Su Hu watched the scene unfold, completely dumbstruck and at a loss for words.
In his view, even if a martial artist in the Body Tempering Realm was strong, it wasn’t possible for them to withstand over ten martial artists of the same realm.
At least when he fought, he hadn’t felt any chance of winning.
But now, Chu Fengmian seemed to effortlessly have slaughtered those dozen martial artists.
Such strength no longer seemed like something a martial artist in the Body Tempering Realm could display.
"Was he not using his full strength during the test on the ’Martial Testing Stone’?" he wondered.
Su Hu stared blankly at Chu Fengmian, incredulous.
At the time of testing, the power Chu Fengmian displayed had already reached the ninth level of the Body Tempering Realm.
But from the recent fight, Chu Fengmian’s strength was not just at the ninth level of the Body Tempering Realm, it seemed he might even be capable of battling a Sea Spirit Realm martial artist.
Chu Fengmian wasn’t interested in Su Hu’s reaction—his attention was now on those storage bags.
He began to open each martial artist’s storage bag one by one.
At a glance, each contained at least several hundred Demon Cores.
While the grade of these Demon Cores was not high, their quantity was terrifying.
"These Demon Cores must have been collected through their joint efforts in hunting demonic beasts or even from killing other martial artists," Chu Fengmian said.
In one day’s time, to amass such an amount of Demon Cores was beyond what these dozen or so could achieve on their own.
From their earlier conversation, it seemed this group was constantly hunting other martial artists to snatch their Demon Cores.
Chu Fengmian was somewhat surprised that just on the first day, some martial artists had already formed alliances.
Actually, this was also not wrong.
For some weaker martial artists, standing alone, there was no chance they could make it into the top hundred, but by banding together, they could stand a chance.
Like Ye Fei, whose strength was far inferior to Su Hu’s, but he could lead others to surround and besiege Su Hu, driving him into a desperate situation.
"Su Hu, what’s the background of those people? Why were they hunting you?" Chu Fengmian turned his head and asked Su Hu.
He had just learned that this group was assembled by a young master of the Cheng family.
But he didn’t know exactly what had happened.
"Does Senior Chu not know?" Su Hu thought, somewhat surprised when he heard Chu Fengmian’s question.
This matter had already caused a bloodbath across the entire island, and yet Chu Fengmian seemed unaware.
However, seeing Chu Fengmian’s demeanor, it appeared he truly didn’t know, so he quickly started explaining.
"These people were all gathered by the second young master of the Cheng family, Cheng Kong. Once Cheng Kong arrived, he took control of countless martial artists. Now, out of over four hundred martial artists on the island, at least two hundred are under Cheng Kong’s control."
"These people form groups of over a dozen on the desert island, specializing in hunting demonic beasts and also martial artists, forcing them to join them and hand over their Demon Cores."
"When I was hunting demonic beasts earlier, I encountered their ambush, ended up injured and couldn’t escape; they wanted to force me to join them," Su Hu said angrily, his heart full of rage.
If not for having been ambushed and injured, although unable to defeat those dozen or so people, he would at least have been able to retreat completely unscathed; how else would he have ended up in such a situation?
If not for Chu Fengmian’s timely arrival today, he might already be dead.
Cheng Kong, the second young master of the Cheng family?
That name had appeared during the test on the Martial Testing Stone—Cheng Kong was a martial artist at the first level of the Body Tempering Realm.
His strength was of no interest to Chu Fengmian, and had it not been for his surname Cheng, Chu Fengmian would have probably forgotten him already.
Now it seemed, this Cheng Kong was indeed a member of the Cheng family, the brother of Cheng Qin, whose ribs Chu Fengmian had once broken.
"With Cheng Kong’s strength, it doesn’t seem enough to control so many people; are these people really willing to follow Cheng Kong’s orders?" Chu Fengmian asked, puzzled.
Cheng Kong’s strength was not considered strong.
Chu Fengmian was curious as to how he had managed to build such a large force within just one day.
"Cheng Kong’s strength is not worth mentioning; he is nothing but trash," Su Hu abruptly said.
"But behind Cheng Kong is the Cheng family. Perhaps Young Master Chu is unaware of the Cheng family’s influence. In the external branch of the Wusheng Academy, their presence is almost domineering."
"Within the external branch of the Wusheng Academy, the strongest faction controlled by the Cheng family is the Qing Union, and the influence of this Qing Union is very high even in the internal branch."
"For us new martial artists, who dares to resist the Qing Union? So many martial artists choose to submit and voluntarily join Cheng Kong’s ranks."
"This way, they also get a chance to join the Qing Union."
This was the first time Chu Fengmian had heard of this term.
But he was naturally aware that within the Wusheng Academy, countless factions existed.
Wusheng Academy itself was actually a very loose organization, mainly consisting of numerous branches.
But these branches were still managed officially by the Wusheng Academy, and within the Wusheng Academy, there were even more factions built by the disciples of the Academy.
The Qing Union was one of these.
These factions, more or less, all had the support of some high ranks of the Wusheng Academy and some major families.
Among them, the Qing Union was a major force supported by the Cheng family; with the Cheng family’s influence, the Qing Union was indeed a very significant force within the Wusheng Academy.
No wonder those martial artists took the initiative to flock to Cheng Kong, seeking shade under a large tree - for those martial artists with lesser talents.
Tying oneself to such a colossal entity was a good choice.
"Su Hu, are you saying that today, nearly half the martial artists on the island are now people of the Qing Union?" Chu Fengmian asked Su Hu, suddenly speaking out.
"It’s quite possible it could even be more, given that countless martial artists are joining voluntarily."
"The rest who do not join might very well have been killed by those Qing Union disciples, given that the fewer people survive on the island, the higher their chances of securing a position in the top hundred," Su Hu nodded and said.
"This Cheng Kong is indeed ruthless, desiring to take all the martial artists on the island for himself and then to kill all those who resist him?" Chu Fengmian’s expression turned cold.
The actions of the Qing Union also stirred some anger in him.
Killing for wealth was somewhat normal.
But this attitude of ’he who is with me prospers, he who is against me perishes’ truly infuriated Chu Fengmian.
"Su Hu, do you want to join me in doing something?" Chu Fengmian looked at Su Hu and suddenly spoke in a cold tone.