcendent. Feng Zhuhong had most likely grasped some kind of Myriad Profoundities as well.

Judging by the way she had appeared just now, he simply did not know whether it was Shadow Profundity or Darkness Profundity.

It was exceedingly rare for mortals to grasp Myriad Profoundities. Even among Title-level experts, only one in a thousand could usually do so.

In this team, Zhou Zheng had reached the Myriad Realms while still a mortal, and Feng Zhuhong had done the same. This could not be a coincidence!

The other team had no fewer than four Transcendents. On the surface, their strength far surpassed this team's.

Even if Herk was a Demon and stronger than ordinary Transcendents, he could not bridge such a gap.

But if all three mortals in their team possessed extraordinary abilities, then it was somewhat reasonable. That God Realm lifeform, Jit, was likely not as simple as he appeared either.

"Do you know where Herk went?" Zhou Zheng asked.

"Why are you asking about him? Don't tell me you still want to find him?" Feng Zhuhong asked, her expression somewhat odd.

Herk had abandoned the two of them without hesitation earlier. He was clearly extremely unreliable. Find him? It would be better to lie low on their own!

"Yes, I want to find Herk and deal with the other team together." Zhou Zheng nodded. Feng Zhuhong was slightly surprised, but before she could ask anything, Wind Thunder suddenly surged around Zhou Zheng.

The powerful aura instantly made Feng Zhuhong freeze.

"You broke through to the Transcendental realm?" Feng Zhuhong could hardly believe it. At the same time, her gaze toward Zhou Zheng became full of complicated emotions.

The Transcendental realm was one every mortal desperately wished to reach, but its difficulty was simply too great.

Yet Zhou Zheng, who had clearly been a mortal like her before, had now become Transcendental.

"Otherwise, I wouldn't have survived." Zhou Zheng did not explain further, but Feng Zhuhong now understood why Zhou Zheng wanted to find Herk.

"I don't know where Herk went." Feng Zhuhong shook her head, then immediately added,

"But to prevent any unforeseen circumstances, I left a tracking mark on Wang Chongshan. If Herk is still with Wang Chongshan, and neither of them has flown more than a hundred thousand li away, then I can find them!"

"Oh?"

Zhou Zheng's eyes lit up slightly. Just when all hope seemed lost, a new path had appeared.

An hour later, Zhou Zheng and Feng Zhuhong appeared near a mortal village just over three thousand li from Black Wind City.

At this moment, a blood-red rune floated before Feng Zhuhong. Upon reaching this place, it silently dissipated.

"The two of them are here," Feng Zhuhong said. Zhou Zheng nodded slightly.

Just then, a plump figure abruptly appeared outside the village.

"So it really is you two. I thought I had misheard!" Herk said with a rather strange expression. "But for both of you to survive, that truly is beyond my expectations."

"Hmph!"

Feng Zhuhong snorted coldly. Zhou Zheng also felt like chopping this bastard to death.

However, killing teammates within the Temporal Temple required Time-Space Points as punishment. Zhou Zheng was currently penniless, so he could not afford to kill a teammate for the time being.

"Herk, do you want to hunt the Transcendents from the other team?" As Zhou Zheng spoke, his aura erupted once more. In an instant, Herk's expression changed again.

"Transcendental?"

Herk was startled. At the same time, he automatically attributed the reason Zhou Zheng and Feng Zhuhong had survived to Zhou Zheng.

"What do you think?" Zhou Zheng asked.

"Even if you've become Transcendental, the other team still has at least two Transcendents, right? Without knowing their strength or hidden trump cards, you want to hunt them?" Herk shook his head.

"That is far too risky!"

"The other team still has three Transcendents. I've fought them before, and they aren't particularly strong," Zhou Zheng said.

"Of the three Transcendents, two are close-combat fighters and one is a Mage. You deal with that Transcendent Mage, and leave the other two to me. How about it?"

"Are you sure?"

Herk looked at Zhou Zheng, who had only just broken through, and his mind raced.

He heard immense confidence in Zhou Zheng's tone. Moreover, Zhou Zheng had said that the other team still had three Transcendents, which implied that they originally had more, but had already lost one. How had that one died?

"You're a Demon, after all. Don't tell me you still need to hesitate over dealing with an ordinary Transcendent Mage?" Rather than answer, Zhou Zheng asked a question of his own.

"Hehe, since you're so confident, I'll take this gamble with you!" Herk agreed, then added, "But before that, I need to see your strength!"

"Fine!"

Zhou Zheng nodded slightly.