Chapter 11649 — The Gaunt Elder on the Other Side Said
Wei Zhao nodded. "Then we wear each other down."
"…"
The Three Ancestors of the Prince of Qi's Estate exchanged a wordless look.
Was this bastard made of gristle or what?
To be fair, they truly were undying and indestructible here. That claim came with conditions, but it was not much of an exaggeration either, and it was indeed highly probable that Wei Zhao could not outlast them.
The trouble was that, as the side already losing ground, the Dragon Soul was planted right before them, steadily eroding and dismantling the very root of their vital essence.
Given enough time, their vitality being gravely wounded was a foregone conclusion.
Even if they did grind Wei Zhao to death in the end, it would be a clean case of both sides ruined.
And beyond that, the attrition would inevitably drag on and on. At this particular juncture, the Prince of Qi's Estate could be set upon and bitten at any moment by someone piling on the misfortune, and once that happened, the outcome would no longer be theirs to decide.
At a time like this, steadying Wei Zhao first, shaking hands and making peace—even forging a new alliance—was not something they could not accept.
At worst, it would cost them a little face.
Between face and substance, the Three Ancestors of the Prince of Qi's Estate could still tell which mattered more.
The tall elder could only plead with bitter earnestness, "Going on like this will only ruin us both. I trust you are a clever man, and having come this far, surely you are not content to have others fish in the fire and rob you while it burns?"
Wei Zhao found it amusing. "That is a very reasonable argument. But you gentlemen strike when you please and stop when you please—would that not leave me rather without face?"
The Three Ancestors were caught between laughter and tears. "Is this a time to be thinking about face?"
Wei Zhao smiled. "Face may be an insubstantial thing, but one does need a little of it. Besides, in my case there is no small amount of substance behind the face, and I have no intention of simply giving up what lies within easy reach."
"Within easy reach, is it! What a grand tone!"
The Three Ancestors were instantly enraged. "We soften our words for the sake of the greater picture, and you take it that we are truly yours to devour? You presumptuous, ignorant wretch!"
Wei Zhao blinked and offered no explanation.
What the Three Ancestors understood as substance was the whole of the Prince of Qi's Estate. They assumed Wei Zhao was simply that arrogant and reckless, convinced he could swallow them whole.
Little did they know that the true substance in Wei Zhao's eyes was not the Prince of Qi's Estate at all—it was precisely the three of them!
The Prince of Qi's Estate was certainly a great house with vast holdings, and if this round could be brought off cleanly, it would indeed bring a surge in overall strength to the whole of Wei Zhao's camp.
But in Wei Zhao's eyes, the gains from all that paled beside what this very clash could yield!
It was indeed a war of attrition. On the surface all was calm, yet in truth it was perilous beyond measure.
One careless move, and he could well set himself ablaze.
Yet precisely because of that, Wei Zhao had the chance to put ten thousand years of experience and insight into practice.
Every second he spent wearing down the Three Ancestors helped him deeply comb through his understanding of the essence of power—and some of that understanding was downright revolutionary.
After all, until now he had been building carts behind closed doors within the Sinner's Frontier.
Even with the natural dimensional advantage in depth of understanding that came from being an Ancient God cultivator, much of it remained his own conjecture and fancy. Some of it was brilliant, but much of it was unreliable.
Now, with real combat to verify it, he could swiftly separate the wheat from the chaff.
That alone was a rare opportunity not to be bought for any price!
Better still, Wei Zhao could use the occasion to recklessly test every hypothesis he had, and from there develop even more and deadlier killing moves!
The Three Ancestors could never have guessed that in Wei Zhao's eyes the three of them had become three human testing grounds—every last one of them a windfall not to be found by seeking.
In the end, at their level, how far one could ultimately go depended on gathering every condition and stroke of fortune, yes—but the crux of the crux remained the depth of one's understanding of the essence of power.
The more thoroughly one understood that essence, the higher the ceiling one could touch in the future.
Every technique is merely the application of an underlying understanding.
With understanding deep enough, even the simplest single move could unleash heaven-spanning might.
This was the road Wei Zhao now walked.
It was no exaggeration to say that at this very moment, with every passing minute and second, Wei Zhao was reaping enormous benefit.
The Three Ancestors might not grasp the whys and wherefores, but they were no fools either, and the rapid transformation in Wei Zhao was something they perceived with perfect clarity.
"He is still improving?"
The short elder's voice carried a tremor.
Wei Zhao's present level already left them staring. If he kept improving, they might truly fail even to ruin him in kind—and could only watch as they were swallowed alive, flesh and bone, by Wei Zhao.
The gaunt elder murmured, bereft of words, "A monster! How did my Prince of Qi's Estate ever provoke such a monster?"
The tall elder's face darkened. "The present Prince of Qi has ruined us!"
Their decision to move against Wei Zhao had come of listening to the Prince of Qi, of believing that Wei Zhao's very existence was a fatal threat to the estate and must be uprooted early, lest endless trouble breed.
Now it seemed Wei Zhao was indeed a fatal threat—but they had grossly underestimated his ceiling.
By the long-standing style of the Prince of Qi's Estate, meeting such a monster would normally mean choosing first to win him over, not to lock horns in a fight to the death.
After all, should the attempt fail, the consequences were unthinkable.
Yet it was precisely the Prince of Qi's earlier slander that had led them into a misjudgment through and through!
Following the original course, Wei Zhao ought to have been a powerful ally of the Prince of Qi's Estate.
As things stood, the Prince of Qi had talked them into using Wei Zhao as a stepping stone—and half a step in, they discovered it was a mine, a top-tier thunder mine enough to reduce the entire Prince of Qi's Estate to ashes!
Just then, the Prince of Qi's voice suddenly rang out in the ancestral shrine.
"That remark of the Ancestor's, this Prince finds somewhat hard to follow."
Everyone started.
That the Prince of Qi should appear in the Prince of Qi's Estate's ancestral shrine was nothing strange in itself. What mattered was the sensitivity of this particular juncture—which made it very much worth pondering.
The tall elder's face fell. "What are you doing in here?"
The Prince of Qi smiled with a trace of amusement. "This Prince has naturally come to help the three Ancestors. Holding the home ground, three against one—if even so you cannot take down a single Wei Zhao, would not the Prince of Qi's Estate become a laughingstock once word spread?"
The short elder frowned. "You come to help? How?"
They had seen the Prince of Qi's performance just now with perfect clarity.
True, there had been a design beforehand, meant to lure Wei Zhao into the ancestral shrine, to invite the gentleman into the jar—but the Prince of Qi's collapse at the first touch had been no act either.
The Prince of Qi's strength was far weaker than they had expected.
With the little strength he had, to try to thrust himself into this contest between the Three Ancestors of the Prince of Qi's Estate and Wei Zhao was a clean case of overreaching.