Chapter 3782 — A Bold Move
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
What was more, though his position now was hardly as favored as Xiao Che's, there was still Zha Wu sitting between him and Meng Zhou. Barring the unexpected, Meng Zhou, eager to plunder as many points as possible to overtake Wei Zhao, would likely finish trampling Zha Wu before coming for him—so his time was still fairly ample, enough to mount a proper push toward Foundation Establishment.
"Xiao Che, Hongcai—from here on out, I'll be waiting for good news from the two of you."
Wei Zhao encouraged them with a smile, then added a few more words: "No need to carry any mental baggage into this—throw it all away for me. The worst that happens if you fail is wasting a single Foundation Establishment Pill. What's so terrible about that? Just say the word and I'll have one for you in a heartbeat. Don't forget, I'm an alchemist!"
Qiao Hongcai chuckled at that. "With our leader Wei Zhao saying that, I'll go back and stake everything on one throw. And if I really do fail, you'd better take responsibility for me, leader!"
"Good heavens! Responsibility my ass—I don't go for men! You, get away from me!" Wei Zhao cried, comically leaping two zhang back and watching Qiao Hongcai with a face full of wary alertness.
The long-suffering senior brother and Xiao Che exchanged a glance and burst out laughing, while Qiao Hongcai alone wore a woebegone look. "Leader, you can't be like that—how can words you just said not count? You heartless scoundrel, stirring me up and then casting me aside!"
"Get out of here!" Wei Zhao said, half laughing, half crying.
In contrast to the jubilation in Wei Zhao's camp, at this very moment another Azure Cloud Pavilion newcomer was sunk in gloom and misery, so wretched he even wished he were dead. That man was, of course, Zha Wu.
He had already been dead last in points, and after pulling that farcical, overreaching stunt of his, not only had he lost points, he had even been gravely injured because of it. Zha Wu's present situation was far more than a single word like "miserable" could encompass.
Earlier on the arena, Wei Zhao had not dealt him a killing blow, but be that as it may, Wei Zhao was a genuine expert at the peak of early-stage Foundation Establishment. Even if it was merely the twenty-stance Frenzied Fire Fist, delivered from his hands it was absolutely not something an ordinary Heaven-Rank perfection expert could withstand. The fact that Zha Wu was still alive at all was proof enough that Wei Zhao had pulled his punches—cause for considerable rejoicing.
It was not fatal, but with injuries of this severity, given his abilities he would need at least seven or eight days to recover. And for those seven or eight days, beyond healing his wounds, he could forget about doing anything else.
Not only would he be unable to fight in the next round of the challenge tournament, he would even be forced to abandon the spirit-herb seeds he was cultivating. After all, when he himself was already reduced to this sorry state, how could he have the strength and true qi left to tend to those delicate little masters?
Still, he had at least been prudent earlier: he had not gone straight for all ten spirit-herb seeds from the outset, but had picked only three to experiment with. Even if he gave them up, he was giving up three, not all ten.
Otherwise, had all ten spirit-herb seeds withered and died, the trial of spirit herbs alone would have docked him ten points, and Zha Wu would have been finished on the spot—with no hope of ever turning things around for all eternity.
Understand that after being successively stripped of four points each by Wei Zhao and Qiao Hongcai, Zha Wu now had only seven points left to his name—and that was without reckoning the perilous prospect of facing the likes of Meng Zhou and Xiao Che next.