Chapter 4763 — Delusional Fantasies

Small as they were, blood bats were fierce spirit beasts not to be taken lightly—swift beyond all shadow and trace. A few of them working together could carry off the Thunder Profound Vine with ease, and unless they deliberately slowed, they were nearly impossible to detect, let alone intercept midway.

Yet although the skies above West Island fell within a surveillance zone, once one left that area, no West Island disciple would investigate—after all, many of the merchant guilds relied on spirit birds for short-haul transport as well!

Watching the blood bats finally ferry the Thunder Profound Vine away in safety, Xu Lingchong and Kang Jingming slumped back into their chairs and breathed out together. Ever since the trial results had come out, the two had been sitting on pins and needles, frightened nearly out of their wits.

The two of them had once spun fine fantasies: once Kang Jingming became West Island's consort, they could rest easy forever. But the moment Wei Zhao appeared, that dream shattered outright—now not only was there no consort's title to be had, even their basic personal safety had become a problem.

Any West Island disciple who happened to walk past, and the two of them had to brace themselves as though facing a mortal foe—after all, they had dug up West Island's immature treasure root and stem and carted it away, and their situation on West Island was now utterly wretched.

Nor was that all. While guarding against West Island's disciples, they even had to guard against their own people from North Island—Lan Tieshan and Gongyang Jun, for instance. If those two came forward in the name of North Island's higher-ups to demand it, would they hand it over or not?

Both were top-tier figures of the younger generation; refuse, and there would surely be no good end. But if they docilely handed the Thunder Profound Vine over and the mysterious figure's side then came down on them in blame, their fate would only be the more miserable.

"Young Master Xu, what do we do now? If those two really come demanding it..." Kang Jingming instinctively shrank his neck. Sending the Thunder Profound Vine away now meant they could answer cleanly to the mysterious figure's side, but as for Lan Tieshan and Gongyang Jun—if those two truly came knocking, there would be no explaining it away.

"They shouldn't. This Thunder Profound Vine is spoils we won in the trial ourselves—they have no grounds to demand it." Xu Lingchong shook his head with a grave expression, yet in his heart he was not the least bit sure.

The words were pure self-comfort. Had the Thunder Profound Vine come to them by proper means, North Island's higher-ups would of course have no reason to demand it—but the problem was that the two of them had dug up an immature Thunder Profound Vine root and all, whipping all of West Island into a fury, and North Island's higher-ups, by both sentiment and principle, had to give some accounting for it.

"But what if they do?" Kang Jingming glanced guiltily at the door. Now, anyone walking past outside set his heart pounding with fright.

"There is no what-if!" Xu Lingchong forced a show of toughness, though he could not hide his own unease, and added, "If they want the Thunder Profound Vine, there isn't any—just this one little life of mine. Let's see what they do about that!"

Kang Jingming nodded helplessly. They had smashed the pot and given up pretending it was whole—but with things as they were, there was no other choice; they could only do as Xu Lingchong said. Yet suddenly another, graver question occurred to him: "What if Wei Zhao comes to make trouble for us?"

"Damn it, then we can only fight..." Xu Lingchong said through gritted teeth.

"Young Master Xu, fight with what? He's Ning Shanghe's son-in-law now—he could send any random underling and they'd swat us flat..." Kang Jingming sighed.

"Relax. When all is said and done, he's still a North Island disciple. Disciples killing one another is a cardinal taboo, and this isn't the trial grounds. If he dares lift a hand, those two won't just stand by and watch us come to grief!" Xu Lingchong went on comforting himself.

Kang Jingming nodded and said no more, thinking to himself: the man dared lift a hand even on North Island—West Island is even less of a concern. Besides, if he just found some West Island disciple to do the deed, what evidence could you produce to prove Wei Zhao was behind it?

Over the next few days, the two holed up in their room and did not set foot outside, terrified that the moment they stepped out they would be mercilessly beaten to death by a mob of West Island disciples—and if the law then failed to punish the many, they would truly die with their eyes still open.

Yet somewhat to their surprise, neither Lan Tieshan nor Gongyang Jun ever appeared, as though the Thunder Profound Vine in their hands held not the slightest interest for them. Then again, on second thought, that was only natural: with the strength those two commanded, they had no need of Thunder Profound Pills at all, and a single Thunder Profound Vine on its own truly held little appeal for them.

And even if some accounting had to be made to West Island, Xu Lingchong's grandfather was up there to bear the brunt—so why would those two stick their necks out?

Meanwhile, ten thousand miles away, beneath a hidden and uninhabited islet several nautical miles from North Island, there was in fact an underground chamber of astonishing scale, extending even into the undersea world—a realm of hidden wonders all its own.

At this very moment, Miss Luan sat cross-legged in the laboratory, watching through a thick pane of glass the strange vine on the other side that flickered ceaselessly with arcs of lightning—none other than the Thunder Profound Vine that Xu Lingchong and Kang Jingming had sent by blood bat!

Had Wei Zhao seen the scene here, he would surely have been stunned, for they had not merely transported the Thunder Profound Vine over—they had planted it. And what made jaws drop most of all was that this place had simulated a lightning environment: from time to time, bolts of lightning split the air from every direction and struck the Thunder Profound Vine!

Unlike ordinary rare treasures, the Thunder Profound Vine could grow only where heavenly thunder rolled, and the fiercer the lightning, the faster it grew. Who would have thought these people had fully reproduced the mighty heavenly thunder of the Heavenly Thunder Formation—and judging by the intensity, it even surpassed the original. Simply inconceivable!

"Not bad—to manufacture such a powerful lightning environment in a place like this, it seems your efforts of late were not wasted." Miss Luan nodded in satisfaction.

"Thanks to you, Miss Luan, for procuring so much generating equipment from the secular world. With these, nothing is a problem!" said a bespectacled man beside her modestly.

"Mm. Since the conditions are now complete, ripening this Thunder Profound Vine is only a matter of time. Next, you must quickly work out a way to mass-produce Profound Ascension experts—this is our core project at present. Do not disappoint me!" Miss Luan said in a low voice. "Also, take care that the nuclear reactor powering your generators does not leak. If it draws the attention of experts at the Mountain-Opening stage or even the Sea-Rending stage, even a nuclear blast would have little effect on them."

"Yes!" The bespectacled man nodded hurriedly in obedience.

On West Island, in a side courtyard of the Island Master's palace, the two-day deadline set earlier had arrived. Ren Zhongyuan found an excuse and once again slipped inside successfully, hurrying impatiently straight to Huo Yudie's room. Though the deal had been struck with Liu Ziqi, in the end it still had to come down to Huo Yudie.