Chapter 4261 — All Dead

But temporary safety did not mean safety thereafter. Wei Zhao had no wish to linger overlong in one spot, and he also wanted to learn just what trick Chu Bubai was playing, so he held Huang Xiaotao's hand in a firm grip with one hand while cautiously advancing on foot.

Yet they had not gone more than a few steps before the jade pendant began to warn again, and the farther forward they went, the more violent the warning grew. This time Wei Zhao was at last certain: there was definitely something extraordinary about this place, and beyond any doubt, something lay in wait ahead!

Once he understood this, Wei Zhao went no further. Taking Huang Xiaotao with him, he stopped once more where they stood.

"Aren't we going on?" Huang Xiaotao turned to look at Wei Zhao in surprise.

"Right, we're not going on." Wei Zhao nodded. He was no fool; to know full well that a dragon's pool and a tiger's den lay ahead and still drag Huang Xiaotao into it would not be called the boldness of a master, but a head full of holes.

"Then what are we..." Huang Xiaotao looked at the misty haze all around, the ghostly shadows that flickered past from time to time, and could not help shrinking her neck.

"It's all right. We'll just stay right here—there's no danger." Wei Zhao smiled in reassurance. Remaining in place allowed them to keep the greatest possible vigilance, and with the jade pendant able to warn them in advance, there was nothing to fear.

"All right." Huang Xiaotao nodded obediently. Nervous as she still was at heart, she would do whatever Wei Zhao said.

Time trickled away drop by drop, and in the blink of an eye the sky had begun to lighten, which meant a whole night had passed. Yet the mist did not scatter on that account; compared with the night, visibility was a shade better, but only very limitedly so.

And what surprised Wei Zhao was this: he and Huang Xiaotao had waited here a whole night through, yet they had encountered no situation at all—no danger, but no word of the people ahead either. Chu Bubai and Guo Dengtao and the rest seemed to have truly vanished into thin air.

Wei Zhao was puzzled at heart, but he was not anxious. A killer by birth, what he lacked least was patience.

And Huang Xiaotao, who was with him, had a girl's natural timidity and was somewhat frightened by this strange and uncanny place around them; yet she had spent these past years running trial missions, so her patience too was first-rate.

Thus the two of them waited in place a whole night through, without the least sign of impatience. After another three or four hours had passed, by their reckoning it should already have been around noon.

"Wei Zhao, shouldn't we go after all?" Huang Xiaotao looked at Wei Zhao with pleading eyes. It was not that her patience was exhausted, but that this place was simply too eerie. Especially the flickering ghostly shadows that appeared from time to time—she could never make out just what they were, and the more she thought, the more her scalp prickled, and her heart was truly quailing with dread.

"Let's wait a little longer." Wei Zhao comforted her, drawing Huang Xiaotao into his arms. Matters having come to this pass, turning back was indeed the safest course; after all, they had in hand the route map Chu Bubai had given them, and they had already come this way once, so retracing their steps should present no great difficulty.

But Wei Zhao did not want to give up just like that. Had he never smelled the medicinal fragrance of the infant ginseng, it would have been another matter. Now it was certain that somewhere nearby the infant ginseng must be!

To turn and walk away because of a mere unknown threat—no one in his place would be willing to accept it; even if they escaped safely, they would surely regret it afterward.

Rather than regret, better to wait and see. Of course, unwilling as he was to leave just like that, Wei Zhao could not possibly take Huang Xiaotao and go risking the way forward—that much sense of proportion he still had.

"Oh." Huang Xiaotao said nothing more. She simply leaned against Wei Zhao and went on waiting quietly.

And so, in the midst of waiting, another four or five hours slipped by in a blink, and the sky had darkened again, the surroundings once more growing dim and ghostly. Yet Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao still had no news, and of the people ahead there was from first to last not a whisper.

At this, even Wei Zhao, who had been so certain, could not help beginning to doubt.

Could it really be that what lay ahead was the Ghost Mist Formation Chu Bubai had spoken of? That though danger there truly was, one need only charge through and it would be over? And could Chu Bubai and Guo Dengtao and the rest, having obtained the infant ginseng, have left by another route?

A head full of question marks made Wei Zhao begin to lose some confidence in his original judgment. He even felt that if he kept waiting here, perhaps even after several more days nothing would come of it!

True, it was safe at present, but if time dragged on, heaven knew what might emerge in this place. He had already waited a day and a night; to keep waiting would likely be waiting for nothing.

After turning it over and over, Wei Zhao finally made up his mind, deciding to take Huang Xiaotao and head back first. But just as he was about to speak to Huang Xiaotao, from not far ahead in the mist there suddenly came the sound of disordered footsteps, and of heavy, labored breathing!

Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao's hearts tightened at once. The two exchanged a glance, swiftly roused the true qi within their bodies, and while standing on full guard, strained to sense what was happening ahead.

In the dense, heavy mist, not far in front, a figure came indistinctly into view!

Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao were startled at once. Though it was only a rough outline, they had been following this person forward all these days.

This figure in the mist ahead was, to their astonishment, none other than Chu Bubai, who had vanished for a whole day and night!

At this very moment, Chu Bubai was fleeing for his life in frantic, desperate flight toward where Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao stood, and by the look of it something seemed to be pursuing him from behind.

A full-fledged expert of late Core Formation, driven to such ragged, stumbling steps—even without making out his face, Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao could clearly feel his present panic and loss of composure. It was simply inconceivable.

At the sight, Wei Zhao could not help wondering inwardly: just who or what, behind Chu Bubai, was it?

Chu Bubai was no sham, after all. Judging by the man's aura, even among late Core Formation experts of his level he was by no means a weakling. What could reduce him to such a sorry state? Could it be some mighty being of the Nascent Soul stage?

As the two stood dumbfounded, they heard Chu Bubai, wildly fleeing with no thought for the road and seemingly filled with astonishment and unwillingness, muttering to himself in disbelief: "Huff! It shouldn't be! This ginseng only needed the golden cores of five Core Formation experts as sacrifice, and it would have no aggression left at all—this my grandfather said with his own mouth, it cannot be wrong! I used those ghost-talisman fiends to lure them over there already, so how is it still... Gah!"

The words broke off there in a scream of utter, piercing anguish, and the very next moment, the figure closing ever nearer to Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao—struck by some powerful and sinister attack—burst with a bang into a spray of blood mist! (To be continued...)