"A Grandmaster-level bird that can also transform... which sects in China's Ancient Martial Arts world specialize in taming birds and beasts?"
Chen Zheng glanced at the giant eagle's corpse, then looked at Wen Tailai.
"Well... Master once mentioned a secluded sect on Mount Kunlun twenty years ago that specialized in taming birds and beasts. But supposedly, an extraordinary artifact brought a terrible calamity upon that sect, and it was wiped out overnight. There's been no word of it in the past twenty years. Now that this beast-taming art has reappeared in the city, perhaps that sect still has a successor."
Wen Tailai spoke after a moment's thought.
His master, the Great Grandmaster Yu Canghai, was in secluded cultivation. Otherwise, Yu Canghai could have killed the Grandmaster-level giant eagle with a single palm strike, rather than ending up as bedraggled as he was, having spent so much effort dealing with it.
"A secluded sect on Mount Kunlun. I don't know much about the sects on Earth that came after King Zhou of Shang."
Chen Zheng shook his head at that.
"Huh?"
Wen Tailai froze.
That day in the study, Yu Canghai had told him about some of the unbelievable things he had seen. To Wen Tailai, Chen Zheng was an old monster who had survived since ancient times, a true living fossil of Earth. Logically, Chen Zheng should have known China's Ancient Martial Arts world like the back of his hand, so why...
"It's here."
Chen Zheng offered no explanation. He spoke lightly and looked outside the hall.
"Woof!"
"Woof, woof, woof!"
The instant Chen Zheng finished speaking, a very strange scene unfolded. A puppy actually leaped in from outside the courtyard. Its eyes glinted with an eerie light as they locked straight onto Su Ziming inside the hall, and it began howling at him!
"Could this be another..."
The sight of the dog instantly reminded Wen Tailai of the giant eagle, and he froze.
"Roar!"
Another strange scene unfolded!
The puppy, no bigger than a toy poodle, suddenly opened its mouth and let out a beastlike roar. As it roared, its body swelled in an instant, actually transforming into a black wolf over a meter tall!
"Roar!"
The black wolf roared!
It lunged to devour a man!
The black wolf had only one target: Su Ziming inside the hall!
"What!"
Su Ziming was scared witless and stood rooted to the spot. This was too strange, too terrifying. Even though his fortune ran into the tens of billions, he was still cowed by a situation like this!
The rest of the Su Family were also scared witless at that moment, because the scene was utterly unreal!
"Watch out!"
Wen Tailai cried out and stepped in front of Su Ziming, throwing both fists forward as he spoke to forcibly block the strange black wolf!
"Boom!"
But the instant the black wolf lunged into the hall, Chen Zheng appeared directly in front of it like a flash of lightning. He kicked out with a boom, and the charging black wolf, its bloody maw gaping wide, flew backward with another boom!
"Awooo!"
Chen Zheng's kick sent the black wolf flying into the courtyard. It lay on the ground, letting out puppy-like howls of pain, but its eyes still glinted with an eerie light as it stared fixedly at Chen Zheng!
"Senior..."
This was Wen Tailai's first time seeing Chen Zheng fight. With that first move, he had sent a Grandmaster-level beast flying with a single kick, and he looked as though he had barely exerted himself at all!
This... Senior had probably used only one percent, one-thousandth, or even one ten-thousandth of his strength!
"Chen Zheng..."
Su Cheng also parted her lips. Although she had seen the past Chen Zheng had shown her, and those scenes were a hundred or even ten thousand times more astonishing than what had just happened, seeing him kick a Grandmaster-level beast away with her own eyes still shook her.
The force of Chen Zheng's kick could probably have smashed an armored vehicle apart with ease!
"Still so fierce with your bones broken. Didn't your master teach you to run when you can't win?" Looking at the black wolf howling miserably in the courtyard, Chen Zheng chuckled and shook his head. "So you're not a beast after all. I thought cultivation had long since declined in this era. I didn't expect there to still be sects with secret beast-commanding arts. It couldn't have been easy for you to reach the realm of Primordial Spirit Leaving the Body in an age with so little spiritual energy."
"Awooo!"
An eerie light flashed in the black wolf's eyes as it lay on the ground and howled at Chen Zheng.
"My origins? You want me to introduce myself? I'm afraid you're not worthy." Chen Zheng understood the black wolf's howl. He raised his right hand and flicked a finger at it, sending a barely perceptible streak of eerie light into its body in an instant.
"Aaaoo!"
The black wolf instantly began howling madly. After several seconds of frantic howling, it lay motionless on the ground, but its eyes still shone with that eerie light, still staring fixedly at Chen Zheng!
