Chương 361: Gravity lock

Zhou Zheng's breathing was a little faster as he retreated from the area of the thick dust and stared at the mountain that was embedded deeply into the ground with a satisfied smile.

"Heh. That fool actually didn't try to dodge! He's probably nothing but a block of mashed flesh and blood beneath the mountain! Hahahaha…"

"That's some serious power. If I was down there, then it's likely that I'll really be crushed as you said." Long Feng's voice echoed in Zhou Zheng's ears, causing him to choke on his laughter and turn around while retreating in shock. His eyes were stretched to their limits as he stared at Long Feng who was floating there without a speck of dust on his black robes.

"Y-you! … How…?" Zhou Zheng was lost for words as he stared at Long Feng as though he was a ghost.

"How am I still alive? It's pretty easy. The mountain is extremely powerful… even mid stage deities would die beneath it. But…" Long Feng raised his head exasperatedly.

"It's so slow that I could literally stroll out from beneath it! I've heard about the power of the famous earth stabilizing technique in the outer peak, and I've also heard of it's flaw. Now, I can see that there is no exaggeration at all." Zhou Zheng's ragged breathing slowly became even once again as he forcefully suppressed his shock. Right now, even the Dao heart was thrown to the back of his mind. He was now genuinely astounded as he realized how much they had underestimated Long Feng.

Regardless of what his actual cultivation was, his true strength was utterly on par with that of the top ten outer peak disciples!

"You're fast… so that's what you're relying on. Before, I would've been helpless before you. You would be able to escape if you're fast enough and I wouldn't be able to stop you, after all, speed has always been a shortcoming of mine and my technique." He slowly uttered with a serious expression. His attitude had taken a 180 degree turn from the beginning and he was now seeing Long Feng as a foe on the same level as Yang Qian and the others.

"Unfortunately for you, I've fixed that flaw of mine. Speed is no longer an issue for me, and you must die today no matter what happens!" He added with gradual killing intent brewing in his heart. His fear towards Long Feng was gradually rising till it surpassed his greed for the Dao heart. His main priority right now wasn't to acquire the heart but to kill Long Feng at all cost and eliminate a future threat. Long Feng tilted his head upon sensing Zhou Zheng's roiling killing intent.

"I'm interested in knowing just how you intend to kill me. Besides, I also want to see just how you fixed this flaw of yours. Considering how serious you are now, I would feel bad if I don't respond in kind." A thin longsword appeared in his grasp out of thin air, emanating the aura of a powerful Imperial armament. Zhou Zheng's eyelids twitched as his heart skipped a beat as the sword appeared. This sword was the exact reason he had suddenly attacked earlier, but it had been in vain.

Even then, he didn't want to believe that Long Feng hadn't even gotten serious after everything. He himself was already going all out by now, including his cultivation manual! All that he hadn't used was his true essence, which was his final trump card!

"No… he must be bluffing. He can't be a swordsman… his Dao is the demon Dao. I've seen it's limit already. He can't be holding back anything else…" he reassured himself. He was fully aware of what it meant to be a swordsman. Yang Qian was one, and he had lost to him several times before. Yang Qian had already comprehended his own sword intent to the minor level, and it's power was shocking.

His offense was actually among the top three of the outer peak, but his cultivation was slightly lacking which was why he wasn't ranked highly. Having fought against Yang Qian several times before, Zhou Zheng knew that a swordsman without his sword wouldn't be able to use even half of his strength. The same applied for bladesmen, spear welders and other masters at their specific weapons.

The difference between a swordsman holding a sword and one without a sword was extremely great, which was why he didn't want to believe that Long Feng could be a swordsman.

"Even if I have to give up the Dao heart, you must die today! Earth Stabilizing technique! Gravity lock, first form!" He roared and revolved his complete energy to the limit. With him as the center, a mile radius around was enveloped in a faint aura. At once, the air became thrice heavier and gravity tripled! The change had occured extremely abruptly and Long Feng was caught completely off guard. His balance was completely disrupted as he plummeted from the sky like a meteor under the pressure of gravity.

Three times gravity was enough to make the sky a sealed zone for even mid stage deities.

