546 The Mysterious Young Man
Boom!
The ground abruptly caved in, sending up a dust cloud seven to eight meters high. The barren terrain spread like a spiderweb, its advance leaving the once-green forest littered with fallen leaves.
From the dust and smoke, Zhou Chuanyong emerged, his body smeared in blood. He darted towards the Thousand Divination Tower, moving through the forest with agility reminiscent of a monkey on flat land.
Behind him, a pair of giant Kun Peng wings unfurled, their black glow hinting at deadly sharpness. They easily sliced through the surrounding giant trees, the trunks as thick as several people’s arms falling effortlessly in their wake.
The forest echoed with the thunderous sound of falling timber as Qin Huai passed by, the noise akin to demonic whispers in Zhou Chuanyong’s ears.
The whispers grew louder, closer, until several feathers fell into Zhou Chuanyong’s line of sight. Suddenly, they ignited, turning into a fiery cage. Within moments, several rocs sprang forth, transforming into giant beasts that lunged at him.
Boom!
An explosion ensued, forcing Zhou Chuanyong to stagger back. With narrowed eyes, he retaliated against the murderous aura advancing from the dust, throwing punch after punch.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Each hit forced Zhou Chuanyong back, and after a dozen or so blows, he had been driven hundreds of meters into the ground. His feet were blood-soaked, his fists bruised, and his hands trembled uncontrollably.
But what stunned him most was not his physical condition — it was the overwhelming force Qin Huai had just displayed. The luminous, black-feathered Kun Peng wings were unlike those of any ordinary Kun Peng demons. They bore the distinctive pattern of a pure-blooded breed.
How had Qin Huai acquired a pure-blooded Kun Peng to refine into a guardian spirit item? It would explain how he could keep up with Zhou Chuanyong.
However, as far as Zhou Chuanyong knew, the last pure-blooded Kun Peng in existence was Tang Pi, who had recently allied with Kong Binghuang. And even Tang Pi had only recently come into this power.
Furthermore, how was Qin Huai’s strength so formidable? It was vastly more terrifying than rumors suggested.
Zhou Chuanyong’s mind swirled with questions, but one thing was clear: the blood sea spirit, formed from the power of millions of vengeful souls, had likely fallen into Qin Huai’s possession.
Zhou Chuanyong knew he was no match for Qin Huai in direct combat. He needed to devise a way to calm him down, at least until Wang Gan arrived to settle matters. Given the chaos unfolding on Wuji Mountain, he was confident that the seers from the Thousand Divination Tower would have detected the unusual activity.
The choice of the Thousand Divination Tower as a base was due to its martial artists’ exceptional intelligence. They were adept at calculation, able to discern even the most minute movements. This ensured that the Sacred Heart Sect maintained a formidable intelligence network. It was a virtually failsafe setup.
Zhou Chuanyong owed his escape from Kong Binghuang’s previous trap to the exceptional calculative abilities of the Thousand Divination House members. As for the impact of such high-intensity computation on their lifespans, neither Yue Yang nor the Sacred Heart Sect expressed any concern.
“Qin Huai, we could perhaps…”
Boom!
Before he could finish, a burst of white light exploded. A sharp force immediately crossed the ten-meter gap to reach Zhou Chuanyong.
Zhou Chuanyong’s body reacted, his pores opening wide as blood surged out like a fountain. Within moments, it enveloped him, transforming him into a towering blood giant. His figure swelled and a forceful punch struck his left leg, causing blood to spurt out like a pillar.
The bloody, squirming locusts scattered everywhere, seemingly poised to climb onto Qin Huai. A wicked smile played on Zhou Chuanyong’s lips. This move would likely buy him some time.
However, his expression soon froze. Beads of blood began to ooze out of Qin Huai’s pores, the volume matching Zhou Chuanyong’s. A barrier of concentrated energy, several layers thick, materialized in front of Qin Huai.
Despite their apparent weakness, the blood-red worms pierced Qin Huai’s defenses with ease. Observing the blood-colored maggots on his body, Qin Huai felt a strange numbness accompanied by a disorder in his blood and qi.
“Has my qi and blood circulation become stagnant…?” he wondered, instantly grasping the root cause. He then activated the blood heart technique, expelling all the stagnant blood from his body, which left him drenched in blood.
Upon seeing this, Zhou Chuanyong sneered. But his smirk was short-lived as he recognized Qin Huai’s technique.
“This is the blood heart technique?!” he exclaimed, his pupils narrowing in shock. This revelation was more startling than his initial guess of Qin Huai defeating Wang Kun.
“How do you know the blood heart technique?” he demanded, observing Qin Huai’s astonishing recovery ability. It appeared that Qin Huai’s proficiency in the blood heart technique rivaled his own.
“Are you… Are you the young man mentioned by the Supreme One?!” Zhou Chuanyong blurted out.
The identity of the young man deemed significant by the Supreme One had remained a mystery following Qin Huai’s presumed death. Now, here was Qin Huai, very much alive and demonstrating mastery of the blood heart technique.