Chapter 2000 — A Vast Gap
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
Every sign suggested that if this man was not a genius, then he came from a great clan, a lineage before which even the hidden clans could not hope to stand.
"Boy, you can't keep going this time, can you?" This time the Earth-stage man in black did not scramble up so quickly to mock Wei Zhao. He spent a long while regulating his breath, and only when he saw that Wei Zhao was still sitting on the ground did he speak his taunt.
After a good while, Wei Zhao stretched lazily and said mildly, "I was about to fall asleep before you finished regulating your breath. You really are slow. I thought you had died."
"Bullshit!" the Earth-stage man in black snarled. "You're spitting more blood than I am, so don't put on airs. If you think you can play it calm and scare me off, you're dreaming! Do you think I don't know you're talking nonsense? If you were fine, why wouldn't you come ambush me? Why would you still be sitting on the ground? What the hell are you waiting for?"
"Ambushing people is so shameless," Wei Zhao said with a faint smile.
"And hiding your strength to kill one of my men just now, was that not shameless?" The Earth-stage man in black was beside himself with rage at Wei Zhao. This little brat did nothing but trade brute blows, and what the hell was the point of that? Yes, that was it: he must be doing it on purpose, feigning ease in order to frighten him off. How could he possibly let him succeed?
In fact, the Earth-stage man in black was not wrong. Wei Zhao's injuries were indeed graver than his own, as the distance Wei Zhao was flung and the amount of blood he spat made plain. But Wei Zhao had the jade pendant, and of that he knew nothing.
"Hiding one's strength and ambushing are not the same thing," Wei Zhao said. "Come, let us continue. Look how honorable and upright I am. Whoever ambushes is a bastard!"
The Earth-stage man in black was so furious he wanted to spit blood. He, a fine expert of mid Earth-stage, was being needled like this by Wei Zhao. Yet Wei Zhao's goading truly worked; the pride of a mid Earth-stage cultivator was no small thing, especially when facing a weakling like Wei Zhao. So the man in black said outright, "What the hell is there to fear? Come on, then!"
And so Wei Zhao's third form of the Furious Flame Fist once again met the fourth form of the Earth-stage man in black's Ice-Cold Snow Spike. Once again, after a tremendous crash, the two were blasted apart...
...Five times. This was the fifth time the two had clashed head-on, and Wei Zhao felt his strength beginning to fail him. His wounds were growing heavier as well, and had begun to hinder him from unleashing his techniques properly...
Wei Zhao glanced at the Earth-stage man in black. Though the man was gravely wounded too, and his strength was likewise declining, he was after all an expert of mid Earth-stage; the gulf between his power and Wei Zhao's was simply too great. Wei Zhao could not be sure that dragging the fight out would wear him to death.
And now Wei Zhao had realized that this mid Earth-stage expert before him and You Shisan, that other mid Earth-stage expert, were two entirely different propositions. Back then he had been able to wear You Shisan down until fear drove him to flee, but this Earth-stage man in black would never run.
Never mind how many times superior his martial techniques were to You Shisan's; You Shisan had been able to unleash only two forms of his technique, and could not be mentioned in the same breath as the Earth-stage man in black before him.
Wei Zhao gritted his teeth. This could not go on. Yet he could not back down either. Leaving aside whether Xu Shilan would be in danger if he retreated, there was simply the matter of the revenge the Earth-stage man in black had spoken of, of seeking out the people around Wei Zhao and making trouble for them. Wei Zhao could not let him off lightly.