Chapter 4585 — No Turning Back Once the Arrow Is Loosed

"Ah!!! Then... then what are we supposed to do?" Only now did Wei Zhao snap to his senses with a jolt. Because the sea-beast clan and the spirit-beast clan kept strictly to their own domains, and the vast majority of sea beasts stayed far away from South Island, he had subconsciously shoved this particular danger to the back of his mind—and now a cold sweat broke out all over him.

He recalled that the very first time the old Western Mountain Sect had hunted him, he had already run into the dread ghost-electric ray, a sea beast of truly terrifying power. That had been in waters very close to the island, and even then its strength had left him quaking with fear. Out here, far from South Island, any sea beast he met was bound to be far stronger still—and if his luck turned sour, it would mean certain death.

"Sea beasts are indeed fearsome, but this comes down to pure luck. As long as your luck isn't too bad, you'll at least have some hope of getting out alive. The other two exits, frankly, offer no hope at all. Whether to take the gamble is for you to decide, kid," the ghost thing said after a long moment's thought.

"You've got a point, senior. In that case, we go up through here. A living man can't let himself be drowned by his own piss." Wei Zhao gritted his teeth and made his decision. Fortune favors the bold—often a man is driven to desperate straits by forces beyond his control, with no choice but to harden his scalp and stake his life.

In truth, when you got right down to it, though the Endless Sea was riddled with perils, Wei Zhao had no intention of exploring its depths. The moment he got out, he would have the spirit bird streak toward the surface at top speed—a process bound to be over in an instant. The odds of running into an exceptionally powerful sea beast were actually not that high, and once they burst out onto the surface, the sky would be the limit.

Wei Zhao's decision came as no surprise at all to the ghost thing.

"You're really going out this way? Then you'd better be careful—it does sound a little dangerous," the Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits put in from the side. It had never encountered a sea beast itself, but since even the ghost thing, a former Azure Dragon, was treating the matter so gravely, that proved it was no trifling matter. Quite possibly even its present Earth-Splitting cultivation would be in jeopardy, to say nothing of Wei Zhao, who had only just reached the peak of the early Nascent Soul stage.

"Don't worry. Thank you for everything these past months. I'll take my leave here—until we meet again. I'm sure it won't be long before I come back to South Island to find you," Wei Zhao said with a nod.

These were no empty pleasantries. After all, with the ghost thing still here, once he had gained sufficient strength he would surely accompany it back to South Island—and by the time that day came, the end of the Vermilion Bird would not be far off.

"Good. I'll be here waiting for you both. Take care on the road!" the Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits said with a heavy nod.

After more than three months together, it had come to regard Wei Zhao as a true old friend—and there was the ghost thing besides, a dragon elder it deeply respected. Had its master's dying command not bound it, it would even have been tempted to go out and seek its fortunes alongside Wei Zhao.

Alas, the Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits carried on its shoulders a blood feud as vast as the sea. Before he died, the Five-Venom Flood Dragon had specifically exhorted it to remain here, biding its time and swallowing its humiliation, and under no circumstances to leave this underground space even a single step until its strength was sufficient to contend with the Vermilion Bird—lest it bring down annihilation upon itself.

After taking his leave of the Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits, Wei Zhao drew a long, deep breath and leaped onto the spirit bird's back. Wrapping both himself and the bird in true qi, he shot skyward with a violent surge, his figure vanishing in an instant into the five-element killing qi overhead.

At first it was just as before: the five-element killing qi surrounded him on every side, growing from weak to strong, then gradually weakening again after the middle layer. Not only was the oppressive force plainly diminishing, but its quantity was rapidly thinning as well. After rising in this fashion for about the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, Wei Zhao found that the five-element killing qi around him had vanished completely—and there, directly above his head, was a cave mouth!

Wei Zhao had assumed this exit would be like the Five-Venom Swamp, opening onto a vast expanse above. To his surprise, the opening was far smaller than he had imagined—no more than a few dozen feet across. He and the spirit bird could pass through freely enough, but a frame like the Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits would have found it a tight squeeze, and for anything larger still, passage would have been utterly impossible unless the opening were broken open or the creature took human form.

Peering into the opening, he saw nothing but pitch-blackness—nothing within was visible to the naked eye. Only a faint rumbling of water reached his ears, presumably from a very swift current.

"Up there is a vortex passage. As for what lies on the other side of it, that's down to luck," the ghost thing said after probing with its spiritual sense.

"Er—it's not going to be like that vortex passage we saw before, leading straight into the heart of South Island, is it?" A rather bad premonition came over Wei Zhao at once. He had steeled himself to face the Endless Sea, but if he were to be dumped straight into the interior of South Island, that would be downright farcical.

"That I can't say. I did make a special study of the vortex passages around South Island, but that was only a small fraction of them. A vortex passage in a place like this I've never even heard of. Who knows where it leads—it's entirely a matter of luck. Honestly, it's not too late to back out now," the ghost thing said, a rare note of caution in its voice.

"Once the arrow is loosed, it doesn't turn back. We've come this far—what sense would there be in turning around now? Even if it's a mountain of blades and a sea of fire ahead, I'll have to grit my teeth and try. If I don't even have that much nerve, I'll never get out of here in this lifetime." Wei Zhao's resolve was far greater than the ghost thing had expected. Rather than cower and hesitate, he would sooner follow one road all the way into the dark.

With that, Wei Zhao wasted little time dithering. After adjusting his condition a little, he at once ordered the spirit bird to dive headlong into the vortex passage.

The current within the vortex passage was ferociously strong. Had Wei Zhao not shielded himself and the bird all over with true qi at full power, the water might well have torn them both to shreds. Had his cultivation still been at the mid Golden Core stage, he truly might not have been able to endure it—but now he stood at the peak of the early Nascent Soul stage.

The stronger the current, the greater the speed. After Wei Zhao and the spirit bird had been swept along for the better part of half a stick of incense's time, he suddenly felt the ground fall away beneath him—man and bird alike were flung headlong out of the passage, and it was only after a long struggle that he finally managed to steady himself.

All around was darkness so thick he could not see his own hand. Yet at the sight, Wei Zhao felt his heart ease: from the immense water pressure bearing in on him from every direction, he could tell this was the deep sea. It was perilous here too, true enough, but far better than being dumped into the heart of South Island. From here on, all he had to do was reach the surface, and everything would be fine—nothing left to worry about.