Chapter 3417 — The Plan Complete

According to legend, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth on Cloud Stair Island is rich and abundant—but compared with the jade pendant's space, Wei Zhao felt it surely could not match up. So rather than go to the island, why not just go home and cultivate on his own?

Wei Zhao had no wish to get mixed up in all that. Those people had already gone up; even if they broke through the Heavenly Dao before he did, they would never come back. In the secular world of cultivation, Wei Zhao already stood as a top-tier master.

No one could shake Wei Zhao's strength anymore. Remaining in this secular cultivation world, he could retire with his achievements complete and go on living that colorful shared-apartment life with the eldest lady and the others...

But now, for Yu Xiaoke's sake, Wei Zhao had no choice but to climb Cloud Stair Island—because Zhang Lifeng was there!

For Yu Xiaoke to awaken, Wei Zhao would have to go and seek Zhang Lifeng's counsel. And so, whether he wanted to or not, to the island he must go...

Coming back to reality from his daze, Wei Zhao took out his phone and dialed Brother Dafeng's number.

The dormitory building now had not even a single guard. By day these people all went off to work, and even if Meng Gaohai brought men back, there was no one watching him at all.

So long as the main gate was held, ensuring no one could escape, that was enough.

What was more, these cultivators who still had their minds depended on the potion and its antidote to survive—who would dare leave on their own? They had all seen those disobedient cultivators cut off from the antidote, dying amid the most agonizing struggles.

So no one dared do something so irrational as to run away.

Seeing Wei Zhao pull out his phone, Meng Gaohai, the buzz-cut man, and Dull Little Brother stood respectfully to one side.

"Hello? Who's this?" Wei Zhao was using a satellite phone, and Brother Dafeng did not recognize the number.

"It's me," Wei Zhao said flatly.

"Ah... Leader Wei Zhao! What can I do for you?" Brother Dafeng asked at once, in fearful reverence. He had already learned of what had happened at the Red Conch headquarters.

The general manager was no fool. After pulling the surveillance footage from the nearby streets, he had fixed his target on Wei Zhao, and with a few words from He Dantou of the overseas cultivators' association, he was all the more certain that Wei Zhao was the impostor.

Then, cross-checking one by one against things that had happened back home, he knew: this was the very man who had once done away with Military Advisor Zhuge.

One could say the general manager hated him to the bone!

"Has what I did overseas been exposed?" Wei Zhao asked. "I mean the business at the Red Conch headquarters."

"The general manager already knows it was you, sir, and he's mentioned it to me. But he also knows I have no real fighters here, so he let it drop and no longer means to move against you, Leader," Brother Dafeng said hurriedly. "If he ever does make a move, I'll notify you at once, Leader!"

"Mm. That's not mainly why I'm calling. Let me ask you—do you have the antidote for the biochemical humans at the poison-refining base?" Wei Zhao asked.

"The antidote for the biochemical humans? Leader Wei Zhao, do you mean the old kind of biochemical humans, or the later sort of semi-biochemical ones?" Brother Dafeng asked at once.

"Both kinds," Wei Zhao said.

Though Meng Gaohai did not know who was on the other end of the line, hearing Wei Zhao say he wanted both, he breathed a sigh of relief—so Wei Zhao had not forgotten him after all. He had truly feared that once the deed was done, Wei Zhao would simply abandon him. Of course, he dared not act up either; his own strength was plain for all to see, and he was no match for Wei Zhao at all.

"For the first kind of biochemical human, the injection that leaves them utterly mindless—there is no antidote," Brother Dafeng said. "That potion works by destroying a person's mind—what we cultivators call the spirit-consciousness. It wrecks the mind, strips away the self and its thoughts, and after that they can only be controlled through hypnosis."

Brother Dafeng's words gave Wei Zhao a violent shock! No antidote? Lou Qitian had hinted at as much before, and now Brother Dafeng said the same—then it was very likely true that no antidote existed!

After all, Brother Dafeng had once been the head of a poison-refining base, and he knew a good deal. Mind... spirit-consciousness... wasn't that somewhat similar to Yu Xiaoke's condition?

Yu Xiaoke had fallen unconscious from overexpending her spirit-consciousness, while the pangolin had had his spirit-consciousness destroyed. The two were not the same, yet not far apart. At this thought, Wei Zhao breathed a faint sigh of relief—surely Zhang Lifeng would still have a way, when the time came?

"And the second kind, the semi-biochemical humans?" Wei Zhao asked.

"Those have an antidote. I can't compound it myself, nor do I know the formula, but I still have a small stock on hand—enough to detoxify a few people, eight or ten is no problem. Any more than that and I'd have to think of something else," Brother Dafeng said outright.

"That's enough." Wei Zhao nodded, glanced at Meng Gaohai, and then said, "Actually, even if you didn't have any, you could apply to headquarters."

"What do you mean, Leader Wei Zhao?" Brother Dafeng was slightly taken aback.

"Right now I'm at the poison-refining base in the Hakunamata Desert. I'm going to bring men and raze this base to the ground. But there are three men here who are my underlings and have helped me—let them work under you from now on, make them your subordinates. One of them is even an early Heaven-rank fighter; he should be a fine arm for you," Wei Zhao said. "When the time comes and I attack this base, bring your men over. Then you can say this Heaven-rank fighter tipped you off. That way both you and he will have earned merit—even if you couldn't save Lou Qitian's life, at least you did your utmost."

As for where the biochemical humans at the poison-refining base would end up, that was no concern of Wei Zhao's; wherever Brother Dafeng wished to take them, he could.

It was not that Wei Zhao would not save them, but that they could not be saved. One kind of biochemical human could never be restored—and Wei Zhao had a sick patient of his own to worry about—while the antidote for the other kind was not enough to go around. Better to let Brother Dafeng take them on to continue their hard labor; that, too, counted as saving their lives, and the Paoli clan would not be left without income.

"Fine, no problem. Thank you, Leader Wei Zhao!" Brother Dafeng answered at once.

Hanging up, Wei Zhao looked at the excited Meng Gaohai and the other two and said flatly, "You might call this a stroke of fortune. From now on, work well under Dafeng—he's my underling too. Who knows, when I wipe out the Red Conch for good, I may still have use for you."

"Yes! Thank you for saving our lives, Leader! From now on we'll work hard under Brother Dafeng and strive to serve you soon, Leader!" Meng Gaohai said hurriedly.