Chapter 4181 — The Decisive Moment
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"I see. But isn't Huicai Tianwu Mountain supposed to be terribly dangerous? I'm so worried something might have happened to Brother Wei Zhao." Han Jingyi was visibly anxious. Then, blinking her large eyes, she suddenly said, "How about this, Feifei—why don't you write him a letter and ask?"
"Sure, to be honest, I'm a little worried myself. I'll write to Lan'er right now and ask." Ning Xuefei agreed readily, and without another word picked up her brush and began to write. Even after the letter had been sent off, the two women were still chattering away about Wei Zhao.
This time, though, the roles had reversed: it was Ning Xuefei who kept pestering Han Jingyi to tell her all about Wei Zhao's exploits in the mortal world. Han Jingyi had mentioned such things before, but back then Ning Xuefei had no idea who Wei Zhao was, and never imagined their paths would ever cross, so she had paid it no mind. Now, however, things were different.
Wei Zhao's affairs were not only the concern of Han Jingyi, his proper girlfriend—even she, the little princess of the Western Island, found herself inexplicably and deeply invested in them.
On the Northern Island, several days had passed since the one-move instant kill of Su Zhaohe. Faced with so forceful and domineering a return, the whole of the Sandie Pavilion did little more than buzz with talk—for the time being, no one dared come looking for trouble with him again.
True, a tall tree catches the wind. Had Wei Zhao been merely an ordinary top newcomer, plenty of people would likely still have come to provoke him, whether to make a name for themselves or to turn a profit. But he had just slain Su Zhaohe in a single move—by any measure, without question the greatest newcomer in the entire history of the Sandie Pavilion.
With strength like that, even setting aside his newcomer status, he already ranked among the upper echelons of the whole Sandie Pavilion. Ordinary people could not afford to cross him; picking a fight with him was outright courting death. Who would dare provoke him?
As for those stronger than Wei Zhao—well, it was not that none existed. But they were either direct disciples of the top-tier grandmasters or flagship figures like Gongyang Jun, the hall master of the Law Enforcement Hall. Unless some major conflict of interest arose, none of them would stoop to the tedium of troubling Wei Zhao.
After all, Wei Zhao was not merely powerful. Since that last battle, word that Shangguan Tianxia looked favorably upon him had spread throughout the Sandie Pavilion. Anyone thinking of laying a hand on Wei Zhao would first have to weigh Shangguan Tianxia's attitude very carefully indeed.
So these past few days, Wei Zhao had enjoyed a rare stretch of leisure. Apart from the occasional visits from Shangguan Lan'er, who sometimes brought Huang Xiaotao along to chat, his daily routine consisted of either waiting at the Hong Merchant Guild for news of the shengxiang mushroom or cultivating in his cave dwelling to consolidate his realm.
A high-level life-and-death battle is worth months of bitter cultivation—this is common knowledge throughout the cultivation world. And Wei Zhao's earlier clash with Su Zhaohe, even if it could hardly be called fierce and amounted to no more than a trial of his blade, had still been a true fight to the death. Combined with his diligent cultivation of late, he had not only thoroughly consolidated his early Golden Core realm—he was even beginning to show faint signs of breaking through.
One level above the early Golden Core stage was the peak of the early Golden Core stage. Such speed was not merely astonishing—even Wei Zhao himself found it inconceivable. It was, if anything, faster than his breakthrough from the early Foundation Establishment stage to its peak. It completely overturned the common wisdom that the higher the level, the harder the breakthrough.