Chapter 4544 — The Five Poisons Swamp

Activating the teleportation array would take time to prepare, and there was every chance the Old Sect of the Western Hills would catch up during it. Yet flying straight across carried its own peril: the spirit beasts roaming nearby would be quick to take notice. Either choice came with risk—but to stay alive, he had no choice but to gamble.

"That array is one-way. It only sends you out—it won't bring you in," the Ghost Thing replied.

"What? My god! Then how am I supposed to escape into the Southern Isle? Senior, you're playing me... that's a death sentence..." Wei Zhao was stunned. This had been the only way he could see to shake off the Old Sect of the Western Hills—how could it be a one-way array?!

As for the other option, flying straight into the Southern Isle Forest, he saw no feasibility in it at all. For one thing, there was simply no avoiding those extremely dangerous spirit beasts; for another, even if he could avoid them, he still wouldn't lose the Old Sect of the Western Hills—the man was far faster than he was.

"Wrong. Who ever told you flying here was about getting into the Southern Isle? You think the Southern Isle is your own back garden, to stroll into whenever you please? Have you already forgotten the hardships you suffered before?" The Ghost Thing curled his lip with an easy, unhurried smile.

"But if we don't go into the Southern Isle, what then? Are you planning to scare off that old monster the way you did last time, Senior?" Wei Zhao's eyes lit up, though he immediately talked himself out of it: "No, that won't work. A trick like that only works once. The Old Sect of the Western Hills isn't a fool—how could he be duped twice in a row?"

"Of course not. He may walk a crooked path, but he's no brain-dead child—how could he possibly be fooled twice in such a short span? If even their number two man were that sort of trash, the Western Hills Heretical Sect would have been wiped out long ago!" said the Ghost Thing.

"Brain-dead child..." Wei Zhao could not help grumbling inwardly. It seemed this trip to the mortal world had truly left its mark on the Ghost Thing—not only was he reduced to his present sorry state, he had picked up a whole mouthful of modern vocabulary...

"The reason I had you flee here isn't to get you into the Southern Isle, and it certainly isn't to bluster and scare off that crooked cultivator. It's because there's something here that can save your life—something that will leave that old Western Hills monster absolutely helpless." Watching the Old Sect of the Western Hills draw ever closer, the Ghost Thing was brimming with confidence, not a trace of panic about him.

"Leave even the Old Sect of the Western Hills helpless? Could it be that a friend of yours is here, Senior?" Wei Zhao's spirits surged at once. Before, he might not have believed any spirit beast could stand against a mountain-opening stage heretic cultivator of that caliber—but after witnessing the Grand Spirit Beast Gathering last time, he had seen the formidable depth of the spirit beast clan. Given the Ghost Thing's stature, if he truly had a friend or two to call upon, dealing with one Old Sect of the Western Hills ought to be no trouble at all.

"No. I've never had many friends, and even the ones I had are no longer in the Southern Isle." The Ghost Thing's answer plunged Wei Zhao's heart again, and the next sentence left him shocked and ashen-faced: "To shake off that crooked cultivator's pursuit, you must enter the Five Poisons Swamp!"

"What? Senior, didn't you say the Five Poisons Swamp is a place where the five elements destroy one another—that anyone who enters is doomed without exception?" Wei Zhao cried out in alarm.

"Indeed. Which is why you must now channel your true qi with all your strength, protect yourself and this spirit bird as best you can, and simply fly straight down," the Ghost Thing instructed.

"That'll work? Isn't it certain death?" Wei Zhao was both astonished and doubtful. When the Five Poisons Swamp had come up before, even the Ghost Thing had spoken of it in a tone thick with lingering fear, swearing up and down that it would leave even the Old Sect of the Western Hills at his wit's end—and now he was telling him to leap into it with the spirit bird? Was he tired of living and seeking his own death?

If he was doomed either way, he might as well have stayed and fought the Old Sect of the Western Hills to the bitter end. Why go to the trouble of fleeing all the way here just to pick himself such a bizarre graveyard? It was utterly pointless—better to have died at sea, at least that would have been cleaner.

"You can rest easy on that score. For anyone else it would be certain death, but you, lad, will most likely survive," the Ghost Thing chuckled.

"Senior, don't joke with me. If the Five Poisons Swamp can leave even a mountain-opening stage heretic cultivator helpless, how could I possibly have the ability to leap in and come out alive..." Wei Zhao said with a bitter smile. He had always been confident in himself, but he had never been one to be overconfident—this sort of thing simply didn't add up no matter how he thought about it.

"If you die, I'm bound to suffer right along with you. Do you think I'd joke about something like that?" Though the Ghost Thing had no physical form, he managed to convey a curling of the lip purely through his tone: "Think back to when Cloud Terrace Isle was opened—you survived even the crushing pressure of that five-element attack. And now you've already reached the peak of the mid Golden Core stage. Your strength is far beyond what it once was—how could you possibly perish in a paltry Five Poisons Swamp?"

"That's right!" Wei Zhao's eyes lit up at once. The terror of the Five Poisons Swamp lay in the five elements destroying one another, the five elements of heaven and earth cycling endlessly without rest—even the strongest expert could not withstand it. But he was different. He himself was of the five-element attribute. What did he have to fear from a five-element attack?

The Old Sect of the Western Hills was already close enough to see. Within the black mist, that hideous bone claw emerged once more, and the dense, almost materialized malevolence came pressing down on him from all sides. Wei Zhao hesitated no longer. He hurriedly did as the Ghost Thing had instructed, channeling his true qi with all his might to shield himself and the spirit bird, and without another word plunged with a splash into the Five Poisons Swamp.

Glub! Glub! Glub!

Watching Wei Zhao and the spirit bird vanish in an instant into the Five Poisons Swamp, leaving behind only a string of horrifying bubbles, the Old Sect of the Western Hills was struck dumb. He had been flying too fast, chasing too fiercely, and nearly failed to brake in time before plunging in after them—thankfully, at the critical moment, a full burst of true qi barely brought him to a halt.

Still, the Old Sect of the Western Hills had been lucky enough not to tumble into the Five Poisons Swamp himself, but the hideous bone claw he had condensed could not be pulled back in time, and it slashed almost flush against Wei Zhao's back straight into the mire.

CHI! An ear-piercing shriek split the sky in an instant, shattering the calm for hundreds of miles around. At the same moment, the multicolored mud that had swallowed the bone claw burst apart with a bang, and the immense power contained within it was enough to drain the color from the whole of heaven and earth.

That bone claw, which had not so much as chipped when facing Wei Zhao's top-grade bomb, crumbled in the wake of that single bang upon touching the mud—like weathered rock, it shattered with a clatter into fragments, and was promptly devoured by the Five Poisons Swamp below, not a scrap of bone left behind.