Chapter 60Chen Zhen stepped out from behind the tree he was hiding at. The person he was spying on had clearly sensed his presence already. Chen Zhen was very cautious and apprehensive because he couldn"t sense the smiling man"s cultivation. That was either a matter of him being just a regular mortal or his cultivation was so much higher then Chen Zhen"s that he couldn"t sense it.
Chen Zhen slowly approached the campsite, constantly sensing if anyone was hiding in ambush nearby. He made it all the way to the campsite safely, but he still didn"t lower his guard.
"h.e.l.lo my name is Shiku. I noticed you paying very close attention to me when I was purchasing those slaves at the auction. I wonder is there some connection between you and the slaves?" Shiku said with an amiable smile still on his face.
Chen Zhen didn"t expect him to be so direct and straightforward upon their first meeting each other. He couldn"t decide if he should be truthful or not. Shanggu Feng and Lou Tian didn"t have any advice for him in this situation either. They were both on guard, ready to act in a moment"s notice.
"My name is Chen Zhen. You can say that I do in a way have a connection to them. I can be considered a foreigner as well. I wonder if there is a way that we can negotiate a release of those slaves to my custody so that I can return them home." Chen Zhen decided that the truth would most likely be his best option right now.
Shiku raised his brows in surprise. He wasn"t expecting Chen Zhen"s response at all. But as he thought about it, this might work out ion his favor. He could very easily subdue Chen Zhen and make him a slave as well. Since Chen Zhen could speak their language it would be take away the need to teach them to understand their language.
"There is no need to negotiate there release. You will just join them as one of my slaves. That will save me the time of having to train them to speak properly." Shiku said while casually waving his hand.
When Chen Zhen heard him he instantly jumped up in surprised. Even though he reacted right away he was still surrounded by the caravan guards. Most of them were in the mid to late Liquid Core Stage, only a small few had just entered the Liquid Core Stage.
"I can"t believe they were able to hide their cultivations so well. This was a trap from the moment they left the auction house!" Shanggu Feng bellowed in rage.
"They are weak, these caravan guards are not our concern. This Shiku is the one we need to be weary of I still cant see thru him. d.a.m.n this soul seal!" Lou Tian was angry as well feeling helpless in his weakened state.
Chen Zhen looked at Shiku as if he was looking at a mad man. Shiku looked at Chen Zhen as if he was an ant. Shiku was a peak Solid Core Stage cultivator. In his eyes most of his guards were more powerful then Chen Zhen. Chen Zhen"s capture was already a done deal in his mind. He turned back to one of his maid servants and accepted the tea cup she offered him.
Chen Zhen activated his bloodline armor and began circulating his Thunderfire in his body, the images of a dragon and a phoenix formed on each of his arms. As the armor formed around his body many of the guards jumped back in shock. They had seen the wanted posters of Chen Zhen back in town. As Shiku noticed the change in his guards he got a good look at Chen Zhen"s transformation.
"Oh you"re that person the Diako family is looking for. That"s great! That means you even more valuable." Shiku said nodding his head at his good fortune for getting his hands-on Chen Zhen first.
Chen Zhen held nothing back. He attacked with his full force wanting to eliminate the guards in a single hit. If he connected with a head, it exploded. If he connected with their bodies, their internal organs liquified. One hit one kill. That was Chen Zhen"s battle plan. Because he had tempered his body in the stalact.i.te milk and also acquired the Blood Lion bloodline his physical attacks were leagues ahead of what these Liquid Core Stage cultivators could handle.
But it seemed that no matter how many Chen Zhen killed there were more to take their place.
As much as Shiku tried to pretend that this bloodbath didn"t affect him, he was starting to feel the loss of so many of his guards.
"ENOUGH!!! It seems that you don"t understand your place in this world. Ants like you supposed to be able to acknowledge your better. If you had just submitted like you were supposed to I wouldn"t have lost so many of my men. But since you have chosen to be stubborn and do things the hard way I will just have to make you suffer now." Shiku yelled before flying over and throwing a palm toward Chen Zhen.
Chen Zhen didn"t underestimate Shiku in the least. He formed a shield in front of himself using his Thunderfire, the images of Shanggu Feng and Lou Tian even circulated on the shield as well. But it was just barely able to block Shiku"s strike. Chen Zhen was blasted a hundred feet away, digging his feet in the ground creating two long furrow, trying to stop his momentum. Shiku looked at Chen Zhen with surprise in his eyes. Even though it was just a casual strike he was almost two large realms higher in cultivation then Chen Zhen. Even if it didn"t kill him it should have left in a crippled state.
"I really am amazed at your strength. I will have to make sure I don"t kill you, so I can torture you later and learn all of your secrets." Shiku wanted to be able to fight warrior two realms higher than himself as well.
Chen Zhen finally was able to dissipate the force pushing him back. He was surprised as well by his ability to withstand Shiku"s palm strike. The difference in power was too far out of his league. He now knew he had to think of a way to escape before it was too late.
