Chapter 105: Chapter 104: Earth Spirit
’This sense of danger? But it’s just a military camp in Celestial Sea Prefecture...’
Zhao Xuanqi narrowed his eyes slightly. He didn’t rush to make a move, instead observing the situation inside the encampment with greater care and patience, like a predator lying in wait. He waited well into the latter half of the night, but nothing unusual happened within the camp.
He couldn’t pinpoint the source of that feeling of danger, and it was only a very faint sensation.
In his Earth Spirit state, Feng Zheng’s own life force fluctuations were almost fused with the Earth Vein. To a casual observer, he might even appear to be a boulder rather than a human. The fact that Zhao Xuanqi could sense a trace of a threat was a testament to the extreme sensitivity of his Hundred Beasts Instinct.
’The camp doesn’t seem to be the problem, which means this sense of danger is coming from my target? The Celestial Sea Prefecture Military Officer, Hou Rong. Perhaps he has some hidden strength? Looks like I’ll need to be decisive when I strike. I’ll just kill him in one move and be done with it.’
Zhao Xuanqi looked at the sky, knowing he couldn’t wait any longer.
With a light, swift movement, he vaulted onto the encampment’s perimeter wall. Because no intelligence had been received, the guards inside the camp today weren’t on high alert.
Just as he was about to drop down from the wall, he suddenly paused his movement. He didn’t continue his descent, choosing instead to approach the target from the rooftops.
It was something difficult to describe—a peculiar feeling, not quite a sense of crisis, but something that helped Zhao Xuanqi make the right choices at critical moments.
This was another wondrous application of his Hundred Beasts Instinct, and it was the reason he had been able to repeatedly escape the joint encirclement of the International Alliance in his previous life.
He leaped lightly from the wall, his arms extending like an ape’s, and firmly grasped the windowsill of a house several meters away. His application of force was so skillful that he made no sound, and the resulting vibration was minuscule. Buffered by the wall, the vibration that reached the ground was almost nonexistent, imperceptible even to Feng Zheng.
He scaled the wall to the roof and crept toward the location where, according to his intelligence, Hou Rong was staying tonight.
At this moment, Hou Rong was resting as usual in the Military Officer’s residence assigned to him at the rear of the camp. He had no knowledge of or preparation for what was about to happen. In fact, with the southern weather growing warmer, he hadn’t even closed his window, allowing the cool evening breeze to drift into the room.
Zhao Xuanqi’s expression was perfectly calm. His Spirit was completely contained, his heartbeat nearly stopped, and all signs of life seemed to fade to nothing.
He concealed his presence to the absolute limit, preparing to launch a sudden attack on his prey.
He vaulted through the window and into the room.
TAP!
An almost inaudible sound echoed, one that a person deep in sleep would never have noticed.
However.
In a nearby room, Feng Zheng’s tightly shut eyes snapped open.
’The location of that footstep... it’s not Hou Rong!!’
’After waiting half the night, he’s finally here! He actually bypassed my ground-sense and appeared directly in Hou Rong’s room. He’s really someone!’
In an instant, Feng Zheng reacted.
His massive frame shot into motion. He leaped out of the open window, and the moment he landed, his body merged almost perfectly with the ground’s vibration, producing virtually no sound or disturbance.
Then, he abruptly released Force from his legs.
The earth, his feet, and his torso became one single entity!
His target was not the main door of Hou Rong’s residence, nor its window, but the wall of the bedroom itself!
Meanwhile, in Hou Rong’s bedroom.
Zhao Xuanqi stared at the headless corpse on the bed, a look of slight astonishment on his face.
’He died just like that?’
After he vaulted into the bedroom, the soundly sleeping Hou Rong had no reaction at all. It wasn’t until Zhao Xuanqi’s killing intent erupted, his body filled with a Qi Surge and Blood Essence Infusion, that the intense murderous aura startled Hou Rong from his dreams.
Celestial Sea Prefecture was not a major prefecture, and the strength of its City Defense Army was actually quite limited. A Military Officer of such a prefecture was only at the level of ordinary Inner Cultivation.
