Black Eats Black

Li Zhengyang hung up and blocked the number.

Half an hour later, the car stopped at the foot of North Mountain.

Li Zhengyang paid and got out. He knew this place well; he had just swept through it yesterday.

Today, he took a different route and headed straight for the Northern Mountain Ore Vein Belt.

In the city, at Speed Borrow Treasure Company.

Feng Tiezhu stared expressionlessly at the disconnected phone.

Qian Long beside him wiped away sweat.

"Let's go." Feng Tiezhu slipped the phone into his pocket.

"Where to?"

"Find someone."

They first went to his residence and found no one there, then made another trip to the agency.

In the lobby, a group of idle Martial Warriors who had failed to grab any jobs were still smoking and cursing.

Feng Tiezhu walked over and pulled out some cash and a photograph from his pocket.

"Brother, I need to ask something. Have you seen the person in this photo? Where did he go?"

The bearded man pocketed the money. "North Mountain. He registered at the front desk just now and took a whole bunch of North Mountain missions and bounties."

Feng Tiezhu nodded and turned to leave the lobby.

"Old Feng, he went to North Mountain. Are we heading out into the wilderness too?" Qian Long was a little scared.

"You wait in the car. I'll go bring him in." Feng Tiezhu got into the driver's seat and started the engine.

He took money to get things done. Wherever the target was, that was where he went.

On the outskirts of the Northern Mountain Ore Vein Belt.

Li Zhengyang had cleared out a Black-Haired Boar nest.

A C-grade mission: ten Third-Rank Magic Beasts.

The Mountain-Splitting Spear Art was indeed effective. Situations that once required head-on clashes now needed only a thrust of his spear—his Collapse Formula directly blew apart a Magic Beast's skull, saving two-thirds of his Astral Qi.

He put ten boar tusks into his Space Ring and continued deeper inside.

The Rockspine Beast from the bounty mission was farther up ahead.

He had just climbed over a steep slope when the sounds of fighting came from ahead.

The clash of blades mixed with the dull boom of Blood Qi colliding. It was not far away, at most two hundred meters.

Li Zhengyang had no interest in other people's business, so he changed direction and prepared to go around.

Just then, a figure burst out of the woods.

It was a woman in her twenties, with short hair. Her combat uniform had several large tears in it, and blood streamed from her right arm.

She ran unsteadily, but she was fast—a foundation of an Eighth-Grade Martial Master.

The moment she rushed out of the woods, she saw Li Zhengyang.

In this barren wilderness, it was not easy to encounter another living person. The woman glanced back. The crack of snapping branches came from the woods—the pursuers had arrived.

Her eyes shifted, and she reached into her clothes, pulling out a cloth bag.

"Catch!" the woman shouted, flinging the bag at Li Zhengyang.

"Brother, you're here!" After shouting that, the woman forcibly drew in a breath and darted toward a pile of rocks on the right.

Diverting disaster eastward.

Li Zhengyang did not move. He glanced at the cloth bag.

Three people rushed out of the woods.

The leader was a bald, bare-chested brute with a scorpion tattooed on his chest, carrying two mountain-cleaving axes.

The Astral Qi spilling from his body was visible to the naked eye. A Great Martial Master.

Two lackeys followed beside him, one with a saber and one with an iron rod. Both were high-grade Martial Masters.

The bald man spotted the oilcloth bundle on the ground at a glance, then looked at Li Zhengyang.

"Kid." The bald man pointed an axe at him. "Are you with that woman from before?"

Just by their attire, this group was clearly not a legitimate squad.

The woman stopped behind a rock, panting as she looked back, waiting to see Li Zhengyang fight these three men to the death so she could find a chance to escape.

"This thing." Li Zhengyang raised his foot and stepped on the cloth bag. "I wasn't planning to take it either."

He looked down at his toes.

"But you think you can use some piece of trash to make me your cannon fodder? That makes me pretty unhappy."

No one present understood what he meant.

Li Zhengyang moved.

He did not bother with the bald man opposite him. He turned, and the Mountain-Piercing Spear flew from his hand.

Collapse Formula.

The long spear became a silver streak.

