Chapter 2836 — The Bramble Divine Art

Still, it was hardly surprising. Apart from the Safe Zone, the surrounding land was nothing but open plains, and standing out here, Wei Zhao had nowhere to hide. Anyone inside the Safe Zone need only glance outward to see exactly where he was.

"Zhang Nai Pao?" Wei Zhao was startled. He had never expected this place to have been taken over by Zhang Nai Pao! But now that the people in the Safe Zone had spotted him, there was no point in staying hidden. He lifted his foot and walked toward the Safe Zone.

"Leader, you're here!" Zhao Qi Tan was thrilled to hear Wei Zhao's voice. He sprang up from the ground with a bound and shot out of the Safe Zone's entrance, with Feng Shi Pian, Li Ci Ba, and Ge Xian following behind him.

"Brother Lin, you're here!" For now, Feng Shi Pian, Li Ci Ba, and Ge Xian acknowledged Wei Zhao only as their squad captain; none of them had yet thought of accepting him as their leader. Ge Xian was nearly there, but Feng Shi Pian and Li Ci Ba were each the pride of their own families and sects. Though both were fairly good-natured, acknowledging a leader was no small matter and demanded careful deliberation—especially acknowledging a wandering cultivator like Wei Zhao, which required the most thorough consideration of all.

"Qi Tan, Shi Pian, Ci Ba, Ge Xian—you're all here!" Wei Zhao felt his heart ease at the sight of them. Thank goodness Zhang Nai Pao seemed not to have harmed them! His greatest fear had been that they had run into Zhang Nai Pao on their own. But then he noticed that Yang Qi Qi was not among them, and his brows knitted at once. "Hm? Where's Qi Qi?"

"It's a long story. Qi Qi said she came here to hunt for treasure..." Zhao Qi Tan then recounted to Wei Zhao how, after Yang Qi Qi arrived, she had been driven off by Zhang Nai Pao and had gone off alone to seek treasure. When Wei Zhao heard that Yang Qi Qi had gone to the Five Baleful Mountains, his breath caught in his throat!

Wei Zhao knew all too well just how dangerous the Five Baleful Mountains were. That Yang Qi Qi had gone there alone filled him with alarm for her, and he asked urgently, "How many days has she been gone?"

"About two days," Zhao Qi Tan said.

"Two days..." Wei Zhao sighed. By now, Yang Qi Qi should already have reached the Five Baleful Mountains. She practiced an external-school lightness skill, which made for a very fast pace. He himself had gone and returned within a day and a night—Yang Qi Qi had surely arrived long ago!

Moreover, Wei Zhao had traveled in a straight line the whole way, and Yang Qi Qi, following the map, should have done the same. The two of them ought to have crossed paths. That they had not meant Yang Qi Qi had also reached the Five Baleful Mountains in less than a day and a night—which was why Wei Zhao had missed her!

Because the path Wei Zhao had taken down the mountain was not the one he had come by. The Five Baleful Dragon had flung him some distance away, and it must have been around here that he and Yang Qi Qi had passed each other by.

"That's right..." Zhao Qi Tan nodded. "That Five Baleful Mountains place is marked on the map as extremely dangerous. I've no idea how she's faring... But back then, we truly had no way to stand against Zhang Nai Pao. I'm sorry, Leader!"

"It's nothing. None of you are a match for Zhang Nai Pao, so it was only natural not to fight." Wei Zhao waved a hand, though inwardly he was furious at Zhang Nai Pao's conduct. The Safe Zone was meant for everyone's common use, yet the man had seized it and begun robbing people outright—he really was something. "Did you hand over all your trial spirit medicines to Zhang Nai Pao?"

"We had no choice..." Feng Shi Pian smiled bitterly and recounted in detail to Wei Zhao everything that had happened on this side after he left. Just as he got to the part where Zhang Nai Pao struck Dongfang Bushu with a single punch, sending Dongfang Bushu charging out of the Safe Zone like a madman, only to be finished off by a spirit beast—Zhang Nai Pao's scolding voice came from behind them!

"Enough, Wei Zhao. You've had your reunion with your little underlings. So—are you coming into the Safe Zone or not? I thought you meant to be a turtle hiding in its shell and never dare show your face!" Zhang Nai Pao emerged from the Safe Zone and looked at Wei Zhao, his words dripping with mockery.

"Zhang Nai Pao, I hear your martial art is something like the Great Shift of the Universe—and yet not quite the same. If I'm not mistaken, your technique can't reflect an opponent's moves back in full the way the Great Shift does. Part of the force is reflected, and part of it you bear yourself, isn't that so?" Wei Zhao had just heard Feng Shi Pian's account of Young Hero Yang's case, and combined with the scene he had witnessed earlier in the dining hall, he had roughly deduced the nature of Zhang Nai Pao's martial art.

"Haha, not bad at all. But Wei Zhao, so what if you've guessed it?" Zhang Nai Pao was slightly taken aback that Wei Zhao had actually worked out the characteristics of his martial art, but he could not have cared less. He burst out laughing. "Go on, keep guessing?"

"I can keep guessing, but the one thing I'm still unsure of is this: when Young Hero Yang and that local tyrant of the Loess Plateau Sect struck you, part of the force must have been added to your own body, while only another part was reflected back. But now it seems that isn't quite the case—because that other portion of force wouldn't have been enough to kill them outright!" Wei Zhao said, analyzing as he spoke.

"Wei Zhao, I have to admit you're cleverer than those reckless cultivators. But what good does it do you? Why don't you come and bite me?" Zhang Nai Pao regarded Wei Zhao with a provoking look. "I don't mind telling you—my martial art is called the Bramble Divine Art. When you strike me, twenty percent of the damage is borne by my own body, and eighty percent is passively reflected back, driven by my mental technique and oral formula. But with the support of my mental formula, it isn't eighty percent at all—it's three times eighty percent, which is two hundred and forty percent! That's why those fools died themselves after striking me!"

The Bramble Divine Art was one of the mysterious martial arts of the Tomorrow Upon Tomorrow sect. Like the Bee-Drawing Divine Art, it could be cultivated only by those who had practiced the Chrysanthemum Treasure Manual. This was no secret—the ancient sects all knew of it. So once the trial ended and word spread, Zhang Nai Pao's Bramble Divine Art would be a secret no longer. Any expert of mid-heaven rank or above who carried a Great Return Pill and hit him twice in a row would finish him off. RS