Chapter 5182 — Who Is the Stronger?
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
No — Ling Tianyou had to be dealt with at the first opportunity, before he had fully spread his wings. Left to grow, he would one day become a mortal threat.
Proud though he was, Xue Jianming was no fool. He was a cultivator of the early Golden Core stage, true enough; he had a deputy sect master for a father, true enough; and behind him stood that mysterious and formidable patron, the Center, true enough as well. But all of it counted for nothing before Ling Tianyou's Thousand Blades in Flight. Such a threat had to be strangled in the cradle.
"Your eye is keen, sir. I am impressed." Ling Tianyou was briefly taken aback; he had not expected Wei Zhao's powers of perception to be so sharp, to count the flying needles at a single glance. Had he not spoken up, it was doubtful the others present would have realized it so soon.
"You are too kind. I never thought I would see the Thousand Blades in Flight with my own eyes today. The Ancient Alliance truly does produce one talent after another — a pity, though." Wei Zhao shook his head with a meaning look.
"A pity? How so?" Ling Tianyou regarded him. Everyone else was curious too — this was the legendary Thousand Blades in Flight, after all. What could there possibly be to regret?
"A pity that your cultivation is still so low. Give you time to grow, and you would indeed become a formidable figure. As things stand — well, you are still far from ready." Wei Zhao spoke his mind plainly, before the whole crowd.
The onlookers exchanged glances, privately thinking what a poseur the man was. What they did not know was that every word Wei Zhao said was true. Ling Tianyou's Thousand Blades in Flight was genuine enough, but those thousand blades were nothing but insignificant flying needles, and all of them together did not weigh so much as a pound. Even if it was the Thousand Blades in Flight, it was the weakest version of it.
It might frighten others well enough, but intimidating Wei Zhao was out of the question — to say nothing of the true power of Wei Zhao's own body. Never mind the weakest version of the Thousand Blades in Flight; even if all thousand blades had been genuine divine weapons, they would at most have made a formidable opponent. How could he be frightened?
"Is that so? Then I must ask you to instruct me." Ling Tianyou's face was still mild, but he was the junior sect master of the Thousand Blades Sect, a man of surpassing skill who had mastered the Thousand Blades in Flight. To be spoken to like that to his face — there was no way his pride would not be stirred.
"By all means." Wei Zhao smiled faintly and, with great aplomb, made a gesture of invitation — though in the eyes of the bystanders it looked like nothing but showing off.
Ling Tianyou's expression turned grave. His ten fingers moved slightly, and the nine hundred ninety-nine flying needles hovering in midair instantly gathered onto that ribbon, which twisted back and forth in turn, its tip writhing into the shape of a serpent's head — at first glance, a living, breathing spined serpent!
The spined serpent thrashed wildly through the air, its shrieking whistle cold and keen, its momentum startling to behold. Even the onlookers could not help but feel their hearts quail, and even a cultivator of Xin Yi'an's caliber, at the early Golden Core stage, felt his eyelids twitch. Only Wei Zhao, in the midst of it all, was unhurried; the corner of his mouth even curved into a faintly amused arc.
After circling a moment, the spined serpent suddenly lunged at Wei Zhao from behind, swift as could be. But Wei Zhao was swifter still; his figure flickered, and he evaded it with ease.