Yuheng Star

"These thirty-odd rebel soldiers were clearly coming for us!"

Wuzheng was certain of his judgment. The rebel soldiers had charged straight into his lodgings; this had clearly been planned.

He asked Zhou Wuji, "Junior Brother, did you leave any alive?"

Zhou Wuji shook his head. Several rebel soldiers had slaughtered everyone, old and young, in the household at the village entrance, using brutal methods.

These things looked human, but they had already become beasts in their bones. How could Zhou Wuji spare them?

Before killing the last eighth-rank martial artist, Zhou Wuji had interrogated him.

To save his life, the man had told the truth: Zhang Xinhu had offered ten cartloads of grain as payment to hire them to kill.

Once the deed was done, there would also be rewards of gold, silver, and the like.

Most importantly, only with the Zhang Household's support could they establish a firm foothold at White Wolf Stronghold.

Otherwise, with so many people gathered deep in the mountains, what would they eat, and what supplies would they use?

If they kept going out to plunder, sooner or later they would expose the stronghold's location and draw a large force of government troops to encircle and annihilate them.

None of this surprised Zhou Wuji. Everything was as he had expected.

White Wolf Stronghold lay deep within Mount Siming, two or three hundred li from Siming County. Several dozen households had once lived there, but a great demon had later appeared in the mountains, and every last person in those households had died.

Since then, White Wolf Stronghold had stood abandoned for decades.

Not only that, because the mountains were too dangerous, the residents of all the strongholds deep within Mount Siming had moved out.

This band of rebel soldiers was bold indeed, actually intending to settle in White Wolf Stronghold for good.

Zhou Wuji had not left that rebel soldier alive, partly because evil had to be rooted out completely, and partly because he feared driving Zhang Xinhu into a corner.

With the lives of several hundred members of the Zhang Household at stake, he had no idea what Zhang Xinhu might do.

With no survivors, at least Zhang Xinhu would not go mad.

Zhou Wuji explained the stakes to Wuzheng in detail, and Wuzheng nodded repeatedly. Zhou Wuji had indeed considered things thoroughly.

They were in Old Cang Village, with neither reinforcements nor an expert stationed there. If Zhang Xinhu truly went mad, they would all die.

But without any survivors, it would be difficult to convict Zhang Xinhu...

Wuming, however, widened her bright eyes and asked, "Senior Brother Wuji, you've already killed a seventh-rank martial artist. Killing Zhang Xinhu shouldn't be hard either, right?"

Zhou Wuji said earnestly, "Junior Sister, you think too highly of me. There can be an enormous gap even between seventh-rank martial artists.

"Zhang Xinhu has been famous for over ten years. His martial cultivation is seasoned and formidable. This seventh-rank rebel soldier couldn't possibly compare to him."

The seventh-rank rebel soldier they had killed had clearly advanced only recently. His force was violent but impure.

After they repeatedly wore him down, he could no longer circulate his force throughout his body fast enough. His saber technique was not very good either.

Having raised his swordsmanship to major accomplishment, Zhou Wuji had gained a deeper understanding of the martial path. The more he understood, the better he grasped how formidable seventh-rank martial artists were.

Without four Yin Thunder Pearls in succession, even his current major-accomplishment swordsmanship would have made it difficult to kill that seventh-rank rebel soldier alone! Let alone Zhang Xinhu.

To have any chance of killing Zhang Xinhu, he would need to raise his True Qi another level or bring his swordsmanship to perfection.

Though Zhou Wuji hated Zhang Xinhu, he had no interest in staking his life against him.

With Wuzheng's and Wuming's backgrounds, surely it would not be difficult to invite an expert from the lower monastery to suppress Zhang Xinhu?

He believed Wuzheng wanted Zhang Xinhu dead just as much. There was no need to remind him.

Wuzheng pondered for a moment, then said, "This is the Zhang Household's sphere of influence. For now, we should pretend we don't know Zhang Xinhu was the mastermind.

"Keep Zhang Xinhu steady first, and wait until the lower monastery sends an expert before deciding what to do. As for those rebel soldiers, we can't deal with them either. We'll report to the lower monastery when we get back and see what they decide..."

Zhou Wuji hastily agreed. "A wise decision, Senior Brother. That's exactly what we should do!"

Wuzheng then addressed Wuming, whose face was full of incomprehension. "What happened today must remain secret. You can't even tell Wuye. Once we enter Siming County, you absolutely must not cause trouble!"

Wuming pursed her lips slightly in displeasure. She looked to Zhou Wuji for help, but he could only coax her. "Senior Brother is right. Let's endure it for a few days. Someone will deal with Zhang Xinhu."

"All right, I'll listen to you both..." Seeing that even Zhou Wuji said so, Wuming could only nod helplessly in agreement.

Zhou Wuji was exhausted. He left the remaining miscellaneous matters to Wuzheng and went to rest first.

