Chapter 41: Nine Inches

Therefore, Wang Zhenling firmly believed that such an emissary of the Chengtian Dao could never have reached the realm of an Earth Immortal.

He did not even believe that this emissary had cultivated to the realm of a Ghost Immortal.

At most, this person had only attained the realm of Spirit-Nether or Divine-Bright!

The reason was quite simple. Wang Zhenling could see that the emissary's physical body was stiff, and he was not soaring through the air by his own power, but rather being levitated and carried through the air by his primordial spirit.

This was akin to the primordial spirit manipulating objects, except the object being manipulated had changed from a stone or a long sword to his own physical body!

In the past, Wang Zhenling lacked experience and was easily bluffed, assuming every expert he encountered was a mighty divine being.

However, by now, Wang Zhenling was no longer such a novice!

As for divine-level experts, the only one Wang Zhenling had ever laid eyes on thus far was probably that City God of Danling.

It was just that Wang Zhenling had never fought with that Danling City God, right?

Yet now, witnessing this Chengtian Dao emissary make a move, he proved to be a formidable and rare adversary in his lifetime!

Of course, this so-called lifetime of Wang Zhenling was, admittedly, rather brief.

While this particular trick might still bluff others, trying to bluff him was utterly out of the question.

Ordinarily, manipulating objects weighing little more than ten catties required reaching the Spirit-Vault realm; only upon reaching the Spirit-Hidden realm, where one could manipulate objects of around a hundred and twenty catties, could one barely manage to lift and carry a person through the air.

Thus, Wang Zhenling deduced that this Chengtian Dao emissary was currently at most slightly above the Spirit-Hidden realm, reaching at best the Spirit-Nether realm, and had not even attained the Divine-Bright realm!

For in the Divine-Bright realm, one could manipulate objects weighing over a thousand catties, lifting and carrying the physical body with absolute ease—certainly not appearing this clumsy!

Having perceived this, Wang Zhenling felt no fear whatsoever; instead, he was brimming with eagerness to act.

Although for nearly the past half-year Wang Zhenling had been constantly rushing around, busy settling refugees, arranging spring plowing, and similar affairs, leaving him little time to practice martial arts,

thanks to the continuous influx of official destiny nourishing him, Wang Zhenling's cultivation progress had not slowed down in the least.

By now, his spirit chamber had already reached the depth of nine inches!

Spirit-Hidden was seven inches, and Spirit-Nether was one foot and three inches!

Wang Zhenling's spirit chamber had already surpassed the Spirit-Hidden realm. Although he had not yet fully reached the Spirit-Nether realm, he possessed the absolute confidence to trade blows with that emissary of the Chengtian Dao.

Having cultivated for so long without ever truly engaging in a real, full-scale fight against someone, it was no wonder Wang Zhenling was raring to go upon encountering a worthy opponent!

However, before Wang Zhenling could even make a move,

that Chengtian Dao emissary flew across mid-air, yet his speed was not particularly fast. This promptly drew the attention of the archers positioned beneath the city wall, who immediately unleashed a volley of feathered arrows straight at him.

The Chengtian Dao emissary, riding the wind, had been feeling rather pleased with himself,

only to be suddenly enveloped by this cloud of arrows, throwing him into a frantic flurry of panic.

Had he been on flat ground, a volley of arrows like this would have struggled to harm him.

However, suspended mid-air as he was, the entirety of his primordial spirit's power was dedicated to levitating his physical body.

With the arrow volley descending upon him now, he simply could not spare enough strength to deflect the incoming arrows.

If he were to divert power to block the arrows, he would likely fail to sustain the levitation of his physical body, plummeting straight down to smash into a pulp of flesh and blood.

Yet, doing nothing to defend himself was equally unviable; letting the rain of arrows pierce him would turn him into a human sieve!

Although this divine emissary possessed high abilities, he had after all never experienced actual battlefield warfare and severely underestimated the deadliness of these common soldiers.

He had treated Wang Zhenling as his sole adversary, completely ignoring the county garrison soldiers.

