Chapter 2470 — The Third Fragment

"Stop turning all this over in your head. First tell me—are you letting them go or not?" Wei Zhao asked.

"Let them go?" The ghastly thing repeated the two words, then abruptly fell silent.

"What exactly do you mean?" Wei Zhao frowned at the thing's silence.

"Let me ask you something..." the ghastly thing said suddenly.

"What?" Wei Zhao asked.

"Nothing... never mind." The ghastly thing withdrew the question.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Wei Zhao was baffled.

"I can let you all leave—that is possible. But you must agree to one condition of mine," the ghastly thing said, suddenly stating its terms.

"And why should I agree to any condition of yours?" Wei Zhao asked.

"Just as you said—granted, you want us both destroyed together, but you cannot finish me off in a short time, and I cannot finish you either. You may be able to recover your strength and true qi without pause, but killing me will also take time," the ghastly thing said slowly. "I fear your elixir fire, true—it consumes the energy of my primal spirit. But it cannot extinguish me in a moment or a little while. In any case, I have only a few decades left before I wither away on my own; a few years more or less makes no difference. If you will not agree to my condition, then let us destroy each other! I believe you can recover your strength and true qi, but your friends—and this one before us—cannot live long without food. When you win in the end, you will leave alone, and all your friends will be dead."

"......" Wei Zhao was speechless for a moment, yet he did not doubt the ghastly thing's words. There was no need for it to lie to him about such things, and the fact that it could lay all this out openly proved that it truly meant to negotiate.

"Moreover, if you agree to my condition, I will give you some fine things in return," the ghastly thing added, seeing Wei Zhao silent, and began to tempt him with profit. Those things were, to it, little better than refuse; better to bring them out now and sell a favor.

"What things?" Wei Zhao asked after a moment's thought.

"Come with me. I will show you," the ghastly thing said.

"Fine!" Wei Zhao nodded and agreed. He could now condense elixir fire, so he was not afraid of being tricked, and besides, it was plain the ghastly thing wanted something from him—it would not joke about such a matter.

With that, the ghastly thing drifted forward, and Wei Zhao followed close behind with Wang Xinyan. Her gaze was still hollow, as though her soul had been bewitched, but Wei Zhao had set his mind at ease: the ghastly thing surely bore her no ill will for the time being.

They went forward some four or five hundred meters—not far at all—yet the scene before them changed abruptly. By rights, this place should have been visible from where they had stood before, and yet it had not been. Clearly this whole region lay under the ghastly thing's control, veiled by some spell akin to an obscuring art.

"Here we are," the ghastly thing said flatly.

Wei Zhao stepped over and looked down. On the ground lay a skeleton, its flesh long since rotted away; it looked to be of some age. Beside the bones was a small bundle, made of some material he could not identify, neither rotted nor spoiled, wholly intact.

"Is this it?" Wei Zhao pointed at the bundle on the ground.

"Indeed. This was a ** who blundered in here meaning to steal, and I struck him down. These are his remains," the ghastly thing said.

"Oh? His remains?" Wei Zhao bent down and opened the bundle. Inside he saw two things. One was an enormous inner core of a spirit beast—the moment his fingers touched it, he could feel the vast, boundless energy stored within!

The quantity of energy it contained was almost inconceivable, far, far surpassing the several spirit-beast cores Wei Zhao had obtained before. He could not help but be astonished: "A spirit-beast core?"

"Indeed!" the ghastly thing said with a touch of pride. "This is what he stole from me. This core... hmm, you need only know that it is no ordinary core. Keep it—it will be of great use. Do not squander it lightly!"

"Oh?" Wei Zhao had meant to add it to his collection and forge a spirit-essence necklace together with the other cores, but now that the ghastly thing had spoken, it seemed this was a treasure of no small worth—and he hesitated indeed.

So he asked, "If I use it to make a spirit-essence necklace, would that count as squandering it?"

"The very height of waste!" The ghastly thing seemed almost angry to hear it. "A spirit-essence necklace needs only five cores of heaven-rank spirit beasts!"

"Hiss—" Wei Zhao drew a sharp breath. Only five heaven-rank spirit-beast cores? Why did it sound as though heaven-rank cores were worth next to nothing? And in that case, one thing was implied: the core in his hand must certainly surpass the heaven rank. Then just what level of spirit beast had it come from?

"Enough. Do not ask so many questions. For now you have no use for it—just keep it safe," the ghastly thing said, seemingly unwilling to explain further.

"Very well..." Wei Zhao nodded.

"This peak late-stage heaven-rank expert was a pauper. Nothing in his ragged bundle but a fragment of a map—whether it is of any value to you, I cannot say." The ghastly thing gestured at the bundle on the ground and went on.

"What? A peak late-stage heaven-rank expert? And you killed him?" Wei Zhao stared at the skeleton on the ground, a sharp pang seizing his heart. If he had not by sheer chance suppressed this ghastly thing with his elixir fire, he would doubtless have counted for nothing in its eyes.

"Yes, dead. But a pauper," the ghastly thing said. "That is all there is. Have a look and see whether it suits you. If it does, then agree to my condition!"

Wei Zhao hesitated, then silently fished a fragment of a map from the bundle. But the instant he set eyes on it, he started slightly! This fragment looked terribly familiar—he even had two such fragments himself, stored away in his own home!

This fragment was surely of the same kind as the one he had obtained at the Yu family auction in the mortal world, and the one he had taken from the shark's belly! And now, unexpectedly, he had found another piece here!

Only, Wei Zhao did not know what purpose the fragment served. But since the Yu family of the mortal world had prized it so highly back then, it must surely hold some value.