Chapter 3441 — Three Traitors Run Fast

He had come this time with the intention of avenging Xiao Yi, so now that the opportunity was here, he meant to make an example of Wei Zhao first. He held nothing back, directly circulating and invoking the mnemonic of his heart technique, and brought his staff crashing down toward Wei Zhao's face!

Xiao Er was fast, but Wei Zhao had actually been prepared all along. Wearing his Gale-and-Lightning Boots, he set his feet into the Butterfly Microstep, and lightly evaded Xiao Er's attack! Speed depended on whom you were facing—against Song Lingwei and Song Xianghua, he might have been caught off guard, but with the Gale-and-Lightning Boots working together with the Butterfly Microstep, and with preparation on his side, being hit would have been the real surprise!

Seeing Wei Zhao dodge, Xiao Er couldn't help but start! He prided himself on having the fastest speed in the Five Luminaries Sect, and had never seen anyone evade him so easily! Yet Wei Zhao had done just that!

He hastily tried to chase down Wei Zhao, but as he turned his head, he saw a palm wreathed in blazing flames sweeping toward him!

"Frenzied Fire Eight Trigrams Palm, Twelfth Form!" Wei Zhao bellowed, seizing the moment to strike Xiao Er with a single palm!

Since Xiao Er meant to use him to establish his prestige, then he, too, was in fact using Xiao Er to establish his own!

After these days of training at the Song family, Wei Zhao could now successfully unleash the Twelfth Form of the Frenzied Fire Eight Trigrams Palm! The Twelfth Form was already formidable in its own right, and with the attack bonus of the Essence Necklace added on, this one palm strike—even if Xiao Er did not die, would leave him a cripple!

"Boom—" Xiao Er's whole body was sent flying backward by the palm wind Wei Zhao pushed out, crashing to the ground beside Kang Jingming. His legs twitched once, and then he moved no more; whether he was dead or alive, no one could tell!

"Gah!" Kang Jingming was dumbstruck, and so were the three Zhao family experts! What was going on here? Had he really been killed in a single instant?

"There, done in a second. Zhao Qibing, did you see that?" Wei Zhao said with a smile, looking at Zhao Qibing—not in the least bit like a man who had just finished off a top-tier expert at the peak of the late Heaven rank who had achieved Great Perfection!

"Uh..." Zhao Qibing's face went ashen at once. With a "thud," he dropped straight to his knees, scared witless!

Kang Jingming's face paled as well! He had never imagined that Wei Zhao was this powerful, finishing off Xiao Er with a single move!

Could it be that Wei Zhao had been capable of killing Xiao Yi back then but had simply chosen not to act, and had sought out the Paoli clan for some other purpose? For a moment, Kang Jingming had no idea what to do, standing rooted to the spot, caught between advancing and retreating!

"Young Master Bing, what's the matter? Something wrong with your legs?" Wei Zhao regarded Zhao Qibing with derision. His physical stamina and true qi were in fact completely spent! Because he had discovered that, at his peak mid-Heaven-rank strength, he could unleash the Twelfth Form of the Frenzied Fire Eight Trigrams Palm at most once!

Not even a little more was possible—it drained far too much physical stamina and true qi! So although he looked terribly impressive on the surface at this moment, in truth he was racing to recover his stamina and true qi!

If the three Zhao family experts had come looking for trouble with Wei Zhao right now and surrounded him, then Wei Zhao would have had no choice but to summon the Wind-Thunder Purple Lightning Beast and flee! Because he did not even have the stamina and true qi left to activate the Butterfly Microstep.

"Ah... right, it's from practicing the Thousand Legs—a bit of an aftereffect... haha, I often can't stand steady, and the sight of Lord Lin scares me to my knees..." Zhao Qibing said with a dry laugh. "It seems that when your strength rises too fast, the aftereffects are quite obvious!"

"Oh, is that so." Wei Zhao nodded. "Then what are you three Zhao family experts doing here? Have you come to attack me and the Song family? Go on, then—I'll finish the three of you in a second and still get back to my meal! I was interrupted halfway through eating. That really puts me in a foul mood!"

"Cough, cough..." Zhao Qibing was terrified beyond measure, and Zhao Guangyin and Mian Huatang beside him also instinctively backed up two steps! This Wei Zhao was simply too powerful! Back then, Wei Zhao had been like a god of slaughter, drenching the Zhao family in blood!

They had thought that once they threw in their lot with the Five Luminaries Sect and endured so much suffering, and one day became top-tier experts at Heaven-rank Great Perfection, they would be able to cut Wei Zhao down and avenge the destruction of the Zhao family!

But today they had discovered, to their sorrow, that the gap between dream and reality was far too great! They realized that killing Wei Zhao for revenge had already become impossible! At least, it would be impossible in this lifetime!

In the past, when Wei Zhao's strength had not been so high, they had always clung to hope; but once Wei Zhao had set foot upon the summit of the secular cultivation world and could wipe out Heaven-rank Great Perfection experts in an instant, their hopes vanished all at once!

Sometimes, expectation and surrender lie within a single thought! Unless they could ascend to the Heavenly Dao—that remote, legendary realm—but as experts who had been artificially remade, they could never advance a single step further in their entire lives!

If they did not sustain themselves with drugs, then once the medicinal properties faded from their bodies, they would not even match their former strength—they would be little different from ordinary people.

And now, all three of them felt a sense of utter dejection. It was impossible—revenge would never be possible! Wei Zhao's power had, in that single instant, extinguished their thoughts of retaliation!

"Um, Lord Wei Zhao, sir, we just came to watch the fun. Actually, we long ago saw through the vanities of the mortal world—the three of us have wanted to leave the Five Luminaries Sect for ages. We're planning to take refuge in Buddhism—yes, yes, to become monks! We'll be off, then! Amitabha, I'm leaving..." Zhao Qibing babbled incoherently, then turned and ran!

Zhao Guangyin and Mian Huatang ran after him as well, the three of them fleeing as fast as their legs could carry them! Their thoughts, however, were all the same: find some place to go into hiding from now on, because revenge was hopeless in this life, so what the hell was the point of playing along with the Five Luminaries Sect? Better to spend the rest of their days in peace!

The Zhao family still had a tidy sum deposited overseas—enough for the three of them to live on.

Seeing the three bodyguards beside him slip away so nimbly, Kang Jingming was at a loss! Was that not a bit too quick a betrayal?

"Zhaoming, you're not being honest. When you ran into me earlier, you didn't say you'd come to visit—if I'd known you were coming, I would have made preparations!" Wei Zhao said, looking at Kang Jingming standing there all alone, with a half-smile that was not quite a smile.

"Haha, Lord Wei Zhao, you jest... I... I was actually forced into this! It was that Miss Lan from the Center! She was the one who told me to investigate the deaths of those four overseas experts, and the three Zhao family bio-engineered experts were remade with the Center's help too. I just led the way—it has nothing to do with me!" Kang Jingming explained cautiously, his face the picture of misery.

"Is that so? What is the Center? Isn't it the Fire Wolf Gang?" Wei Zhao countered.