Instead of dispelling his shield, Chen Zhen compressed the energy until it was the size of a basketball. He jump in the air and threw it a Shiku with all his might. Shiku was surprised by the power he felt from that energy ball but that was it, it wasn"t enough to injure him. A grey light surrounded Shiku"s hand and then he swatted the energy ball away. It flew off into the woods and then exploded. The explosion was so big it lit up the sky brighter then the sun. A huge flaming mushroom cloud mixed with lightning could be seen in the distance. Many of the surviving guards had cold sweat break out all over their bodies. They knew that if that energy ball had landed anywhere near them then they would have been instantly vaporized. Their respect for their Lord Shiku"s power grew to another level.
"You just full of surprises aren"t you. I must admit that hurt my hand a little bit." Shiku said glancing at the small burn mark on the side of his hand.
Chen Zhen was starting to lose hope here. That was one of his most powerful moves. He still hadn"t developed any other martial techniques to use with his Thunderfire.
"This has been fun but its time to end this." Shiku said as he flew over at top speed.
He hit Chen Zhen in the chest with another palm strike, but this time Chen Zhen didn"t have time to form a shield. His armor shattered, and his ribs broke leaving his chest caved in. Chen Zhen laid on the ground in agony coughing up mouthfuls of blood.
"You have thoroughly p.i.s.sed me off now. You even marred my beautiful hand. And ant like you has already sullied my reputation. I was going to wait but I must exact some revenge on you right now to ease my mind." Shiku said as he slowed walked over to where Chen Zhen lay on the ground.
Shiku grabbed Chen Zhen by his neck and lifted him up to a kneeling position. Grey energy covered his hands again as he applied pressure on Chen Zhen"s neck. The bones in his neck were beginning to crack from the pressure. Chen Zhen"s face was bright red from lack of oxygen.
"I think I will start by breaking your meridians one by one" Shiku had a maniacal grin on his face as he hovered over Chen Zhen.
He flooded Chen Zhen"s body with his grey metal attributed energy. Just when he expected Chen Zhen to begin to scream in pain there was absolute silence. When Shiku sent his sense throughout Chen Zhen"s body he saw that his meridians were completely intact.
"What has he done to strengthen his body this much?! I must know his secrets. This wonderfully strong body is wasted on this insignificant ant!" Shiku thought to himself as he pushed more energy into Chen Zhen"s body, he wanted to see where his limit reached.
As the energy flooded into Chen Zhen"s body it circulated thru his body and was refined into his energy. Chen Zhen"s void ability finally showed itself. His void ability could take any energy and make it his own. Even though Chen Zhen had many different spirit cores, he only used the fire and lightning attributed ones to cultivate. With Mei Ling and her kids showing up, testing out his void ability was pushed to everyone"s back burner. But now the truth of his ability could be finally seen.
Chen Zhen"s body greedily absorbed the energy that Shiku pumped into him. When Shiku had pushed more than one-third of his energy into Chen Zhen"s body without anything happening he tried to stop. To his horror he realized that he couldn"t stop his energy from leaving his body. Chen Zhen had latch on to his energy and was using it to repair his damaged body. When his body was healed he continued to absorb Shiku"s energy. His dantians were slowly beginning to fill up from the energy in Shiku"s body. Because he was a peak Solid Core Stage cultivator he had more then enough energy to fill all three dantians.
Shiku was continuing to get weaker as his energy was forcefully drained from his body. He tried to blast Chen Zhen a couple time to separate them, but that energy was just absorbed as well. Shiku didn"t remember when it happened but now he was the one kneeling being held by his neck by Chen Zhen. Chen Zhen showed no mercy at all draining ever drop of energy from Shiku"s body.
"M…mmm….mer…..cy…." Shiku feebly tried to beg.
"Hahahah… mercy? An ant like you had the audacity to beg for mercy? Did you just show me any kind of mercy?" Chen Zhen said as he kicked Shiku away from him.
"Did you show the slaves any kind of mercy?" Chen Zhen asked as he ran over and rained punches onto Shiku"s face.
As Chen Zhen continued to pummel Shiku he vented all his frustration out all over his body.
"Enough Chen Zhen... I believe he is dead already…." Lou Tian said after a long while.
Chen Zhen finally came back to his senses. He looked around to see the guards and servants all cowering behind the carriages. As he walked over many of them screamed out in terror.
"Release the foreign slaves." Chen Zhen said with a cold glint in his eyes.
One of the guards immediately obeyed and ran to the last carriage to release the slaves. The people from Earth could hear the devastating battle that took place, but they had no idea what was going on. As they stepped out of the carriage they were first horrified by the b.l.o.o.d.y scene that greeted them.
"Follow me." Chen Zhen said and then began to walk off into the woods.
The people from Earth looked at each other then slowly they all left to follow Chen Zhen. They followed him simply for the fact that he spoke their language. They may not have known what happened, but they could at least piece together in their minds that he had done this for them. As more of them came to this conclusion, they began to hurry faster after Chen Zhen.