Shocking the Nine Heavens With My Sword

The assailants hadn't left for long, and with nearly two hundred people, such a large group was undoubtedly a highly conspicuous target.

Zhou Heng held Jiang Zishuang in his arms while Moon Maiden closely followed Qi Yuan, loyally playing her role as a bodyguard, as the four of them embarked on their path of vengeance.

Qi Yuan had absolute confidence in Zhou Heng's battle power, which is why he insisted on accompanying despite Moon Maiden's dissuasion. After all, he was the eldest young master of the Qi family; if he turned a blind eye to this insult, how could he face anyone in the future?

Along the way, Qi Yuan felt somewhat guilty, thinking that he bore the greatest responsibility for this ambush.

According to the initial plan, he intended to consolidate his subordinates' scores on the tenth day of the examination.

—He planned to do this by dispatching about a hundred subordinates to purchase recruitment tokens at high prices from others or to buy dying demon beasts. Although those who sold recruitment tokens were likely not strong, believing it impossible to win eventually and thus choosing this path, the limited scores wouldn't be much, but the sheer number couldn't be ignored!

Initially, Qi Yuan decided to consolidate these scores on himself on the tenth day, allowing him to instantly soar to the first place.

The advantage of this approach was avoiding becoming an obvious target after entering the top ten, as the top ten's locations were reported daily.

Furthermore, if he started out relatively low-key, it would prevent those on the leaderboard from being too desperate, and once he surpassed their scores, they would have no chance to catch up.

The plan was sound, but there are always discrepancies between theory and reality. His acquisition activities were eventually exposed, leading many to target his subordinates and plunder their recruitment tokens.

After losing more than a dozen subordinates, Qi Yuan decisively decided to retract his forces and concentrate all scores onto himself, as he possessed a forbidden artifact, sufficiently ensuring his safety.

And so, after the seventh day ended, he skyrocketed. Had it not been for the extraordinary Zhou Heng, he would have undoubtedly claimed the first spot.

From the current perspective, at least one other, Pang Shaolong, adopted a similar strategy. Initially low-key, upon witnessing Qi Yuan's explosive rise, he too couldn't stand it and chose to make a high-profile appearance.

Furthermore, he led a group to rob Qi Yuan's subordinates.

Coincidentally, or perhaps not, Qi Yuan and Zhou Heng had just left at that point in time.

Zhou Heng wasn't overly outraged by the token plunder, as the academy's rules permitted it, but attacking such a small child like Jiang Zishuang infuriated him!

"Don't you have the sword your mother gave you, why didn't you use it?" Zhou Heng placed his hand on the little girl's cheek, drawing from the Five Elements Rune the Minor Healing Rune to treat her.

The effect was good; under the golden light's caress, the little girl's swollen cheek began to recover.

"Mother said not to use it on people, it could kill them!" Jiang Zishuang seriously replied, though speaking pulled at her mouth, causing her such pain that she whimpered.

Zhou Heng considered himself soft-hearted; spending enough time with him, he naturally saw those around him, be they cats, dogs, or people, as his own. Seeing the little girl's swollen face ignited a raging urge within him to kill!

"What a good little girl!" Zhou Heng praised.

"Of course, Tiantian is the best!" Jiang Zishuang clutched Zhou Heng's clothing, diminished in spirit from the previous conflict and injury, whispered softly, "Uncle, the next time you see that bad person, tell him not to hit Tiantian anymore, Tiantian is really good!"

Hearing her pitiful words, Zhou Heng's fury became irrepressible, his eyes flashing with terrifying coldness.

"Brother Zhou, don't act rashly, you mustn't kill, or neither I nor the Qi family can protect you!" Qi Yuan urgently advised, absolutely believing Zhou Heng could, in an instant, wipe out over two hundred lives; the Ant Emperor Nest expedition had assured him of this.

Zhou Heng stroked Jiang Zishuang's head, smiling, "I won't, no one will hit Tiantian ever again! Tiantian is so good, no one would bear to hit her!"

The little girl brightened with a smile, but pulling at her wound, her face twitched, showing considerable pain.

Zhou Heng's expression was icy, his gaze chilling.

Even if he didn't kill, he'd make those people understand the meaning of 'a fate worse than death'!

Qi Yuan sighed, no longer persuading, as long as Zhou Heng didn't kill, it was fine; he could bear the consequences of any injuries, no matter how many or how severe, they sustained without dying.

After tracking for over an hour, Zhou Heng suddenly halted, looking down from an elevated position into the valley below at the encamped group.

Approximately a hundred people, with sentries around and a tent pitched in the center. If not for having pursued them from the camp, Zhou Heng might have thought they'd returned to their original campsite.

It seemed there were quite a few meticulous young masters like Qi Yuan!

Zhou Heng glanced at Qi Yuan, who became somewhat indignant, "That person obviously lacks taste; just look at that tent. At first glance, it seems woven from Red Shadow Spider Silk, but I assure you, it's at most two thousand years old, costing a mere tens of thousands of Great River Coins! Mine is made from ten-thousand-year-old Red Shadow Spider Silk, not on the same level at all!"

