Chapter 4548 — Meeting Zhang Lifeng

"Since you're not a fool, boy, then what are you waiting for? Get cultivating! This place is a gift from heaven—no, it's as if it were made for you and no one else. If you don't seize the moment and cultivate now, you'll be throwing away the very chance the heavens handed you!" Ghost Thing's tone was thick with envy.

"Hm? What do you mean?" Wei Zhao blinked, momentarily at a loss. He did not fully understand, but some instinct told him this might truly be a rare opportunity—a chance that could make even Ghost Thing, a former Azure Dragon, burn with envy was surely something that came once in an age.

"This is the Five-Venom Marsh, and you, boy, just happen to be a cultivator of the five-element spiritual root attributes. Perhaps there is no second such person under heaven—you tell me what I mean." Ghost Thing answered his question with another.

At that reminder, a flash of insight struck Wei Zhao and he seized the crux of it at once, his whole being stirring with excitement—though he was still not entirely certain. "But isn't this place a five-element mutual-destruction? At most those five-element killing auras won't attack me. How am I supposed to use them to cultivate?"

"To anyone else, this five-element mutual-destruction is utterly lethal, but to a freak of nature like you, those killing auras are of enormous use—it is not simply a matter of them not attacking you." Ghost Thing paused, then could not help sighing in wonder. "Honestly, to possess all five elemental spiritual root attributes at once is exceedingly rare on Cloud-Tier Island. I have lived a very long time, and never once have I heard of any human cultivator—leaving aside spirit beasts—who possessed all five at once. To call it unique under heaven is no exaggeration at all."

"Oh?" Wei Zhao raised an eyebrow slightly. He had long known that he carried seven attributes across the five elements, but he had never thought it anything remarkable—at most it meant a few more spiritual root attributes than others, at most a broader range of choices when it came to techniques and martial arts, and surely it was impossible to make full use of every single attribute.

Even after the Morning Star Academy selection, when he had learned the advantages of multiple spiritual root attributes, he had still never imagined that his five elements and seven attributes could be so rare as to be utterly without peer.

"Even those five-element mediums who opened Cloud-Tier Island were ultimately nothing but chess pieces, doomed in the end to collapse under the strain and be discarded. You, boy, are the sole exception." Here Ghost Thing's voice grew thick with feeling. "Those inheritor sweethearts of yours—to keep you from harm, every one of them fought to the death to shield you, willing to die themselves rather than let you take the hurt. Such true devotion could move heaven and earth. That you finally made it onto the island at all—every bit of that chance was bought for you by their desperate struggle."

As a former Azure Dragon, Ghost Thing's values were worlds apart from those of human cultivators. The loves and passions of humans especially—he had always scoffed at them, dismissed them with a curl of his lip. Yet this time, what Wei Zhao's inheritor sweethearts had done moved him genuinely for the first time in his life.

Never before had he known that the bond between man and woman could be so selfless, so magnificent. It was truly beyond comprehension. Such a thing could never happen among spirit beasts—perhaps this was the greatest difference between humans and spirit beasts.

"Yes. And who knows how they are faring now." As Ghost Thing sighed, Wei Zhao's thoughts were pulled at once back to the mortal realm. From the day he set foot on Cloud-Tier Island until now, a full year and a half had passed. If it were possible, how he longed to fly back to the mortal world this very moment and see with his own eyes how his beloved women fared.

Had that longing not weighed so heavily on him, Wei Zhao would never have thought twice before spending a fortune at the Mid-Island auction to have the Central Chamber of Commerce send a letter. He did not know whether that letter had ever reached the mortal realm, nor whether he would ever receive the reply he had asked for. Cloud-Tier Island and the mortal world were two entirely separate worlds—word between them was faint as smoke.

And in that past year and a half, though Wei Zhao's strength had surged at least a hundredfold, his most crucial goal remained far out of reach. He had not even laid eyes on Zhang Lifeng, let alone found a way to save his beloved women. The thought filled Wei Zhao with profound dismay.

Still, it was not as though there had been no progress at all. At least Wei Zhao had forged a deep friendship with Cai Zhongxuan and Hou Guanqi, those two disciples of Zhang Lifeng—which is to say, he had opened a path to meeting Zhang Lifeng in days to come. All that remained was to wait for the right opportunity.

Beyond that, Wei Zhao had gained another piece of heartening news: intelligence that had leaked from the Central Chamber of Commerce. Every sign pointed to the same conclusion—that a two-way passage very likely existed between Cloud-Tier Island and the mortal realm! Those goods were proof enough!

Both of these things were vital to Wei Zhao. Zhang Lifeng meant the power to save lives; the two-way passage meant the way home to the mortal realm. So long as his strength was sufficient and he possessed both, every problem would unravel of its own accord.

Achieving both at once was easier said than done, of course—but at least Wei Zhao was no longer as lost as he had been at the start. So long as he could find the direction, with his heaven-spanning potential, one day it would all come true.

Wei Zhao lapsed unwittingly into brooding silence, and Ghost Thing's voice sounded in his mind, its tone oddly complicated for some reason. "Stop dwelling on things of no use. A passage back and forth between Cloud-Tier Island and the mortal realm does indeed exist—this I can tell you plainly. And that Zhang Lifeng you've been so set on finding—I actually know him!"

"What? You know him too, Senior? Then why have you never said a word about it all this time?" Wei Zhao stared in astonishment.

Finding Zhang Lifeng was his foremost and central task on Cloud-Tier Island; compared with it, everything else was passing cloud. It was only a pity that Zhang Lifeng—the Divine Healer and Sage Physician—was a legend who showed his head but never his tail. Even though Wei Zhao had spent so long on Mid-Island last time and was on such close terms with Cai Zhongxuan and the others, he had still never managed to meet the man. One could only say the opportunity had not yet come.

Never in his wildest dreams had Wei Zhao imagined that Ghost Thing, who spent every day and night in his jade pendant space at his side, actually knew Zhang Lifeng—and yet for so long had not breathed a single word of it. The old ghost could keep a secret tight indeed.

"Talk about what, exactly?" Ghost Thing snapped irritably. He paused a long while before explaining, his tone faint and rueful: "That old undying bastard and I had a fight once—things came to blows between us. I couldn't be bothered to bring the matter up with you, boy..." R1152