Chương 345: Zhou Zheng

As everyone waited patiently, a chuckle suddenly reverberated through the sky, startling everyone. Before they all could react, the powerful pressure of a deity descended from the sky and suppressed all of their energies. Long Feng clicked his tongue and withdrew all of his aura completely, making himself inconspicuous while paying close attention. Everyone was startled by the sudden chuckle and the aura that appeared out of nowhere, and they all knew without thinking that a deity was present.

The previous tension between the disciples immediately shattered with this realization and they even began to move closer together. A person silently appeared above the dragon fountain with their feet resting on the upper jaw of the dragon sculpture. Everyone recognized this person with a single glance. Zhou Zheng, the eighth ranked outer peak disciple.

His strength was overwhelming even among ordinary deities, and he only lost to the seventh rank genius, Yang Qian due to a tiny flaw in his cultivation manual, not due to his strength. Long Feng had met both him and Yang Qian in the Dao Heaven Hall once and both their auras had shocked him. He was much weaker back then than he currently is, but even now, Zhou Zheng's aura was like a huge boulder floating in the sky. His appearance caused a shadow to fill the hearts of all the disciples present.

Each of the top ten outer peak disciples had something special about them, and for Zhou Zheng, it was his ridiculous defense. His cultivation manual was an earth based Manual, just like his Dao, and it was of a high grade. His attacks had the weight and power of a mountain and his defense was even more powerful. It could even rebound an attack back to a certain extent. Only the top three outer peak disciples could break through his defense in a head on fight.

The only reason he was ranked eight was due to a rather significant flaw in the manual; the defense consumed too much energy and it exhausted him to a great degree. As long as one could keep a distance and rain down weak attacks on the defense, Zhou Zheng would be forced to disperse the defense by himself. Of course, that applied only to other Deities. After all, why would he even require a defense against Imperials? Zhou Zheng swept his gaze across everyone then grinned.

"I've watched this farce for a while now. It appears that none of you have the ability to monopolize the treasures here." No one said anything, but some disciples were already expecting what would happen next. As expected, Zhou Zheng spread his arms and smiled.

"I'll do you all a favor. I'll be taking the mid mortal grade dagger for myself. In exchange, I'll take all three true essence pills and the jade for safekeeping." He didn't take the slowly darkening expressions of the disciples to heart. With a careless tone, he continued.

"Once we all leave this mystic realm, I'll set an auction for all peak Imperials. Each true essence pill and the jade will be auctioned off to the richest. That way, everyone will have equal chances to get the pills." By the time he finished speaking, everyone had sour expressions. If looks could kill, Zhou Zheng choked to death on the glares focused on him even before he finished spouting his nonsense. They could hardly believe what he was saying. If they really did as he proposed, then things would become worse.

Right now, the disciples gathered around were barely twenty. They could either fight for the pills or decide on what to do if nothing worked. But if the true essence pills left this mystic realm, then over five hundred peak Imperials would join the so called auction. One could imagine what sort of scene that would be. A peak Imperial would literally kill to get their hands on a true essence pill. It was impossible that Zhou Zheng wasn't aware of this. He was also a peak Imperial before, yet he still proposed this.

All he wanted was the dagger. As for the true essence pills, he didn't really have a use for them. He would probably auction them off for a price that would cost the arms and legs of a peak Imperial. Zhou Zheng swept his gaze around with a light smile and asked, "what do you all think? Excellent right?" This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

No one replied for the next ten seconds, partly because they were still brimming with shock and anger at his words and more because they didn't have the guts to speak. Zhou Zheng was rather famous for being unreasonable. If he flipped out at any rejection, then things might become worse. About thirty seconds later, Zhou Zheng nodded.

"Alright then. I'll be magnanimous and do it for you all if everyone agrees." He turned around and faced the dagger with a glint in his eyes.

"This dagger… it's a peak mortal grade armament! Only that grade of armaments and above can actually move on their own and attack others. Even without anyone controlling them, their power would be roughly the same as an early stage deity. If I can subdue it and make it my life weapon, I will be able to defeat even Qiu Yushi!" He thought with a rush of emotions in his heart.

"These fools. Luckily, none of them can tell. It's not their fault though. The dagger has probably been here for a long time and it has lost much of it's reserve essence. It could only unleash the power of a mid mortal grade armament." He was simply passing by when the spitting dragon fountain became active. He wasn't really bothered until he sensed the appearance of a powerful armament and he quickly rushed over. No one among the outer peak disciples had such a powerful weapon.

They all used mid mortal grade armaments which was two ranks below a peak mortal grade. With it's power, Zhou Zheng would be able to defeat mid stage deities! He suppressed his emotions and prepared to make a move to grab the dagger. Lucky for him, it wasn't at it's strongest. Otherwise he would also have to stare at it from afar.

"Wait! I don't accept!" A loud voice shattered the silence and reverberated through the area. Zhou Zheng's slightly lifted arm slowly fell back to his side then he turned around to face the speaker with a thin smile.

"Oh? That's surprising. You don't accept my proposal?" The person who spoke, a young peak Imperial shivered slightly under Zhou Zheng's stare and cursed himself for speaking impulsively. But he has already bitten the bullet, so he nodded heavily.

