Chapter 2469 — What Exactly Is It
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
Wei Zhao's words left the thing silent. After a moment it said, "Even if you are an alchemist, on my territory, without my leave, you absolutely cannot take her away. Your other companions will likewise lose themselves here and die here."
"What do you mean by that?" Wei Zhao asked, betraying nothing. In truth, he was secretly overjoyed, for he knew this ghastly thing was beginning to soften. It had not struck, nor said anything extreme, only that even an alchemist could not walk out of its territory.
"The meaning is simple. I let you all go—but she must come with me!" Though the ghastly thing did not say plainly who she was, Wei Zhao knew it must mean Wang Xinyan.
"Heh. That is impossible." Wei Zhao did not even give it room to bargain; he refused flatly and at once.
"Then you can all rot here in this trap. I am leaving." The ghastly thing hesitated a moment, then spoke.
"And you think you can leave? If you want us both destroyed together, I do not mind." Wei Zhao once more condensed a wisp of elixir fire in his hand. During the talk and the silence before, he had already begun using the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art to recover the physical strength and true qi he had spent compressing the true-qi bomb.
"Your strength is finite. I do not believe you can chase me forever, throwing elixir fire all the while." The ghastly thing was clearly no fool, and said calmly, "Earlier you unleashed some martial art or other, burning up a great deal of strength and true qi, did you not? By now there should be precious little left."
"Is that so?" A trace of mockery flickered at the corner of Wei Zhao's mouth, and on the instant he released the true qi from his body.
"Eh? Impossible! In so short a time you have actually recovered seventy or eighty percent of your strength and true qi—how is that possible?" the ghastly thing cried in horror. "This may be a blessed ground for cultivation, but the density of true qi here is already thinning by degrees. Even staying here, you could not possibly recover so fast. Impossible—absolutely impossible!"
"Possible or not is not for your mouth to decide. The fact is simply that it is so." Wei Zhao smiled faintly, then said, "My recovery of strength and true qi is just this fast. So if we keep wearing each other down, it is hard to say whether you will die or I."
"......" The ghastly thing fell silent once more. Plainly it conceded the truth of Wei Zhao's words; otherwise, things would not have come to such a pass.
"Now, can we talk?" Wei Zhao asked again.
"Fine......" The ghastly thing was plainly somewhat reluctant to be addressed in such a tone, and though it agreed to talk, it added, "If I did not exist in the form of a primordial spirit, an alchemist of your trifling late Earth-rank peak strength would not be fit even to carry my shoes."
"There is no 'if'." Wei Zhao was not provoked; he only shrugged. "And if I were not an alchemist, I could not make you speak with me as an equal."
"True...... there is no 'if'." The ghastly thing was briefly taken aback, then said, "The victor is king—an eternal, unchanging law! If in my day I had not...... never mind, enough of that...... You are right. You do indeed have the standing to speak with me as I am now."
"Good. Then tell me—have you decided to destroy us both, or to let us go?" Wei Zhao asked.
"Letting you go is absolutely out of the question," the ghastly thing said decisively. "I have waited so many years, and at last this chance has come! I have no time left. The spiritual qi of heaven and earth here grows thinner and thinner. I cannot wait any longer—if I do, my primordial spirit will slowly dissolve......"
Primordial spirit? This was the second time Wei Zhao had heard the ghastly thing mention that name. Could this thing before him truly be the wisp of soul left behind after the death of some supremely powerful cultivator of ancient times?