When he saw Lu Tianzi directly point the Star Reaper Spear towards his face, Peng could not help but raise an eyebrow in scepticism.
He is actually challenging me from the get go?
Is his brain fried or something?
Can he not tell them I am three full boundaries above him in terms of cultivation level?
Peng did not have the slightest doubt that this masked stranger before him was not his match.
With the level of strength that Lu Tianzi had displayed earlier, even though he had managed to suppress Bie easily, it was still far from reaching Peng's level.
Thus, Peng had thought that Lu Tianzi was merely trying to buy some time for the young lady's group, before escaping himself. In that case, the last thing that Lu Tianzi should be doing was to engage him, the strongest in the group, in a frontal clash!
Yet this idiot seems to be asking for a fight?
Since he is asking for it so earnestly, then I have no choice but to fulfil his wish!
Peng leapt forward, his sword piercing straight towards Lu Tianzi.
Roar-!
The dragon's roar was especially loud in the silent forest as Peng used his combat technique once again.
Peng's two companions crossed their arms and watched in schadenfreude.
Even the young lady just now, despite being at the Peak Essence Condensation realm, was blown away by this attack of Peng.
How could a mere Primary Essence Condensation realm martial artist ever survive?
However, Lu Tianzi was well prepared for this.
Instead of taking Peng's sword strike head on, Lu Tianzi swiftly glided out of the way. He headed straight towards Jiao, the only remaining Intermediate Essence Condensation realm martial artist!
While gliding towards Jiao, Lu Tianzi bent his body so far forward that his head was almost touching the ground. His current posture looked extremely awkward, as though he was going to fall over anytime.
Yet he continued forward in such a posture, relying on the momentum of charging forward to keep himself in balance.
Seeing this stranger who looked almost like he was bowing towards him, Jiao was momentarily at a loss for what to do next.
"Jiao, watch out!" Peng was the only one who was able to react in time, shouting out as he tried to warn his companion.
Jiao immediately broke out of his daze, moving to defend himself.
But it was already too late.
At this moment, a silver flash abruptly shot up from the ground.
Rising Serpent Splitting the Heavens!
When Lu Tianzi picked this combat technique from the Pagoda of Wisdom, he had not thought too much about it. Only when Lu Tianzi started practising it did he realise that this was a strange combat technique that would grow stronger as the angle of the attack grew higher.
If the target was directly above, the strength of this technique would be amplified by multiple folds!
For that reason, Lu Tianzi had stuck nearer to the ground as he advanced, finally piercing out with an attack that was angled at slightly more than forty five degrees.
Jiao did not have the time to execute any combat techniques.
Just the fact that he was able to move his sword into the path of the incoming attack was already quite deserving of praise.
But the Star Reaper Spear was not about to be blocked by such a defence.
It ruthlessly piereced straight through the sword, splitting it into two, and yet continued towards Jiao's neck without losing any of its original speed!
Stab-!
Blood spurt out from behind Jiao's neck, along with the silver spear head that had emerged.
The Star Reaper Spear had pierced straight through, reaping away the life of the martial artist named Jiao!
Two more to go.
"You bastard!" Peng's eyes reddened in fury.
The other party actually baited him into action, taking the chance to aim for his companion instead!
How humiliating that he fell for such a cheap ploy! At this point, he would rather die than to let this masked stranger escape!
"Attack him together!" Peng ordered.
The Advanced Essence Condensation realm martial artist did not have to be told twice. He moved forward in complete synchronisation with Peng, attacking Lu Tianzi from both sides.
Two sword strikes, one from the left and one from the right, striking forth with the exact same timing.
Unless Lu Tianzi was a paragon of supreme spearmanship, it would be impossible for him to defend himself!
Facing this attack, Lu Tianzi no longer held back, directly driving both his Spiritual and Slaughter Essence.
His perception exploded in all directions. Everything in the surroundings was now perfectly in his grasps, there were no exceptions!
This was Lu Tianzi doing a final sweep of his surroundings, making sure that the previous group had truly left.
Perhaps it was because he had broken into the Essence Condensation realm in both of his cultivation systems, but Lu Tianzi's perception had already grown to reach a frightening level.
Right now, even weaker Origin Core realm martial artists would find it impossible to hide their presences before him!
Bang-!
Peng widened his eyes in absolute shock!
There was only one thunderous clap from the collision, so Peng had thought that even though his attack had been blocked, his companion must have succeeded in his attack.
However, when he took a closer look, he realised that his companion's attack had been blocked as well!
At this moment, Lu Tianzi was no longer holding onto the Star Reaper Spear.
In one hand was the Torrential Blade, and in the other was the Sword of Ivory Rock.
Two weapons colliding against two weapons, yet the timing was perfectly synchronised, so that it sounded like there had only been a single collision.
This was only possible due to Lu Tianzi's perfect control of his defence, as well as Peng and his companion's perfect synchronisation!
However, Peng's thoughts did not linger much on this, because he felt an even more shocking sensation being emanated from his opponent's body.
