Chapter 2873 — A Thought

"A lunatic?" Wei Zhao blinked, wondering whether that was meant for him. Though he supposed he had never told Tianchan that particular story.

"Never mind that—there's no time. Aren't you going to get Zhang Naipao out of here? Once the spirit beasts show up, we'll see what you do then! I can kick. Let's see what you can do!" Tianchan gave him a warning.

"I have a weapon!" Wei Zhao said, perfectly deadpan.

"Pfft... disgusting!" Tianchan's expression shifted at his words. "You're not thinking of—with a spirit beast—"

"What are you imagining? I meant the sachet, the one you gave me!" Wei Zhao said, the picture of innocence.

"I'll kick your sachet!" Tianchan was mortified; she knew full well Wei Zhao was deliberately refusing to admit it, but there was nothing she could do except snort, "Go pick Zhang Naipao up!"

"Oh..." Wei Zhao was not nearly so gentle with Zhang Naipao as he had been with Yang Qiqi. He simply reached out and hoisted the man up. Zhang Naipao might have been circulating his Thorn Divine Art, but Wei Zhao used no true qi—he merely lifted him—so Zhang Naipao could do him no harm at all.

With Zhang Naipao in hand, Wei Zhao and Tianchan hurried toward the safe zone. He had to admit they were lucky: they had barely reached it when a disturbance rose from outside. The spirit beasts had awakened—and their waking hour was not four in the morning as the Heavenly Thunder Pig had said, but a full fifteen minutes earlier!

Wei Zhao had lightness skill, and Tianchan was a peak late Heaven-rank expert, so neither of them was slow. If they hadn't needed to worry about spirit beasts tracking them and could have simply run flat out, the journey from Zhang Naipao's spot to the safe zone would have taken only fifteen minutes.

On Wei Zhao's earlier trips back and forth across the Five Malevolences Mountains, he had carried Tianchan's sachet, but he'd had to stay constantly on guard against Heaven-rank spirit beasts, so his pace had been far from fast. This time, that was no longer necessary.

"What's going on? Didn't you say the spirit beasts wouldn't wake until four?" Wei Zhao looked at the Heavenly Thunder Pig in some puzzlement.

The Heavenly Thunder Pig was at that moment lying flat and solemn at the entrance to the safe zone, staring outside. Hearing Wei Zhao's question, it turned and scurried over, writing rapidly on the ground: "The Dragon of the Five Malevolences has issued a new order. The previous order is canceled. The spirit beasts are free to move..."

"What does that mean?" Wei Zhao was lost. He had no idea the Dragon of the Five Malevolences had ever issued such an order.

"It's like this..." Wei Zhao didn't know, but Tianchan had some inkling. She told him how the Dragon of the Five Malevolences had ordered a concerted hunt of human cultivators, and finished: "That two-hour rest period in the middle was likely the Dragon's doing as well."

"So that's it. I have to say, I never would have guessed—that Dragon of the Five Malevolences is a sly one..." Wei Zhao thought back to how the Dragon had flung him down the cliff face, and decided the creature really did have a nasty streak.

"Spirit beasts are adversaries to humans by nature—unless they're bound as contract beasts. You can hardly call them wicked or not." Tianchan shook her head. "What I'm thinking about now isn't the Dragon. It's how we're going to get out of here."

"True enough..." Wei Zhao studied the spirit beasts outside and frowned slightly. They looked more agitated than when he had first entered the wild lands of the Five Malevolences. Was it because they had already killed so many cultivators that they had acquired a taste for blood?

It seemed the only possible explanation. At the very beginning, Wei Zhao might have been confident of getting out, but now he was not.

For the moment, though, Wei Zhao had no mind to spare for escaping. What occupied him now was how to wake Zhang Naipao and get him to draw the Five Malevolences qi out of Yang Qiqi.

"Hey, you—that ghost spirit. Yes, you. You're certainly not asleep, so quit playing dead." Once inside the jade pendant's space, Wei Zhao went straight to the point.

"Boy, are you ever going to give it a rest? What is it now?" The ghost thing's voice was thick with exasperation and gloom.

"Can you do me a favor?" Wei Zhao asked.

"No." The ghost thing was flat and final. "I'm not your subordinate. Your rank is far too low. If you think I'm going to work for you, think again."

"This isn't an order—it's a request..." Wei Zhao gave a helpless, bitter smile. "A friend of mine is dying. The Five Malevolences qi has invaded his body..."

"Oh, then save your breath. That's a favor I can't do. I'm only a disembodied spirit now—no physical form. I have no way to dissolve the Five Malevolences qi in your friend's body." The ghost thing cut him off halfway through.

"I'm not asking you to dissolve the qi. There's someone else who can do that. The trouble is he's fallen into a state of madness—same as I was before—and I need you to help wake him." Wei Zhao explained.

"So I'd have to go out there?" The ghost thing refused at once. "A trip outside costs my spirit essence dearly. I'm not going."

"Just do me this one favor?" Wei Zhao's tone was earnest. "If you ever need anything from me in the future, I'll help you, I swear!"

"Oh? Then let me think it over first." The ghost thing considered.

"How long will you need to think?" Wei Zhao asked quickly, caught off guard.

"Hard to say. Three to five days at the shortest, a year or so at the longest—but certainly no more than two years." The ghost thing replied.

"You... aren't you just stringing me along?" Wei Zhao was instantly furious. He felt the ghost thing was only humoring him! All he had offered was a promise, not a concrete trade—what was there to think about? The fact that the ghost thing wanted to "think it over" was likely just an excuse, a way to refuse without coming out and saying so, because Wei Zhao had pestered him past endurance.

But after that, the ghost thing said nothing more and paid Wei Zhao no further attention.

Wei Zhao had no choice but to leave the jade pendant's space. If the ghost thing wouldn't talk, there was nothing he could do about it.

"Wei Zhao, didn't you say you had a way to wake Zhang Naipao?" Seeing Wei Zhao silent, Tianchan had no idea what he was doing and could not help asking.

"Ah..." Wei Zhao gave a bitter smile at her question. "I haven't thought of one yet..."

"You were so sure of yourself before—I thought you already had a plan..." Tianchan was taken aback, then at a loss for words.

"Before... I was thinking a little too simply..." Wei Zhao could hardly explain the business with the ghost thing. It wasn't that he meant to hide it from Tianchan; the real problem was, how was he even supposed to describe the ghost thing? RS