The spear pierced through the woman's chest, pinning her and the rock together.

The woman's eyes widened. Her head tilted, and she died.

The bald man's eyelid twitched.

One of their own had killed one of their own?

No, those two did not know each other at all. What kind of person killed the one who threw him something first thing?

Before he could figure it out, Li Zhengyang walked over, pulled the spear from the rock with one hand, shook off the blood, and turned to face the three of them.

"Now it's your turn."

"Fuck! You think you can act tough by yourself?" The lackey with the iron rod swung it around and smashed it down.

Li Zhengyang took a step toward the iron rod and flicked his spear shaft upward.

Twisting Formula.

The spear tip twisted along the iron rod like a drill, sparks spraying everywhere.

The two forces collided. The iron rod flew from the man's hand, and the spearhead thrust forward with the momentum, piercing his throat.

The saber-wielding lackey came from the side, slashing at Li Zhengyang's ribs.

Li Zhengyang did not dodge. His Body-Protecting Astral Energy surged outward. The saber struck the Astral Qi, numbing the wielder's wrist and bouncing the blade back half an inch.

"A Great Martial Master!" The saber-wielder saw the outwardly released Astral Qi, his courage shattered. He turned and tried to run.

The long spear swept sideways, its shaft striking his back and breaking his spine.

He crashed to the ground, with only incoming breaths and no outgoing ones.

Two seconds.

Two high-grade Martial Masters were gone.

The bald man's expression darkened.

As a Great Martial Master himself, he could tell this would be troublesome.

"Friend, which road are you from?" The bald man knocked his two axes together with a clang. "We're all out here to make money. It was just a misunderstanding. Now that it's cleared up, there's no need for us to fight to the death."

Li Zhengyang smiled.

"What a coincidence. I'm here to make money too. That bag on you looks pretty full. I'll take it."

The bald man flew into a rage. "Don't reject a toast only to drink a forfeit!"

His legs stomped hard against the ground. The power of a First-grade Grand Martial Master erupted, dirt flying everywhere as he charged like a tank.

The axe in his left hand swept horizontally, while the one in his right chopped vertically, sealing off all room to dodge.

Against this kind of fighting style, meeting force with force was the biggest disadvantage.

Li Zhengyang did not take the attack. His left foot retreated half a step, and his body shifted sideways.

The two axes fell past his face, their wind blowing his hair backward.

The bald man's attack missed, leaving his center wide open.

Mountain-Splitting Spear Art, thrust.

Li Zhengyang gripped the butt of the spear with his right hand, concentrating the strength of his entire body into a single point.

The spear tip slid up along the axe handle and stabbed toward his chin.

The bald man reacted with incredible speed, forcibly throwing his head back. The distance was too close.

The spear tip cut a half-inch-deep gash across his throat, and blood sprayed out.

The bald man clutched his neck and staggered back, his eyes filled with horror.

He retreated, and Li Zhengyang advanced.

The spear stayed before the bald man, never more than half a meter away.

The bald man swung his axes in defense, but an inch longer meant an inch stronger; the axes could not get close to him.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Three consecutive strikes, each heavier than the last.

On the third strike, the axe in his left hand was knocked away.

Li Zhengyang shifted his spear momentum and swung with all his strength.

Smack.

The sound of cracking bones was crisp and pleasant.

The bald man spat out blood and flew sideways, rolling several times on the ground before stopping.

He struggled to get up, but a foot stepped on his chest.

The spear tip aimed at his right eye.

"Spare..."

Pfft.

The spearhead plunged in. Li Zhengyang could not be bothered to listen to nonsense.

From the throwing of the cloth bag to the four corpses, less than two minutes had passed.

Li Zhengyang withdrew his spear and wiped the blood off on the bald man's clothes.

He bent down and picked up the oilcloth bundle, opening it for a glance.

Cloud-Shocking Steps.

A high-grade Yellow Rank movement technique.

To him, it was merely an extra.

He walked to the bald man's corpse, yanked off the backpack, and opened the zipper. It was filled with all kinds of Beast Cores and medicinal herbs.

A rough estimate put it at around three hundred thousand.

