I Cheated While Cultivating

Chapter 300: Chapter 20 Who Says I Only Know Martial Arts?

Nie Yu, however, remained unflustered and continued to shake his head, “It’s not that I am extraordinarily brave, but it’s best if you stay out of this matter. It’s for your own good, unless you want Master Yan himself to come over. If you get involved, you could be in grave danger.”

“Unless my senior brother comes over in person…” Zhou Heng was briefly startled by the comment, then a realization dawned upon him and he said, “It seems that Lord Nie already knows the root of this issue. Why not share it with me?”

“Mr. Zhou, I advise you not to ignore my warnings,” Nie Yu said with a bitter expression. “This matter is far from trivial. I’m still able to hold her back now, so please don’t provoke her, or the whole Anhe Prefectural city may suffer from a great disaster.”

“You didn’t ask for help from the Zhou Tian Boundary Officers?” Zhou Heng asked directly.

“…” Nie Yu was taken aback, looking at Zhou Heng with astonishment, and after a while said, “You know?”

“Ghosts.” Zhou Heng replied succinctly.

From Nie Yu’s previous remarks and the faint ghostly aura lingering in this garden, he had guessed the cause of the turmoil in the Anhe Prefectural city.

He also had an idea of who the demonic woman suspected of practicing the forbidden Red Flower Six-Rank technique might be.

“So you already knew,” Nie Yu sighed deeply, and at the same time slightly relieved. “Since you’re aware, you should know that below a Celestial Man, no one but the Zhou Tian Boundary Officers can kill a ghost. It will be very dangerous for you to intervene in this.”

“It’s not just that,” Zhou Heng took a step forward, his gaze fixed on Nie Yu as he said, “If I’m not mistaken, this garden still has remnants of ghostly energy. I suspect this ghost has some connection to you, the Lord of the Prefecture.”

“This…” At Zhou Heng’s words, Nie Yu fell silent, his face showing a pained expression. He stepped back, unwilling to meet Zhou Heng’s eyes, and said, “Mr. Zhou, this was not my intention; it was truly a last resort. He is after all…”

“The Lord of the Prefecture has a daughter,” Zhou Heng said solemnly. “Her name is Nie Jin?”

Last night, when he was attacked by the suspected demonic woman practicing the Red Flower Seven-Petal Body, the clues he obtained included her name, which was “Nie Jin”.

“You… you already know this?” As Nie Yu turned pale with shock, he looked at Zhou Heng in utter astonishment; his daughter had always been kept isolated from the world, and aside from his closest kin, hardly anyone knew her name.

In his eyes, since Zhou Heng even knew this, it was obvious that he had a very detailed understanding of the entire series of events—there was no room left for explanation.

Whoosh!

Just then, a cold, piercing wind blew out from a rockery in the garden.

The wind, chilling to the bone and with a strong hallucinatory quality, suddenly transformed the garden “into” a desolate mountain wilderness of ice and snow.

“Father, why bother talking so much with him? Watch me take him down myself!”

A furious shout drifted over with the cold wind, and soon after, a white-dressed, beautiful-faced girl with a face full of anger rushed out.

This girl looked exactly like “Nie Jin” whom Zhou Heng had seen the night before, but whether it was her expression or her aura, they carried a completely different tenor, as if she were a different person.

If Nie Jin whom Zhou Heng encountered last night represented an extreme “joy”, then Nie Jin now was the epitome of “anger”, with even more aggressive tendencies.

“They say the Red Flower Seven-Petal Body cultivates incarnations using the seven emotions as vessels. Seeing this now, it is indeed the case,” Zhou Heng appraised, then promptly raised his hand towards this incarnation of Nie Jin.

A sword light condensed with Pure Yang True Qi was about to burst forth, an Innate Formless Sword finger!

“Mr. Zhou, hold on!” Nie Yu reacted with a low shout, quickly moving beside Zhou Heng.

Suddenly, the Anhe Prefecture’s Lord gathered True Qi in his palm to form a cyan light, which merged with the natural energy of heaven and earth, creating a cyan light barrier directly placed in front of Zhou Heng.

He was attempting to block Zhou Heng’s attack.

Meanwhile, Nie Jin surged forward, enveloped by the bone-chilling wind and snow, instantly drawing all the coldness of this icy world towards the spot where Zhou Heng stood, threatening to engulf him.

The piercing cold was enough to grind iron to dust and could stop the blood of a Seventh Rank Warrior from flowing, freezing them to death alive, and made half the people in Anhe Prefectural city shiver with the sudden rise in chill.

Many people couldn’t help wondering, how come it had just been the beginning of spring, and yet it felt like winter’s cold had returned?

Clang!

At that moment, a deafening bell sound resonated throughout the heavens and earth, startling the surroundings, and could be heard by everyone within a three to five-mile radius.

At the same time, they saw a golden light rising from the ground in the direction of the prefectural city’s government office. The people nearby could even make out the vague shape of a golden bell shadow, resisting the overwhelming snow.

This scene caught the attention of many.

Especially Sheng Xinrou, her eyes widened in amazement as she exclaimed, “The Golden Bell Cover, this, this must be the Golden Bell Cover, right? Zhou Heng’s Martial Arts, is he at the prefectural city’s government office?”

Although she hadn’t seen Zhou Heng deploy the Golden Bell Cover, she knew from the rankings and some martial world rumors that he had a defensive Martial Arts technique that manifested a golden bell-shaped aura.

Sheng Xinrou’s shout drew the attention of many, and the looks towards the prefectural city’s government office became even more astonished.

Zhou Heng was actually using the Golden Bell Cover at the prefectural city’s government office?

What was the situation?

At this very moment, in the garden of the government office’s backyard,

Zhou Heng brought forth the Golden Bell Cover, withstood Nie Jin’s attack, and also forcibly shattered the cyan light screen that was meant to block his offensive.

And, the moment that cyan light screen shattered, he opened his mouth to spit out a burst of purple lightning.

The Purple Lightning Flying Sword immediately locked onto Nie Yu, breaking through the air and slashing towards him!

The current Purple Lightning Flying Sword was being wielded by Zhou Heng, who had stepped into the Secret Six Rank. Its power had increased exponentially compared to when Zhou Heng was at the peak of the Seventh Rank.

Back then, Zhou Heng was able to contend with the Secret Six Rank with it; now, naturally, it was even more powerful. Just a single face-off had already left Nie Yu, who had been in the True Energy Realm for many years, with only the power to parry, but none to fight back.

As for Nie Jin, who commanded the snowstorm, her incarnation was much stronger than the one from last night, but still no match for Zhou Heng.

At such a close distance, Zhou Heng struck down with a palm, instantly bursting her incarnation on the spot.

“Mr. Zhou, stop at once, or you will be in grave danger!” Nie Yu shouted loudly. In just this short while, he was already covered in wounds, with the Purple Lightning Flying Sword threatening to slash him to death.

“Father, do you see? This is humanity; humans deserve to die! They are fit only to be my nourishment!” Along with the chilly female voice, a beautiful girl in a red dress walked out, an intense ghostly aura about her.

This was Nie Jin’s true form.

“Ah Jin, stop this!” Nie Yu called out sorrowfully.

“Why stop when we’re about to succeed?” Nie Jin responded coldly, her eyes had turned completely black, devoid of pupils, looking at Zhou Heng, she sneered, “Human, do you think you can kill me with your inferior Martial Arts?”

“Who said Martial Arts was all I knew?” Zhou Heng replied with a taunting smile, as sword light soared by his side, and he flew straight into the sky, his hands forming seals, thunder marks completed.

“Five Thunder Righteous Method!”