Chapter 4282 — Something Not Quite Right

"There shouldn't be any danger in this place. Everyone take a moment to relax and catch your breath, then follow me inside," Chang Daoping said to the group.

No danger? Wei Zhao frowned, unconvinced. This was a dead city, and adventurers who managed to enter the ruins were exceedingly few. By any normal logic, one could indeed conclude there was no danger.

And yet that did not square with Wei Zhao's judgment, for in that brief span of observation he had noticed a rather suspicious detail—this place, though ancient, was somehow out of the ordinary!

By all reason, a place long abandoned should be buried in dust, and the surrounding buildings ought to be far more decayed. But in fact Wei Zhao could see quite clearly that the street beneath their feet was remarkably clean, as though people came and went and swept it regularly.

Beyond that, Wei Zhao caught no particularly heavy stench of rot here. A dead city like this, devoid of any living vitality, would normally crumble to ruin after just a few empty years. As it stood, this was truly abnormal.

Could someone actually still live here year-round? How very strange! Wei Zhao shook his head inwardly, though he was not overly worried—he found it somewhat unnatural, true, but he had not truly sensed any aura of danger, and the jade pendant had given no warning either. That was proof enough that, for the moment, there was no peril.

Strange or not, they were already inside. Might as well look around properly—perhaps they really could find the Star Ink Milk!

While the others rested, Chang Daoping drew a small map from his robes. On it were faint outlines of city walls and layout—plainly the internal structure of the Aoduo Cultivation City ruins. This was the secret map the steward of the Spirit Beast clan had given him in private.

A mere route map from the Lufeng Forest to the ruins, though rare enough, could still be bought if one was willing to pay a great price. But the layout map in Chang Daoping's hands was different—a treasure no amount of spirit jade could purchase.

The Aoduo Cultivation City ruins were enormously famous. Yet to enter and seek treasure here, setting aside the dangers of the Lufeng Forest itself, there remained at least three further obstacles.

In a dead city of such vastness, after so many years of being picked over again and again, the treasures that could be found in plain sight were already few and far between. And even for a heaven-and-earth material like Star Ink Milk, which could continually reaccumulate, to find it in this boundless dead city without a single clue—what difference was there from fishing a needle out of the ocean?

The Aoduo Cultivation City had once been one of the Spirit Beast clan's foremost great cities. Even a casual stroll along its streets would take several days at least, and to search every place carefully would take no less than a month. Yet the time left to Wei Zhao and the others was, at most, no more than five days.

For by the experience of previous years, the miasma would return after ten days, and they must ensure they departed safely before then. From the ruins to the teleportation formation, at least five days had to be reserved. So the time remaining for treasure-seeking within the ruins was, at the very most, five days.

Everyone present had come for the Star Ink Milk. Without any clue, unless their luck was extraordinary, finding it in a mere five days was simply impossible.

Fortunately, Chang Daoping held the ruins layout map—and what was rarer still, that steward of the Spirit Beast clan had also marked the exact location of the Star Ink Milk upon it!

Of course, something so crucial, Chang Daoping would never possibly show to the others. After all, the layout map was worth far more than a little Star Ink Milk; it was a thing that could serve as an heirloom, and the fewer who knew of it, the better.

In the most ideal scenario, from the Moon Shadow Formation to the ruins layout map, if he, Chang Daoping, were the only person in all the world to hold these key pieces of information, then it would be as good as saying that from now on, all the Star Ink Milk would be his alone to command. The vast profit such a thing represented—just thinking about it set the heart racing with excitement.

"All right, next I'll take you to find the Star Ink Milk. Let me be blunt first: from here on, keep close to my steps. If you lose me by accident and miss out on the Star Ink Milk because of it, that's your own uselessness—don't blame me for not looking after you!" Chang Daoping said flatly.

"Understood." Every heart in the group tightened at once. To have grown into Golden Core cultivators, they were long accustomed to the scheming and infighting of the cultivation world, and they understood perfectly well what Chang Daoping's words implied.

Chang Daoping would not show them the layout map, nor would he deliberately tell them the route. On the contrary, on the way to their destination he would deliberately quicken his pace, even deliberately take detours to confuse them, ensuring they had no chance to memorize the route—only that would serve his interests.

Everyone knew this well. Even if they harbored resentment, faced with Chang Daoping's accumulated authority they dared not say much, and could only nod in silence. Wei Zhao, for his part, had no objection either.

Such conduct might lack the magnanimity befitting a master, but with great profit before one's eyes, who could guarantee they would remain free and forthright?

Wei Zhao was not an unreasonable man. From entering the ruins through the Moon Shadow Formation to now seeking the Star Ink Milk, plainly speaking, it was all thanks to Chang Daoping's merits. Without him, they could not even have gotten in, let alone found the Star Ink Milk.

So long as he kept to their prior agreement and led them to the Star Ink Milk, that already counted as fulfilling his duty to the utmost. As for these other small maneuvers, excusable as they were, Wei Zhao could understand them and did not oppose them.

But if Chang Daoping were to play any needless tricks beyond that, then it would be beyond all forbearance. Should it truly come to that, he could hardly be blamed for turning on the man without mercy.