Chapter 2459 — A Touch of Regret

Wei Zhao glanced at Wang Xinyan beside him, her face full of expectation, and felt a faint stir in his heart. Her feelings were already plain enough; her careless words had given her thoughts away.

Yet the more he thought, the less Wei Zhao understood. Why should Wang Xinyan care so much about this betrothal between her and Kang Jinglong? By any reasonable reckoning, breaking off an engagement was no great matter.

"All right!" Since Wang Xinyan was so hopeful, Wei Zhao did not want to disappoint her. As for Kang Jinglong, Wei Zhao had never truly meant to abandon him—they were classmates, after all. Even if he was going to deal with him, he would not do it this way.

A student dying on the winter trip would be no good thing for Bai Lingtou either, and Wei Zhao naturally would not put him in that position.

So Wei Zhao reached out his right hand and swept Wang Xinyan into his arms, pressing her to his chest.

"Ah..." Wang Xinyan had not expected Wei Zhao to embrace her so suddenly. She gave a soft murmur and lowered her head in deep shyness, her heart pounding violently, yet she dared not look up at Wei Zhao or Kang Jinglong.

Wei Zhao, for his part, did not notice her state at that moment. His other hand, the left one, reached back and seized Kang Jinglong, who was running up behind him.

As for Kang Jinglong, even if Wei Zhao saved him, he would not let him off easily.

Kang Jinglong felt his heart ease the moment Wei Zhao grabbed him—but in the very next instant, a cruelty he could never have imagined unfolded.

After seizing Kang Jinglong, Wei Zhao abruptly quickened his pace. Wang Xinyan, held in his arms, was naturally unaffected, but Kang Jinglong was not so lucky. He could not keep up with Wei Zhao's speed and was dragged along by him, and all at once he crashed down onto his backside, hauled forward behind Wei Zhao. Smooth as the valley floor was, and covered thick with ice and snow, Kang Jinglong's backside still could not help but strike the stones beneath the snow.

After all, no valley floor, however smooth, could be free of loose stones—and every stone Kang Jinglong met was his ruin.

"Sss-ow..." Kang Jinglong's screams cut through the valley with a particular chill. Soon his backside was torn open all over by the stones on the ground. The earlier wounds, though they had mostly healed after being treated with the deluxe edition of Doctor Kang's Golden Wound Medicine, were now split open again by the rocks—wounds upon wounds.

Yet painful as it was, Kang Jinglong knew this was most likely Wei Zhao deliberately making him suffer. If Wei Zhao could carry Wang Xinyan in his arms, he could surely have carried him as well! Wei Zhao was, after all, a ** practitioner.

But that Wei Zhao did not carry him, only dragged him, was already something. Fearing Wei Zhao would leave him behind, Kang Jinglong could only endure it. When he could bear it no longer, he looked back at the great soft-shelled turtle pursuing them, thought of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, and endured it again.

Gradually, Wei Zhao widened the distance between himself and the great turtle. His lightness skill was formidable to begin with, and with neither Wang Xinyan nor Kang Jinglong slowing him down, he had no fear of being caught again.

Watching Wei Zhao and the others recede into the distance, the great turtle let out a furious roar. It knew it could not catch them now. Seeing that Wei Zhao was carrying one and dragging another, it understood it had no choice but to give up. With a ** practitioner present, it truly could not gain the advantage.

Wei Zhao's guess had been right: the great turtle's strength lay in defense, not attack. Even as a Heaven-ranked expert, Wei Zhao could do nothing against the great turtle—but the great turtle could not catch Wei Zhao either.

Helpless, it had no choice but to swallow a silent loss. It was not that it had no turtle-saliva ice crystals left—it still had some—but the stuff was exceedingly precious. A small vial like that took the great turtle decades to refine; it was the crystallization of its own power. To the great turtle it was of little use, but to the little turtle it mattered greatly. The little turtle could use it to **.

Though the great turtle still had some in reserve, such a precious thing, capable of raising the little turtle's strength, was naturally not something it wished to hand over lightly to Wei Zhao. But now that it could not seize it back, there was nothing it could do.

"Don't let me see you again!" the great turtle roared, its voice tinged with helplessness.

Hearing that roar, Wei Zhao felt an inexplicable pang of nervousness—in truth, a sign of his guilty conscience. That little vial called turtle-saliva ice crystal had indeed been pocketed by Wei Zhao out of greed, so in theory it was Kang Jinglong who was taking the blame for him.

Though Kang Jinglong had started the whole business in the first place, it was also Kang Jinglong who had recovered that little vial. So Wei Zhao did feel a touch of gratitude toward him—and that was why he had not left Kang Jinglong behind.

"Wei Zhao... could you let go of me now... that big water monster isn't chasing us anymore, and my backside—ow..." Kang Jinglong was nearly weeping from the pain; his backside no longer seemed to belong to him.

"Oh." Wei Zhao, still racing forward, released him at once—and Kang Jinglong, carried on by the momentum of his forward motion, pitched sharply backward. With a resounding clang his head struck the ground, landing squarely on the great swelling from before, and the pain left him grimacing and baring his teeth.

"Wei Zhao, you did that on purpose, didn't you?" Kang Jinglong scrambled up from the ground, collected himself, and glared at Wei Zhao in fury.

"You were the one who told me to let go," Wei Zhao said, curling his lip indifferently.

"..." Kang Jinglong had fury to spare but no way to vent it. And Wei Zhao was, after all, his savior; he was not so ungrateful as to forget that. It was just that, looking at Wang Xinyan in Wei Zhao's arms, the more he looked, the angrier he became.

Only, Kang Jinglong had just promised that he would turn a blind eye to whatever passed between Wei Zhao and Wang Xinyan and would pursue nothing. Though he had meant to go back on that promise the moment he returned, so little time had passed that his hide was not yet thick enough to deny it. He could only pinch his nose and swallow it.

"Wei Zhao... can you put me down now..." Wang Xinyan's heart had fluttered the whole way, though the thought that they were fleeing for their lives had calmed her somewhat. Now that they were safe, she felt a little embarrassed.

"All right." Wei Zhao set Wang Xinyan down as she asked—not that he had meant to take advantage of holding her, but that he had genuinely forgotten she was in his arms. After setting her down, Wei Zhao could not help feeling a touch of regret. His mind had been wholly on escape and on the turtle-saliva ice crystal, and he had overlooked the great beauty in his arms. Only Wang Xinyan's reminder brought him back to himself—and he had not even thought to take any advantage, though even ** on the run would have done.