"Hehehe, this is a new move I mastered from the earth stabilizing technique, the ability to triple the gravity within a mile radius. Unless you're a peak deity, flight will be impossible for you. Falling from this height, I might not need to do anything. Death will await you the moment you hit the earth! Hahaha!" Zhou Zheng laughed maniacally as he watched Long Feng plummet from the sky uncontrollably. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

He was not affected by the gravity, after all it was his own skill. But the same couldn't be said for Long Feng. He was originally floating at a really long height. Falling from this height… even if he didn't die instantly, he wouldn't be able to survive much longer.

"Even if you somehow don't die from the fall, you still won't live! I won't be giving you the chance to catch your breath!" Zhou Zheng added loudly and clasped his fist at Long Feng's direction. The tall earth stabilizing mountain shook fiercely and rose from the earth, revealing the deep hole it had dug into the ground. Following Zhou Zheng's directions, the mountain hovered above the falling Long Feng and descended sharply, causing ear splitting sounds to echo.

Long Feng quickly assessed his situation and realized that he had been too reckless, giving Zhou Zheng the opportunity to weave this trap for him. The triple gravity was too sudden, leaving no room for him to adapt and control his body. Right now, he couldn't do anything as he fell. There was also the mountain crushing down from above. The moment he hit the ground, the mountain would crush him and bury him in this place.

"Indeed, very worthy of being an elite deity. He must've been reserving this gravity lock skill for Yang Qian or even Bai Zijun and Situ Hong. Anyone who was caught off guard by this strange ability would definitely find it hard to escape unharmed.

"Not even the second step of the nine firmament steps is able to alleviate the force of the triple gravity enough for me to recover my balance." Long Feng pondered calmly, completely unruffled by this predicament. A smile even appeared on his face.

"This is nearly exactly the kind go battle I've been thirsting for, but… it's still not thrilling enough." He gently closed his eyes, allowing the powerful wind to flutter his robes and hair.

"Nine Firmament Steps… third step" The first three steps of the nine firmament steps were the most basic forms of the technique, and their ability was to decrease the force of gravity, allowing for greater speed and agility. That was exactly why Long Feng's movements appeared completely unpredictable and traceless. The technique itself excelled at sudden teleportation like movements instead of prolonged speed.

Since the first two steps weren't enough, it was time to try out the third step, which was allegedly a level of speed reserved for deities. The grade of the nine firmament steps as well as the Firmament Sword Art was completely unknown. But one thing was assured. The earth stabilizing technique was nowhere close to them! Long Feng's body suddenly became as light as a feather in a wind storm.

His control over his body returned just as suddenly as it vanished and the triple gravity faded dramatically, becoming less than half of what it was originally. There was little time to appreciate the ability of the technique. Long Feng wasn't far from the ground and the heavy mountain was steadily pressing down above him. Tightening his grip around the sword hilt, Long Feng perfectly broke his fall and steadied his body midair once more.

He tilted his head upwards to stare at the descending mountain while his lips curled up slightly.

"I've already wondered if a sword can cleave a mountain apart. This might be a cheap copy of a mountain, but it's good enough as a test." Clouds of demon energy poured out of his body as he raised his sword to point at the mountain.

"Earth Firmament skill!" The demon energy rapidly condensed just as an astonishing amount of sword energy split the pressure around, cleaving even the increased gravity apart. The sword energy and demon energy merged rapidly under Long Feng's control and compressed within the Imperial armament sword. Just as the two energies were almost completely merged together, a slight instability emerged within them as the demon energy began to fluctuate rather strongly.

This slight fluctuation was due to the weak suppression of the sword energy over the demon energy, causing the merging to show signs of failing. Long Feng frowned while lowering his body rapidly. This was an extremely bad time for his energy to destabilize as he was basically in a dangerous situation. Although he had stopped his fall, he would never be able to move out of the way in time before the mountain crashed him.

But at the same time, if he didn't stop the attack and went ahead, he would likely cause a severe backlash on himself if his demon energy escaped his control. The earth firmament skill would implode within his body before he could even unleash it. The consequences of that could be imagined. He anticipated situations like this earlier, but he didn't expect one such scenario to occur in the middle of his battle. Different thoughts rushed through his mind in a split second before he chose the best course of action.

