Zhang Zhou almost couldn’t believe what he was hearing. They wanted to destroy the Heavenly Sword Sect? A select that has stood strong and contains over a thousand years of history? Were they mad?
“Let’s ignore the fact that what you are suggesting is treason for the moment. Neither of you stand a chance against Zhe Dāozhe. Not even all three of us combined could defeat him.”
Zhe Dāozhe was a legend who had been around since the dawn of the new era. During the war that destroyed the Four Great Guardian Sects, he had carved his path through numerous battles and earned a reputation for his swordsmanship. He was a prodigy who had mastered Sword Intent at the age of 17. Now he stood at the top of the food chain, a Peak Perfection Realm cultivator who was said to be the closest person to becoming a god. There was no way they could beat something like that.
Zhang Zhou, Feng Renjien, and Mei Qi were all at the peak of the Realization Realm--the second highest realm one could reach. However, the difference between the Realization Realm and the Perfection Realm was like heaven and earth
Perfection Realm cultivators had so much more chi than Realization Realm cultivators. If you had to give it a comparison, it would be like comparing a lake to the ocean. Vast did not even begin to cover the difference.
If that was the only thing they had to worry about, it might have been possible to still beat someone, but on top of having far more chi, the quality of their chi was also different. It was much easier to wield freely. A cultivator’s chi at the Perfection Realm was refined to a finely honed point. That was why this realm had been given its name.
Zhe Dāozhe was one of the few expert cultivators who had achieved this realm, and among them all, he was the strongest. His skills with a sword, the power he wielded as a cultivator, and his thousands of years of experience made him the ultimate weapon. His strength was so great that he had been given a nickname.
God of Swords.
“You’re not wrong,” Mei Qi admitted with an elegant yet seductive shrug of her shoulders. “There is no way for us to defeat Zhe Dāozhe ourselves… but who said we would be the ones to fight him?”
Zhang Zhou narrowed his eyes. “You’ve teamed up with someone else? And they have reached the Perfection Realm?”
There were only four known cultivators who had reached the Perfection Realm--the three sect masters of the Three Celestial Sects and the ruler of the Xia Dynasty. He quickly ruled out Huǒ Huangdi of the Phoenix Clan. That man was ambitious, but he would not join forces with someone outside of his clan. He was what one might call a clan supremacist. That left Shui Meili and the Zhou Clan’s mysterious clan head, whom no one actually knew anything about.
Mei Qi smiled. “No. They are even stronger than someone at the Perfection Realm.”
“Stronger than…” Zhang Zhou’s eyes widened, but then they quickly narrowed. “I do not know what this person did to convince you of their strength, but you are a fool for believing them. How many people have tried and failed to become gods? The God Realm is but a myth.” He stood up. “I think we are done here.”
“Oh? But you haven’t answered our question. Will you join us or not?”
Mei Qi and Feng Renjian also stood up, and Zhang Zhou licked his dry lips as he felt the pressure these two emanated. He had no doubt they would try to kill him if he refused. Could he win? Mei Qi was not very strong even though her cultivation was high. She focused more on aesthetics than power. However, Feng Renjian was quite powerful--not as strong as him, but strong enough to pose a threat. A battle with the two of them combining their strength could go either way.
Should I lie? No, they would sense it and attack me anyway.
Cultivators of their level could easily detect lies. Being of the same cultivation did not change that. Even if he kept a straight face, even if his chi did not fluctuate, they would know if he was being dishonest.
Zhang Zhou was an ambitious man; he had been willing to poison Feng Tiangsheng, crippling him to make his duel easier, and he had teamed up with these two to do it. However, that was because Feng Tiangsheng had been a rising star who’d grown arrogant. Zhang Zhou was many things. He was hard, cold, and domineering, but a traitor was not one of those things.
“It seems we already have our answer,” Feng Renjian said with a smile as he summoned his weapon. It was a massive greatsword even taller than the one who wielded it. Its blade, exceptionally wide and curved, resembling a stylized tempest cloud, was forged from a rare and formidable metal. The hilt, wrapped in supple, dark blue leather from a flood dragon, offered a comfortable grip. Meanwhile, the pommel had a decorative jewel shaped like a thunderbolt. It was a Heaven Grade Profound Spirit Weapon.
The weapons Mei Qi brought out were a pair of short swords, both exquisite as a work of art. They were not long, but that hardly mattered, for their sharpness could easily slice through the hardest metals. Forged from a rare alloy known for its lightness and durability, these Heaven Grade Profound Spirit Weapons had blades that were slender and slightly curved, designed for swift and precise strikes. Their hilts were wrapped in soft crimson leather. Rumors had it they were made from a young phoenix. Each guard was shaped like a delicate flower, a chrysanthemum, adding to their beauty.
“I do believe you are right,” Mei Qi added. “It really is unfortunate, but I suppose even the sleeping dragon will grow indecisive and weak with age.”
Zhang Zhou narrowed his eyes at the insult, even as he summoned his own weapon. His weapon lacked the ostentation and intimidation of the other pair. The single-edged, curved sword had plain black leather wrapped around the hilt, and the pommel and guard did not look like anything special. Even the sheath containing his blade was unadorned and simplistic. However, the moment he brought it out, the two opposing him tensed.
