Chương 362: Overwhelming Zhou Zheng

"I-impossible…" Zhou Zheng's mind failed to instantly process what just occurred. It took him seconds to register everything completely.

"How! …" He uttered hoarsely while struggling to endure the excruciating pain spreading from his shoulder. Long Feng slowly turned around to face him, revealing his rather messy hair and robes as well as the thin line of blood that flowed down his lips. That was the first and only obvious sign of slight injury he had suffered since the beginning of the fight, and it was obviously nowhere severe enough to shake him. He stared at Zhou Zheng and his lips curled up in a calm smile.

"That was extremely close. I've really underestimated you, and subsequently the other nine as well. Your Earth stabilizing technique is very good." He praised. At the last moment, he had given up on destroying the entire mountain after deeming it as impossible without unleashing even greater power. Instead, he focused his attack in a single point and pierced through the bottom of the mountain to emerge from the side right as it hit the ground.

The shockwave from that distance still shook his insides slightly, but there was no significant injury at all. Zhou Zheng reached out with his right arm to grab his left shoulder while retreating as the intense pain began to dull his senses.

"Y-you… you cut off my arm! You actually…" he gasped while beads of sweat dripped down his forehead. His face had already turned pale from the loss of blood as well as the pain. The loss of an arm or any other limb was extremely serious. Most cultivators would lose part of their strengths for ever as it was impossible to restore the limbs at their levels.

For Zhou Zheng who specialized in using his fists, his strength and battle ability would fall by over ten percent after losing his left arm, and his standing among the ten deities was sure to fall to the bottom after this. Naturally, it would be hard for him to accept this fact.

"Hm? I did. You should have expected to lose something when you came to kill me. You can't try to kill me and expect me to fold my hands do you?"

"You…!" Zhou Zheng roared with fury mixing into the jumbled emotions in his eyes.

"Hold your tongue. Instead of speaking meaningless words, try to save your life." Long Feng cut him short calmly and raised his sword to point the tip at Zhou Zheng. Zhou Zheng's pupils immediately shrank once again as he retreated even farther away.

"You wouldn't dare to kill me! I am one of the top ten geniuses in the outer peak! You won't escape death as punishment!" He roared hoarsely.

"Your senses have really muddled. Where do you think this is? The outer peak? Just as you planned to kill me without fear of punishment, I can naturally do the same thing. After all, whatever happens within a mystic realm stays there." Long Feng replied calmly while coating his sword in piercing sword intent that terrified Zhou Zheng.

"W-wait a minute! Listen, we can talk this through! I can compensate you, do anything you want!"

"Sorry. I don't want to leave a threat behind." Long Feng shook his head and didn't give him the chance to speak again. His energy erupted as the sword pierced straight towards Zhou Zheng's chest. Zhou Zheng's eyes widened as he extended his right arm.

"Earth Stabilizing mountain, form!" He roared while retreating simultaneously. This time, he unleashed his true essence, clearing the dense dust in the sky and temporarily halting Long Feng's charge with the powerful pressure of the true essence. Another mountain formed around Zhou Zheng, but it was much smaller than the other two he formed. It was just enough to contain him perfectly within it, shielding him from all external attacks while compressing the mountain to increase it's defensive ability.

This was the famed defensive skill of the Earth Stabilizing mountain that other early stage deities found hard to breach. Long Feng paused and observed the mountain with a small frown.

"So that's why you never used your true essence… it's currently weak, and you haven't recovered it yet." He observed. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. The true essence was extremely limited in amount, and it was not exactly as powerful as it should be. From the looks of it, Zhou Zheng had recently exhausted his true essence and hadn't had the chance to sit and restore it.

Compared to normal energy, true essence was several times harder to restore after exhausting it, which was one of the reasons why many deities only used it in desperate times. Zhou Zheng didn't reply. He already had his hands full with straightening the mountain shield while enduring the severe pain of his cut off arm. Even speaking would cause him to lose some precious energy and worsen his already miserable chance against Long Feng.

"Let's see how strong this shell of yours is, shall we?" Long Feng charged up and stabbed his sword at Zhou Zheng again. The sword tip was easily blocked by the mountain and it wasn't able to pierce even a millimeter through the mountain at all, showing that the defense wasn't for show. Especially considering that it was formed using true essence, Long Feng already expected that it wouldn't be easy to destroy.

"Good shell. But how much can it withstand and for how long can you hold it?" Saying that, Long Feng unleashed a barrage of attacks on the mountain without any skill. If one couldn't do it, then he would use ten. If that wouldn't work, the a hundred, a thousand. At some point, the shield would break or Zhou Zheng would fail to hold it up any longer. And it was more likely that Zhou Zheng would crumble before the shield did.

As more attacks landed on the shield, Zhou Zheng's face turned pale white and streams of blood seeped out of his mouth and nostrils. Evidently, he was in no shape to hold the shield for an extended time while enduring the barrage of attacks. As minutes passed, he began to feel lightheaded due to the frightening amount of blood he had lost. His face was streaming with blood from his mouth and nose while his body was beginning to cave in under the continuous strain.

Even he realized that he wouldn't be able to hold on for more than a few more minutes, and the moment the earth stabilizing mountain failed, he would certainly die. He gritted his teeth and endured for as long as he could, trying to buy more time. Right now, his sole aim was to hold on for a few seconds longer for his chance. As for what chance that was… Long Feng suddenly paused his attacks and turned his eyes to a certain direction with a narrowed gaze.

