Chapter 196 - 166: Resolution

Chapter 196: Chapter 166: Resolution

"Thank you, Teacher Pang." Ji Zhixing withdrew his consciousness and looked at Pang Kai in front of him.

Pang Kai had a sharp tongue, but the results were instantaneous. Without his harsh stimulation, it would have taken Ji Zhixing much longer to break through that barrier.

"Thank you?" Pang Kai laughed heartily. He put away his long rod, crossed his arms over his chest, and a teasing smirk appeared on his lips. "I bet you’re dying to jam a rod into my mouth right now, aren’t you?"

Ji Zhixing smiled awkwardly.

He truly gritted his teeth in frustration at Pang Kai’s mouth. Every word the man spoke had been uglier than the last. The remarks involving Xiao Mingyue, in particular, had genuinely angered him. However, the teacher had been guiding his cultivation, and he had indeed succeeded in mastering the technique. No matter how much he hated the insults, there was nothing he could do but offer his gratitude.

"Alright, since you’ve mastered it, get going. Stop hovering around here," Pang Kai said, waving his hand.

He enjoyed guiding others in practicing the Thunderous Rod Technique. This time, however, Ji Zhixing had mastered it before he could even fully satisfy his craving to teach.

Hearing this, Ji Zhixing didn’t linger. After thanking him once more, he turned and left the Cultivation Chamber.

Stepping out of the Cultivation Hall, Ji Zhixing took a deep breath and sensed the changes in his body once again.

"I didn’t expect that mastering the Thunderous Rod Technique would actually merge two staff talents into a brand-new one," he muttered to himself, sinking his consciousness into his Genetic Acupoint to carefully inspect the brand-new cluster of light.

"Divine Staff Heart."

This was the newly merged staff talent. It was of four-star quality. Merging two three-star talents into a four-star one was an absolute steal.

The new talent not only encompassed all the original abilities, but it also elevated each of them to a higher level. Its most powerful aspect was its ability to drastically enhance the power of his staff techniques.

"A four-star staff talent, paired with the newly mastered Third-rank Five-star Thunderous Thousand Jin Staff Skill... My strength has grown by another large margin," Ji Zhixing thought, his heart surging with excitement. "I can’t relax just yet, though. The most important thing right now is to evolve the Ten-foot Stone Monkey genes to the Morning Star rank."

After leaving the Cultivation Hall, he didn’t go anywhere else. He returned straight to Xiao Mingyue’s villa to continue his cultivation. The development of the Innate Stone Embryo ability couldn’t be paused for even a single day.

For the next few days, Ji Zhixing cultivated continuously. When he ran out of Earth Core Stone Marrow, he went to the Resource Building to buy ten more bottles and continued refining them. Bottle after bottle, his Boulder Physique slowly transformed into the Innate Stone Embryo, bit by bit. The progress was slow, but the improvement was visible.

RING RING RING!

On this day, just as Ji Zhixing finished cultivating and walked out of the Cultivation Chamber, his phone rang. He picked it up and glanced at the screen, feeling a bit surprised. The caller was Ren Pingzhi, whom he hadn’t seen in days.

"What does he want with me?" Ji Zhixing furrowed his brows.

Ever since Ren Pingzhi and the others moved out of the dorm, the two of them had had no interactions. They would occasionally bump into each other at school, but it was limited to a polite nod. Ren Pingzhi had never reached out to him on his own initiative.

After a moment of thought, he answered the call.

"Hello. Did you need me for something?" Ji Zhixing asked in a flat tone.

"Ji Zhixing!" Ren Pingzhi’s voice was urgent. "I’m out in the wilderness for training right now, and I just saw Gu Zheng. He looks like he’s severely injured. I watched him crawl into a cave, and he hasn’t come out since."

"Gu Zheng?" Ji Zhixing raised an eyebrow.