"Stop glaring at me. You came with ill intentions. I've actually been a villain too. I used to get so bored that I specifically studied things for playing tricks on people. Consider that little something just now my gift to you." Chen Zheng smiled faintly at the eerie light. "Oh, right. The eagle and wolf you sent are both fine ingredients. Ingredients like these are hard to come by in this day and age, so to thank you, I've decided to give you another little gift."
As he spoke, Chen Zheng gave a strange smile and raised his right hand again. A streak of golden light shot into the black wolf's eerily glowing eyes.
"Who exactly are you!"
This time, the black wolf, which Su Ziming and the others had thought was already dead, suddenly bellowed. Su Ziming and the rest of the Su Family jumped in fright!
How could a black wolf speak human language? Could it be a monster?
But were there still monsters in this day and age?
"Who am I? I'm Chen Zheng."
Chen Zheng answered the voice with a friendly expression.
"Chen Zheng! I'll remember you!"
The strange voice sounded from within the black wolf again. But in the next second, the eerie light vanished from its eyes, and all signs of life left it!
"This eagle and wolf are breeds with a little spirituality. Have someone carry them to the kitchen first. I'll deal with them in a bit." Chen Zheng glanced at the black wolf's corpse and the giant eagle's corpse, then looked at Wen Tailai. "As for your injuries, once I prepare a beast feast, you'll recover naturally after eating it."
"Understood, Senior!"
Wen Tailai nodded emphatically.
Facing Chen Zheng now, he had only one feeling: unfathomable. This senior truly was unfathomable!
"Chen Zheng, thank you for saving me..." Su Ziming came back to his senses. Looking at the huge black wolf's corpse in the courtyard, he still felt lingering fear. Everything he had just experienced was too strange, already beyond the scope of science. So after thanking Chen Zheng, he could not help asking, "I wonder... will there be a next time..."
"Don't worry, Uncle Su. The one commanding the beasts will be quite powerless for a very long time."
Chen Zheng smiled mysteriously.
"I see..."
Although Su Ziming badly wanted to ask more, he understood that Chen Zheng probably would not explain things too clearly. He simply nodded and had the Su Family's servants carry the black wolf's corpse and the giant eagle's corpse into the kitchen.
Soon, Chen Zheng entered the kitchen and began processing the giant eagle's and black wolf's bodies.
Meanwhile, inside a villa on the outskirts of Nan City.
"Hahaha! Who do you think you are! Saying I'm unworthy of knowing your origins! Hmph! I thought you'd used some unfathomable means to toy with me, but you never expected my cultivation to soar after my primordial spirit left my body this time! Hahaha! Next time! Next time, I'll come to the Su Family in person. Not only will I kill Su Ziming, I'll bleed you myself! Hahaha..."
An old man dressed in black laughed wildly, but his laughter stopped abruptly!
Because the instant he sensed his cultivation soaring, just as he felt as though he possessed terrifying power that could command heaven and earth, the True Essence inside him seemed to be sucked dry by something all at once!
Crippled!
His decades of cultivation were crippled in an instant!
"Pfft!"
The black-robed old man stared blankly for several seconds, then opened his mouth and spat out blood before collapsing to the floor with a thud!
"No... how is this possible... you... how could you... my cultivation..."
Lying on the floor, the black-robed old man stared fixedly in the direction of the Su Family. At that moment, he understood what the young man had meant by his gift!
His sudden surge in cultivation had not been a breakthrough after his primordial spirit left his body and returned. It had been that young man's doing. That young man's methods had made his cultivation soar!
The surge in cultivation had filled him with delight and made him laugh wildly!
But just as his emotions reached their highest peak, that young man's methods had also stripped away all his cultivation, turning him into a cripple!
Great joy had turned to great sorrow in an instant!
A villain!
That young man was a villain, a villain even more wicked than he was, because this was a hundred times more agonizing than simply killing him!
"Master... you..."
A middle-aged man heard the black-robed old man's miserable cries and burst through the door. Seeing the black-robed old man lying on the floor, his face filled with astonishment.
"Back... back to Kunlun... take me back to Kunlun..."
The black-robed old man murmured and slowly raised his right hand, trying to touch something. But before he could lift it halfway, it fell limply, and he passed out.
"Master..."
The middle-aged man called blankly, his eyes full of disbelief. He knew his master's cultivation very well. Even the so-called three great Grandmasters of China's Ancient Martial Arts world might not defeat his master together. Yet today, his master had only been helping his junior brother deal with a business rival. How had he ended up like this!
"Yu Canghai? No! Yu Canghai couldn't possibly be Master's match! Then who could it be! When did someone more formidable than Master appear in China's Ancient Martial Arts world!"