Hidden in Plain Sight

"Suppress!"

Like a sudden clap of spring thunder, surging Essence carried the soundwave, instantly sweeping away swathes of Flying Insects and creating a blank area overhead.

"Where did these Anomalous Flying Insects come from?" Zhongli Zheng fully activated the ninety-nine Essence Apertures within him. Every strike killed dozens of Flying Insects.

The Flying Insects gathered around him. Rather than retreat, he charged forward, his fists opening and closing in broad, unstoppable arcs.

Thousands of Flying Insects posed a formidable threat to anyone below the Martial Dao practitioner level, but before Zhongli Zheng, with all his Essence Apertures open, they were nothing but a rabble.

Insect corpses rained down as Zhongli Zheng slowly descended, his scholar's robe still spotless.

Yet the gravity in his eyes did not lessen in the slightest. He stared fixedly at the burly, buzz-cut man on the other side of the path.

"Zhongli Zheng?" Though it was phrased as a question, the newcomer's tone was utterly certain.

Zhongli Zheng's heart sank. The man before him made no attempt to conceal his intentions—he had come specifically for him. Zhongli Zheng just did not know whose subordinate he was.

"Who are you, sir?"

Chen Xu had no intention of answering. Scalding steam rose around him, and visible white waves of air spread outward as he charged forward.

He intended to kill Zhongli Zheng as Chen Xu of the Inner Academy's eighth rank, so naturally, he could not simply unleash Martial Momentum and blast him to death.

"A Martial Dao practitioner with all his Essence Apertures open?" Zhongli Zheng did not dare underestimate him. He activated the Vast Righteousness Sect's most orthodox supreme art—the Haoran Righteous Qi Fist—and leaped forward to meet him.

This supreme art was easy to begin learning, but reaching a high level with it was immensely