Chapter 4634 — Formidable Strength!

After all he had been through in South Continent, though he had cultivated and improved without pause, Wei Zhao could plainly sense a certain restless agitation accumulating in his heart, refusing to disperse. The root of it was not hard to find. Cultivation demanded balance between tension and rest, and in his year and a half in South Continent—especially after the Old Sect of West Mountain began hunting him—when had he ever truly been able to relax?

Once the nerves are stretched too long, aftereffects are bound to remain. It was a time bomb, unremarkable at first glance, yet liable to make a man pay a grievous price at some unknowable moment. But even with Wei Zhao's temperament, he could only suppress that restlessness—he had no way to root it out completely.

After returning to North Island, Wei Zhao had meant to take a good long rest and let off some pressure. Unfortunately, the Heavenly Pill Pavilion was desperately short of pills, so he could only rush off to refine more without a moment's pause. And no sooner had he finished than Shangguan Lan'er dragged him along to play the part of her dashing bodyguard.

Wei Zhao had assumed real rest and relaxation would have to wait until he returned from West Island. He had never expected that today, on a whim, he would take in this sunrise—and the trace of restlessness in his heart would vanish all at once. That was an unexpected delight.

He glanced at Shangguan Lan'er and Little Curly Bear beside him. Master and pet were both utterly intoxicated by the splendor of the rising sun, a feeling that seemed to melt even their eyes. Wei Zhao smiled faintly ∮≧. To watch the sunrise over the sea—truly one of life's great pleasures.

He was about to savor it a while longer when, for no reason he could name, an utterly unnatural sensation came over him. Perhaps it was only his imagination, but he felt as though a pair of eyes was watching him from the shadows—yet he could not discover the owner of that gaze.

His heart stirred. Soundlessly he extended his spiritual sense; at its present strength it could easily cover the entire treasure ship. Yet after sweeping the whole vessel three times over, back and forth, with the utmost care, he discovered a startling fact: he could not lock onto the observer at all!

Wei Zhao was thunderstruck. He had no mood left for the sunrise now!

Among the West Island mission, the upper echelons of the Sandie Pavilion had sent only three elders as a token show of force; there were no other particularly outstanding experts aboard. Those who could evade Wei Zhao's spiritual perception entirely were few and far between. Whoever could manage such a thing, at the very least, surely would not be some wretch like Xu Lingchong.

Never mind that the man was himself a Nascent Soul expert—if he dared spy on Wei Zhao with his spiritual sense, Wei Zhao would drag him out and thrash him within a minute. They might be of the same tier in strength, but in truth they were no longer in the same league at all.

"Stop searching. It's Gongyang Jun and Lan Tieshan," Old Ghost spoke up just then.

"What? Two of them?!" Wei Zhao was aghast. He had guessed the watcher was probably one of those two, but it had never crossed his mind that both were watching him at once—and that by sheer intuition he had barely detected only one of them. His spiritual sense, which he had thought so formidable, was utterly worthless before them.

"Mm. Two," Old Ghost confirmed.

"Then which one did I sense? Lan Tieshan?" Wei Zhao guessed after a momentary daze. To his mind, Lan Tieshan's strength had to be a notch below Gongyang Jun's, so the one he had noticed must surely be him. Even so, it was no small feat—to slip past his spiritual perception entirely. This senior martial brother of the Chongtian Pavilion's inner court was truly no simple figure.

"No. The one you noticed is Gongyang Jun. That Lan Tieshan is even more unfathomable—his strength stands above Gongyang Jun's!" Old Ghost's tone carried a hint of something strange.

"Stronger than Gongyang Jun? How is that possible?" Wei Zhao was dumbstruck. Gongyang Jun was the top genius handpicked by Shangguan Tianxia, the acknowledged foremost figure of North Island's new generation. How could Lan Tieshan be stronger than him? Would that not make the title ring hollow?

"I find it a bit odd myself, but it's the fact. It seems the Sandie Pavilion of North Island is not as simple as outsiders say—it truly hides dragons and crouching tigers," Old Ghost marveled. Even by his standards, Gongyang Jun counted as a top genius seen once in a century; for a stronger Lan Tieshan to suddenly appear showed a depth of talent that was truly extraordinary.

Wei Zhao was struck speechless with shock. He had not imagined that Shangguan Tianxia's trusted subordinate could be powerful to such a degree—strong enough to press even Gongyang Jun beneath him!

Clearly this senior martial brother of the Chongtian Pavilion's inner court was no empty name. Jia Mufan was no simple man either, but set against the unfathomable Lan Tieshan, he fell far short.

That single point was enough to reveal the vast gulf between the Chongtian Pavilion and the Qingyun Pavilion; their underlying reserves were simply not on the same level. That the Chongtian Pavilion could rule North Island's affairs for so long was purely the doing of strength—the Qingyun Pavilion could not compare.

"Then what is this Lan Tieshan's strength?" Wei Zhao could not help asking out of curiosity. He was, after all, the second senior martial brother and manager of the Qingyun Pavilion's inner court—by position he was roughly on the same tier as the man. He was eager to know the gap between them.

"Knowing it would be meaningless to you. Better left unsaid," Old Ghost said, deliberately keeping him in suspense.

Wei Zhao was taken aback again, and his heart grew all the more alarmed. Old Ghost's meaning was plain: he and the man were simply not on the same level. Once Lan Tieshan's true strength was named, he feared it would frighten Wei Zhao out of his wits!

He had assumed that even if the man was strong, he could not be absurdly so—at most the Xuan Ascension stage. After all, a Xuan Ascension cultivator was already a pillar among the Sandie Pavilion's upper echelons. If a senior martial brother of the Chongtian Pavilion's inner court was stronger than that, what were those high-ranking figures even doing with themselves?

But Old Ghost's attitude plainly told him that Lan Tieshan's strength was by no means merely the Xuan Ascension stage—otherwise there would be no need for such suspense.

"Then is he as strong as you were at your peak, Senior?" Wei Zhao asked cautiously. This time he was truly frightened, and his estimate of Lan Tieshan shot straight up past the Mountain-Opening stage. Could the man be a Earth-Splitting expert? Or even a Rift-Sea cultivator, a tier above that?

If anyone had said before this that a senior martial brother of the Chongtian Pavilion's inner court could reach above the Mountain-Opening stage, Wei Zhao would have scoffed. But now, having felt it for himself, his whole understanding of North Island had changed. North Island's strength was not as feeble as the rumors made it out to be; in truth they had been hiding their claws all along—it was simply that few knew of it.

"Isn't that nonsense? If he were stronger than me, could I have sensed him so easily?" Old Ghost said, exasperated.

"Oh..." Only then did Wei Zhao breathe a little easier. If Old Ghost had said the man's strength stood above his own, Wei Zhao would truly have been scared half to death today! (To be continued...)