“It seems you young ones do not understand the difference between heaven and earth,” Zhang Zhou rumbled. “Since you seem so intent on provoking me, I will show you what it means to awaken the one who earned the nickname of The Sleeping Dragon.”
***
The scene was one of devastation. Mountains had crumbled, lakes had dried up, and large swaths of forest had been reduced to ash, the surface covered in gouges so deep they looked like ravines.
Standing several feet away was the corpse of an old man. Most of his clothing was gone, his body was covered in wounds, and there was a gaping hole in the center of his chest. His left arm was missing, but despite all those wounds, he remained standing. He had died standing.
“Dammit… that old man… he was way stronger than I gave him credit for…”
Mei Qi stood alongside her cohort amidst this devastation, and not without injury. Her left arm was dangling by the tendons, the flesh having been sheared through and the bone all but destroyed. Blood ran down her face and matted her hair. Her clothes were torn and cut and blood stained much of it. Quite a bit of that blood was hers too.
What a mess she must look like.
“What else could we have expected. The man we were going up against earned his nickname for a reason. Sleeping Dragon indeed. Fighting him did feel a lot like fighting against an enraged dragon,” Feng Renjian said with a grimace.
He was not much better than Mei Qi. While his arms were both intact, his left leg was gone. Zhang Zhou had cut through it with his technique, True Flash. It was the original version of Crimson Flash, which he taught to his disciples, but it was much stronger and more dangerous. Zhang Zhou had been looking to split his body in two. Feng Renjian was lucky to have gotten away with just a missing leg.
“Well… that ended quite poorly,” Mei Qi muttered.
“Hmmm. But we both expected this to happen. Is that not why we came prepared?”
“Indeed. Had we not come here prepared to kill him, we would have surely lost.”
Mei Qi surveyed the damage done to their surroundings. Most of it had not been done by them. Zhang Zhou had been a truly formidable man, and that was why she had hoped she could convince him to join them. Her partners had warned her that he was unlikely to join, but they didn’t tell her not to try. They had even provided her with the items she needed in the event things went south.
They must have known this would happen. That is why they provided me with those items. They knew he would refuse and wanted me to remove him so he wouldn’t pose a threat.
While the most numerous forces of the Three Celestial Sects were their Human Limit and Deva Realm cultivators, the most powerful were their Realization Realm cultivators. A single cultivator in this realm had enough power to destroy one of the smaller nations. The only reason they did not was because it was unproductive and cultivators at that level didn’t care. Most of them were already hundreds of years old and had lost many of their worldly desires.
The Heavenly Sword Sect had the most Realization Realm cultivators between the Three Celestial Sects. That was part of the reason they were hailed as the most powerful among the three. Zhang Zhou had been among their most powerful, too. While no clear ranking had been given, Mei Qi suspected he was the third or fourth most powerful cultivator.
Well, had been the third or fourth most powerful cultivator.
“Are you sure no one will notice what happened here?” asked Feng Renjian.
Mei Qi summoned a small vial from her storage ring. It contained several crystalline pills that gleamed like polished gemstones. She popped the vial open, tilted it toward her mouth, and swallowed when she felt a single pill fall in.
“Nnnngggg…”
Because she did not like pain, Mei Qi could not help but grimace as the nerves along her nearly severed arm flared with agony. She took quick, panting breaths as the flesh along her injury bubbled. The tendon that barely kept her arm from falling off snapped. A scream escaped her lips as she clutched her shoulder. The taste of blood filled her tongue as she bit down when a bone jutted from the now completely severed limb. Muscles, veins, and flesh soon wound their way round her bone, regrowing at an astounding rate. Her bones soon formed fingers, which became wrapped in muscle, then flesh, and her nails suddenly grew back, though they were not long like they used to be.
She took several short, panting breaths, calming down, and only then did she answer Feng Renjian. “I am positive. The sealing array I was given creates a barrier that not only keeps all chi from escaping the confined space, but even prevents people from looking into the timelines of the area around it.”
“So not even Wu Meiying knows about what happened?” mused Feng Renjian.
“Correct,” Mei Qi said. She grimaced as phantom pain from regrowing her limb continued to assail her. “That does not mean we can afford to be lackadaisical. She will eventually find out that Zhang Zhou has been slain. We will need to be prepared for when she realizes he is gone.”
“I suppose we cannot hide this forever.”
“We don’t need to hide his death. Just the fact that we killed him. Everything should be fine so long as no one finds out it was us.”
“Is that also something your benefactors told you?”
“It is.”
“Well, fine. I’m already in this deep. Might as well listen to what you say. Just don’t forget your promise to me.”
Mei Qi smiled. “Do not worry. I won’t forget.”
“Good.” Feng Renjian paused. “So what now?”
“We must cover up what happened here,” Mei Qi announced. “We will need to be quick about it. While no one felt what happened, they will notice once the barrier is released. It was only set to last for a week, so we have one week to make it look the same as it used to. We should also hide Zhang Zhou’s body. We cannot let anyone find it.”
“I can seal his body away within my storage ring,” Feng Renjian said.
“That will work. Now, let us get to work.”
Mei Qi did not like working. She preferred making others work for her, but to live the life she wanted, the life she deserved, she would put in the effort.
Those people had better be grateful I am willing to go to such lengths for them, she grumbled as she began the process of restoring the forest, mountains, and lakes.
It would be a long week for her.
