Chapter 4131 — Ling Yi Strikes

Wei Zhao wasted no time. He bent over the desk and wrote swiftly, setting down everything large and small that had befallen him on Cloud Terrace Island over the past half year or more, with especial care to explain that he had already found Xue Li and Tian Chan, and that they were not to worry.

As for the recipients, he listed a whole string of names—not only his fair confidantes such as Qiu Lingshan and Sun Jingyan, but his underlings as well. Wei Zhao trusted that no matter which of them this letter finally reached, it would afterward be seen by all and passed around among them.

When he had finished, Wei Zhao at once slipped the pages into a fine envelope, sealed it with wax and a stamp, and only then handed it to the reception envoy at his side, to be sent out through the Central Merchants' Guild.

By now the Central Island Grand Auction had drawn to its close, and it was time for the crowd to depart.

"Young Hero Lin, best you leave with this old man—or else meet up with Elder Tian and the rest. At a time like this it's wiser not to travel alone, just in case." Cai Zhongxuan shot Wei Zhao a meaningful look and gestured toward the pavilion marked Jia-Fifteen on the far side, where Wei Shenjin's sinister gaze happened just then to be slanting in their direction.

"No need. You go on back first, Elder Cai. A trifle like this, I can handle myself." Wei Zhao shook his head with a faint smile.

He knew Wei Shenjin would surely strike back at him this time. The man was, after all, an expert of the early Golden Core stage—and not only to settle accounts for Xue Li's sake; if only to eliminate a hidden danger, Wei Zhao had to find some way to root out this threat as soon as possible.

If he went back today with Cai Zhongxuan or Di Xingdao, then Wei Shenjin, for all his daring, would not dare raise a hand against him before those two; he would have to endure it and bide his time for another chance to take revenge. That, for Wei Zhao, would be no good thing. Rather than hand the initiative to his enemy, he might as well show a deliberate opening and lure the snake from its hole.

Wei Zhao was confident that if Wei Shenjin found him alone, the creature would never be able to hold himself back. With proper preparation, this would be a perfect chance to turn the tables.

"Very well, then. But be careful. That creature is, after all, a core disciple of the Snow Sword Sect—don't push yourself too far, understand?" Seeing Wei Zhao so insistent, Cai Zhongxuan could only offer this warning.

"Rest easy, Elder Cai. I know my limits." Wei Zhao nodded.

Coming down from Ten Thousand Heavens Peak, Wei Zhao and Cai Zhongxuan soon parted ways. Wei Shenjin, trailing far behind, saw it and his eyes lit up at once. He had been worrying all along that Wei Zhao would leave together with Cai Zhongxuan—he had not expected the chance to come so soon.

"Qian'er, you go on back first. I have a bit of business to attend to," Wei Shenjin turned and instructed Situ Qian, who was nestled close at his side.

"Brother Wei, I'll be waiting for your good news—don't let that loathsome meddler get away!" Situ Qian of course knew what Wei Shenjin was going to do, and nodded her assent at once. She had absolute confidence in his strength.

Wei Shenjin grunted in reply and immediately set off after Wei Zhao, hanging far back within the crowd. His tracking skills were quite excellent compared with most people's; unless one watched closely, he was nearly impossible to spot.

Unfortunately for him, Wei Zhao's perception had locked onto him from the very start. Whatever act he put on, in Wei Zhao's eyes he was transparent as glass—a veritable clown, yet still fancying his trail well hidden and himself clever.

After the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, the crowd around them thinned more and more, and they had left the core district of Central Island behind. Wei Shenjin began steadily closing the distance, preparing to make his move on Wei Zhao.

He did not know who Wei Zhao really was, nor where he lived—but he knew at least that if he wanted to kill Wei Zhao to vent his rage, this chance today must not be wasted. Miss it, and perhaps such an opportunity would never come again.

Seeing the passersby around them dwindle to a mere few, and watching Wei Zhao ahead turn into a secluded alley, Wei Shenjin felt a surge of joy. A gift from heaven indeed, he thought, and hurried his steps to catch up, already gathering his true qi and preparing to strike.

Yet the moment he rounded the corner and saw the alley empty before him, Wei Shenjin froze. "Ghosts and goblins! Where did that creature go? How did he vanish?"

Just then a figure burst from overhead, swooping down on Wei Shenjin from the sky and giving him a violent start—and when he saw the man's face, his shock was even greater.

The thing that had appeared so suddenly was none other than the martial brute who had taken Xue Li away last time and wounded him—Ling Yi!

"Well, well! A road opens in heaven and you won't take it; the gates of hell have no door and you insist on barging in. Now let's see how you die!" Wei Shenjin was startled and delighted at once. He gave no thought to why Wei Zhao had suddenly vanished and this brute Ling Yi had appeared in his place.

He had only one thought now: kill this brute Ling Yi, and avenge the humiliation of that capsized boat in the gutter!

As a core disciple whom the Snow Sword Sect prized highly, Wei Shenjin's strength was beyond doubt, and his reflexes were far from slow. In the space of a single breath, true qi surged from every pore of his body, and the silver longsword at his back left its sheath with a ringing cry.

Within a hundred zhang all around, the temperature plummeted, and faintly it seemed snowflakes drifted down. This was the hallmark of the Snow Sword Sect's core martial arts: once one fought in earnest, snow would always attend it.

This time Wei Shenjin had learned his lesson from underestimating his foe before. So long as he used his true strength, he did not believe he could fail to kill this brute Ling Yi!

Yet his Thirty-Two Forms of the Snow Sword, which he had been so certain of, had scarcely flashed its snowy blade-light before it was mercilessly crushed by a mighty surge of true qi descending from the sky.

Strictly speaking, it was not a surge of true qi at all, but a bomb—a terrifying killing strike fusing a true qi bomb with a pill-fire bomb. Wei Zhao had been quietly condensing it ever since they left the auction hall, waiting for precisely this moment!

Boom! In an instant the earth shook and the mountains trembled. Even with Central Island's superlative protective arrays, everything within several li around was flattened without the slightest suspense, and the passersby caught in the shockwave turned pale one and all.

On Central Island, Golden Core experts were hardly rare—but a shockwave of this magnitude was by no means something any common sort could produce.

As the dust slowly settled and the nearby passersby and experts came swiftly crowding in, Wei Zhao glanced at Wei Shenjin, blasted to a state where life or death could not be told, and picked himself a spot convenient for slipping away—yet he did not simply turn and flee.

He could not yet be sure whether Wei Shenjin was thoroughly dead. If he truly had died, then all the trouble Wei Zhao had taken to wear the Thousand-Silk Mask would have been for nothing! R1152