Chapter 1362 — Ancient Spirit Beast
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
An Earth Rank expert, and yet he ran faster than a rabbit. From the look of him there was not the slightest sign that he had been hurt — which meant he had never crossed blades with that so-called 'ghost' at all. It earned him a measure of Wei Zhao's contempt.
This fellow was a touch too timid as a mouse, wasn't he?
In truth, Elder Yu really was a man as timid as a mouse; otherwise he could never have been cowed again and again by a mere Mystic Rank expert like Wei Zhao. He was arrogant and overbearing, yet he clung to his life as though it were gold — a walking contradiction, or, put another way, a bully who feared the strong and preyed on the weak.
Before the weak, whose strength was utterly unequal to his, Elder Yu was insolent and proud, taking glory in trampling those beneath him. But the instant someone possessed the power to threaten his life, he grew hesitant and wavering, never daring to meet them head-on.
Still, anyone who knew the story of Elder Yu's origins would not find it hard to understand. As the head of the mundane Yu family — its one-time patriarch — his life's hopes, beyond the pursuit of ever higher martial realms, lay in bringing glory to the mundane Yu family. That was why he had entered the hidden Yu family.
Had he not entered the hidden clan, Elder Yu would never have known how insignificant he was. When he saw the Earth Rank experts within the hidden family, thick as clouds, and even a legendary Heaven Rank ancestor among them, he understood that he was, in truth, no more than an ant.
That he had been allowed into the hidden family was in itself no great honor; in that place, anyone could crush him at any moment. So he grew trembling and cautious, forever careful, terrified of losing his life. The more keenly he felt how small his life was, the more wary he became.
An Earth Rank expert was the very pinnacle of existence in the mundane world, yet once he entered the hidden clan his standing fell below that of the Mystic Rank household slaves — because he was an outsider. Perhaps if something happened and he died, the hidden family would not so much as blink.
To secure his position in the hidden Yu family, Elder Yu had no choice but to accept certain tasks the Yu family required in the mundane world, even when those tasks were dangerous.
But Elder Yu was no fool. The moment his life was threatened, he would always choose to save his own skin first. As for the task — to hell with it. So long as the green mountain remains, there will be no want of firewood. If he were to die, the mundane Yu family would have even less hope, to say nothing of avenging Old Three and his nephew.
And this time, he truly sensed danger. It was a monster; though its strength seemed no more than the peak of the late Yellow Rank, Elder Yu still dared not act rashly. It was not human — and so could not be measured by human standards of strength.
Faced with a human expert at the peak of the late Yellow Rank, Elder Yu would likely have put on airs and cut him down with a sneer. But faced with a ghost of that same level, he had not the slightest thought of trading blows. That thing was not human — who knew how their strength was graded, or whether it might eat him alive?
"No... there really is a ghost?" Yu Xiaoke was startled as well. A moment earlier they had been talking about tomb-guarding spirit beasts, and now one had appeared. She was a girl, after all, so of course she was frightened. Talking about such things was one matter; seeing them with one's own eyes was quite another, and it was only natural that her heart quailed.