This feeling is… the Spiritual Essence energy that belonged to humans?
How is this possible?
Lu Tianzi naturally would not give Peng the time to think about this.
The moment he started tapping into his Spiritual Essence system, Lu Tianzi knew that the countdown timer had started.
Now, it was just a matter of whether he would be able to kill off his opponents first, or if they would be able to escape first.
And Lu Tianzi's first target was the stronger of the two, Peng who was at the Peak Essence Condensation realm.
Howling Wraith Sword!
Peng only felt the colours of the world fade away, leaving nothing but darkness.
No, there was something else.
In front of him, a ghastly apparition roared in fury before charging towards him, its eyes emitting endless nether energy that seemed capable of consuming all living.
An illusion?
Break!
Peng drove his Slaughter Essence to the limit, trying to regain his senses as soon as possible.
As expected of a genius of his own right, it only took a couple of moments before the dark world around him completely shattered. Colours flooded his vision once again, revealing the forest that he had been in originally.
But after he regained cognition of his surroundings, the most eye catching thing must be the Sword of Ivory Rock that was already right in front of his face.
"As if I will let you!" Peng bellowed as he recklessly swung his sword.
But as he moved to defend, Peng suddenly felt like there was a strange dampening effect limiting the speed of his arm. It was almost as though he was currently submerged in an extremely viscous liquid, and every movement of his required far more effort than usual.
This was the dampening effect of the Law of Water.
Lu Tianzi's comprehensions into the Law of Water had improved slightly after visiting the Endless River. But even so, he was only able to maintain such a suppressive effect on his opponent for a couple of seconds.
Thankfully, a couple of seconds were more than enough in this case.
Slash-!
The Sword of Ivory Rock directly cleaved into Peng's face, drawing a line straight down the middle where his blood gushed out like a fountain!
Just like how Lu Tianzi had been defeated by Nanhuang Jiansheng's Law of Swords previously,this time his Law of Water managed to catch Peng by surprise, ending the fight prematurely in his favour!
One more to go.
"N-No way…" the Advanced Essence Condensation realm martial artist took a step back in fear, his mind still unable to accept the fact that Peng had been slain this easily.
Given his current mental state, it was impossible for him to defend his mind against the illusory aspect of the Howling Wraith Sword.
Lu Tianzi directly severed his head, leaving him no chance to escape.
Next, he walked over to Bie who was still lying unconscious on the ground.
Earlier, Lu Tianzi had smashed this person into the ground with his Star Reaper Spear. However, Bie was only knocked unconscious by that.
Lu Tianzi did not even bat an eye as he severed Bie's head.
Just like that, he had gotten rid of every last one of them, defeating a group that even consisted of a Peak Essence Condensation realm martial artist!
As for how this Peng fared against Nanhuang Jiansheng or the Four Stars of Scarlet Moon City in terms of strength, that was something that Lu Tianzi did not know at this stage.
Even though he was curious, Lu Tianzi knew that the most important thing was still to concentrate on increasing his own strength!
He closed his eyes as he relished in the sensation of primordial Slaughter Essence entering his inner world.
Lu Tianzi did not particularly enjoy the act of killing. But if it was possible for him to grow stronger because of it, then he definitely would not mind personally getting rid of those who deserve death!
After robbing them of their primordial Slaughter Essence, it was time for him to take the real treasures!
He easily collected the spatial rings of these four martial artists from Peng's group.
No, if he included the one from the young lady's group who was cut down by Peng earlier, Lu Tianzi collected five spatial rings in total.
As for refining the spatial rings to see their contents, this was certainly not the time for that.
Now, what should he do with the corpses?
Lu Tianzi pondered for a moment.
If he spent time trying to get rid of their corpses, it might actually end up providing more clues for others to lock onto his identity.
He toyed with the thought of storing all the corpses into his spatial ring, but decided against it in the end. If some powerful senior went crazy and decided to check everyone's spatial ring, that would be the surefire way to get identified as the culprit.
Forget it, their deaths would be found out sooner or later anyway.
If wild beasts appeared to devour their corpses, that would be for the best.
Even if that did not happen and the bodies were found here in the wilds, Lu Tianzi would just leave the young lady's group to take the blame for everything!
As for the herbal paradise… it seemed like he had no fate with it.
After all, he had no clue about it whatsoever, and there was no longer anyone who would be able to lead him to it.
It was time to return.
Lu Tianzi dared not take the direct route back.
After making multiple turns, he took off his concealing mask and changed his clothes. Only then did he dare to relax and make his way back to the city gate.
He did not loiter around the streets, choosing to head straight back to City Lord Nanlan's temporary residence.
The moment Lu Tianzi stepped through the gates of the residence, a servant immediately rushed forward to greet him. "Sir Nanlu, you have guests waiting for you at the front hall. In fact, they have already been waiting for a while!"
Lu Tianzi immediately tensed up in caution!
He had guests?
How was that even possible?
There was nobody that he knew in the capital!