Lying on the wooden bed, Zhou Wuji was still somewhat keyed up. The life-and-death battle had been too intense, and his emotions would not settle anytime soon.

He opened the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment in his sea of consciousness. All thirty rebel soldiers were recorded in it.

Two of their fate weights were two taels and seven mace, and two taels and eight mace respectively. All the rest were below two taels and five mace, with more than half below two taels.

In his view, even these were the result of the rebel soldiers forcibly raising their cultivation through slaughter and using Sha Qi to turn their fates into baleful fates, forcibly increasing their fate weights.

The situation was extremely dangerous now. He needed to convert all these fate weights into strength as quickly as possible.

After tonight's battle, Zhou Wuji realized that his weakness was the low level of his True Qi.

If his True Qi could reach the seventh rank, even if it fell somewhat short of a seventh-rank martial artist's Transforming Force, his major-accomplishment swordsmanship would allow him to contend with one.

Origin profound spirit could not directly improve his Qi, but it could deepen his understanding of the Northern Dipper Tianshu Scripture and improve the efficiency with which he circulated Qi.

He first selected a fate weight of two taels and three mace, converted it into origin profound spirit, and invested it in the Northern Dipper Tianshu Scripture.

Purple spiritual light descended, and a small world unfolded. Within it, Zhou Wuji cultivated the Northern Dipper Tianshu Scripture day and night.

When the small world dissipated, Zhou Wuji checked the annotation again. The Northern Dipper Tianshu Scripture had reached proficiency.

As a required Qi cultivation method, the Northern Dipper Tianshu Scripture was quite profound.

Previously, Zhou Wuji could only be called practiced in this method. Now, however, he had developed his own unique understanding of the Northern Dipper Tianshu Scripture and could be said to have a refined and thorough grasp of it.

Aside from anything else, his Qi value alone had increased by over thirty points, leaving him not far from opening his sixth acupoint.

Very satisfied with the results, Zhou Wuji invested two more fate weights of two taels and five mace in succession, yet only barely pushed the Northern Dipper Tianshu Scripture to minor accomplishment.

The Northern Dipper Tianshu Scripture seemed simple, but the higher its level, the subtler its profundities became.

This method was, after all, the foundation of Qi cultivation. Steeling himself, Zhou Wuji invested his two highest fate weights in it.

The results were good this time. The Northern Dipper Tianshu Scripture rose to major accomplishment.

Zhou Wuji knew, however, that this was already a kind of limit. Without fate weights above three taels, it would be difficult to improve the method any further.

Fortunately, the major-accomplishment Northern Dipper Tianshu Scripture allowed him to grasp its subtle essence and smoothly open the acupoint corresponding to Yuheng Star: his left nostril.

According to the Northern Dipper Tianshu Scripture, the left nostril governed the discernment of Qi. Through his nose, he could sense changes in surrounding Qi, further improving his perception of the outside world and increasing his total Qi.

His Qi value reached 509, an increase of nearly eighty points from just before, equivalent to a twenty-percent improvement in Qi. This was also a tremendous advance.

Zhou Wuji compared himself with that seventh-rank rebel soldier. The man's muscles and sinews had been powerful, and he could also gather the rebel soldiers' Blood Sha Qi, making him seem exceptionally ferocious and leaving even Yin Thunder Pearls hard-pressed to injure him.

By Zhou Wuji's own standards, the seventh-rank rebel soldier had been around thirty percent stronger than he was now.

The reason he had killed the man so easily was still that the man had only recently advanced, and his Transforming Force was violent and impure.

The Yin Thunder Pearls in Wuzheng's possession had clearly been more powerful. If Zhou Wuji had eight or ten of them, he should be able to kill Zhang Xinhu.

Unfortunately, such powerful Law Artifacts were difficult to make, and Wuzheng had only had two.

Improving the Northern Dipper Tianshu Scripture brought another benefit: the Seven Stars Demon-Slaying Sword also rose by one level, reaching proficiency.

The Northern Dipper Tianshu Scripture was the cultivation method, while the Seven Stars Demon-Slaying Sword was its closely related technique. The two were one whole to begin with, so this improvement was only natural.

At proficiency, the Seven Stars Demon-Slaying Sword took a hundred breaths to cast. The improvement was enormous, but it still had little practical use.

In a head-on fight to the death, only instantly cast Law Techniques had any meaning.

Zhou Wuji looked over his other Law Techniques and felt none were worth improving.

Actual combat had proven that only the Six Yang Dharma Eye was of some use, and proficiency was already sufficient for that.

The others, such as the Heart-Purifying Divine Incantation and Golden Light Incantation, were all used to subdue demons and vanquish devils.

The Rejuvenation Technique treated injuries. Minor accomplishment was enough for that as well. It was not worth improving...

Then another thought occurred to Zhou Wuji. The Rejuvenation Technique could rapidly heal wounds and stimulate Qi and Blood, so could it also rapidly restore True Qi?

If it could rapidly restore True Qi, that would be very, very useful!