Chapter 3233 — Exposed?

"Did no one ever tell you that Songshan City and Donghai City are my back garden? You come here to kill, and you don't even pay me a courtesy call?" Wei Zhao asked, still in that same indifferent tone.

"What's that supposed to mean? Your back garden? Who are you?" The Grand Elder knitted his brows slightly, a sense of something wrong creeping into his heart. This early Heaven-Rank expert was a little too calm, wasn't he? Either he had something to fall back on, or he simply had no idea what death looked like!

But how many cultivators who had reached the early Heaven-Rank stage were still greenhorns? Which of them had not paid for it in untold hardship? So the Grand Elder could not quite take his measure.

"Wei Zhao. A loose cultivator." Wei Zhao finished mildly, then said, "Your turn to introduce yourself."

"Lin... Wei Zhao?! You're Wei Zhao?!" The Grand Elder of the Black Horse Society started as if his tail had been trodden on, instinctively shifting his body a step to the side, and said in alarm, "You're that Wei Zhao?"

"How many Wei Zhaos are there in Songshan City and Donghai City?" Wei Zhao said coldly. "You must know that the person I protect is the great star Xu Shilan, don't you? For her sake I killed both Dongfang Yinxing and the Pure Yin Heavenly Venerable, and now you've beaten her until she coughs blood, and you want to kill her mother too?"

The Grand Elder of the Black Horse Society felt his heart clench. Mother of mine, whatever he feared had come to pass. The reason he had come to Songshan City and chosen to strike in the dead of night was precisely to avoid Wei Zhao and keep from drawing his notice! After all, Wei Zhao's name had already been spread through the ancient strata with almost mythical exaggeration—he was practically a monster of a existence!

A man who could kill a peak late Heaven-Rank expert in a single blow—even the Grand Elder himself would not dare claim he could slay a peak late Heaven-Rank expert in one strike. What kind of strength was that? A little too terrifying, wasn't it?

"So it was her..." But by now the grudge was already made, and the Grand Elder of the Black Horse Society could only watch Wei Zhao warily. "Fine. What do you want?"

"I know you were hired by someone. Name the one behind it, and leave two Great Return Pills behind, and I'll let you walk away." Arrogant as Wei Zhao's words sounded, they had been carefully weighed—not too weak, yet not too forceful either!

After all, Wei Zhao feared that the man before him might be driven to desperate measures, and if he simply let the Grand Elder of the Black Horse Society go, that would be hard to justify either.

Still, from the Grand Elder's tone Wei Zhao had already guessed that the man was most likely acting on someone else's behalf—otherwise he could not possibly have failed to know who Xu Shilan was. So Wei Zhao seized on that pretext, preparing to spare the Grand Elder of the Black Horse Society, and it would make sense to others as well.

"Truly? If I tell you, you'll let me go?" The Grand Elder of the Black Horse Society glanced at Wei Zhao, weighing matters in his own heart as well.

"My word has always been my bond," Wei Zhao said with a nod.

"I'm from the Black Horse Society." The Grand Elder hesitated a moment, then gave these few words: "As for who exactly issued the task, I don't know either. I only came to take on the assignment. I am the Grand Elder of the Black Horse Society—I only handle troubles that are hard to handle. I don't take assignments directly."

"And the Great Return Pills?" Wei Zhao nodded. He had no wish to drag things out either; plainly Xu Shilan and Cheng Yiyi both needed urgent treatment.

"I didn't bring them. But you may count it as the Black Horse Society owing you—you can come collect from the Black Horse Society anytime!" the Grand Elder said.

"Good. You may go." Wei Zhao go collect? Wei Zhao was not about to lose his mind and go collect from the Black Horse Society—wouldn't that be courting death? Putting on a show of force here to intimidate the Grand Elder was one thing, but going to the Black Horse Society would likely expose him!

"Very well... then I'll see you on your way!" A trace of a sinister smile slid across the corner of the Grand Elder's mouth; he raised a finger and made to strike at Wei Zhao!

Wei Zhao was utterly aghast. He had not expected the Grand Elder of the Black Horse Society to strike the instant he chose—one moment he was about to leave, and the next he was lashing out to wound. Could it be... he had seen through the bluff?

But whatever the case, Wei Zhao had no choice but to brace himself and meet the attack!

A true-qi bomb compressed to ninety percent burst from Wei Zhao's hand and flew at the Grand Elder! Still, so as not to destroy the entire dormitory building, Wei Zhao had restrained the direction of the true-qi bomb, aiming the angle as much toward the window as he could, so that it would only drive the Grand Elder of the Black Horse Society into the wall and explode beyond it, without blowing up the whole building!

True, no orphans lived in this building—they had all moved into the larger cluster of dormitories, and this one housed only the supervisors, of whom there were at present only the old director and Yu Xiaoke—but Wei Zhao still did not want the money spent building it to go to waste!

Yet what Wei Zhao had not anticipated was that before his magnificent true-qi bomb could strike the Grand Elder, he saw the Grand Elder raise a hand and, who knew what he did, the true-qi bomb was drawn entirely into the Grand Elder's fingertips before it could even explode, vanishing without a trace!

It was as though Wei Zhao had never unleashed a true-qi bomb at all! Where had it gone? Wei Zhao was utterly horrified!

And the next instant, a bolt of azure true qi shot abruptly from the Grand Elder's fingertips straight at Wei Zhao. Wei Zhao's reflexes were quick enough—he had the Butterfly Microstep he had learned from his master in his assassin days—and only just managed to keep the true qi from striking a vital point!

Even so, the true qi from the Grand Elder's fingertip still punched through Wei Zhao's left shoulder, blasting a great bloody hole clean through it!

Cold sweat broke out on Wei Zhao's forehead—the pain was unbearable! He had not even seen what the Grand Elder did, and already he had been hit!

No—he had to use his final life-preserving move. Wei Zhao had no other choice; he drew the last Heaven-and-Earth Net straight from his jade pendant's space and cast it over the Grand Elder!

The Heaven-and-Earth Net was taken from Wei Zhao's jade pendant space out of thin air, without the slightest warning, and before the Grand Elder could react he was wrapped up like a giant rice dumpling, unable to move a hairsbreadth.

"Phew..." Looking at the ensnared Grand Elder of the Black Horse Society, Wei Zhao let out a long breath and swiftly circulated the third level of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art to heal the wound on his left shoulder. As he healed, he looked at the Grand Elder. "Just now... was there a flaw?"

"Are you really Wei Zhao?" The Grand Elder of the Black Horse Society, caught in the Heaven-and-Earth Net, showed neither shock nor fury nor fear; instead he asked in a very calm manner.

"I am." Wei Zhao nodded. "Could there be a impostor? At a time like this, there's no need for me to pretend!"