The grudge between him and Gu Zheng definitely had to be settled. It had started all the way back in the Otherworldly Secret Realm in Shihu Town. Although he had snatched Gu Zheng’s opportunities a few times since then, the core feud had never been truly resolved. He had just been so immersed in his cultivation recently that he rarely went out, naturally avoiding any run-ins with Gu Zheng. He certainly didn’t expect to receive such a call from Ren Pingzhi.

"Gu Zheng is injured, but why is Ren Pingzhi calling me about it? Does he know about our feud and want me to take revenge?" Ji Zhixing’s eyes flickered as his mind raced.

Ren Pingzhi didn’t have any connection with Gu Zheng, so why would he make this call? Did he really just happen to see him and want to do Ji Zhixing a favor? Or was it...

Just then, his heart suddenly tightened. The sensation was peculiar, as if something had gently plucked a string in the depths of his heart, causing his nerves to instantly snap taut. It felt as though if he followed Ren Pingzhi’s words and went to that location to seek revenge on Gu Zheng, he would encounter some terrible danger.

"This is..." Ji Zhixing’s heart skipped a beat as realization instantly dawned on him.

It was a warning from the Bearing Heaven’s Mandate ability that Xiao Mingyue had shared with him! This ability passively increased one’s luck and could also provide a warning when danger approached. The sudden wave of tension at this moment was clearly the ability telling him that something was wrong with this situation.

"Something’s off!" Ji Zhixing immediately understood. There was something fishy about Ren Pingzhi’s call. He was trying to lure him out.

"What is going on? There is no bad blood between Ren Pingzhi and me. Could he be acting under Gu Zheng’s coercion? Is Gu Zheng tired of waiting, afraid that I’ll truly grow stronger, and trying to eliminate me early?" Thoughts flashed through Ji Zhixing’s mind one after another.

He understood Gu Zheng far too well. The man was proud, arrogant, and sought revenge for the slightest grievance. A person like that would absolutely never let things go just because he had been suppressed a few times.

While these thoughts swirled in his mind, Ji Zhixing kept his composure. He spoke calmly into the phone, "Alright, send me the location. I’ll head over right now."

"Understood!" Ren Pingzhi said hurriedly. "I’ll send you the coordinates right away."

The call ended.

A moment later, Ji Zhixing’s phone received the coordinates from Ren Pingzhi. The location was pinned in a wilderness area east of Yu City Base City.

"With my current strength, is Gu Zheng really that confident he can handle me?" Ji Zhixing muttered to himself, staring at the coordinates. "Or does he think that because Xiao Mingyue isn’t around, I don’t have any backup and can be easily manipulated?"

He pondered this as he briskly walked out of the villa. If there was a chance to settle his feud with Gu Zheng, he definitely had to go. However, charging blindly toward the location Ren Pingzhi provided would be incredibly foolish. If it really was a trap, Gu Zheng would have undoubtedly made ample preparations. Going alone would be throwing himself right into the net.

"I need to find someone to help."

After stepping out of the villa, Ji Zhixing immediately pulled out his phone, preparing to call Teacher Yang Man Ni. Gu Zheng was in danger and severely injured, so it was completely reasonable for him to bring a teacher along for a rescue mission, right?

"Ji Zhixing, you’re in a hurry. Where are you off to?"

Before the call could go through, Bai Yuan walked over from out of nowhere. Dressed in a white casual suit with his hands shoved in his pockets, he looked completely relaxed.

"Teacher Bai." Seeing Bai Yuan, Ji Zhixing’s eyes lit up, and he immediately stepped forward.

Bai Yuan was a teacher at Yu City University, and his strength was unfathomable. Though the two hadn’t interacted much, Ji Zhixing felt that Bai Yuan was a decent person. If he could enlist Bai Yuan’s help, this matter would be absolutely foolproof.

"There is something I’d like to ask for your help with, sir. Would that be alright?" Ji Zhixing didn’t hesitate and directly voiced his request.

"You need my help with something? Let’s hear it," Bai Yuan said, a look of interest appearing on his face.

Ji Zhixing held nothing back and straightforwardly recounted receiving Ren Pingzhi’s call about Gu Zheng hiding in a wilderness cave with severe injuries.

