Chương 359: Meeting Zhou Zheng again

The two remaining youths were beyond terrified at this moment. The death of their fellow disciple before they could react as well as Long Feng's calm yet chilled tone shattered their last mental defenses.

"I-i'm willing to talk! Please don't kill me! I'll tell you whatever you want to know!" The youth before Long Feng roared in a fear filled voice.

"Me too! I was wrong to have attacked you! It isn't our fault! We had no choice! Please spare our lives and we'll tell you anything!" The other youth shouted as well, not willing to be left behind.

"In that case… tell me, why are you hunting me? Who gave you the information about me? And what exactly happened in the realm within the past few days?" Long Feng asked in a slow and deliberate tone that served as mental torture to these two youths. The second he asked his question, the duo scrambled to explain everything they knew to him, going as far as arguing with each other to raise their own chances of staying alive at the end. Long Feng merely listened calmly, noting everything he needed to.

Several minutes later, the two youths waited with bated breaths and hopeful hearts as he pondered in silence.

"In short, all you two know is that the deities are after me and have placed a good reward upon my head?" He asked. The two youths nodded hesitantly. Long Feng sighed and rubbed his eyes.

"How exciting. The top ten geniuses of the outer peak want me dead… I happen to be looking for a sparing partner." He smiled thinly and turned to the two youths.

"Since you came out here to capture me, I suppose you should have a method to alert the deities if you find me or something like that?" He asked. Against his expectations though, the two youths shook their heads.

"W-we didn't expect this… the deities told us that you… our target was just a rank two Imperial realm, and capturing him would be a simple feat." One of them replied, feeling like crying once more. He couldn't help but rain curses upon all eighteen generations of the deities who put them in this situation. The hell was a rank two Imperial? This was definitely a monster at the deity realm!!! Long Feng's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Rank two Imperial realm… heh." He smirked.

"They really met me at some point before I refined the Dao heart. That would explain how they know my exact cultivation. As for what exactly transpired, I still have no idea." His gaze drifted to the two youths.

"They don't really know much. All they know is that the inheritance ground vanished and nearly all the deities banded together to order a realm wide hunt for me, dead or alive. As for the exact reason, they don't know at all." He narrowed his eyes.

"Something must've happened to cause this change, most likely during the time I was unconscious." The fact that he was being hunted by the top ten outer peak disciples barely elicited any reaction from him. His main curiosity was what actually caused this sudden change.

"Could it be… the Dao heart?" He frowned.

"If it really is, then that means they already knew about it even before I got it, or they recognized it somehow. There's a gap in my knowledge and I need to understand what happened to close it." He finally turned his attention back to the two shivering youths before him. For a split second, he had the thought to let them go as he said he would, but he quickly changed his mind instantly.

"I'm sorry but neither of you could fully answer my question. In that case, you can both join your friend in the other side." He calmly stated, causing the hearts of the two youths to sink to rock bottom.

"You said you would let us go…" the youth before him shouted in a terror filled voice that fractured due to the sheer amount of fright in his heart.

"I did, didn't I? I've had a change of mind. You can die now." Long Feng calmly replied and placed a palm on the back of the youth. His demon energy burst into the youth's body, destroying all of his organs and turning his innards into paste before he could react. Light slowly faded from his eyes while a mix of regret, despair and hatred flashed through them one last time. His body silently plummeted from the sky and broke into pieces upon impact against the floor, completely and thoroughly killing him.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. The final youth was beside himself with despair. His mind screamed at him to run, but his legs seemed to have turned to jelly and left his control. His mental state had collapsed so much that controlling his own legs had become impossible. Long Feng stared at him indifferently and lifted his arm with two fingers pointed at the youth.

"Light sword." Piercing light and keen sword energy gathered at his fingertips, merging together perfectly and shooting out in a dazzling beam of light that drew a beautiful arc in the air before piercing through the forehead of the youth. As the finger light sword shot out, a sudden fluctuation of energy suddenly burst out of Long Feng's arm as he briefly lost control of his energies due to a sudden instability. A frown adorned his face as he gazed at his arm while pondering.

"I was careless… my demon and light Daos have caught up with my sword Dao, creating some tiny instabilities. Fortunately, the sword Dao is still significantly ahead of them even though they all minor intents currently. But I'll have to keep the sword energy ahead constantly to prevent my energy from falling into chaos once again." His sword energy was the core of his cultivation right now.

It perfectly suppressed both the light and demon energies from colliding and destroying Long Feng's Dantian as well as his life. The condition was that the sword energy must always be stronger than the other two, otherwise the suppression effect would be pointless and chaos would return to his Dantian once more.

"Well, I couldn't help it. All my Daos have reached the level of intent now. It is completely worth it as long as I know my limits." He smiled and prepared to leave, only to pause once more and look around.

"That earlier surge of energy was quite conspicuous. There might be someone nearby who would be interested in checking this place out. I should wait for a while. If a strong opponent come, I'll use them as a whetstone. If not, I can leave anytime." After making this decision, he flew a bit higher into the sky untill he reached the limit of height he could reach currently without losing to gravity. Upon reaching that height, he sat down cross legged and rested his chin on the palm of his right arm.

At that height, he completely withdrew all of his energy, causing his presence to vanish completely. He also remembered to withdraw his soul power completely to prevent exposing his position.