"I don't accept! We found the true essence pills. Why do we have to let you take them and auction them off to all peak Imperials? You're just trying to take advantage of the situation to profit off us!" He shouted loudly, hoping to spur some more disciples to support him. Zhou Zheng's smile widened and he nodded.

"Who else doesn't agree? Speak up before it's too late!" A few breaths passed and another disciple spoke up.

"I also don't agree!"

"Me too!" Another joined in.

"I'm with them. You have no right to take our treasures, not even the dagger!" In a minute, three more youths joined the first disciple. They inched closer to him and the four of them stood together facing Zhou Zheng. The rest of the disciples watched the four youths and had the impulse to join them, but they all decided to observe for now. If Zhou Zheng really backed away, then it wouldn't be too late for them to join. Zhou Zheng nodded.

"I suppose that's all of you. Very well." He slowly lifted his arms and pointed at the group of four.

"I'll give your four a chance. If you can block three of my attacks together, I'll give you the true essence pills as well as the dagger and the jade." The expressions of the four disciples immediately turned ugly. Before they could refute him though, Zhou Zheng continued.

"I won't use any skill. Just three casual attacks. You're allowed to do anything and work to together. You don't have to be uninjured. As long as you're alive, the treasures are all yours." The words that the four youths wanted to say immediately got stuck in their throats. They exchanged glances and began to ponder using voice transmission.

"He said he won't use Dao skills or anything, just his energy! This is a big chance to gain fame and also get the treasures!" The first disciple could barely suppress his excitement as he sent this to the other three.

"Are you really considering it? He never said he won't use his true essence!"

"What're you saying? We're among the strongest Imperials there are. With four of us together, even he would need more than three casual moves to defeat us."

"That's right. Weaker deities would not even be able to defeat us together. Even if it's one of the top ten geniuses, I am confident that we can withstand three casual moves."

"I say we do it! We're the only ones with the guts to speak up while these cowards watch. Let's make them so jealous that they're intestines will turn green!"

"You guys… I still don't think this is a good idea."

"Relax! Just put your full strength into defending. You'll see. It'll be a piece of cake!"

"Fine. Let's do it!" Everyone waited patiently for the four youths to come to a decision. It was as clear as day that they were discussing through voice transmission. Whether they would be stupid enough to accept Zhou Zheng's challenge or not, everyone waited to see. After a short while, the four youths came to an agreement. Zhou Zheng seemed to have noticed that their voice transmission had ended, so he tilted his head a bit and smiled.

"You're done? What have you decided?" In response, the four youths changed their stances and began to circulate their energies without a word. Naturally, their actions meant a single thing.

"Good." Zhou Zheng extended his two arms and clenched his fists.

"Try your best to keep your lives." Immediately his voice dropped, his aura surged into the sky like a volcanic eruption. The already heavy pressure pressing on all the disciples immediately doubled. With their strengths, they could withstand it without bending, but a normal peak Imperial would at least be forced to retreat. The faces of the four youths were extremely solemn as they released their energies and focused it all on defending themselves.

"This is the first move!" Zhou Zheng shouted amidst the storm his aura was causing. From the top of the dragon's head, he punched at the four youths. A surging burst of energy blasted through the air and shot towards the four youths. The energy was murky brown in color and the feeling it gave one was a single word; Heavy! This attack contained the Dao of earth, giving it a weight that could crush Imperials. The four youths growled together and unleashed extremely powerful attacks at the incoming energy.

A great blast occured. The four youths skidded backwards a few meters with pale faces, but they were otherwise unharmed after blocking that attack. Before this, they still had some doubts about whether they could really make it through the three attacks, but right now, their hearts were filled with excitement and expectations. Zhou Zheng's attack was powerful without doubt, but… if that was the extent of his casual attacks, then they could definitely do it!

Their eyes brimmed with confidence as they raised their heads to stare at Zhou Zheng. Zhou Zheng began to laugh.

"Not bad. A normal peak Imperial would definitely die to that attack. You guys aren't too shabby. Here's the second move!" He fiercely lifted his two arms to the sky and tremendous amount of energy began to gather above the four youths. They instantly went on high alert as they looked above their heads where the energy was slowly compressing and transforming. In a few breaths, a large boulder floated above their heads.

It's size was enough to crush ten people to mush at once and it formed a huge shadow around them while emanating a heart shaking pressure just from it's weight. The hearts of the four youths jumped to their throats.

"T-this isn't a Dao skill?" One of them muttered in fright. The boulder looked completely real. One wouldn't be able to tell it apart from a real boulder at all. But it should be impossible for even a deity to raise such a boulder physically. It's weight would certainly be ridiculous even for a deity.

"It's not a Dao skill…" another youth replied with a pale face and sucked in a deep breath.

"This is the same energy manifestation that spirit realm warriors and above can use, but unlike the fake manifestation we can create, this one merges the intent of earth and Zhou Zheng's earth based energy to form. In short, he is controlling it using his intent!" This was an ability unique to Dao intents and deities. Instead of manifesting fake objects that lacked substance, they could form things that were no different from the real ones. Like this boulder.

Zhou Zheng had since comprehended the minor earth intent. When he merged his Intent with his own energy and tried to create something related to the earth Dao, he would essentially be giving it life. Of course, that would only work when he created something related to the earth, and he couldn't manifest complex things just yet at his level. If he tried to manifest something else, like a tornado or river, it wouldn't be nearly as realistic as if he created a boulder and it would be much less powerful as well.