At that moment, his expression shifted drastically. He had no choice but to thrust his rattan staff forward, instantly causing it to take root and sprout, shooting out countless vines that warded off a large portion of the arrow volley by weaving themselves into a makeshift wooden shield.

Being highly skilled after all, the Chengtian Dao emissary managed to evade this wave of arrows, and refusing to become entangled with the county soldiers, lunged once more toward Wang Zhenling.

Yet, as the saying goes: momentum, once achieved, peaks, then wanes, and finally exhausts itself.

Having scrambled in panic to dodge the arrows, the emissary's initially ferocious and guaranteed-victory aura was completely gone.

Before he could even lunge close to the city wall, he caught sight of a bizarre smile playing at the corners of Wang Zhenling's mouth.

Unexpectedly, another squad of archers stood atop the city ramparts, once again loosing a volley of arrows directly at the approaching emissary.

"Damn it!"

Prepared this time, the Chengtian Dao emissary dropped his altitude to the ground to dodge once more.

After all, with ordinary civilians populating both inside and outside the county town, these archers dared not shoot downward at too low an angle, keeping their trajectories rather high instead. That was the only reason the emissary had managed to dodge twice; otherwise, it would not have been so easy!

However, no sooner had the Chengtian Daoist dodged this second round of arrows, suppressing his pent-up rage as he readied himself to leap onto the city wall and slay that Wang Zhenling,

than he abruptly saw Wang Zhenling snatch a long spear right out of a nearby soldier's hands and fling it directly at him.

An immensely powerful spiritual will had already completely locked onto the Chengtian Dao emissary's entire body.

In that instant, the emissary felt as though he had suddenly become an ordinary mortal wandering deep in the desolate mountains and wild forests, only to be locked onto by a ferocious tiger.

Terror gripped his heart. When had Wang Zhenling become so formidable? This vastly exceeded anything he could have imagined.

Looking up, his vision blurred momentarily, as if the gaze locked onto him was not Wang Zhenling at all,

but rather a mountain—a volcanic mountain, a continuous range of burning, flaming mountains.

At that moment, the entire volcano seemed to spring to life, transforming into a mountain deity that glared directly at him.

Divine might was like a prison!

In that split second, Wang Zhenling seemed to embody a true deity, instilling the Chengtian Dao emissary with the overwhelming sensation that Wang Zhenling could kill him simply by raising a hand!

"No, this isn't right... This is not his own power; this is destiny, the destiny of Xiayi County.

How could this man possibly mobilize the destiny and power of an entire county?"

The Chengtian Dao emissary roared inwardly.

However, Wang Zhenling had already struck.

The distance between the two was barely five paces; for an expert at the Soul-Outbound realm, such a distance was practically right before their eyes.

The moment the long spear left his hand, it had already hurtled right in front of the Chengtian Dao emissary.

In this moment of grave crisis, the Chengtian Dao emissary let out a furious roar, bursting forth with the power of his primordial spirit as if attempting to instantly teleport away to evade the spear thrown by Wang Zhenling.

If that spear had been thrown by an ordinary person, or even fired from a crossbow cart, he would have been able to dodge it completely.

However, Wang Zhenling had locked onto him with his primordial spirit through a spiritual resonance. Even if the Chengtian Dao emissary were to teleport away, he still wouldn't be able to escape the spear's trajectory.

Not to mention, just how terrifying was the speed of the spear hurled by Wang Zhenling?

One must remember that Wang Zhenling had once used his primordial spirit to manipulate objects, even going so far as to fling a long sword miles away.

Let alone the fact that this particular spear was now shrouded and imbued with a massive surge of destiny power.

Truth be told, the Chengtian Dao emissary had simply been far too careless, never once imagining that Wang Zhenling's cultivation progress would advance at such a terrifying pace!

When they had first crossed paths at the very beginning, he had almost managed to invade even Wang Zhenling's dreams, though Wang Zhenling had barely managed to snap out of it later.

Even so, that encounter had tested Wang Zhenling's cultivation level, proving back then that he had not yet even reached the Soul-Outbound realm.