Bai Yuan was stunned. "Gu Zheng is injured?" he asked in surprise. "Don’t you have a grudge against him? Are you asking me to come and save him?"

"Yes." Ji Zhixing nodded, then shifted his tone. "However, I suspect Gu Zheng is deliberately trying to lure me out.

"That’s why I want to ask you to come with me, Teacher Bai. If I guessed wrong, Gu Zheng is still a student of our school, and we can’t just leave him to die.

"But if I guessed right, then his behavior is utterly despicable. If that’s the case, I hope you can seek justice on my behalf, Teacher Bai."

After hearing this, Bai Yuan looked at Ji Zhixing. The corners of his mouth slowly curled up into a wide, toothy grin. "Sure."

He loved a good show above all else. Furthermore, as a teacher at Yu City University, he couldn’t ignore the fact that Gu Zheng might be injured. On the flip side, if this really was a trap set by Gu Zheng, he similarly couldn’t turn a blind eye to it.

"Where is he? Let’s go right now," Bai Yuan said, putting away his smile and putting on a serious expression.

Ji Zhixing immediately relayed the coordinates Ren Pingzhi had sent him.

Bai Yuan nodded. Without another word, he grabbed Ji Zhixing’s shoulder and soared into the sky.

"Let’s go!"

Before his voice even faded, the two of them shot high into the air. Ji Zhixing only felt the wind howling past his ears as the earth below rapidly receded.

"Teacher Bai, this is too fast!" Ji Zhixing said hurriedly. "If we rush over there this quickly, and it really is a trap set by Gu Zheng, he will definitely realize something is wrong. He might not even make a move against me then."

"Relax." Bai Yuan shook his head, looking completely at ease. "I’ll take you to find him first. We need to confirm whether he’s actually injured before we do anything else.

"If he really is injured, as a teacher at Yu City University, I naturally can’t ignore him.

"As for our speed being too fast, that’s easy to explain. When the time comes, just say you happened to be nearby and rushed over as soon as you got the message. Wouldn’t that solve it?"

Helpless, Ji Zhixing could only go along with Bai Yuan’s arrangement.

While they spoke, Bai Yuan had already flown Ji Zhixing out of Yu City Base City and into the eastern wilderness area. The scenery below transitioned from dense buildings to sparse woods.

"We’re here."

A moment later, Bai Yuan suddenly decelerated and hovered in midair. Ji Zhixing looked down and immediately spotted a figure on the hill below. It was Ren Pingzhi.

He was standing on a large boulder, continuously peering in the direction of Yu City Base City, as if waiting for someone. Yet, he clearly hadn’t noticed the two people in the sky.

Ji Zhixing found it a bit strange. He and Bai Yuan were hovering less than a hundred meters right above Ren Pingzhi’s head, but Ren Pingzhi acted as if he couldn’t see them at all.

"I used a little trick to conceal our forms and auras," Bai Yuan explained casually.

Only then did Ji Zhixing understand.

"Found him," Bai Yuan suddenly said, his gaze narrowing as he looked toward a cave at the base of a distant mountain peak.

The cave was incredibly well-hidden, its entrance obscured by dense bushes. If Bai Yuan hadn’t pointed it out, Ji Zhixing never would have noticed it.

Bai Yuan sensed the area for a moment before raising an eyebrow. "Interesting. I didn’t expect to find an unexpected harvest on this trip."

Ji Zhixing’s heart clenched. "Teacher Bai, what’s the situation inside?"

Bai Yuan didn’t answer directly. Instead, he said, "Alright, go on down and have a good time playing with them. Relax, I’ll step in when it counts."

Ji Zhixing took a deep breath and nodded.

With Bai Yuan’s promise, he had nothing to fear. Moreover, Bai Yuan’s words clearly indicated that Gu Zheng was indeed the one laying a trap this time. In that case, the feud between the two of them could finally be settled.

With a simple thought, he flapped his Purple Gold Thundercloud Wings and flew toward Ren Pingzhi’s location.