Chapter 3833 — Got Away?

Of course, this was still only an idea. Given Hong Zhong's standing and influence, he could dispose of ordinary spirit-jade cards as he pleased; but a VIP spirit-jade card, one grade above, had to be examined and approved by the guild alliance's upper echelons—Hong Zhong possessed only a limited right of recommendation.

To hold an ordinary spirit-jade card meant that one already stood above the common run in both status and strength. To hold a VIP spirit-jade card, then, one must already have become a lord of some domain—or at the very least, possess the potential to become one.

In the span of two brief encounters, Wei Zhao—whose strength stood at no more than the peak of the early Foundation Establishment stage—had already won Hong Zhong's recognition. Yet to go a step further, he would have to reach a higher level still.

After all, if the VIP spirit-jade cards—of which there were no more than a double-digit number across all five great islands of the Heaven Tier—were truly handed out to a mere expert at the peak of early Foundation Establishment, it would be a genuine laughingstock.

A moment later, Wei Zhao finally stepped past the boundary of the inner street, and the killing intent behind him came with it.

"Boy, go to hell!" Paying no mind to the astonished stares of the inner-street guards, Nan Tianyong lunged straight out without a heartbeat's hesitation, one palm aimed to strike Wei Zhao dead.

But before that palm could land, his vision suddenly blurred; the next instant, Wei Zhao—casual and unhurried a breath before—accelerated from utter stillness to blinding speed. Butterfly Steps paired with the Wind-Chasing Lightning Boots: at this moment, amid the ceaselessly surging crowds outside, they displayed their utmost power.

"He missed? How is that possible!" Yu Jiang, following behind, could not help but start at the sight.

That palm just now—his so-called master Nan Tianyong had not gone all out, true, but the man was, after all, an expert at the peak of the late Foundation Establishment stage. Even revealing a tenth of his strength was more than a mere peak early-Foundation Establishment cultivator could handle.

And yet, even standing on the ground of irreconcilable enmity, Yu Jiang could not help but strike the table in admiration at Wei Zhao's reaction in that instant: practically without any acceleration at all, he had gone straight from leisurely ease to full-tilt flight—so much so that Nan Tianyong's palm had missed entirely!

It was not that Wei Zhao's absolute speed had grown fast enough to shake off an expert at the peak of late Foundation Establishment like Nan Tianyong. His escape from that blow owed everything to an acceleration in that single instant so swift it beggared belief—downright outrageous.

And that was something even Nan Tianyong could not do!

It was not that Wei Zhao had come by some heaven-defying cheat, nor that he had obtained any formidable movement technique or martial skill. What allowed him to do this was nothing more than the little trick from the endurance test of the last round.

Upon entering the Foundation Establishment stage, every acupoint in the body could freely release true qi. And all along the road before he reached the mouth of the inner street, Wei Zhao had been secretly accumulating true qi in the acupoints throughout his body; once all was in readiness, he unleashed it all at once in a backward burst!

It was precisely by using that tremendous recoil that Wei Zhao could, in a single instant, explode with that outrageous acceleration—and only thus could he slip free of Nan Tianyong's contemptuous palm.

Otherwise, he would already be a dead man. True, he had the Wind-Chasing Lightning Boots and the Butterfly Steps, but the opponent's strength was what it was; with his own fundamentals lacking, no equipment or skill, however fine, would have availed him.

This trick of using the acupoints to burst out true qi was not complicated, and in many situations it could produce wondrous effects. Anyone with a bit of insight and a bit of talent would find it no hardship to manage; it was simply not necessarily practical.

For one reason only: the trick consumed vast amounts of true qi. Release too little, and the wondrous effect was hard to achieve; release too much, and it was a tremendous waste.

After all, the true qi within a normal person's body was very limited; if it could not be converted into a martial skill and made to display its utmost might, that was an unforgivable waste.

But Wei Zhao was different. For him, who possessed the jade pendant's space, true qi had never been a problem—give him the slightest opening, and replenishment would come pouring in endlessly. So this trick, which consumed vast true qi yet so often produced wondrous effects, might as well have been tailor-made for him!

"Damned brat!" With the strike he had been so certain of falling wide, Nan Tianyong flew into a shameful rage and, without another word, gave chase with all his strength. He was not about to vex himself with the headache of why the boy had managed to dodge.

If one blow missed, then just strike again—was that not the way of it?

Nan Tianyong's mind might not be reckoned sharp, but once he truly set to fighting, his instincts in battle were astonishingly keen; he was a formidable man through and through—otherwise he could never have borne the great name of the Three Heroes of Nan!

As a great expert at the peak of late Foundation Establishment, once Nan Tianyong grew serious, even though speed was not his forte, his pace was still far beyond anything any peak early-Foundation Establishment expert could match.

Even if Yu Jiang held no real affection for this so-called master of his, on this point he was utterly convinced: Lin Er absolutely could not escape!

Yet what followed once again exceeded Yu Jiang's expectations. Nan Tianyong had plainly been roused to true fury—and yet he had failed to catch Wei Zhao at the first opportunity!

"Good—just as I expected. Otherwise this hurdle today would truly have been hard to clear!" Wei Zhao glanced back at Nan Tianyong, clinging to his heels, and felt a touch of relief; even so, he dared not relax in the least, for though he had spent every ounce of his strength, he had still not managed to shake the man off.

A place crowded with people like the market district was exactly where his Butterfly Steps and Wind-Chasing Lightning Boots could exert their greatest power. Against an expert of his own level, he would likely have left him a whole street behind in an instant.

But against Nan Tianyong, an expert at the peak of late Foundation Establishment, though he was not caught, the distance between them never widened either.

It was instead Yu Jiang, trailing behind Nan Tianyong, who was gradually being left further and further back. At this rate, he might soon drop out of the chase altogether.

"Was this boy really this strong?" Yu Jiang was startled, and on the heels of that came a surge of bitter indignation. He, an expert at the mid Foundation Establishment stage, was actually being pulled away from by a mere peak early-Foundation Establishment cultivator—how could he possibly swallow such a damned outrage!

If I can get the Star Ink Stone, I'll become the strongest Golden Core expert alive. A rootless rogue cultivator like this does not even deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as me!