This guy truly was an eldest young master; if he hadn't clarified, Zhou Heng wouldn't have known his tent was so valuable!

However, this 'Young Master Long' was basically Pang Family's Pang Shaolong; nouveau riche indeed couldn't compare to the deeply rooted, generational aristocracy of the Qi family, the disparity all too evident in contrast.

"Let's go!"

Zhou Heng, holding the little girl, was the first to leap over, moving across the steep valley wall as if on flat ground. Even deprived of flying ability, traversing mountains was still a breeze for a Bright Immortal.

"Young master, are we really going to start a war with the Pang Family?" Moon Maiden asked worriedly.

Qi Yuan revealed a proud expression and said, "If my Qi Family doesn't show its might, will the Pang Family really think they can stand on equal footing with us?"

"Moon Maiden is worried that this might attract people from the Great River Academy."

"They're merely the dogs of those people, tools to earn money. As long as they can keep making money, how could the people behind them possibly stand up for them? The fate of servants was determined the day they became servants!" Qi Yuan said disdainfully.

Moon Maiden said no more; her Forty-Seven Aspects Bright Immortal power ranked among the top ten here, but only here. Once she left, she was nothing more than Qi Yuan's plaything, and she dared not speak too much!

Whoosh, Qi Yuan also headed down the mountain, with Moon Maiden slightly behind him, maintaining her duty without crossing the line.

Zhou Heng was the first to land, with a bang. He made no effort to conceal his presence, causing the entire valley to tremble.

"Who goes there!"

"Identify yourself!"

The people on lookout duty immediately jumped over. They were two middle-aged men, one tall and thin, the other short and fat, but their faces looked like they were cast from the same mold—definitely brothers.

Zhou Heng sneered coldly and said, "I'm Zhou Heng. Tell that Young Master Long of yours to come out and meet me!"

"How dare you!" The tall, thin man shouted angrily.

"Second brother, hold on, this guy's name is Zhou Heng!" the short, fat man tugged at his companion.

"Zhou Heng? Never heard of him!" The tall, thin man flicked his sleeve dismissively.

"You fool, can't you use your brain for once?" The short, fat man reached out to smack his brother on the head, but the other was too tall, and he was too short. His hand couldn't reach.

He immediately jumped up, and with a slap, finally hit the back of the tall, thin man's head.

"Brother, why did you hit me?" The tall, thin man rubbed his head, looking very wronged.

"He's Zhou Heng!" the short, fat man yelled anxiously.

The tall, thin man wore a blank expression. So what if his name was Zhou Heng? It was just a name.

What a simpleton!

"Hee hee!" Jiang Zishuang couldn't help but laugh nonstop. Luckily, the redness on her face had mostly subsided thanks to Zhou Heng's help, otherwise laughing would have hurt her teeth.

Zhou Heng frowned and said, "Go fetch your Young Master Long!"

"Who do you think you are, daring to have our Young Master Long meet you!" The tall, thin man shouted at Zhou Heng, still unaware of the situation.

"Idiot, move!" The short, fat man quickly grabbed him and ran toward the central tent of the camp, but the tall, thin man kept looking back at Zhou Heng as they went.

"These two probably practiced a complementary cultivation technique, that's why one's tall and thin, and the other is short and fat!" At this moment, Qi Yuan also leaped over, stopping beside Zhou Heng, with Moon Maiden standing like a ghost behind him.

There was an invasion from an external enemy!

Initially, the people in the camp didn't pay much attention when they saw Zhou Heng holding a little girl. But as the alarm sounded, the entire camp immediately became frenzied.

A young man emerged from the tent, followed by a hundred men of varying appearances, statures, and races.

In the world of martial artists, men far outnumbered women, and here, it was so overwhelmingly male that not a single woman could be seen.

"Uncle, that's the bad guy!" Jiang Zishuang pointed at the young man in the lead and said to Zhou Heng, "Uncle, tell him to stop hitting Tiantian; it really hurts!"

Zhou Heng nodded, unexpectedly realizing that the one who struck was indeed this "Young Master Long!"

"Zhou Heng, the current second-place Zhou Heng?" The young man scrutinized Zhou Heng, with a look of confusion in his eyes, because he, a Thirty-Seven Aspects Bright Immortal, could clearly sense that Zhou Heng's aura was weaker than his own, and by a significant margin!

But wasn't Zhou Heng always sitting on the top spot until not long ago when Qi Yuan surpassed him?

Could someone with at most Twenty Aspects of Bright Immortal achieve that?

Does he have a powerful faction backing him?

Is there a large family with the surname Zhou in the area governed by Dayuan Academy?

He puckered his lips and continued, "It's just as well you've come, hand over the Recruitment Token, and you can name your conditions!" (To be continued. If you liked this work, feel free to visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for it with recommendation or monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com for reading.)