Shocking the Nine Heavens With My Sword
Chapter 167 - 162 Who is the murderer? (3/5)

Chapter 167: Chapter 162 Who is the murderer? (3/5)

(Chapter 161 has already been merged with this Chapter.)

Zhou Heng didn’t linger, his figure leaped up, and in an instant, he was far away.

Just a few minutes later, he returned to the inn. Pushing open the door of his room, dozens of candles were lit inside, emitting a soft glow, which seemed to cleanse his murderous aura, instantly making his mind tranquil and clear.

"You’re back?" said Xiao Huoshui with a lazy voice that sounded as sweet as honey squeezed from its comb, enchantingly delightful.

Zhou Heng couldn’t help but feel his heart stir; he had a busy night ahead of him!

...

The night passed, and Zhou Heng first refined the essence of life he had obtained from Ying Bingfeng and Yue Hu. This didn’t take much time, but the increase in strength was negligible. Then, he took out the purple bell.

Zhou Heng was indifferent to the functions of the bell. He preferred straightforward combat and had no interest in such auxiliary magic artifacts, so his first thought was to devour it.

The grade of magic artifacts is directly linked to their materials; high-quality materials can be used to make lower-grade artifacts, but the reverse is absolutely impossible. This purple bell wasn’t an ordinary artifact and didn’t directly increase power, but its quality was definitely not low!

Therefore, the materials used to make this purple bell were definitely high-grade.

Zhou Heng didn’t recognize the material, but he was certain it was metal, and as long as it was metal, he could devour it.

He placed his right hand on the purple bell, activating the Gold-Eating Tribe’s ability. Instantly, the bell vibrated, and a powerful will lashed out at him as if to attack.

Hmm?

This was a counterattack from a formation!

Every magic artifact has a formation inscribed within, which gathers nature’s spiritual energy and exerts powerful forces. Each artifact forms an Artifact Spirit, created under the formation by nature’s spiritual energy and possessing a certain consciousness.

And among them, the most intense reaction is the desire to survive. Since the artifact possesses a spirit, it naturally doesn’t wish to "die" and return to nature.

Zhou Heng snorted coldly and channeled the Black Sword. Hum, the Black Sword vibrated, and a terrible pressure immediately struck back in retaliation.

Boom!

The feeble consciousness of the Artifact Spirit was instantly shattered, and Zhou Heng swung down the Black Sword, cleaving fiercely. Clang, a faint sword mark immediately appeared on the purple bell.

The bell wasn’t split into two by a single strike, not because the Black Sword wasn’t sharp enough, but because the material of the purple bell was too high-grade, and Zhou Heng’s strength was too weak; that was why only a sword mark was left.

If it had been a Land Cleaving Realm-grade artifact, such a stroke would have likely damaged or even shattered the long sword!

Zhou Heng swung his sword relentlessly, one strike after another. The poor purple bell was definitely a high-grade artifact, but without a master to manipulate it, it couldn’t bring forth any power and was at Zhou Heng’s mercy.

More and more sword marks accumulated, becoming deeper and deeper, ultimately shattering the bell!

Since the artifact was destroyed, the formation within naturally collapsed entirely, and there was no more Artifact Spirit.

Zhou Heng reactivated the Gold-Eating Tribe’s ability. This time, with no more resistance, countless purple particles flowed into his body through his palm, settling in and leaving behind the essence while discarding the dross.

It’s too slow!

Zhou Heng sliced open his skin, and his golden phalanges directly grasped the purple metal fragments. Instantly, the flow of purple particles surged, as if he were a giant magnet exerting a formidable attraction on the metal particles.

Half an hour later, the entire purple bell was reduced to debris, and inside Zhou Heng, a purple pellet not much bigger than a soybean had formed.

The moment the devouring ended, this purple pellet dispersed with a swoosh, turning back into countless particles that entered Zhou Heng’s entire body. This time, the pearls’ color was deeper and more substantial.

Zhou Heng knew this was the true essence of the purple metal, which could enhance the strength and durability of his body.

The Gold-Eating Tribe consumes metal; day after day, year after year, their entire body becomes metallic—indestructible and possessing immense power. Zhou Heng had no interest in becoming a metal person and controlled the purple particles to only merge into his bones.