Robbers who robbed other robbers carried nothing but hard currency.

Behind a thicket fifty meters away.

Feng Tiezhu stood there with one hand on a tree trunk, not daring to take another step forward.

He had just arrived in time to see the bald man's axe knocked away, followed by his ribs being shattered with a spear strike before he was pinned dead to the ground.

He had seen the entire process.

He knew the bald man. A robber active around the northern part of the city, nicknamed Poison Scorpion, a First-grade Grand Martial Master.

Quite a few squads had died at his hands. Feng Tiezhu had fought him before, and they had been evenly matched.

Yet just now, Poison Scorpion had not even had room to fight back before that kid.

What was even more terrifying was the kid's moves.

Decisive and clean. Not a routine, but killing techniques.

Was this a vocational student?

A Fourth-Grade Martial Master?

Which idiot had made those files?

I came to collect a debt from someone like this?

Li Zhengyang dumped the items from the bag into his Space Ring, then searched the other three men's pockets.

He did not leave behind a single thing worth taking.

After finishing the sweep, he stood up.

Then he turned to the thicket fifty meters away.

"The one behind the tree." Li Zhengyang spoke. "Have you seen enough?"

Feng Tiezhu's heart jolted. He had been discovered.

Run? Or go out?

If he ran, Poison Scorpion's fate was right before his eyes.

He forced down the urge to flee and stepped out from behind the thicket.

He spread both hands, showing that he had no weapon.

Li Zhengyang looked at this man missing a pinky finger.

He had never seen Feng Tiezhu before.

"Are you with them?" Li Zhengyang walked forward with his spear in hand.

"No." Feng Tiezhu swallowed, his voice hoarse. "Just passing through."

"Just passing through?"

"Yes." Feng Tiezhu glanced at the corpses covering the ground. "I didn't see anything."

Li Zhengyang sized him up. A Second-grade Grand Martial Master, dressed shabbily.

"Do you have money on you?" Li Zhengyang asked.

Feng Tiezhu froze.

"Cash, cards, valuables." Li Zhengyang tapped the ground with his spear tip. "If you're passing through, pay a toll. You know the rules, right?"

For more than a decade of collecting debts, he had always been the one demanding money from others.

This time, someone else was demanding money from him.

Feng Tiezhu was decisive.

He pulled out his wallet and tossed it over.

There was over ten thousand in cash inside, along with several cards. "There's another thirty thousand on the cards. The password is six eights."

"You know the drill." Li Zhengyang took the wallet. "Now get lost."

Feng Tiezhu turned and left.

After walking several hundred meters, his back was soaked through with cold sweat.

He returned to the car at the foot of the mountain.

Qian Long was leaning back in his seat, smoking. When he saw Feng Tiezhu return, he stubbed it out.

"Old Feng, did you find him?"

Feng Tiezhu started the car and slammed the accelerator to the floor.

"Found him."

"Did you get the money back?" Qian Long asked.

Feng Tiezhu said nothing.

Qian Long tested the waters. "Couldn't get it back? He wouldn't give it to you?"

"I gave him money," Feng Tiezhu squeezed out through gritted teeth.

"Huh?"

"I paid forty thousand in toll fees. Shut up."

Deep within North Mountain.

Li Zhengyang continued onward. Counting what he had just looted, he had around three hundred and fifty thousand.

Still not enough.

He took out his phone and brought up the System Panel.

[Detected Cultivation Technique: Cloud-Shocking Steps]

[Quality Assessment: Yellow Rank, High Grade]

[Required Cost: 50,000 Great Xia yuan.]

"Learn!"

A wave of dizziness struck, and information about the Cloud-Shocking Steps surfaced in his mind.

Ten breaths later, the Cloud-Shocking Steps had reached perfection!

Li Zhengyang had no intention of resting.

He had not earned enough money yet—what was there to rest for?

The mountain wind swept past, carrying a low growl from somewhere nearby.

A dark crimson leopard burst from the grass ahead.

A Third-Rank Martial Artist Magic Beast—the Scarlet Leopard.

It was incredibly fast.

This thing was not on the mission list.

But it was perfect for testing his new movement technique.