"Solitary Sword, ruthless indifference at heart…" He instantly recited the first of the sword laws, causing his sword energy to fluctuate and explode with greater might, enough to completely suppress the demon energy. At the same time, the power of the earth firmament skill rose up a notch, surpassing even the normal power of the heaven firmament skill. Long Feng's sword was enveloped in pitch black sword energy that spread to cover his body as well.

For an instant, sword and man lost their distinction—only a single edge remained. Instead of unleashing the attack, he shot straight up towards the mountain, the sword tip cleaving the air in two. A pitch black ray of sword light shot into the sky exuding an energy ripple that completely crumbled the triple gravity lock just by it's appearance.

This was much stronger than a normal earth firmament skill as it merged both the demon energy, sword energy and a tiny concept of the elusive sword law together to unleash this. From a distance, the scene appeared entrancing. A mountain was crushing down and a pitch black ray of light shot straight at it. Sound was swallowed for a few seconds as the two attacks collided. Zhou Zheng's eyes bulged as he poured forth all of his energy to enhance the mountain and suppress the sword beam.

His efforts paid off as the two attacks ended up in a stalemate that dazzled all onlookers. The sword ray was totally insignificant in size compared to the mountain, but it completely stalled the descent of the tall mountain and even showed signs of overwhelming the mountain. Beads of sweat formed on Zhou Zheng's forehead as his veins bulged under the strain of the extreme amount of energy he was emitting.

Seconds passed and just when the stalemate looked like it wouldn't end, a crack spread from the point of impact beneath the mountain, shocking Zhou Zheng.

"This… I'm actually losing…" his entire body was tense as he sensed the crack forming.

"No… I just have to hold on. His body will not be able to withstand the weight of the mountain for long!" His eyes turned red as he roared and shocking forced out even more energy from his body. At this point, he had gone all out. Even using his true essence wouldn't grant him much more of an advantage right now after straining his body past it's limits. But as long as he could hold on for a few seconds longer… as long as he could win, it would be worth it. Alas, more cracks spread beneath the mountain rapidly.

What relieved him was the fact that the pitch black sword beam was also weakening significantly as time passed.

"That's it… one more second…" Zhou Zheng roared internally as the mountain pressed down ever so slightly.

"Crush him! Dieee!" He grinned as the mountain regained it's momentum slowly and began to push the sword beam down towards the earth. The ground was already mere meters away. With Long Feng's body within the sword beam, it was likely that the consequences would be disastrous if the mountain crushed him. The sword beam weakened more and more until the glow was almost completely gone.

"Hahahaha! You're dead, brat!" Zhou Zheng roared with laughter as the mountain finally crushed the earth below completely, burying the sword beam beneath it with overwhelming weight. An earthquake seemed to rumble throughout the mystic realm as the impact spread, blotting the sky with thick dust.

"Hahahaha! I've done it! That kid is truly dead this time!" Zhou Zheng threw his head backwards and burst out laughing insanely as he watched the destruction caused by his mountain below.

"Even Qiu Yushi would be buried if he was crushed under this weight! That kid is strong but his imperial realm body is his weakness! Hahahaha… wha…" All of a sudden, a beam of light pierced through the endless dust and shot straight towards Zhou Zheng at a chilling speed. He was barely able to sense the beam before it was already upon him, aiming for his chest. Pupils shrinking, Zhou Zheng's entire body moved aside instinctively at a speed that surpassed his normal ability.

Even then, he didn't make it out of the way completely. The beam of light swept past him, drawing a spray of blood from his arm as the entire left arm from his shoulder was sliced off cleanly. Zhou Zheng's pupils shivered in a mixture of disbelief as he turned his head slowly to glance at his severed arm that was falling to the ground.

"I-impossible… I'm injured…?" The pain was only just beginning to register in his mind as he stared at the blood that poured out of his shoulder like a spring. Then he turned his head mechanically to look behind him where a figure stood with their back to him.