As the purple particles fused, Zhou Heng’s bones showed an obvious change, taking on a faint purple hue.

The whole process lasted for about half an hour. After all the purple particles were absorbed, Zhou Heng stood up and shook his fists. Suddenly, a vigorous wind burst forth, mighty and domineering.

His spiritual power had not advanced an inch, but his physical strength had soared. Although he still couldn’t compare to the spiritual power of the Land Cleaving Realm, that was only because Zhou Heng had absorbed just a piece of metal.

More importantly, the body had become even stronger!

Moreover, physical strength and spiritual power are not in conflict and can be used together.

Because Zhou Heng had fused all the metal essence into his bones, the toughness of his flesh and skin had not improved, but the strength of his bones had undergone a clear change. He had a strong assurance that even if he were to face off against an Initial Separation Realm-grade artifact, he would emerge victorious!

But after all, he wasn’t at the Land Cleaving Realm!

It seemed he needed to devour more metal. If the quality wasn’t up to the mark, he would compensate with quantity!

That’s right, the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion!

Zhou Heng smiled faintly. The Heavenly Treasure Pavilion had a small quantity of magic artifacts of lower realms for sale, and there would be more available during the auction. After all, he wasn’t particular about the rank of the magic artifacts; be it a Tenth Grade or a Seventh Grade, what he valued was the material used to make the magic artifact.

The realm of a magic artifact depended on the materials used, and its rank was determined by the formations engraved within. If the same material was given to two artifact forgers of different abilities, one might produce a Tenth Grade while the other could create a First Grade!

Zhou Heng didn’t need a First Grade; Tenth Grade would suffice, as he was only after the materials.

Fortunately, after killing Ying Bingfeng and his two companions, he also robbed a substantial amount of Spirit Tickets. Ying Bingfeng was wealthy and ostentatious, possessing not only five hundred thousand Lower Grade Spirit Stones but even ten thousand Middle Grade Spirit Stones! Liu Yue and Yue Hu were much poorer, especially Yue Hu, who had already been robbed by Zhou Heng once before. Although he wasn’t left penniless, he wasn’t in a good financial situation either.

Zhou Heng returned to the lower levels of the tower. Although only half a day had passed, Xiao Huoshui and Orchid Concubine were still deep asleep, having been utterly exhausted by his earlier actions.

The night passed without incident, and the next day Zhou Heng left the Nine Mystic Trial Tower alone. After leaving the inn, a little investigation was all it took to learn that the Imperial Capital was in complete uproar!

Ying Bingfeng was dead! Yue Hu was dead! Liu Yue was dead!

With three scions of wealthy families suddenly dead, how could the Imperial Capital not be engulfed in a tumult? The more timorous even thought of moving out of the capital. It was clear that revenge from the three families would soon arrive. What if they couldn’t find the real killer and went on a vengeful rampage instead?

The three young masters died together. Although several maidservants had fainted and survived, when asked, each of them claimed not to know what happened, only feeling a pain in their heads before blacking out, and when they woke up, the three young masters were dead.

As a result, not to mention knowing who the killer was, they didn’t even know how many killers there were!

However, some judgments could still be made.

All three young masters had Forbidden Artifacts, especially Ying Bingfeng’s, which not even an Expert of the Heaven-Opening Realm could destroy!

Then, could it be the work of an Expert from the Mountains and Rivers Realm?

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Although Forbidden Artifacts were strong, they had a limited number of uses. As long as the Battle Power was stronger than Ying Bingfeng, the power of the Forbidden Artifacts could be exhausted. After all, these artifacts wouldn’t spare their power like a human would, unleashing their full force with every fatal attack.

This opened up many suspects! The Imperial Capital now had countless Experts due to the incidents at the Whistling Forbidden Lands and the Earth’s Core World, with numerous Experts from both the Land Cleaving Realm and Heaven-Opening Realm.

However, how many were capable of killing three scions who each possessed a Forbidden Artifact in such a limited amount of time? They weren’t fools; didn’t they know how to escape when in danger?

The killer’s Battle Power must be at least at the Third Layer Heaven of the Land Cleaving Realm, or even stronger!