"I'll need to find some time to push my soul power into the spirit transformation layer. It's now too weak to satisfy my needs." He decided. He began to wait patiently for several minutes. His original plan was to wait for an incense stick worth of time at most before he left, and he didn't harbor much hope of someone appearing. But to his surprise, several minutes later, an extremely powerful aura rushed over from the distance at an explosive speed. Just judging from the speed, Long Feng's eyes lit up.

This could only be a deity! The unique pressure of a deity soon suffused the area, causing the air to tighten and the natural energy to surge. When the person finally arrived and paused, Long Feng couldn't help but grin slightly. This was someone he recognized rather well among the ten deities. It was none other than Zhou Zheng! This would be the third time Long Feng was meeting him, and each time, his strength was vastly different from before.

Right now, he was floating right above Zhou Zheng but the latter wasn't able to sense his presence at all. That alone said everything about the former's strength. Long Feng watched Zhou Zheng's actions with a smile as he cautiously looked around then muttered some words and prepared to leave. Right as he was about to fly away, Long Feng decided to reveal himself.

"What a coincidence. We meet again, Zhou Zheng…" Zhou Zheng was clearly startled by the sudden voice above him and he leaped backwards before spotting Long Feng casually sitting in the air while staring at him. Zhou Zheng's first reaction was to feel awkward and annoyed after being startled by a brat. But when he took a closer look, his heart skipped a beat as he recognized Long Feng's face. How couldn't he?

They had watched as the Dao heart they sought for was taken away by this same youth while they helplessly watched and even contributed to his success. The frustration it caused needn't be explained. They already imagined that Long Feng was dead, after all, it was logically impossible for an Imperial to survive having something as powerful as the Dao heart within them. Death was assured in any normal case. But now, it was clear that they had miscalculated once more.

This Long Feng was a bit of an anomaly to have survived. But no matter how strange he was, this was his limit. At the end, he was nothing but a mere Imperial. There was a limit to the feats and Imperial could display. However he survived wasn't Zhou Zheng's concern. All he was worried about was the Dao heart. Thus the moment he recognized Long Feng, excitement bloomed in his heart. He couldn't suppress it at all and instantly burst out laughing, spreading his arms and roaring at the sky.

"Hahahaha! The heavens truly want me, Zhou Zheng to rise! I already said it! This is my destiny! To find the Dao heart and rise above many others is my right! Even the heavens acknowledge that and brought it directly to me! Hahaha!" Long Feng made a strange face at Zhou Zheng's words and decided to wait for him to calm down. Zhou Zheng laughed for a couple of minutes straight before he regained control of his emotions and paused. Even then, his gaze was filled with ecstasy and haughtiness as he stared at Long Feng.

"Brat, I'm in an extremely good mood right now. I don't care one bit how you're still alive. Hand over the Dao heart and I'll let you run for an hour before I chase after you!" He drew closer to Long Feng and ordered slowly. He obviously saw everything completely under his control judging from the extreme confidence in his tone. Long Feng traced his chin and smiled.

"So it really is the Dao heart… I see. I'm curious though, how did you all know about it? And I only have a blurry picture of what it is. Since you're here, you might as well tell me more about it." Zhou Zheng's next words stuck in his throat as he stared at Long Feng blankly for a second. He began to doubt his ears as he wondered why exactly Long Feng sounded so very calm and confident, even more so than him himself.

"Brat, are you deaf? Or have you gotten that tired of living that you want to die right now?" His expression turned sour as he asked with his tone getting a notch colder.

"Tired of living? It's nothing of that sort. I haven't lived nearly enough to get tired. What exactly happened while I was unconscious within the inheritance ground? I don't remember meeting any of you at all?" As Long Feng brought up this memory which Zhou Zheng didn't want to recall, his eyes turned cold. The pressure around began to build up untill the air seemed to still completely.

"Brat, you've lost your chance. Hand over the Dao heart and I'll let you have a swift death. Otherwise, I'll take it myself and ensure you have the most…"

"Most agonizing death possible?" Long Feng interrupted, freezing Zhou Zheng's expression.

"I've had just the right amount of agony recently, so thank you. I don't want to experience it again anytime soon. As for the matter of taking the heart from me…" Long Feng smirked.

"I seriously doubt if you have that ability." Zhou Zheng's eyes bulged as he stared at Long Feng. If he was previously blinded by excitement and didn't wait to think well, then Long Feng's calmness and confidence had fully awakened him. He began to have a faint bad feeling that something was wrong. It wasn't possible for an Imperial to be so calm before him. He could easily tell that Long Feng's calm wasn't forced or fake. It was true calm and Indifference, which shouldn't exist at all.

This forced him to pause and think once again.

"Brat, I think you're really courting death. You dare to talk back at me with your insignificant rank two Imperial realm cultivation? I could end your life before you choose your next words!" He snapped. Long Feng sighed and rose from his sitting position to stand.

"You're quite an amateur. You might as well just ask me for my cultivation straight forwardly." Saying that, he unleashed his cultivation fully, releasing his aura of a rank six Imperial. Zhou Zheng's heart instantly calmed down greatly and he felt slightly embarrassed at his over cautious attitude. While he was shocked at how Long Feng's cultivation had strangely risen by four levels, he was more relieved by the fact that he hadn't reached the Deity realm.

In his perspective, unless Long Feng somehow reached the deity realm, then he would easily be able to kill him. By now, he was assured that Long Feng was either prepared to die or was merely putting up a brave font to stall for time.