"Zi Ling, you — you actually have a treasure weapon too?" That unique feeling let Chu Feng immediately recognize it: the palm-sized chariot was indeed a treasure weapon.
"My grandfather told me that since I chose to follow you and take the risk, he won't worry about whether I live or die, and he certainly won't secretly follow me or protect me. Life and death are up to heaven — he won't interfere. But considering it wasn't easy raising me all these years, before I left him, he gave me this Exquisite Chariot. Its offense and defense might not be the strongest among treasure weapons, but its speed is absolutely unmatched in the world."
Zi Ling gave a sweet smile, then raised her delicate hand, and the palm-sized Exquisite Chariot flew out of her grasp. It burst into radiant light and in the blink of an eye expanded into a massive chariot five meters wide and ten meters long, hovering gracefully in the air.
"Wow, what a beautiful chariot." Chu Feng was stunned. The Exquisite Chariot now looked even more stunning and imposing than it had in Zi Ling's palm.
Most importantly, now that it had grown to full size, the unique majesty of a treasure weapon was fully on display. It was far more imposing than the chariot pulled by demon beasts that Chu Feng had seen belonging to the Jiang Dynasty.
"Stop gawking, let's go." Zi Ling grabbed Chu Feng, and the door of the Exquisite Chariot opened automatically. Her graceful figure leaped forward, and she and Chu Feng entered together.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh."
Once the door closed, the chariot's ten wheels began spinning in midair, its speed increasing steadily. Layers of strange vapor emanated from the wheels, and eventually, beneath them appeared wisps of floating clouds.
"Zip!"
Suddenly, a streak of rainbow light shot into the sky, and the chariot vanished. Its speed was several times faster than Chu Feng's Dragon Soaring Nine Heavens.
Not long after Chu Feng and Zi Ling departed, the people of the city, having hesitated for a long time, finally could not contain their curiosity. They began carefully making their way toward the battlefield where Chu Feng and the Hundred-Face Old Man had fought.
But when they arrived and saw the deep craters in the ground and the buildings torn beyond recognition, many of them lost their nerve.
At that moment, only one man — known as Li the Bold — gritted his teeth and walked forward.
Everyone else stood outside the circle of battle, eyes fixed on Li the Bold, waiting for his answer.
Finally, Li the Bold raised his voice and shouted: "The Hundred-Face Old Man is dead! The Hundred-Face Old Man was killed by Chu Feng! There's only one corpse here, and it must be the Hundred-Face Old Man without a doubt!!!"
"What? The Hundred-Face Old Man is dead? The number one assassin of the Nine Provinces Continent, who was said to never fail and had killed countless people — the Hundred-Face Old Man is actually dead, killed by Chu Feng?"
Once this news spread, nearly everyone was stunned, finding it impossible to believe.
Because no matter how mythical the rumors about Chu Feng had been before, nobody truly believed he could defy heaven enough to defeat the Hundred-Face Old Man. After all, the Hundred-Face Old Man was a legend of invincibility, a name that struck terror into all who heard it.
But once the facts came out, people had no choice but to believe. Many had heard the exchange between Chu Feng and the Hundred-Face Old Man, and many had witnessed their battle.
Eventually, someone even brought in an elder from a mercenary camp where the Hundred-Face Old Man had once stayed to identify the body, and the conclusion was that the dead old man was indeed the Hundred-Face Old Man beyond any doubt.
Once this news got out, it sent shockwaves through the Nine Provinces. It meant Chu Feng had truly defied heaven — even the Hundred-Face Old Man had been sent after him and was killed. Who else could possibly take him down?
Would it really take the sect masters of the six great powers to deal with a sixteen-year-old boy?
But no matter how astonished or shaken the outside world was, the Yuan Gang Sect, the Fire God Gate, the White Hidden Sect, and the Free Valley were filled with fury upon hearing this news.
Because it not only meant their hunt for Chu Feng had failed once again, but also that the five hundred thousand Mystic Pearls they had collectively put up had gone to waste — and more than likely, those five hundred thousand Mystic Pearls had ended up in Chu Feng's hands once more, meaning they had essentially done his work for him.
It made the four sect masters grind their teeth in rage, slamming their tables in frustration. In fact, ever since they had placed a bounty on Chu Feng, they had smashed countless tables, because every piece of news about Chu Feng was never anything good.
But alongside their anger, unease began to creep in. Chu Feng was simply too heaven-defying. The grudge between them was already set in stone, and if he kept growing like this, eventually even they would be no match for him. When that day came, wouldn't they all be doomed?
Because as Chu Feng's reputation continued to swell, people had begun spreading word of his deeds in Qingzhou across the entire Nine Provinces, and many of the things he had done had been blown up into legends.
Like how Chu Feng single-handedly destroyed the strongest sect in Qingzhou, killing the sect master of the Lingyun Sect and sending him fleeing for his life, slaughtering millions of disciples with none left alive, turning the Lingyun Mountain Range into a river of blood and a sea of corpses.
Or how Chu Feng had stormed the Qilin Prince's Manor to rescue someone from execution, slaying countless generals and guards. Even when the Qilin Prince himself stood guard, he couldn't stop Chu Feng, watching helplessly as Chu Feng took the prisoner away, leaving behind the corpses of countless members of his manor.
In short, what Chu Feng had done in Qingzhou not only got out but was told in the most exaggerated, mythical terms. Those who didn't know the truth took it all at face value and came to their own conclusion about Chu Feng:
That Chu Feng was essentially the reincarnation of a god of death. Anyone who offended him met a terrible end. After all, Chu Feng had already killed quite a few disciples and elders from the six great powers — he was undeniably taking his revenge.
If one day he truly came into his full power, it was believed that the Yuan Gang Sect, the Fire God Gate, the Free Valley, the Sword God Valley, the White Hidden Sect, and even the Jie Clan would all follow in the Lingyun Sect's footsteps and be wiped from existence.
This terrified the sect masters of the great powers. They all felt that Chu Feng was a catastrophic threat that had to be eliminated. Even if they could never obtain the treasure weapon or open the hidden vault, Chu Feng absolutely had to be dealt with — otherwise, a great disaster awaited them.
And so, the Yuan Gang Sect, the Fire God Gate, the White Hidden Sect, the Free Valley, the Sword God Valley, and the Jie Clan — these six great powers jointly petitioned the Jiang Dynasty to send troops and eliminate the menace that was Chu Feng.
Otherwise, once Chu Feng grew to maturity, he might very well stage a rebellion just like the Demon King of the Myriad Demon Mountain had done in the past. On that day, even the Jiang Dynasty itself would be in mortal danger.
Faced with the joint petition of the six great powers, the Jiang Dynasty — as the supreme ruler of the Nine Provinces Continent — could hardly continue to sit idle. And so, the Jiang Dynasty dispatched a group of powerful cultivators into Qinzhou to search for Chu Feng's whereabouts.