Chapter 2879 — No Goodbyes

"You think I'm stupid?" Zhang Naipao rolled his eyes. "Even if I did get dragged into this, I'm not lifting a finger. This life of mine was saved by Wei Zhao to begin with—and even if it wasn't, I'm no match for him. If I struck first, I'd be the first to go. Better to wait and see; maybe we won't end up sitting ducks after all!"

"Is that so?" The Five Baleful Dragon found this rather dull. It had discovered that when it came to cunning, its schemes still fell far short of human cultivators. Among humans, deceit and double-dealing came easily, and it was simple enough to trap one in a snare—yet it found these particular cultivators were not so easily fooled. After all its talk, not one of them had taken the bait. Its interest waned, and it abandoned any thought of playing further. Turning to the spirit beasts beside it, it said, "Go on, all of you—tear them to pieces!"

"ROAR—"

"AWOO—"

"HOWL—"

"COO-COO—"

The spirit beasts beside the Five Baleful Dragon all let out roaring cries at once, ready to charge forward and finish off Wei Zhao and the others!

Wei Zhao cursed inwardly. Since coming to Songshan City, he had run into no small number of dangers and troubles, great and small, but in the end there had always been some way out. To sit and wait for death as helplessly as this—today was the first time.

Tianchan, too, went pale. She was not afraid of death—especially not dying alongside Wei Zhao—but what she feared was what would become of the Xuandan Sect after she was gone. What would become of her brother? Could he bear the weight of being young sect master?

Zhang Naipao, meanwhile, wore a blank expression. To begin with, if Wei Zhao had not saved him, he would never have survived this place. Tormented by the searing agony of the sea of fire illusion, no ordinary person could have held out for long. He had woken, yes, but now death was merely a matter of sooner or later.

From the very start, Wei Zhao had been compressing true-qi bombs, but later the spirit beasts had grown too numerous, and his true-qi bombs had grown insignificant by comparison. Now that the Five Baleful Dragon had appeared, Wei Zhao was even less certain he could wound it—but he resolved to try.

Yet just at the critical instant when Wei Zhao was about to stake everything on one throw, a majestic roar suddenly rang out between Wei Zhao's group and the spirit beasts: "All of you, fall back!"

"Roar?"

"Awoo?"

"Howl?"

"Coo-coo?"

The spirit beasts, having received the Five Baleful Dragon's command, had been about to pounce and tear Wei Zhao and the others limb from limb. But to everyone's surprise, these beasts actually halted in their tracks, let out cries tinged with confusion, and then scrambled rapidly backward!

Even the Five Baleful Dragon's eyes flashed with a look of dread: "Roar-woo?"

"Five Baleful Dragon, you little thing shall be the one to escort them out!" the voice continued.

"Roar-woo? Yes!" The Five Baleful Dragon's breathing grew somewhat ragged. Anyone could see that it was intensely nervous at this moment, and seemed utterly terrified of the voice's owner!

That voice was familiar to Wei Zhao and Tianchan—and even to Zhang Naipao. It was precisely this voice that had awakened Zhang Naipao earlier!

Wei Zhao was both startled and delighted. He had not expected that ghastly thing to intervene. To begin with, he had never intended to beg that ghastly thing for help—first, because he did not believe it could defeat so many spirit beasts. True, it had claimed to have killed several Heaven-rank human cultivators, but human cultivators and spirit beasts were two entirely different matters. Being able to kill Heaven-rank human cultivators did not mean it could kill even a single Mystic-rank spirit beast!

And what Wei Zhao had expected even less was that these spirit beasts would actually heed that ghastly thing—that they would truly retreat, and that even the Five Baleful Dragon would treat it with such reverence, actually agreeing to escort them out?

What on earth was going on? Wei Zhao had never heard of any cultivator who could command so many spirit beasts. Was this a privilege reserved for those at the Heavenly Dao level? Yet unless the ghastly thing chose to speak, Wei Zhao had no way of knowing.

"If you dare disturb my cultivation again, I'll snuff you out on the spot!" the fog-like ghastly thing threatened the Five Baleful Dragon.

Its threat was plainly most effective. The Five Baleful Dragon nodded in trembling deference: "Rest assured, I was only joking with them…"

"I should hope so!" With that, the ghastly thing vanished. Only Wei Zhao knew that it had returned to the jade pendant's space.

"You summoned it again?" Tianchan looked at Wei Zhao in astonishment. She had never imagined that this fog-like, primordial-spirit-like thing Wei Zhao had summoned could actually command spirit beasts.

"I don't even know how it came out…" Wei Zhao gave a wry smile.

Zhang Naipao was likewise full of questions. When Wei Zhao had conjured this ghastly thing to wake him, he had already wondered what on earth it was. Now that the thing could even threaten spirit beasts, Zhang Naipao was all the more puzzled. What was it?

Could it be Wei Zhao's newest trump card? It certainly looked formidable. Good thing he hadn't rashly tried to fight Wei Zhao again—otherwise he might have died without even knowing how. No, when he got back this time, he would have to report this properly to Brother Liang. This Wei Zhao was simply too extraordinary.

Yet amazed as Zhang Naipao was, he did not give in to curiosity and ask. He knew that even if he did, Wei Zhao certainly would not tell him—just as he himself would never tell Wei Zhao the mental cultivation formulas of the Bee-Devouring Divine Art.

"After you, gentlemen!" The Five Baleful Dragon revered and feared that ghastly thing, but toward Wei Zhao and the others it had regained its former composure—though its tone of voice had become considerably more agreeable.

"Heh, Five Baleful Dragon, I'll bet you didn't expect this—in the end, we still won." Wei Zhao knew that the more confident he appeared now, the more he could overawe the Five Baleful Dragon. Wei Zhao also knew the ghastly thing's temper: getting it to come out again would be very difficult indeed.

"You could summon…" The Five Baleful Dragon trailed off, then shook its head. "I underestimated you after all!"

Wei Zhao wanted to ask the Five Baleful Dragon just what it was he had summoned, but doing so would amount to revealing his hand before the Five Baleful Dragon, so Wei Zhao merely thought about it and could not possibly ask.

The spirit beasts that had been watching were all dismissed by the Five Baleful Dragon, and the Five Baleful Dragon, true to its word, respectfully escorted Wei Zhao, Tianchan, Zhang Naipao, and the others all the way to the teleportation array.

"Five Baleful Dragon—till we meet again, if ever we do!" Wei Zhao waved at the Five Baleful Dragon, finally letting out a breath of relief.