Chapter 4564 — Exploring the Space

Yet, just as he had feared from the start, this place might hold pleasant surprises, but far more likely it held nothing but terror without the pleasant part. If he truly ran into some unfathomable danger or crisis, Wei Zhao's early-stage Nascent Soul strength might not be enough to handle it. After all, if some kind of being really did exist in this place, there was no way to imagine its strength being any less than that of the Old Sect of the Western Mountains.

"Senior, I'm thinking of taking a look around this place. What do you say?" Wei Zhao asked the ghost thing for its opinion. This was not his decision alone; if he went off stubbornly on his own and stirred up trouble, the ghost thing would inevitably be dragged into it too, and that would be hard to live with.

Besides, in a place like this, the ghost thing's perception of hidden dangers far surpassed Wei Zhao's own. Only with its wholehearted help could Wei Zhao have the confidence to wander about. Otherwise it would be like a blind man entering the mountains—no different from courting death.

"Heh heh, I knew a restless kid like you couldn't sit still. There's really no point in shutting yourself away in bitter cultivation here; going too far is as bad as not enough, and it just wastes time. Stretching your legs a bit in this place isn't bad at all. To be honest, I'm quite interested in this place myself." The ghost thing agreed readily.

"Senior, you're not still hoping to find that so-called flood dragon, are you?" Wei Zhao could not help laughing. Although he had reasoned that the earlier sightings were most likely misidentifications of the five-element killing qi, that was still only a guess. In the end, the possibility remained. The world is vast and full of wonders; things once thought impossible often end up happening in the end, and Wei Zhao had seen plenty of such examples.

"Heh heh, if a flood dragon really does roam this place, that would be no good thing for either of us. You'd best hurry up and pray you don't run into it, kid, or you'll end up as someone's meal." The ghost thing curled its lip.

"Surely not. It's a branch of your own clan, after all. It wouldn't be so heartless as to disown its own kin, would it?" Wei Zhao could not help shrinking his neck.

"A branch of my clan?" The ghost thing burst out laughing and said dismissively, "You humans are all one single race, completely. And don't you still slaughter each other with everything you've got? Besides, we spirit beasts uphold the principle of strength above all far more thoroughly than you humans do. If I'd come here in my prime, then of course a flood dragon would be kin. But in the state I'm in now, even kin would be a meal."

"Uh, all right. Here's hoping our luck isn't that bad." Wei Zhao smiled wryly. Still, he called out to the spirit bird and headed toward the unknown ahead. What he was thinking now was that if they really did run into some terrifying being, they would simply have to flee the Five Poisons Swamp at any cost. Even being hunted by the Old Sect of the Western Mountains was better than becoming a spirit beast's meal right on the spot.

"Don't worry. If you do run into that flood dragon or whatever, there's no need to fret. I was the former Azure Dragon Elder, after all. I can't promise much else, but at the very least, whether you'd prefer to be steamed or braised, kid, that much you can choose for yourself. I'd like to think they'd still do me that favor." The ghost thing chuckled teasingly.

"Your dragon clan even understands cooking. Impressive, truly." Wei Zhao rolled his eyes, speechless. Keeping a careful guard against everything ahead, he began his first exploration of this vast and mysterious underground space.

Still, despite his words, Wei Zhao was not as tense inside as he appeared. With the ghost thing and the jade pendant both standing watch as early warnings, whatever happened, he would at least have a moment to react.

What was more, after its great surge in strength, the spirit bird was now more than ten times faster than before. Its other innate talents might not be much, but even among flying spirit beasts the bird's speed ranked among the finest, and it was not to be underestimated. Unless something locked onto them with spiritual sense and descended directly, as the Old Sect of the Western Mountains had done, ordinary beings had little hope of catching it.

With such layers of protection, Wei Zhao felt both tense and assured as the man and the bird slowly picked their way forward through this vast and mysterious space. Yet after walking for two whole days, from beginning to end they encountered no living creature whatsoever. Not to speak of frightening beings like a flood dragon, they did not see so much as a single insect.

The spiritual energy in this space was dense beyond anything rarely seen in the world. Anywhere else, such a place would surely draw clouds of spirit beasts, with rare treasures visible everywhere. Yet because of the Five Poisons Swamp, the place had unexpectedly become a dead land: no spirit beasts, no wild animals, not even a single blade of grass.

After two full days of exploration, what Wei Zhao saw from beginning to end was the same scene. Apart from towering stone pillars and high platforms visible everywhere, the place was nothing but an empty desert, utterly vacant, with nothing at all.

Faced with this result, Wei Zhao breathed a sigh of relief, yet could not help feeling somewhat disappointed. He was not a greedy man, but this place was, after all, a treasure ground made by heaven itself, and he had originally rather hoped for some unexpected harvest—otherwise he would not have risked coming out to explore. But judging by the current state of things, there was no chance of any harvest at all. At best he could console himself with the absence of danger.

Since it was plainly an empty desert, should he keep exploring? Wei Zhao began to hesitate. He did not want to do something so obviously a waste of time, yet he could not simply give up halfway either. What he had seen these two days was a monotonous wasteland, but who was to say other parts were the same? What if they were not?

"One more day of exploring, and if it's still like this, then forget it. Better to save the time and cultivate properly." Wei Zhao finally made up his mind. If three whole days passed with not the slightest change, then there would be no point in continuing. Even if some stroke of fortune truly lay hidden here, then it could only be said that fate was not with him. One cannot force such things, and there was nothing to be done about letting it slip away.

With that, Wei Zhao leaped onto the spirit bird's back. For the past two days he had walked on the ground out of caution, but now he had a rough understanding of this space, and he planned to explore only one more day. He had no intention of continuing to dawdle on foot. At the spirit bird's speed in the air, one day of exploration could cover a hundred or a thousand times the area of before. If there really was anything at all in this space, Wei Zhao believed one day would be plenty.

The spirit bird had always seemed carefree, but this time, even without Wei Zhao's instructions, it consciously held its speed in check. In a safer place it would have been itching to test its limits, but here it did not dare. If it truly flew at full speed, it might well fly straight into a trap and smack right into the mouth of some horrifying being… (To be continued)