Not long after, Zhou Zheng also sensed something and glanced in that direction with excitement flickering in his eyes.

"Our fight caused a ruckus that must've alerted everyone and they're all on their way here…" he roared with extreme relief and exhilaration. Long Feng frowned and glanced back at Zhou Zheng, then smiled thinly.

"Why do you think you're still alive?" He asked all of a sudden. Zhou Zheng's laughter froze as he met Long Feng's calm gaze and a chill suddenly filled his soul out of nowhere as a shocking idea surfaced in his mind.

"You…" his voice cracked slightly as he saw the utter calmness in Long Feng's eyes.

"You're using me to lure them here…" he realized as terror and disbelief melded into an unknown emotion in his heart. Even though he already said it, he strongly refused to entertain that idea. It was logically impossible. Long Feng calmly stepped back and stared at him indifferently.

"Not quite. I hoped to use you to draw on someone specific. It appears he's not the one approaching yet, and I'm not sure if he'll make it in time at all. After all, I'm not suicidal enough to stay when more than three of you gather together." He replied, shaking Zhou Zheng to his core. How could it possibly be? From the beginning, Long Feng was using him as bait? To lure someone over? It was impossibly hard to swallow this truth and it left Zhou Zheng feeling frustrated and empty.

"That means…" Long Feng nodded and interrupted before he could complete his question.

"If I wanted to kill you, you'd be dead already. You're still alive because you were of some use." After a brief pause, he continued.

"But I really did underestimate your strength. I have to reassess my estimation of that person to know what my chances really are." Zhou Zheng stared at him blankly as though his soul had left his body. Several seconds later, he closed his eyes.

"The person you're waiting for, who is it? …" Long Feng didn't respond. Instead, he turned around and grinned slightly.

"He's not here yet, but we have a new visitor. I suppose you still have a bit of luck remaining." As he said that, a faint aura began to approach from the direction he was staring at. The closer the aura came, the stronger it became untill it nearly reached the same intensity as Zhou Zheng's original aura.

"Looks like it's not one of the top three." Long Feng squinted his eyes and muttered. The approaching aura was a tad weaker than Zhou Zheng, meaning it couldn't be one of the top three.

"He should be on his way. I just hope he makes it in time before anyone else, otherwise I'll be forced to escape." He murmured under his breath. The approaching person finally entered their range of view and Long Feng saw who it was. He didn't know the name of this deity, but he was apparently ranked sixth among the top ten, previously higher than even Zhou Zheng. Of course, if he were to face Zhou Zheng now, he would definitely lose.

Zhou Zheng's strength could now stand toe to toe with the top five and even hold his own against the top three. The new youth flew over quickly and stopped dozens of meters away to assess the situation. As he looked around, he first spotted Long Feng and couldn't suppress the excitement that bubbled in his heart. He was one of those who entered the inheritance ground and watched the Dao heart get taken by Long Feng. Naturally, he also recognized Long Feng just as quickly as Zhou Zheng had.

But then he spotted the extremely battered Zhou Zheng who was hiding behind his earth stabilizing mountain. The youth's excitement rapidly vanished as he noticed Zhou Zheng's sorry state. When he saw the missing arm, his pupils shrank and he couldn't believe his eyes. Who in this place could force Zhou Zheng to this extent? And even amputate one of his arms? Everyone was fully aware of Zhou Zheng's strength. If it wasn't for the restriction in his manual, he would easily rank fourth or fifth among them all.

Even those who previously managed to defeat him only did it out of luck after exhausting him while avoiding his monstrous earth stabilizing mountain. That was just how strong he was. The only person the youth could think about who could beat Zhou Zheng to such an extent was Qiu Yushi. He alone held that strength to absolutely pummel any of the other deities. But excluding him, no one else should be able to push him this far… Zhou Zheng's face lit up slightly as he saw the youth.

He made to speak but then glanced at Long Feng's back and hesitated before switching to voice transmission. Long Feng floated there calmly and watched as the new youth's expression changed several times while his gaze alternated between both Zhou Zheng and Long Feng. First it was doubt, then mockery, then violent disbelief, then astonishment and a dazed expression. Long Feng couldn't help but feel amused, clearly aware that the two were communicating using voice transmission.

He couldn't sense the energy fluctuations but he knew it instinctively, and he did nothing to interfere. The conversation continued for a couple of minutes and didn't seem about to end, so Long Feng interrupted.

"Say, aren't you two done discussing? I don't have much time here." He glanced at the youth.

"Hey new guy, are you also here for the Dao heart?" The youth stared at Long Feng deeply with astonishment in his eyes. As Zhou Zheng roughly explained what occurred, his first instinct was to laugh and deny it all as a joke. But his mind strayed to Zhou Zheng's battered state. He would have thought about this all as a trap. Perhaps Zhou Zheng had already acquired the Dao heart from this youth and somehow made a deal with him to spare his life and form a trap for others. That would've made sense…

but the severed arm didn't add up. Would Zhou Zheng go as far as to beat himself up and cut off his arm just to lay a trap? The answer was a resounding no. Not even the Dao heart would cause anyone to become so foolish. As such, the youth could only accept the one and only explanation possible; that this Long Feng had really beaten Zhou Zheng up to this extent all by himself!