Under the illumination of firelight, the training ground was stained with a layer of blood color, utterly chaotic, and no one noticed Chu Zheng's presence.
He moved stealthily in dark corners, clutching the arrowhead in his hand, quickly locking onto a target.
Chu Zheng didn't rush towards the center of the battlefield where Song Tonghai was located but first approached a person in black located at the edge of the battlefield.
He needed to get a feel for it first.
Now, Chu Zheng's eyesight was incomparably stronger than in his previous life, not to mention his Qi Strength, which had a significant gap that needed adapting to.
Soon, Chu Zheng approached the man a hundred paces away, held his breath, concentrated, his gaze sharp as an eagle. Without much hesitation, he raised his hand and threw an arrowhead with fifty percent force.
Whoosh!
A crisp sound of the arrow whistling rang out, and a hundred paces away, the person in black fell in response.
The arrowhead precisely pierced the man's skull, bringing up a spray of blood.
This trial made Chu Zheng feel unexpectedly good, even simpler than he had anticipated.
After refining Qi, the essence of the sun and moon strengthened not only his Qi Strength but also his senses and even his reflexes; every aspect had undergone a leap.
Having confirmed this, Chu Zheng had no further worries, his gaze directly locked onto several people beside Song Lingxue. He exerted full power, and within a breath, he had thrown five arrowheads.
Grandmasters' reaction speeds were something he had never experienced before. It was safest to start with these people.
Whiz—
Sounds of piercing gold and splitting stones rang continuously, deafening. Those surrounding Song Lingxue had just heard the whistling. Before they could react, a fierce wind struck them, their vision darkened, and they completely lost consciousness.
"Watch out for the hidden weapons!"
The Grandmasters, with their all-seeing eyes and all-hearing ears, had been keeping an eye on the nearby combat situation.
The moment those attacking Song Lingxue were killed, the three Grandmasters reacted, they drew in their forces and retreated, their Inner Qi visibly surrounding their bodies, protecting their heads and vital points, their gazes vigilant, searching all around.
They soon noticed Chu Zheng on one side of the training ground.
Facing the eyes of the three Martial Arts Grandmasters sweeping over him, Chu Zheng's expression remained unfluctuated, his posture as erect as a pine. He stepped forward and picked up a blood-drenched spear from the ground.
Then, his body leaned back, he raised his hand to hold the spear high, his muscles tensed, the engorged muscles of his body bursting through his clothes, all his power gathered in an instant.
The next moment, the spear left his hands, like a millennia-old dormant volcano suddenly erupting!
Hum—
The spear, like lightning cutting through the sky, emitted a low and intense sound of space shattering, heading straight for one of the Grandmasters.
The terrifying killing intent coming toward them caused the three Grandmasters to change color, and they almost simultaneously pulled back.
Seizing the fleeting opportunity, Song Tonghai had already made his move. His Sword Qi like moonlight crossed the sky, vast like the sea, disrupting the retreating steps of the three.
Chu Zheng's attack was too sudden, without any sign. The spear, like a venomous snake's strike, caught up with one of the Grandmasters in the blink of an eye.
The immense power wrapped around it easily shattered the Grandmaster's protective Inner Qi, pierced through his body, and with force still remaining, nailed him to the green stone wall.
"Retreat!"
The remaining two Grandmasters, terrified, shouted loudly and, without any hesitation, flicked their toes and soared like hawks, blending into the darkness in an instant.
Of the three Grandmasters, one dead and two fled, the stagnant battlefield immediately collapsed, the remaining people in black began to flee in unison.
Chu Zheng somewhat exhaustedly sat down on the ground. His entire body's vitality, Qi, and spirit had almost entirely concentrated in that one spear; at this moment, his muscles trembled.
If the two remaining Grandmasters had chosen to stay and continue the fight, the final outcome would have been unpredictable.
Chu Zheng had felt a slight threat from the body of the Martial Arts Grandmasters, therefore he had chosen to exert his full strength, first breaking one of their strengths.
As it turned out, his choice had not been wrong.
Song Tonghai took a long look at Chu Zheng, did not approach, and began to gather the remaining martial masters to extinguish the fire and clean up the corpses.
Most of these martial masters had been entangled in fighting just now, and were not clear about what exactly had happened. Only Song Lingxue, Song Tonghai, and a few others had witnessed Chu Zheng's action.
Song Lingxue slowly walked up to Chu Zheng, pointed to the bodies with pierced skulls, her expression somewhat dazed, and asked softly, "Did you kill these people as well?"
"I did them all, and there were about a dozen more."
Chu Zheng did not hide anything, nodded in acknowledgment. His tone was different from usual, less respectful by three parts.
Maintaining a controlled tone of voice was not a very comfortable thing.
After this battle, Chu Zheng had a rough idea of where his own strength stood.
In all of Great Zhou, Grandmasters were rare experts, and Great Grandmasters were even rarer, elusive as dragons.
He had previously overestimated the abilities of these martial arts Grandmasters.
Now, he had barely completed one-fifth of his Hundred Days Qi Cultivation, yet he had already managed to kill a Grandmaster. Once he truly stepped into the Spirit Transformation Realm, his strength would undergo earth-shattering changes.
By then, so-called Great Grandmasters, no matter how strong, would not be a match for him.
Beyond that were the people of the Immortal Sect.
Song Lingxue crouched down, hesitated slightly, then reached out and grabbed Chu Zheng's wrist. After a long time, she let go, her expression even more dazed, "You really have no inner qi."
For a moment, her heart was full of confusion and suspicion.
"Then this qi strength of yours..."
"After cultivating the Dragon-Tiger Body, I felt much stronger."
For Song Lingxue, he obviously could not fob her off with jokes about innate divine strength anymore; Chu Zheng simply attributed everything to the Dragon-Tiger Body.
She wasn't likely to understand the intricacies anyway.
To his knowledge, this world did not have the existence of Qi Cultivators; many anomalies naturally couldn't be explained.
"Is that so..."
He had an ordinary talent for cultivating inner strength but was progressing daily in external skills. Was there really a person with such miraculous root bone?
Moreover, Chu Zheng's speed of progress was too fast; in just a short range of time, he had crossed distances that others could not reach in their entire lifetime.
Intuition told Song Lingxue that there must be a problem, but at the moment, she could not pinpoint what was wrong.
After a long pause, she came back to her senses, suddenly bowed, "Thanks to your actions today, we cleared the critical situation. Lingxue expresses her gratitude here."
"Tomorrow, I will petition the Government Office to release you from your servitude status and restore your freedom. You may make other requests, and as long as the Song Family can fulfill them, there will be no objections."
"Young Mistress, you take it too seriously. A drop of water shall be returned with a spring."
Chu Zheng shook his head; he did not attach much importance to the so-called servitude status. From the perspective of the world, Great Zhou was just a corner, and the overt identity was not very important.
His actions today were merely to return a favor to Song Lingxue. Regardless of other factors, at least the benefits she provided were concrete.
As the two were conversing, the training ground was almost fully cleaned up, and the large fire burning inside the residence dwindled to a few sporadic flames.
This time, the Song Residence suffered great losses, most of the escort masters died, Song Tonghai was severely injured, and Song Lingxue's condition was not much better, covered in wounds.
Barely moments after the fighting had ended, suddenly, the sound of horse hooves echoed outside the great gate of the Song Residence.
Only at this moment did the Imperial Guards from within Luofeng City finally arrive, belatedly.