Chapter 4245 — Luck Is Also a Kind of Strength

Guo Dengtao and the others were struck dumb on the spot, Chu Bubai included. Feng Hongyu in particular stood there with her mouth hanging open and taking a good while to shut it—that goggle-eyed look of hers really was a sight to behold.

A spirit jade card was not something just anyone could get hold of. It demanded formidable strength, and an even more formidable background besides—after all, the Merchant Alliance did not hand out its recognition lightly. Even for a cultivator of the Golden Core stage, had Wei Zhao never crossed paths with Hong Zhong, he might well have gone without a spirit jade card to this very day.

And among the others present, the only one who truly possessed a spirit jade card was Chu Bubai alone. Feng Hongyu and the rest had none at all—otherwise Guo Dengtao and Wang Feng would never have gone to such lengths, hauling a whole sack of spirit jade all this way.

With that, the way everyone looked at Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao changed entirely. Chu Bubai said nothing, but he sized the two of them up afresh with a meaningful glint in his eye, while that woman Feng Hongyu, though she still muttered and grumbled under her breath, no longer dared show her contempt as baldly and brazenly as before.

After all, producing a spirit jade card meant that even if Wei Zhao and his companion were weak in cultivation, they at least had solid backing behind them—perhaps even core disciples of some great sect or mighty clan. Pushed too far, they might summon some patron or protector, and that would be no small trouble.

Guo Dengtao's expression, by contrast, was one of some astonishment, and one could plainly see a touch of delight in it—which showed that the two he had recruited were not mere warm bodies to fill a quota. It showed that his judgment was not so bad after all.

As for Wang Feng, beyond a flicker of surprise there was nothing else to read on his face. From first to last his manner toward the pair had never changed—not as warm as Guo Dengtao, not as scornful as Feng Hongyu, but even-handed, neither close nor distant.

In truth, among them all, Huang Xiaotao—though she had followed Wei Zhao the whole way—was no less astonished than any of them at that moment. If anything, she was more so.

She had been at Wei Zhao's side for some time now, yet never once had she seen him go out of his way to earn spirit jade. The things he busied himself with day in and day out had nothing to do with any of it. And yet here he was, casually swiping a card as if it were nothing—she had been on tenterhooks the whole time just now.

Still, even if she was puzzled, there was no chance she would put the question to Wei Zhao right there in front of outsiders. Wei Zhao was the man she had settled on, and she had seen enough of his uncanny tricks that by comparison this little matter of spirit jade counted for nothing at all.

In any case, the affair only confirmed what Huang Xiaotao had believed all along: so long as she followed Wei Zhao, no matter what happened, she felt at peace—she felt secure.

"I never would have guessed it—Brother Ling Yi, you two hail from Beidao, yet you're not hard up in the least! To pull out ten thousand spirit jade without so much as batting an eye, and a spirit jade card to boot—that's really something!" Guo Dengtao said, letting out a breath of relief.

"Ha, the spirit jade is just what I've scraped together bit by bit over years of missions. As for this card, I merely happened to know a friend—pure luck, nothing more," Wei Zhao said with a faint smile.

"Luck is part of strength too, you know!" Guo Dengtao said, a note of envy in his voice.

At these words, Chu Bubai and the others turned their eyes to Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao, their expressions tinged with something more peculiar still. Privately they began to suspect this fellow was not so simple as he appeared—but they said nothing further, for they would be setting out at once.

"Very well, you may step up now." Having swiped the ten thousand spirit jade, the transmission formation steward handed Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao two tokens, along with two specially made maps of the Rufeng Forest, and motioned for them all to mount the transmission formation.

Following the steward's directions, Wei Zhao and his five companions stepped onto the round platform. From below, nothing had been visible; but now, standing atop it, they saw that the ground beneath their feet was carved with all manner of patterns, which together combined into a complex and wondrous formation.

Wei Zhao marveled inwardly. Standing below, he had felt nothing; but now, treading upon the formation, a strange and mysterious aura came rushing at him. He could not put into words quite what the sensation was, yet dimly he could sense that it contained an exceedingly profound and mighty divine power.

Perhaps, once his cultivation rose to a sufficient height in days to come, he would be able to see through all the mysteries hidden within this formation. But with the eyes he had now, Wei Zhao could only stand in awe of what he did not understand—there was nothing for it but to wait for the fullness of time.

Huang Xiaotao too was secretly startled. Her powers of comprehension were not the equal of Wei Zhao's, but even she could feel that eerie, ineffable sensation. As for Chu Bubai and the others, they had perhaps witnessed this transmission formation long ago—maybe more than once or twice—and had grown used to it; nothing out of the ordinary showed on their faces now.

Beyond the wondrous formation carved into the body of the round platform itself, a ring of six smaller formations encircled it, each set directly beneath one of the six giant coiling-dragon pillars. At the steward's direction, Wei Zhao and his five companions took their places one by one within these six smaller formations.

"Hold your breath and steady your minds. Once it starts, don't move about—otherwise, if anything goes wrong mid-transmission, we wash our hands of it," the steward warned. Then he activated the transmission formation.

A white light visible to the naked eye burst from the center of the circular formation and spread swiftly, enveloping the entire transmission formation. Wei Zhao and the other five were swallowed in that white light as well, and at once they felt a tremendous pulling force seize them, as if it meant to tear them apart bodily. Even Wei Zhao, whose physique as a cultivator of the early Golden Core stage was formidable, found it hard to endure.

Fortunately, the process did not last long. With a sharp shriek, the white light from the six coiling-dragon pillars shot skyward in an instant. The transmission formation fell calm again, and the round platform stood utterly empty—Wei Zhao and his five companions had been sent on their way.

The Rufeng Forest, though situated only at a corner of Nandao's edge, was by no means small in area: a thousand li across in every direction. And because, year in and year out—save for this particular season—scarcely any human cultivators ever set foot here, even the powerful spirit beasts were few, deterred by the remoteness of the place.

Thus every naturally growing treasure of heaven and earth here had been preserved to the fullest extent, until the forest became a natural treasure trove known far and wide.

A flash of white light swam before their eyes—one moment they were still at the transmission formation in Zhenduan City, and the next, Wei Zhao and his five companions had appeared within the Rufeng Forest.

To blink and find oneself in a wholly new and unfamiliar place—Wei Zhao had experienced this once before, when he had come from the mortal world to Yunjie Island by transmission formation. But perhaps because his cultivation had changed, the sensation was markedly stronger this time. R1152