Chapter 4955 — A Swift Escape

"Correct—the docks. And I have had Li Jijiu put out word that we sail at first light tomorrow for Morning Star Academy. That leaves our man only tonight." Wei Zhao paused, his eyes glinting darkly. "Time and place both fixed beyond doubt. Is there any easier fishing in all the world?"

A silence fell over the group. Every one of them was stunned by Wei Zhao's plan. Who was Chang Minghui? A titan of the late Kaishan stage, a figure of enormous power—and Wei Zhao proposed to use him as a fish. Such audacity left them staring open-mouthed; even Liu Ziqi was somewhat taken aback by it.

"But even to fish, you need the strength to haul the catch ashore," Liu Ziqi warned, his expression grave. "Chang Minghui is no small matter. Give him one chance to take the hook, and you may find yourself dragged out to sea instead. Wei Zhao, you had best think this through."

"Quite so. Which is why I cannot do this alone—I will need help." Wei Zhao gave a light laugh.

In the darkness, Chang Minghui stood upon the back of the Ghost-Eye Golden Eagle, gazing down at the earth below. Nearly a hundred zhang above the ground, he was utterly beyond the notice of those beneath him, yet through his vast divine sense he could monitor every movement on the ground.

Suddenly his eyelid twitched. A commotion had arisen aboard the Morning Star Academy treasure ship below; listening closely, he caught word that they meant to depart for the academy first thing the next morning!

"The Lin boy means to run?" Chang Minghui grasped their intent in an instant. Because he feared Zhuang Yifan, he had not wished to act at this moment. The docks, after all, lay at some distance from the League branch—but not so very far—and nominally they were still League territory, which was to say Zhuang Yifan's territory.

He had not dared touch Wei Zhao in the banquet hall just now. On Zhuang Yifan's ground—even if it was not the League branch proper—he would have to weigh his options carefully.

Of course, he also knew that the only suitable place for him to launch an attack was the docks—but not now. He meant to find some pretext to lure the tiger from its mountain. Once he had tricked Zhuang Yifan out of Leidong Plain Island, he could act at the docks without the slightest scruple.

Unfortunately for him, Wei Zhao gave him no such chance.

At this moment, on the deck of the Morning Star Academy treasure ship, Wei Zhao and Wang Xinyan and the other girls stood openly enjoying the breeze and chatting. No one else was near, and they seemed not in the least to regard Chang Minghui, that monstrous threat, as anything worth worrying over.

"Is this really all right?" Wang Xinyan looked at Wei Zhao with some concern, and Huo Yudie and Huang Xiaotao were the same. For all their calm exteriors, ever since hearing Wei Zhao's plan their hearts had hung suspended in midair, and they had broken out in cold sweats on his behalf.

If they could have been of help to Wei Zhao, that would have been one thing—but their opponent was a titan of the late Kaishan stage. These early Xuansheng cultivators were not even qualified to serve as cannon fodder. Beyond worrying, they truly did not know what else they could do.

"I don't know," Wei Zhao admitted. "But we have to try. This is the best chance we will get—miss this village and there's no telling when we'll find another inn. " In his heart he too was uncertain, but try he must, whatever came of it. He could not leave such a monstrous hidden danger in place; if a late-stage Kaishan expert truly fixated on him like this, he would never know a peaceful day again.

"But..." Huo Yudie wanted to urge him again. She was not by nature a timid person, and in the past she had taken plenty of risks on her own—otherwise, during the West Island trials, she would never have rashly teamed up with a total stranger like Wei Zhao, which had itself been a most perilous choice. But she truly did not want to see Wei Zhao take this risk—not in the least.

"Don't worry. Tonight's fishing may look dangerous, but it is actually relatively safe. If I cannot survive even an opportunity as good as tonight's, then sooner or later I will die at Chang Minghui's hands anyway. So this is unavoidable—I can only stake everything when my odds are best, and thus still have a chance to win. Otherwise I have no chance at all." Wei Zhao's tone was resolute.

Wang Xinyan and Huang Xiaotao had both fallen silent; they knew further persuasion would be useless. But Huo Yudie still wanted to say something—she was certain Wei Zhao had more than this one method, that there must be some safer, more prudent choice.

Yet before Huo Yudie could speak again, Wei Zhao's expression suddenly turned stern, and he said in a low voice, "The fish has taken the hook!"

Before the words had died away, a giant wind blade condensed from a raging gale came shrieking down from the sky, smashing down upon the treasure ship from above. A burst of radiance flickered over the heads of Wei Zhao and the others, silently blocking the enormous wind blade—this was the treasure ship's protective formation.

But hard on its heels came another giant wind blade. The treasure ship's formation flickered once and shattered with a bang. Though it had already absorbed the vast majority of the force, the ship still rocked violently, and enormous waves tens of zhang high erupted from the surrounding sea as if from nowhere. It was just as Li Ren had said—a formation of this level could not hold off a late-stage Kaishan expert.

"Look after yourselves—don't interfere!" Wei Zhao's voice was still echoing across the ship, but his whole body had already shot away in an instant, hurtling off the treasure ship with the speed of a thunderclap and racing toward the League branch.

"Hmph! Still hoping to find Zhuang Yifan to save you at a time like this? You think you can escape to the League branch?" Amid a howling, ravaging gale, Chang Minghui descended from the sky onto the docks with a cold snort and gave chase to Wei Zhao at speed.

"So fast!" Sensing the terrifying aura closing in behind him, Wei Zhao could not help but feel his heart leap with fright. He was already exerting every ounce of his power, employing not only his ultimate Butterfly Microstep but even the art of true-qi propulsion—this was, so to speak, the very limit of what he could do.

By way of comparison, this speed was even far greater than that of Zang Zili in the early Kaishan stage. At least, when he had contended with Zang Zili back then, he had not gone all out like this; the ultimate Butterfly Microstep alone had been enough to run Zang Zili in circles. Yet compared with Chang Minghui behind him, the gap was far wider than that between the tortoise and the hare.

Though both were Kaishan-stage titans, Chang Minghui and Zang Zili were plainly not figures on the same plane. The former was late Kaishan, the latter early Kaishan—and the former was a late-stage Kaishan alchemist besides. If their strength did not differ a hundredfold, it surely differed by several tens of times; the two were simply not comparable.

"Truly a fish that costs a man his life," Wei Zhao sighed inwardly, not daring to slacken for an instant. He had been on the verge of being caught at any moment as it was; to let his attention wander now would be no different from courting death.

Even so, the distance between them shrank in an instant from a hundred zhang to ten. At such close range, Wei Zhao could smell the tangible killing intent wafting from behind him.