Chapter 4393 — Fleeing at a Dead Sprint

Lu Bianren, like everyone else, was still frozen in shock and daze; when Wei Zhao yanked him so abruptly, his foot twisted and he went sprawling to the ground, even swallowing a mouthful of dust in the process. But Wei Zhao paid that no mind and simply dragged him out at a dead run.

Opportunities were fleeting. True, the dungeon had been successfully blown open, but exactly as Wei Zhao had calculated earlier, this was only the simplest and most basic first step. Whether they could actually succeed in escaping—that was the crucial part that came next.

The sound of the explosion was earth-shattering. Even an ordinary person, even one a hundred li away, would have noticed it—much less beings at the Xuan Ascension stage. Once they sensed it, they would certainly rush over at the first instant. If he could not get away before they arrived, all his efforts would be for nothing.

Watching helplessly as Wei Zhao dragged Lu Bianren off, Sun Hengbiao and the others finally snapped to their senses. They exchanged glances, then mustered all their strength and charged forward. Even those who had been badly wounded when their true qi defenses proved insufficient and they were caught in the blast hobbled along with the rest, howling and limping as they ran.

Shut up in the dungeon, they could only sit and wait for death, waiting to be hauled off for human experimentation. If they did not run now, when would they ever?

Blasting apart the shattered remnants of the dungeon gate, Wei Zhao, dragging Lu Bianren with one hand, was the first to burst out of the dungeon and see the light of day again.

Between the dungeon and Moleng City ran an underground passage, but in a moment like this, with their lives on the line, anyone who charged into that tunnel would have to be an idiot—the enemy need only block it at both ends to catch them like turtles in a jar. The only choice, therefore, was to flee out into the open.

Lifting his eyes and looking around, Wei Zhao saw towering peaks and ridges upon ridges of mountains stretching away on every side—a vast mountain range. This caught him entirely off guard; he had assumed the Moleng Sea was a tiny place no bigger than the palm of a hand, that once you left Moleng City you would see seawater at a glance. He had never expected such majestic, sprawling mountains to stand here.

Right behind him, Sun Hengbiao and the others came pouring out as well. Looking around at the scenery, they could not hide the wild joy on their faces, believing they had escaped to safety and could finally breathe easy.

Yet Wei Zhao did not dare hesitate for even an instant. His spiritual sense was extraordinarily powerful and keen, surpassing that of many a fine Nascent Soul expert, and he could clearly perceive that within a radius of less than five li, at least four or five powerful auras were hurtling toward them from every direction at top speed—and among them was the terrifying aura of a Xuan Ascension stage titan!

Even for Wei Zhao, facing a Xuan Ascension titan left him not the slightest confidence of escape. Otherwise he would have fled back at the Zhongshu Merchants' Guild—why wait until now?

Their only chance lay in the brief window before the Xuan Ascension titan returned. A mere five li—to a Xuan Ascension titan, that was no more than the space of a thought; three breaths at most, and they would appear overhead.

Every second counted. Wei Zhao did not dare waste even a single breath. Hauling the still-disoriented Lu Bianren along, he picked a direction where few experts were blocking the way and immediately fled with all his might.

Seeing this, Sun Hengbiao and the rest understood at once and, without a word, ran after Wei Zhao. When faced with the threat of death, the potential that bursts out of a person defies imagination. Though the vast majority here were only Golden Core experts, when every one of them began running for their lives, their speed was truly not to be underestimated—some Nascent Soul experts, I fear, could not have kept up with them.

"Split up and run, or we all die!" Wei Zhao shouted hurriedly, seeing how these people clung to him like a drowning man to a straw, following blindly without a thought for direction.

With so many people running in one cluster, the target was far too large. Any single Xuan Ascension expert who caught up could easily net them all in one sweep—and Wei Zhao himself would not escape either. Only by scattering could any of them have a chance.

After all, strong as the Zhongshu Merchants' Guild's people were, they seemed to follow an elite approach; Wei Zhao had yet to see many small fry or underlings. There were forty or fifty people present. Once they scattered, even the guild's experts, for all their strength, would find themselves stretched too thin.

The likeliest outcome: the unlucky ones would be spotted and caught first, while the lucky ones might slip away right under their noses.

Anyone could grasp such a simple truth. The moment Wei Zhao shouted, Sun Hengbiao and the others scattered with a great clamor. In a contest of pure strength, not one of them—Wei Zhao included—could escape from under a Xuan Ascension titan's hand. Their only choice, then, was to stake everything on luck.

Seeing the crowd disperse, Wei Zhao finally let out a breath of relief—though he still did not dare slacken. He unleashed the Butterfly Microstep with all his power, added the speed boost of his Gale-Chasing Lightning Boots, and layered on the true qi propulsion technique he had mastered since arriving at Cloud Terrace Island. In an instant his speed was driven to its absolute limit, leaving only a string of blurred afterimages darting and flickering through the dense forest.

At such astonishing speed, this was no longer running—this was damned well flying!

Unless it was a freak of nature like Di Xingdao, no ordinary Nascent Soul expert could possibly keep up. So as long as he was not so unlucky as to be the first one a Xuan Ascension expert set his sights on, Wei Zhao's odds of escape were at least seventy percent.

Dragging the thoroughly addled Lu Bianren along at the head of the pack, in less than three breaths' time Wei Zhao heard shrill screams rising from behind. He did not need to look back to know—clearly some of them had been caught by the Zhongshu Merchants' Guild experts chasing them down. As for what fate befell them, whether they lived or died, he had no way of knowing.

But none of that concerned Wei Zhao anymore. He had done everything he could. If those people lacked the strength and the luck, if they could not escape even so, they had no one to blame but themselves. In any case, even if they had not run, they would have died in the end, locked in that dungeon. Wei Zhao had given them a chance—if they could not seize it, what more could he do?

On and on he ran without pause. Dragging Lu Bianren the whole way, Wei Zhao burst out of the vast mountain range, and before him lay an endless sea.

His luck was not bad—at least no Xuan Ascension expert had zeroed in on him. As for the others, even if they sensed him and wanted to give chase, faced with Wei Zhao's terrifying speed, most would be willing but unable.

Still, Wei Zhao did not dare let down his guard. After judging his bearings, he fled at full speed along the coastline—after all, whenever he tired, the jade pendant's space would replenish his true qi without end! (I've been busy lately; for now the School Beauty is doing my best to keep up 3 updates. When School Beauty goes to 2 updates, Strong Young Master will return to 2 updates.) (To be continued...) R527