Chapter 3677 — Xiao Qiao Attacked; Wei Zhao Takes Out the Map, Decides to Make an Exception and Travel Through the Night, Determined to Reach the Only Road Back to the Rear Mountain Hall Before Meng Zhou and His Crew
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
Wei Zhao peered intently for a while, and then a knowing, amused curve lifted the corner of his mouth. Judging by the commotion, those people seemed to be heading straight for him!
"Brother Xiao, you go on ahead—I'll hold them off behind you! My herbs have already been taken anyway, so there's nothing they can do to me!" Qiao Hongcai, darting through the forest close behind Xiao Che, made the suggestion with anxiety written on his face.
Unlike Wei Zhao, who had been dropped straight into the most dangerous region on the outer fringe of the rear mountain, Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai had received no special treatment at their starting drop point. Things had gone fairly smoothly for them at first, and they had gathered a good many herbs—but that was precisely where the trouble began.
Their drop point had not been far from the other newcomers, and after barely a day the two of them had naturally run into the others—and just as naturally been marked by Meng Zhou's crew.
While the two were each making their way toward Three Creeks Junction to rendezvous with Wei Zhao, Qiao Hongcai was the first to be ambushed. Against Meng Zhou's gang, who had numbers on their side, his strength was nowhere near enough. Not only were all the herbs he had labored to gather snatched away, but he himself was badly wounded.
Had the bald elder not repeatedly warned them that no lives were to be taken, he would in all likelihood have become the first newcomer of the trial to die a violent death.
After their ambush succeeded and they had thoroughly mocked and humiliated Qiao Hongcai, Meng Zhou's crew turned to deal with Xiao Che—only to have Qiao Hongcai, tailing them all the while, find Xiao Che first, which ruined their ambush and let the two of them break free.
Just as Wei Zhao had surmised earlier, the two of them, unwilling to drag him into it, had decided to give up on Three Creeks Junction and flee with all their might toward the Rear Mountain Hall. So long as they could reach the Rear Mountain Hall before Meng Zhou's crew caught up, the trial would be over and Meng Zhou's crew would have no way to seize Xiao Che's herbs.
And so came the scene now before us: the two of them sprinting ahead, with Meng Zhou's crew in pursuit some dozen or more zhang behind.
Qiao Hongcai had been wounded to begin with, and Xiao Che had already spent a great deal of true qi breaking them out earlier. After this long stretch of all-out sprinting, his true qi was on the verge of running dry. At this rate, they would likely collapse before they ever reached the Rear Mountain Hall.
At such a moment, Qiao Hongcai's proposal clearly came from the logic of the barefoot man who fears no shoe. He had no herbs left anyway, and Meng Zhou's crew dared not beat him to death outright, so stalling them a while longer was worth something—better than the two of them collapsing together.
To his surprise, Xiao Che, panting hard, refused. "No! They may not dare kill you outright, but with you fouling their plans like this, in their fury they might well cripple you and destroy your cultivation. I won't let you take that risk!"
At these words Qiao Hongcai was startled, and a chill of lingering fear ran through him.
True enough—the trial forbade killing, but nothing in the rules forbade crippling a man. If his cultivation really were destroyed and he were left a ruined man from then on, that would be a fate worse than death!
"Then what do we do? If we keep running like this, they won't even need to lift a finger—we'll exhaust ourselves to death!" Qiao Hongcai said anxiously.