Chapter 4258 — Could We Have Taken the Wrong Path?

Yet at this moment, Wei Zhao found himself somewhat puzzled. To be honest, he had harbored doubts about Chu Bubai from the very start, always feeling that this man was nursing some unspeakable scheme, and the various oddities along the way had indeed borne that out.

But the medicinal fragrance of the infant ginseng before them now could not possibly be a deception. The others had never seen infant ginseng, so one might say they had been fooled by Chu Bubai; but Wei Zhao had once refined pills with infant ginseng with his own hands.

As an alchemist, the scent of such a top-grade, rare material was something that, once smelled, could never be forgotten. There was no faking it at all, nor any deceiving Wei Zhao.

Yet if this fragrance truly was that of the infant ginseng, then what exactly was Chu Bubai's scheme?

To go to such lengths, to bring so many people here, and now to be truly on the verge of finding the infant ginseng—having gone around in such a great circle, what unspeakable intention did he harbor?

Up to this point, although various oddities had clung to Chu Bubai, he had not caused the group any real harm. On the contrary, just as he himself had said, he truly had led them to their destination, with only a stone's throw left to the legendary infant ginseng.

Moreover, the group's joining him had so far been of no help to him whatsoever. Wei Zhao included, none of them had been of any use at all—they had merely trudged along behind him.

Could it be that Chu Bubai had deliberately brought them along simply so that he might quickly find the infant ginseng next, with no other ill intent? Or was he, Wei Zhao, truly overthinking things—was this man not as deep and calculating as he had imagined?

But then how was one to explain all the oddities that had marked the road behind them?

Watching Chu Bubai's back ahead, Wei Zhao could not help but feel utterly baffled. His intuition told him that this man was surely up to something, yet just where the problem lay was truly hard to say.

Holding Huang Xiaotao's hand, Wei Zhao continued to follow the others ahead without betraying a thing. He was not afraid that Chu Bubai might finally turn on them; what he feared was that Chu Bubai had some other scheme in store, one that might be impossible to guard against. If they carelessly fell into his trap, that would be trouble indeed.

Of course, no matter what, Wei Zhao's own anticipation of the infant ginseng was no less than that of anyone else present. Otherwise, knowing full well that Chu Bubai harbored sinister designs, he would never have brought Huang Xiaotao along to take such a risk. Playing the pig to eat the tiger all this way, his sole aim had been the infant ginseng.

So now, to be able to smell the infant ginseng's medicinal fragrance so distinctly, Wei Zhao was still greatly excited at heart. Otherwise, if this had been purely a trap set by Chu Bubai with no infant ginseng at all, then his playing the pig to eat the tiger this time would have been utterly meaningless.

Heartened by the infant ginseng's scent, the group had long since cast the last remnants of their tension and fear to the back of their minds. Even if they saw more ghost-talisman demons now, they would pay them no mind at all.

Even Feng Hongyu, who had suffered such a tremendous shock and been left with a shadow on her heart, now strode briskly along behind Chu Bubai, showing not the slightest sign of timidity.

Soon, however, the group noticed something else amiss. The eerie things like the ghost-talisman demons began to appear less and less frequently, yet the atmosphere of their surroundings had instead grown colder and more desolate.

Right before their eyes, the once clearly defined trail through the brush began to blur, and from the corners of their eyes they could even catch, from time to time, what seemed to be ghostly shadows flickering.

Though they could not see them clearly, that spectacle of leaping shadows was unmistakably real. They were all steadfast Golden Core cultivators, and they could be certain this was no illusion—there was surely something there, and very likely one of those unclean things of legend!

And at this very moment, the mist that had been so thin before had imperceptibly grown far denser. A moment ago they could still clearly see the blood moon hanging upside down in the sky, but now, looking up, all was a blur.

Even they themselves, though no more than a few yards apart, saw their forms grow indistinct in the mist, until they seemed no more than faint silhouettes. Add to that the ghostly shadows flickering at the edges of their vision, and though the group's spirits were soaring with excitement over the infant ginseng, they could not help but feel a chill creep over them, their hearts faltering.

Huang Xiaotao, frightened, instinctively pressed herself tightly behind Wei Zhao, not daring to look at the surroundings, while ahead Guo Dengtao, Wang Feng, and Feng Hongyu all tiptoed along like birds startled by the twang of a bow, no longer daring to stride forward as they had before.

At the sight, Wei Zhao too felt a faint unease stir in his heart. He was not exactly afraid, but with ghostly shadows flickering about him every so often, seemingly close at hand yet impossible to make out no matter how hard he tried, it was impossible not to feel some dread.

Fortunately, Wei Zhao could tell that the mist around them was not the poisonous miasma from overhead. It could only affect their senses, not poison them to death—a blessing in misfortune.

Otherwise, even knowing the infant ginseng was here, they would have had to retreat at once. Fine as the infant ginseng was, one had to be alive to claim it. A place shrouded in miasma was a dead land; to linger would only make them fertilizer for the infant ginseng.

"Ah! There's no path ahead!" Feng Hongyu's startled cry came suddenly from the front. She was walking at the very front with Chu Bubai, the rest following behind them, so only she and Chu Bubai could clearly see what lay ahead.

"What?" Guo Dengtao and Wang Feng were startled and hurried forward to see for themselves. Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao exchanged a glance and followed.

The six of them stood in a circle, staring at the trail that had utterly vanished beneath their feet, and could only look at one another in dismay, at a loss for what to do.

Before, though the mist had thickened and the ground had grown indistinct, there had at least been some outline of a trail. But now even the barest outline was gone; ahead there was nothing but dense brush and thickets of shrubs. It seemed this trail simply ended here.

"Brother Chu, could we have taken the wrong path?" Guo Dengtao could not help asking. When a trail suddenly came to an end, the first reaction of any normal person was that they had gotten lost.

After all, the mist lay heavy in this place and visibility was very limited, so getting lost was only natural.

"It can't be. I have been checking the map and the compass all along, and our direction is surely not wrong. There is no need for alarm, either. This route map of mine has been passed down through my forebears, and who knows how many years it has been since anyone walked it. It is only natural that the trail should vanish," Chu Bubai said, still calm and composed.