Chapter 4519 — A Narrow Escape
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
Though he could not lock on with his spiritual sense, the keen instinct honed over many years told him that a trace of human breath still lingered in this place—and that human was, beyond any doubt, Wei Zhao.
"Courting death!" The ghost-thing's voice abruptly turned savage, and the spiritual sense it had fixed upon the Xishan Old Sect hardened into a sharp arrow, piercing straight through the spiritual sense the other had sent forth.
Pfft! The Xishan Old Sect spat out a mouthful of blood. The injury to his spiritual sense had bred internal damage—the second time now—and his face drained of color as he fled in panic, not daring to linger in this place a moment longer.
"Waaaah! Mark my words, Wei Zhao, you little wretch—this sect won't waste time tangling with you now. May you soon fall into the jaws of a spirit beast! And even if no beast devours you, this sect will surely kill you one day!" After flinging down that fierce threat, the Xishan Old Sect hurried off into the distance. It was not that he wished to spare Wei Zhao; the problem was that he feared death.
Meanwhile, behind a giant tree less than fifty zhang from that spot, Wei Zhao, drenched in a cold sweat of sheer fright, leaned limp and spent against the trunk, his heart still pounding as he gasped, "That old monster is a real nightmare to shake..."
Had the jade pendant not warned him, had Wei Zhao not surpassed himself in that instant and unleashed the Super Butterfly Microstep beyond its utmost limit as never before, he would by now be a corpse in the Xishan Old Sect's hands.
"Hmph, if I weren't in this wretched state, I'd slaughter every last one of these crooked-path cultivators who dared show their faces!" The ghost-thing, too, could not help feeling a lingering chill. A top elder of the spirit beast clan, reduced to bluffing his way through to scare off a single heretic cultivator—and in the Southern Continent no less—was a humiliation that left him utterly without face.
"Senior, what do we do now?" Wei Zhao, tactful enough not to take up that thread, turned instead to the most crucial question.
"Nothing to be done. I never intended to come back. But since I've been forced back here by accident, I may as well take a look around. I want to see just what that Vermilion Bird has turned the spirit beast clan into—and just who this new Spirit Beast King really is!" The ghost-thing's tone was unfathomable.
"Fine by me." Wei Zhao felt not the slightest bit daunted. The Southern Continent was a dragon's den and a tiger's lair for human cultivators, but if he could snatch his life back from the Xishan Old Sect's clutches, then a stroll through spirit beast territory hardly seemed so terrible—after all, he still had the ghost-thing as his guide.
………………
Moleng Wharf. A massive ship flying the banner of the Qingtian Escort Agency finally slipped slowly from the harbor under the gaze of the crowd—and by now, a full month had passed since the Southern Continent Escort Assembly came to its close.
Qi Mingyuan, Qi Wenmo, and Chai Laoshi, who was traveling with them back to Weihu City, stood side by side on the deck of the great ship, every face grave beyond measure.
In order to investigate news of Wei Zhao, the whole group had lingered in Moleng City for a full month, exhausting every means both open and covert. The result was still utter silence—not a single scrap of news, not even whether Wei Zhao was alive or dead, nor in what direction he might have fled. It was as though he had evaporated from the face of the world.
What gave them a measure of comfort was that, to this point, the Xishan Old Sect had not reappeared either. True, given Wei Zhao's strength as a mere Golden Core expert, the odds of escaping the Xishan Old Sect's clutches were vanishingly small—yet the group could not help clinging to that last shred of hope.