Chapter 4255 — Not Going Back for Now

"It is one kind of evil cultivator among you human cultivators. You came here this time to hunt down Wu Baoliang, did you not? This thing ought to be an evil cultivator—only he cultivated with the fresh blood of virgins, whereas this one before us cultivates with the spirit essence of spirit beasts!" The ghost thing's tone carried a few notes of grim, chilling killing intent.

Whatever else one might say, it was, in the end, an elder of the spirit beast clan. And the existence of any evil cultivator at all meant that a great many spirit beasts must inevitably fall victim to them—not even their spirit essence spared, leaving them no peace even in death.

The ghost thing was not of a disposition that hated evil as though it were a personal enemy. If it were merely the ordinary mutual slaughter of the world—whether between humans and spirit beasts, or between spirit beast and spirit beast—it could not be bothered to pay it any mind at all. For the weak are prey to the strong and the fit survive while the unfit are culled; this is a natural law that has held since the beginning of time. Even if one died, one could only say one's skills were inferior to another's, and there was nothing much to resent.

But evil cultivators were different. The very existence of such people was already a violation of the natural order. Never mind that heaven's principles would not tolerate them—even if the Lord of Heaven himself could stomach them, the ghost thing would be the first to refuse them mercy.

"I understand. But why would Chu Bubai fabricate such a reason? Could it be that he himself is an evil cultivator?" As Wei Zhao communicated with the ghost thing, he quietly, without betraying a thing, glanced toward Chu Bubai ahead.

"That I could not say. He has not revealed his true strength. Perhaps he does not understand and is merely pretending to; perhaps he knows full well but, for some reason, is deliberately concealing it. Either way, you had best keep your guard up." The ghost thing chuckled with a cackling laugh.

"Mm, I know." Wei Zhao nodded inwardly. He had already felt that there was something sinister hidden in Chu Bubai's heart, and now, with the ghost thing's reminder, that feeling had only grown stronger.

As the saying goes, unsolicited kindness means either treachery or theft. And in truth, setting aside all these oddities, the mere fact that Chu Bubai had suddenly shared news of the infant ginseng with outsiders like themselves—people with no connection to him whatsoever—was already a very questionable business in itself.

Even if it truly was as Chu Bubai himself claimed, that he needed more people to help him search for the infant ginseng, still—good fortune should not flow to outsiders. Why, with such a splendid opportunity, would he hand it to strangers with whom he had not the slightest acquaintance, rather than to his own kin and friends? Surely his popularity could not be so wretchedly poor that he could not even scrape together a handful of people?

Matters like this, in fact, were plain at a glance to any clear-eyed observer. The reason Guo Dengtao, Wang Feng, and the others had taken the bait was, apart from Chu Bubai being rather skilled at hoodwinking people, that they themselves were too close to the matter to see it clearly—their eyes dazzled by the supreme temptation of the infant ginseng.

Wei Zhao, however, had always kept his state of mind well in hand, able to stand back and observe with a cool eye. Only thus could he take in, one by one, all these oddities about Chu Bubai.

"Senior Ghost, have you been in seclusion all this time?" Wei Zhao asked, changing the subject.

Strictly speaking, the ground beneath their feet was now the territory of South Island—only at its very edge. Wei Zhao could not help but feel a little curious. Now that the ghost thing had suddenly "awakened," did it perhaps wish to go back and have a look at the spirit beast clan?

"Seclusion? You could put it that way, I suppose." The ghost thing laughed indifferently. It was probably not seclusion in the traditional sense, but given Wei Zhao's present cultivation level, a sentence or two could hardly make it clear, so it could not be bothered to explain in detail.

"This here is already South Island territory, so you..." Wei Zhao could not resist asking.

"What? Is this boy so eager to be rid of me?" the ghost thing retorted, its tone teasing.

"No... how could I..." Wei Zhao could not help but break into a sweat. As the saying goes, a house with an elder is a house with a treasure—especially when that elder is a great deity like the ghost thing. That it was willing to stay inside his jade pendant was something he could not be happier about. How could he possibly drive it away?

"There you have it, then." The ghost thing was plainly nothing but a spirit essence, yet it somehow managed to produce the sound of a lip being pursed.

"I only wanted to ask whether you might take this opportunity, Senior Ghost, to go home and have a look..." Wei Zhao said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. By the ghost thing's own account, countless years had passed since it descended to the mortal realm, and now that they had finally come to South Island, it surely could not pass by its own door without entering.

"With this ghastly appearance of mine, what would be the point of going back to look? Remember one thing, boy: not one of the spirit beast clan is a soft touch. If those few old things truly learned of my present state, I would not even be enough to fill the gaps between their teeth!" the ghost thing said, half mocking itself, half heaving a sigh.

"Uh..." Wei Zhao was rendered speechless, only then recalling that the spirit beast clan held to the law of the jungle even more rigorously than human cultivators.

Among humans, even if one harbored such intentions, at least on the surface one would put up a pretense of courtesy. But among spirit beasts—the moment they saw how feeble the ghost thing was, never mind whether it had once been an elder, they would likely strike without a second word. To the ghost thing as it was now, South Island was no warm home, but a veritable den of dragons and lair of tigers.

The example of Zhang Lifeng in those days was still vivid before their eyes. Never mind whether you had once been an existence on the scale of a titan—once your strength was gone, your status was gone with it.

"You need not think too much about it, boy. I will certainly return to the spirit beast clan, but not now. As for how long we must wait, that depends on when you can be of help to me. Best hurry up and raise your strength first—as things stand, if we truly can snatch the infant ginseng, that would be a fine opportunity." The ghost thing laughed.

"Good, I understand." Wei Zhao nodded inwardly. When they had first come to Cloud Terrace Island, the ghost thing had already spoken of needing his help. Yet now he was already a formidable cultivator of the early Golden Core stage, and his strength was still not enough—clearly this was no easy favor to grant. He would have to work hard indeed.

For all the conversing he had done with the ghost thing, in the outside world only a brief instant had passed—not even long enough to count as a daze. The others were still savoring Chu Bubai's explanation from a moment ago, and naturally had not noticed Wei Zhao's expression. Only Huang Xiaotao, in his arms, had sensed something slightly amiss.

"What is it?" Huang Xiaotao blinked and looked up at him.

Hearing the sound, Chu Bubai and the others assumed Wei Zhao had discovered something unusual, and could not help turning their heads one after another, their gazes fixing on him with surprise.

"Oh, nothing. I merely heard Brother Chu's explanation and was reminded of the tales of ghosts and monsters in the eyes of ordinary folk. It set me to sighing, that is all." Wei Zhao smiled without betraying a thing.