Chapter 4259 — Pressing On Through Hardship

"So what do we do now?" Guo Dengtao spoke up.

"What else? We go on," Chu Bubai said mildly. "We've come this far. The infant ginseng is right there before our eyes—surely we won't let a trifling obstacle like this undo everything we've won."

"But the fog is so thick, and there's no trail at all. We've no idea what lies ahead," Wang Feng said, unable to keep the tension from his voice.

Guo Dengtao and the others nodded in agreement. Wei Zhao had tried it himself a moment ago: the place was deeply uncanny. Not only was the fog too dense for the eye to see any distance, but even casting his divine sense, he could not perceive what lay ahead.

Under normal circumstances, even when the eyes failed, the divine sense could still perceive. For the divine sense itself to be blocked meant there was something peculiar about this place.

Perhaps a formation array; perhaps the place was simply like this by nature—a disordered magnetic field, say, could likewise interfere with divine sense. Either way, it told them this place was no small matter and not to be entered lightly.

"We can't fully probe what's ahead, true," Chu Bubai said, comforting them, "but we've walked a fair stretch, and we've grown familiar enough with this environment. There's no need for undue worry. For us, the greatest threat in the Rufeng Forest is nothing but spirit beasts—yet this place is a spirit beast graveyard. Apart from beasts at death's door, no spirit beast would come here at all; otherwise we'd have run into them long ago on the road. Don't you agree?"

"Brother Chu has a point." Guo Dengtao and the others nodded one after another. Apart from those weird, sickening things, there was not a single living spirit beast in this place, and there was no miasma to speak of either—so it posed no real threat to them.

Along the way, the group's trust in Chu Bubai had gradually accumulated to the brink of blindness. His word was beyond question, and what he said was in truth well-founded and convincing.

"So even if we can't see clearly ahead for the moment, there's no need to frighten ourselves. So long as we're careful, we won't let it all come to nothing." Chu Bubai went on explaining, calm as ever. "I've met a situation like this once before, elsewhere—couldn't see the path, couldn't even perceive it with divine sense. But in the end, when we tried, there was no danger at all. It was merely a ghost wall."

"A ghost wall?" The others exchanged glances, and even Wei Zhao was slightly taken aback. The term was widespread among common folk and often heard in the world of cultivation too; summed up in the end, it was nothing more than some natural maze, or else a formation array of some kind.

But whichever it was, there was no real danger—it merely left a person unable to find the way out, going round and round, a pure waste of time.

So at Chu Bubai's words, everyone's hearts were at once much set at ease.

Yet though they all breathed sighs of relief, no one dared stride boldly forward. They looked at one another, and not a one was willing to take the lead. Even if a ghost wall was nothing to fear, what if this was not one? What if there was some death trap hidden within?

The standoff lasted a moment. At last all eyes fell on Chu Bubai. The meaning was plain: he had led the way the whole journey; at a pass like this, it was naturally his place, and no one could begrudge it—who told him to be the leader?

Yet for some reason, Chu Bubai had no intention of taking the lead again this time. He swept his gaze over them all and said gravely, "It's only a ghost wall—nothing to fear. Here's how we'll do it: form a line, one behind the other. Taozi takes the lead in front, I'll hold the rear. How's that?"

"This..." Guo Dengtao hesitated at once. The others, not having to take the lead, naturally had no objections, but he was the unlucky one. The corner of his mouth twitched. "Brother Chu, it's not that I'm unwilling, but I don't know the way. I've never been to this place, and I'm not familiar with your family's route map. Even following the map I'd easily get lost—never mind that up ahead I can't even see the path..."

"That's no trouble. I'll hold the rear and point out the direction to you at every turn, so you won't go wrong," Chu Bubai said with utter certainty.

"Well... all right then..." With matters put that way, Guo Dengtao could hardly refuse again, and had no choice but to steel himself and lead the way.

The group formed a single line: Guo Dengtao at the head, Wang Feng close behind him—no more than a step's distance—then Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao, and last Feng Hongyu, with Chu Bubai holding the rear.

Guo Dengtao was cautious, every step trembling with care as though treading on thin ice, lest he fall into some deadly trap. But behind him, Chu Bubai issued directions every few steps, and so the group walked on through the dense fog for a full stick of incense's time, meeting with no mishap or danger at all.

Wei Zhao turned to look front and back. Though they were but a step apart, in that dense fog even such a short distance blurred a person's silhouette—proof enough of how outrageous the visibility was.

Yet what puzzled Wei Zhao more at this moment was Chu Bubai's deliberate arrangement.

Everyone knew that in a situation like this, he was plainly the most suited to walk first—not only because he knew the route map best and would not easily lose his way, but because he was a late-stage Golden Core expert, the strongest among them all.

True, a strong man was needed to hold the rear. But by any measure of danger and challenge, the one walking first faced the greater risk; should real danger arise, he could respond the faster.

With the shrewdness Chu Bubai had shown, he could not have failed to see this—yet he insisted on staying at the very back to hold the rear. Wei Zhao turned it over and over, and could see only two possibilities.

Either he thought the place dangerous, and so put Guo Dengtao and the rest in front to serve as cannon fodder, so that if anything happened he could flee in time—or he had some other design, some other intent. Just what ill purpose that might be, however, was impossible to say.

The moonlight was hazy; the layered fog that cut visibility to a single step; and within the fog, unknown presences half-seen and half-hidden, like will-o'-the-wisps yet not quite will-o'-the-wisps, more like ghostly shadows—together they made a scene of the utmost strangeness and ill omen.

The group scarcely dared draw a deep breath. Following Chu Bubai's directions from behind, they went on one after another, filing through the fog.

Had they been ordinary folk, catching sight now and then of ghostly shadows flickering around them, their hearts would by now have leapt from their chests. Fortunately they were all Golden Core experts, their wills far sturdier than ordinary people's; some tension and fear were unavoidable, but not enough to affect their actions. (To be continued..) R527