Chapter 4532 — An Unexpected Turn
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
When had the ghost-thing ever known regret? Not even when he had fallen to his present wretched state after descending to the mortal realm, not even when the Vermilion Bird had seized the opening to snatch the position of Azure Dragon Elder from under him—through all of it he had never felt the smallest pang of regret. But now, with Wei Zhao's life at stake, he could not help but be overcome with bitter remorse.
If not for his wish to learn what on earth had befallen the spirit beast clan, he would never have pressed on into the heart of the Anluo District after successfully frightening off the Old Sect of the Western Hills; he should have searched at once for a way out and fled this danger-ridden Southern Island. Had he done so, Wei Zhao would never have landed in a predicament that now seemed all but certain to end in death.
Put plainly, if Wei Zhao died here today, it would be the ghost-thing who had killed him.
For all his habitual arrogance and freewheeling airs, a man of that stamp was always fiercely protective of his own. In the ghost-thing's eyes Wei Zhao was already one of his own—and now, through his own doing, the boy was about to die. How could he not blame himself and burn with regret?
"Senior, life and death are fated. Without you, I would long since have been captured by the Old Sect of the Western Hills and made into a puppet. Besides, this is a place I chose to come to myself. You mustn't blame yourself." Wei Zhao had of course guessed what the ghost-thing was thinking, and he hastened to console him with a smile.
"You really are a cool one, kid..." The ghost-thing could not help but regard Wei Zhao with fresh respect. A moment ago the boy had been tense and at a loss; now it had all dispersed like mist and smoke, and he was calm and composed as ever. This lad, it seemed, had truly been born for the great and terrible moments of the world.
Infected by Wei Zhao's composure, the ghost-thing quickly regained his own. He had come around to seeing things plainly: at worst, they would fight to the death. He had been reduced to this sorry spectacle in the mortal realm and had never been broken; he had held on stubbornly until now. And now that he was back on the spirit beast clan's own territory, was he supposed to bow his head and grovel?
Wei Zhao and the ghost-thing were no longer tense—but the fatal crisis still loomed before their eyes. Meeting death with equanimity was one thing; it did not mean that such resolve would spare them from dying.
The dreadful pressure of several spirit beast guards descended upon Wei Zhao at once. Before he had made the slightest move, the grass beneath his feet abruptly sank by a great measure, and everything visible within three zhang around him was in an instant crushed flat; blades of grass and bits of stone burst with a bang into dust too fine for the eye to see. This was the terrifying pressure of beings who stood above even the titans of the Mountain-Splitting stage!
Back at the Qingtian Escort Agency, the Divine Nun of the Eastern Sea had crushed Cheng Qitian, a late Gold Core cultivator, to death with nothing but the weight of her aura. Now Wei Zhao faced the same peril as Cheng Qitian—and the pressure bearing down on him was far more intense. These were, after all, beings above the titans of the Mountain-Splitting stage, and several spirit beast guards were acting in concert.
Any accomplished Gold Core cultivator—even a demonic cultivator suppressing his strength, like Cheng Haonan—placed where Wei Zhao now stood would have been doomed beyond question. If not struck dead on the spot, they would at the very least have been gravely wounded. Yet Wei Zhao did not so much as utter a sound, and bore that inhuman, crushing force head-on, holding on for dear life.