Chapter 3675 — What Comes Next

"Indeed," Ghost Thing said with a nod.

"Then how did you end up in this state?" Wei Zhao asked, his face full of puzzlement.

By Ghost Thing's strength, he should have ranked among the mighty even across all of Cloud Terrace Island, and down in the mortal world he ought to have been utterly without rival. So how had he fallen to such a sorry pass? His very flesh was gone, leaving nothing but a broken, crippled primordial spirit!

Ghost Thing answered with a bitter laugh. "You know it yourself, boy—a barrier of spiritual qi lies between Cloud Terrace Island and the mortal world. It's no easy thing to climb from the mortal world up to Cloud Terrace Island, and to descend from Cloud Terrace Island to the mortal world is every bit as troublesome."

"Is that so?" Wei Zhao was briefly stunned. He had known only that the spiritual qi barrier shut the gate from the mortal world to Cloud Terrace Island; it had never occurred to him that the return journey was the same. Did that mean that when he went back to the mortal world in the future, he too would have to go to enormous trouble?

"When you people were transmitted from the mortal world to Cloud Terrace Island, you needed a cultivator of one of the five elemental attributes to work together with the seven inheritors to suppress the five-element spiritual qi barrier, and then a disciple of the demonic sect to absorb the five-baleful-qi demonic energy the barrier released, before a gap could be opened. It was the same for this old man descending from Cloud Terrace Island to the mortal world—except I had no inheritors to help me, and could only force my way through on my own strength." Even now, Ghost Thing seemed to feel a lingering dread at the memory.

Wei Zhao was speechless. So many of them, himself included, had gone to vast pains merely to barely break through the spiritual qi barrier—and Ghost Thing had forced his way through alone! Just how monstrously powerful did a man have to be for that?

"In the end, this old man did succeed in descending to the mortal world, but the price was grievous wounds. And the spiritual qi of heaven and earth in the mortal world is so poor that there was no way to heal or recover. I wandered for several years, never finding the Great King's bloodline, until at last my wounds proved beyond cure and my lamp burned dry." Ghost Thing sighed and lamented.

Wei Zhao very nearly offered the customary condolences—but looking at the ball of black mist before him, he forcibly swallowed the words back down.

Wei Zhao rolled his eyes and choked on his words for a good while, unable to keep from grumbling inwardly: if you were already beyond cure with your lamp burned dry, then just what in the world is this blob in front of me?

Catching Wei Zhao's peculiar expression, Ghost Thing deigned to explain. "Any other spirit beast would long since have been reduced to ash. But this old man's innate ability is rather special—after death, I can preserve my primordial spirit."

"I see," Wei Zhao said, understanding dawning.

Though Ghost Thing did not say just what his innate ability was, Wei Zhao could not help thinking of Zhong Yongliang, whose body had been seized by the primordial spirit of Patriarch Mad Dragon.

Wei Zhao guessed that Ghost Thing's innate ability was probably not much different from the secret method the Morrow-upon-Morrow sect used to preserve the primordial spirit.

Ghost Thing fell silent afterward. As for what had happened after he became a primordial spirit, he did not go on—but Wei Zhao could guess well enough: a wretched, miserable drifting from place to place, until at last he encountered Wei Zhao himself.

Until now, Ghost Thing had struck Wei Zhao as unfathomable, and carrying with it an indescribable arrogance and hardness besides. But having heard all this, he suddenly felt that this Senior Ghost's experiences were nothing but a tale of bitter tears—and only the one who suffers knows how bitter.

"Then... do you plan to go to the South Island next?" Wei Zhao asked cautiously.

"We'll see. In the state this old man is in now, what good would it do me to go back to the South Island? Without the strength to back it up, I'd rather keep it out of sight and out of mind!"

Ghost Thing mocked himself, paused a moment, then said, "When you've climbed to a certain level of strength, boy, this old man may ask a favor of you. But for now, you'd best settle down and cultivate in peace. With the paltry strength you have, if you dared set foot on the South Island, you wouldn't even be enough to fill the gaps between someone's teeth."

Wei Zhao gave a wordless, rueful laugh. What Ghost Thing said was true enough, but talk like that was a bit too discouraging.

Be that as it may, now that he had finally gotten to the bottom of Ghost Thing's origins, the heart Wei Zhao had kept hanging was at last set at ease, and he secretly counted himself fortunate besides. To have such a senior spirit beast for a backer—even if that senior no longer possessed any formidable strength—was still a vast treasure trove!

The night passed without incident. By the time Wei Zhao emerged from the jade pendant's space, restored to his full peak, it was already the second day. Since the Heart-Eating Linglong Grass was now in hand, the chief purpose of this journey had been achieved, and what remained for Wei Zhao carried a certain air of wanting nothing further.

Of course, wanting nothing further did not mean doing nothing at all. It was a rare thing to take part in a newcomer's trial; if he went back without claiming first place in points, Wei Zhao would feel he had let down the Heaven-Thunder Pig, that cheat of a treasure-finder.

After all, a Foundation Establishment Pill plus ten spirit jades as a reward was a prize enticing even to Wei Zhao.

The value of the Foundation Establishment Pill went without saying. Even if Wei Zhao had no use for it himself, to Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai it was a prize they could only dream of. As the one who led the two of them, Wei Zhao owed it to them to fight for a little benefit, if only to keep them loyal to the death.

As for the ten spirit jades, Wei Zhao happened to be desperately short of spirit jades just now—and besides, with ten spirit jades coming to him so openly and aboveboard, that pack of unscrupulous fellows around Meng Jueming would surely scheme to swap them out with worthless jade.

In that case, the value to Wei Zhao would not be ten spirit jades but thirty at the least—and that was no small sum.

He released the Heaven-Thunder Pig, and set off: searching out nearby spirit herbs to rapidly pile up points on the one hand, and on the other using the map to fix his bearings as he made for Three Creeks Junction, where he had agreed with Xiao Che and the other to meet before the trial began.

With the great canyon—that landmark on the map—to serve as a reference, a little reckoning of direction was enough for Wei Zhao to confirm his position with relative ease.

By their prior agreement, he need only reach Three Creeks Junction by noon one day before the trial's end, and a full day still remained to spare. But Wei Zhao's present position was simply too far from Three Creeks Junction, and he had to spare effort along the way for gathering spirit herbs, not to mention the nights when travel was impractical. Setting out now was, in truth, not early at all.

After a whole day's tramping, with the help of the Heaven-Thunder Pig, that cheat of a treasure-finder, the points shown on Wei Zhao's back-basket had already shot up to one thousand six hundred and eighty—a score to rival the best results ever seen in any past newcomer's trial.