Poor Hou Rong. First, he hadn’t received any intelligence, so he had no idea that Zhao Xuanqi might have secretly returned to Celestial Sea, and he thought all was well, leaving him completely unguarded. Second, his strength was limited, even inferior to Xu Gu Hall, the master of the Taihe Tiger Form Boxing Hall.
Caught completely off guard in his sleep by a full-force attack from an expert like Zhao Xuanqi, he was defenseless even after being jolted awake. A single palm strike to his head caused his entire skull to explode like a watermelon, and he died on the spot without uttering a single word.
Now, splattered with red and white matter, Zhao Xuanqi’s expression was still a bit strange. ’A target capable of giving me a sense of crisis shouldn’t have been this easy to kill.’
But in the next moment, his pupils contracted violently.
His Hundred Beasts Instinct sharply sensed an immense threat coming from his side and rear.
The direction—directly toward the wall!
Then.
BOOM!!
A terrifying crash resounded. The entire wall shook violently, as if it had been struck by a train.
The specially reinforced wall caved inward before suddenly exploding!
A huge breach appeared in the wall, and a tall figure stood before it.
This person had actually smashed through a specially reinforced wall with sheer brute force!!
Such power and physique were simply terrifying.
The waning moonlight streamed in from outside, enveloping the tall figure and casting a large shadow within the room.
"Zhao Qi, you really did come. You won’t be escaping this time."
Feng Zheng’s cold voice echoed in the room.
BOOM!!
Before his voice had even faded, his tall frame, wreathed in a Qi Surge, had already shot forward.
Vicious! Decisive! Experienced!
He gave his opponent no chance to react!
The sound of breathing, the beating of his heart, the flow of his Qi and Blood, the tightening of his muscles, and even the vibration of the ground.
At this moment, everything seemed to merge into one, achieving a strange harmony.
In the shadows, Feng Zheng’s eyes were as cold as stone, like those of a deity that ruled over all.
At the same time, he used the vibrations in the ground to perceive Zhao Xuanqi’s every move, guarding against any possible change in his actions.
Earth Spirit Palm!!
Back when "Hundred Rivers" Hong Yukun had captured Zhang Hongyun, he had also used this same move, but the effect produced by the two men was completely different.
Hong Yukun’s Palm Technique used the flow of his muscles to simulate the shifting of mountains and rivers. When he struck, his muscles stirred the air, moving like an endless mountain range to overcome his foe. This was why he held the title "Hundred Rivers."
As for Feng Zheng, his bloodline and internal organs seemed to be one with the Earth Vein. His every move seemed not of human origin, but like the earth shaking and the mountains swaying. It was not he who was generating power, but the earth itself. How could human strength contend with the power of the earth?
Thus, he was known as "Earth Spirit" Feng Zheng!
This was the strength of a true core-level Martial Artist from the Giant Spirit Army, a level far beyond what an ordinary Martial Artist could ever hope to achieve!
One man, an enemy to a hundred soldiers!
An intense sense of crisis stimulated Zhao Xuanqi’s nerves through his Hundred Beasts Instinct.
Qi Circulation Throughout the Body, Blood Essence in motion!
He too threw a palm strike!
Uprooting Mountains and Overturning Seas!!
BOOM!!
The instant the two clashed, the air inside the room exploded as if a grenade had gone off. The window was blown to pieces, and all sorts of exquisite furniture were destroyed in the blast wave.
And under the force of this blow, Zhao Xuanqi’s body, which had never retreated before any Cross-Training prodigy, was actually forced back.
SCRAPE! SCRAPE! SCRAPE!!
BANG!!
After three consecutive steps back, his massive body slammed heavily into the room’s wall, causing it to cave in deeply and large cracks to spiderweb across its surface.
One could only imagine the intensity of the earlier collision.
The strength of a core member of the Giant Spirit Army, whether in Training Method or fighting style, was far beyond anything Zhou Lie, who had not yet truly set foot in the army, could compare to!
