Chapter 2807 — Showdown at the Summit

Go! Wei Zhao clenched his jaw. If a tiger blocks the mountain path, one still heads up the mountain—he had come this far, so what sense was there in turning back? More often than not, Wei Zhao sought his fortunes amid peril. Without risk, where would the reward come from?

With that thought, Wei Zhao steeled his resolve and strode up the mountain.

The mountain path was exceedingly steep, jagged rocks jutting out everywhere, with not a single smooth route to the summit.

Clearly, not only did no one ordinarily climb this mountain—no spirit beasts did either. Which only went to show that some danger must lurk up there. Otherwise, why would there be no spirit beasts anywhere nearby?

And even if there were none on the ground, surely there ought to be some in the sky? Yet Wei Zhao had not seen a single one.

Difficult as the path was, it was no sheer cliff face; even without a trail, there were still footholds to be found. With Wei Zhao's lightness skill, the climb posed no problem.

"Thunder Pig, which direction?" Wei Zhao asked.

"Oink, oink!" Thunder Pig stretched out a claw and pointed toward a spot not far off.

Wei Zhao nodded, cradled Thunder Pig in his arms, and moved slowly onward. After another few hundred meters, Thunder Pig suddenly cried out again.

"Oink, oink!" Thunder Pig squealed, jabbing its claw at a rocky mound nearby.

"Oh? The treasure you mentioned—it's here?" Wei Zhao asked, slightly taken aback.

"Oink, oink!" Thunder Pig nodded, then shook its head.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Wei Zhao asked, puzzled.

"Oink, oink!" Thunder Pig pointed at the rocky mound and nodded, then pointed at a mountain peak in the distance and nodded again.

"Oh, I see. You mean there's treasure here, and treasure over there too—right?" Wei Zhao had grasped Thunder Pig's meaning.

"Oink, oink." This time Thunder Pig nodded in satisfaction.

Wei Zhao hurried over to the rocky mound. Its appearance held nothing remarkable; he reached out to dig at it, and the jade pendant gave no warning—proof that there was no danger here.

Soon the mound was dug open, and to Wei Zhao's astonishment, beneath the broken stones lay the skeleton of a spirit beast!

From its appearance alone, it was impossible to tell what kind of spirit beast it had been—there were simply too many species. Wei Zhao could not even identify the living ones, let alone the dead.

Amid the pile of bones, Wei Zhao had scarcely to search before he found a spirit beast's essence core. So this, it seemed, was the treasure Thunder Pig had spoken of.

Wei Zhao now held six spirit beast essence cores in his hand: one given by Gou Huli's lion, two obtained in the Wulonghaote Mountains, one given by the Qianshan Sect, one from that ghostly fellow, and one traded for at a market from a Heaven-Tier cultivator.

The core the ghostly fellow had given him, however, was markedly different from the others, and the fellow had forbidden him to use it. Wei Zhao dared not casually expend it, but the remaining five could be used to forge an Essence Core Necklace.

The only trouble was that Wei Zhao was no artificer and could not yet forge it. Still, this newly acquired core was not without use: forging an Essence Core Necklace required a minimum of five spirit beast essence cores, and the more the better—and the higher the beasts' rank, the stronger the effect. So this additional core, naturally, was not to be wasted.

Carefully stowing the essence core away, Wei Zhao asked Thunder Pig, "The thing up ahead—is it better than this?"

"Oink, oink!" Thunder Pig nodded.

"Good, then we keep going!" Wei Zhao scooped up Thunder Pig and strode toward the summit.

What puzzled Wei Zhao was this: although the map clearly marked this place as exceedingly dangerous, he had walked all this way—had come even this far—and still had not encountered the slightest danger. That left him both puzzled and doubtful. Had the Mystic Pill Sect made a mistake?

Or perhaps this place had been exceedingly dangerous many years ago—a century, even a millennium past—but the danger no longer existed. Otherwise, Wei Zhao truly could not explain why he remained safe and sound to this moment, having met with nothing at all.

At last Wei Zhao set foot upon the summit. Standing there, he had meant to take in the whole of the trial grounds, but to his surprise, dense fog shrouded the distance, and he could see no great distance at all. Perhaps this was simply the natural climate of the trial grounds.

Wei Zhao shook his head and did not squander more time on the matter. Instead he asked Thunder Pig, "We've reached the summit—so where is the treasure?"

"Oink, oink..." Thunder Pig turned and pointed its claw toward a cave in the distance. But before Wei Zhao could respond, something he had not expected happened: a vast surge of true qi came rushing forth! Not only did Wei Zhao's heart clench—even Thunder Pig's fur bristled!

Since first following Wei Zhao, Thunder Pig had rarely bristled. When it sensed danger, the fur on its body would stand on end, tipped with poison; Wei Zhao had witnessed it once in the ancient tomb. That Thunder Pig now bristled unbidden was proof enough of how terrifying that aura was.

Following the direction of the energy fluctuations, Wei Zhao lifted his head and looked. There, atop a nearby peak, in the deep blue sky, a riot of multicolored light had begun to flash—light that carried violent energy fluctuations, booming and rumbling like thunder before a storm, filling Wei Zhao with an inexplicable sense of oppression from head to toe!

"Boom—" It was the thunderous crash of colliding energies. Wei Zhao fixed his gaze: the sound seemed to come from the cave at the summit, and the multicolored clash of energy came from the cave as well!

"Boom—" Another mighty crash, and blast-like energy swept outward on all sides, carrying flying sand and shattered stone. In an instant, the whole mountainside was filled with whirling grit and debris; the once-clear sky turned ashen in a heartbeat. Though Wei Zhao was a cultivator, even he felt a flicker of fear at this portent.

"What... what kind of sound is that? A duel between masters, perhaps? Is there... someone up there? Or two spirit beasts crossing swords at the summit?" Wei Zhao drew a deep breath and murmured in wonder.

"Oink, oink..." Thunder Pig nodded, then shook its head.

"You mean... there's someone up there... a man and a beast locked in combat?" Wei Zhao looked at Thunder Pig in some astonishment.

"Oink, oink!" Thunder Pig nodded. At this distance, it could already sense what was happening over there.