Besides, who would bother killing these three young masters? Although they had done plenty of bad things, considering the power behind them, how many would dare to strike?

The biggest suspect was naturally Zhou Heng. He had the ability and the motive!

Yet at this moment, the prime suspect openly and ostentatiously made his way to the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion. He first swept through the goods in the Armament Pavilion on the second floor and then participated in a small auction. Without regard for anything, he bid on every magic artifact he saw, liberally spending Spirit Stones, and ended up buying all seven magic artifacts offered at the sale.

Many of those interested in buying were grinding their teeth in frustration — Do you have seven hands or ten, buying so many magic artifacts to cook and eat?

Zhou Heng, however, didn’t care what others thought. He headed back to the inn, but before he could even begin to devour the metal, he received a visitor — Mei Yixiang.

"Zhou, did you strike it rich? I heard you went crazy fighting over artifacts with others. Have you lost your mind?" The woman was dressed like a dashing young man, with only the one called Uncle Fu for protection, and this one bodyguard was worth more than all the experts in Cold Blue Country combined.

She was holding Little Gold in her arms, and the little thing was drooling as it stared at Zhou Heng, seeing him as a mother providing milk.

Zhou Heng took out a few Moon Beads and handed them over, something he had managed to remember to collect from the Treasure Moon Mirror just the night before.

The little guy started munching on the side while Mei Yixiang took a lazy seat, looking at Zhou Heng with her clear black and white eyes.

"Zhou, did you get rid of Yin Shenshen yesterday?" she asked excitedly.

"You can eat random food, but words can’t be spoken carelessly!" Zhou Heng laughed.

"Tsk, Zhou, you’re not being brotherly enough. Who are we to each other? You can’t hide it from me, right?" Mei Yixiang rolled her eyes at Zhou Heng, her large eyes seductive amidst her masculine attire, giving her an alternative charm.

"You already know!" Zhou Heng didn’t feel like denying it.

"Hahaha, as soon as that idiot Yin Shenshen died, I guessed it was you!" Mei Yixiang clapped her hands excitedly, "Good kill! Brilliant job! Although everyone’s guessing it was you, as long as you don’t admit it, I can back you up; even if Ying Cheng’en from the Ying Family comes here, I’ll have my dad to call on!"

Zhou Heng’s heart stirred. The old patriarch of the Ying Family was an expert of the Nascent Soul Realm; there were only a handful of people in Bright Moon Country who could contend with such a rank of expert! To think, Mei Yixiang was the beloved daughter of a Nascent Soul Realm expert?

Mei Yixiang was quick and clever, immediately noticing the doubt on Zhou Heng’s face, and nodded, saying, "My father is Mei Songtao, one of the three great Nascent Soul Realm experts of Bright Moon Country! Hehe, are your legs shaking now? Hurry up and kowtow to this missy!"

No wonder she had Mountains and Rivers Realm experts personally acting as bodyguards; her father was indeed one of the three strongest individuals in Bright Moon Country! No wonder Ying Bingfeng was so eagerly pursuing her; the daughter of a Nascent Soul Realm expert was definitely worth such pursuit.

"I’ll forgo the kowtowing, but I am indeed a bit shocked!" Zhou Heng laughed, curious about whether Mei Songtao had Mei Yixiang at the age of a few hundred or a few thousand? A man of several hundred or thousand years with a daughter in her teens or twenties — that surely seemed comical!

Mei Yixiang had no idea what he thought, or else she might have flown into a rage and given Zhou Heng a thrashing. She excitedly colluded with Zhou Heng to construct an alibi, agreeing that they were drinking together last night until early this morning, so naturally, the deaths of Ying Bingfeng and the others had nothing to do with Zhou Heng.

This woman simply revelled in chaos, bubbling with enthusiasm without feeling there was anything improper about her actions, only insisting that Zhou Heng take care of a few annoying ghosts from the Ying Family when he visited Bright Moon Country in the future.

Zhou Heng didn’t refuse. It was well-known that he had taken the purple bell, and from Ying Bingfeng’s reaction, the item was important; Ying Cheng’en would definitely not rest easy!

Thus, the feud between him and the Ying Family was already planted! (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it with your recommendations and monthly votes at Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)