Chapter 4176 — At Death's Door
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 3
"Yes, so your proposal of forming a core at thirty-five is far too difficult for me—I really cannot accomplish it..." Wei Zhao shrugged and spread his hands with a playful air. "Barring any surprises, by then I will probably already be at the Nascent Soul stage, so I truly cannot come back and form a core again. I simply cannot meet your requirement..."
The crowd immediately burst into loud laughter. The way of the world had always been to lift up the high and trample the low, and these spectators naturally sided with the strong. Earlier they had assumed Su Zhaohe had Wei Zhao dead to rights, but now it looked as though that was not the case at all, so the wind naturally shifted. Su Zhaohe was arrogant and showy, and there was no shortage of people who disliked him.
"Hmph, Nascent Soul? I'll Nascent Soul you into a ghost!" Faced with the crowd's jeering and mockery, Su Zhaohe's nose twisted with rage in an instant, and his face turned ashen as he snarled in a fit of humiliated fury: "Today I will make you understand properly what it means that there is always someone better! Even among early Golden Core experts there are the strong and the weak—before me you are nothing but trash with an empty rank! Go die!"
As he spoke, the arena beneath Su Zhaohe's feet exploded violently, and his figure instantly dissolved into formlessness. At last he no longer dared to boast that he would give Wei Zhao a free strike.
Su Zhaohe was no fool, after all. Though he believed he could challenge above his level and was invincible among his peers, and still believed he had a hundred-percent certainty against Wei Zhao, this dark horse, he also knew that battles between equals were not so easy to handle. A moment's carelessness and the boat really might capsize in the gutter.
So even at the cost of eating his own words and losing face, Su Zhaohe still chose to strike first. Only the one who laughed last had the right to speak; so long as he could smoothly trample Wei Zhao underfoot, the stronger Wei Zhao was, the more it would set off his own prowess!
"So fast!" Seeing that the fight had finally begun, everyone in the stands perked up and cried out in alarm one after another.
Among all these Sandie Pavilion disciples there was no lack of Golden Core experts, but even by their standards, the sudden sight of Su Zhaohe's skill made them jump, and their faces showed looks of dread.
If a few of the early Golden Core experts present were to go up, far from contending with Su Zhaohe, against the terrifying speed he displayed now they would not even be able to touch the corner of his clothes—they would likely be toyed with and slaughtered with ease.
Nothing is indestructible; only speed is unbreakable. This principle applied not only to martial arts—for cultivators like them, it held just as true.
Yet what he did next was what truly left them gaping.
Bang! A explosive shock suddenly rang out over the arena, and Su Zhaohe's figure, already blurred with speed, abruptly grew a whole notch faster with that shock. The crowd below could not even catch his silhouette with their eyes, let alone contend with him!
"Breaking the sound barrier? Heh, that speed is indeed not bad for an ordinary early Golden Core expert, but before me it is still too weak." Wei Zhao stood on the arena and said with a faint smile, still with his hands behind his back, unmoved.
"At death's door and still putting on airs—I will grant you your wish!" Su Zhaohe grinned hideously, his speed increasing rather than slowing, while his hands hooked into claws. Peerless true qi swiftly gathered at his fingertips, giving off a chilling and terrifying aura; every time they swept through the air they left five trails of true qi behind, like sharp blades.
Then, under the horrified gazes of the crowd below, in the blink of an eye a dense spiderweb had woven itself across the arena, sweeping in from all directions to close in and shroud Wei Zhao.