Chapter 3745 — Ambush on the Road

"Very well, then I'll be counting on you." Wei Zhao nodded and turned to leave.

Wei Zhao knew perfectly well why Hong Zhong was being so attentive to him. Put plainly, the two top-grade Foundation Establishment Breakthrough Pills had stirred the man's doubts, and from those doubts had grown all manner of mysterious conjectures—the old steward wanted to win him over and use him to create even greater profits.

It was what any merchant with an eye for opportunity would do. It was only that this Steward Jin did it with greater finesse and polish, and made one feel more thoroughly at ease while it happened.

Wei Zhao did not resent such things. In fact, having just arrived on Cloudstep Island, this was precisely the moment when he needed business partners of that kind.

After all, of the four great essentials a cultivator holds dear—wealth, method, companions, and terrain—wealth ranks first. Only with deep coffers could one be assured of an unending supply of rare treasures and heavenly materials, and only thus could one rise swiftly, level after level, until one stood at the very summit of the cultivation world.

The wealth in question was, naturally, not the coin of the mortal realm, but hard currency of the cultivation world such as spirit jade.

True, Wei Zhao could now smuggle two or three pieces of spirit jade out of the mines each day, and sometimes add a little more by trading scrap jade for good through Meng Zhou and his lot—but in the end it was all small business, nowhere near the height of true wealth.

To make wealth unleash its full power, one had to think big. Inevitably, Wei Zhao would need to find a reliable business partner, so that all his hidden advantages could be tapped and developed to the fullest and pave the way for his future.

From that brief contact just now, Hong Zhong, old steward of the Hong Merchant Guild, clearly had what it took to be his business partner. If they could truly work closely together, then with Wei Zhao's hidden cards and Hong Zhong's seasoned commercial instincts, carving out something grand in the days to come would be no difficult matter.

Of course, time reveals a man's heart. This matter bore on his future prospects and was of grave importance, so Wei Zhao would have to examine it carefully.

Unless he could truly know a man inside and out, he would never lightly take anyone as a business partner—at most they would use each other. After all, this concerned his very life and fortune; no amount of caution would be excessive.

Leaving the Hong Merchant Guild, Wei Zhao did not hurry back to the Welcome Pavilion. Instead, he took his time and made two more rounds through the Inner Street.

After all, the Inner Street opened only one day a month. Seizing this rare chance, he naturally ought to familiarize himself thoroughly with the place. Even if he did not buy certain things for now, he had to form a clear picture in his mind, so that when he needed them later he could go straight to the mark instead of blundering about like a headless fly and wasting his effort.

Only after finishing his tour of the Inner Street did Wei Zhao leave the market quarter and set out for the Welcome Pavilion. But he had barely reached a deserted little path when the jade pendant suddenly began to warn him—a lethal ambush had struck in an instant.

A blade of sword qi, razor-sharp beyond measure, came from an utterly tricky and bizarre angle, hurtling at Wei Zhao's back from thirty paces behind, so fast that no defense seemed possible.

Relying on the speed boost of his Gale-Chasing Boots, Wei Zhao pushed his Butterfly Microstep to its very limit in an instant. Only then did he twist his body and narrowly evade that ferocious, lethal blow—yet even so, a chill of belated dread ran through him.

That sword qi was not dazzling or brilliant; at first glance it looked quite ordinary, and many a Heaven-rank expert could unleash sword qi a hundred times more imposing. Yet the two were not remotely comparable in power.

If the sword qi of those Heaven-rank experts counted as one, and Wei Zhao could dismiss it entirely from his mind, then this single blade of sword qi was at least eight hundred—perhaps even a thousand. Had he failed to dodge in time just now, his only fate would have been death and the oblivion of his Dao.

If not for the jade pendant's life-saving warning, Wei Zhao might well have been reporting in at the underworld by now.

And even if Wei Zhao wanted to tend his wounds, that would take time—would the man not seize the chance to finish him with another strike?

"Heh, a mere rootless rogue cultivator, and you actually dodged my Twenty-Two Forms of the Life-Taking Chain Sword. Not bad at all!" A familiar figure slowly stepped out from behind a tree by the roadside—none other than Yu Jiang, the very man who had competed for the Star Ink Stone at the Hong Merchant Guild earlier.

So it really was this one!

Wei Zhao had expected as much. Back at the Hong Merchant Guild, this fellow had already betrayed a biting killing intent; it was only that in such a setting he had not dared to make a move.

And afterward, when Wei Zhao left the Hong Merchant Guild, he had deliberately circled the Inner Street twice—chiefly to smoke out this fellow's position, because he knew the man would surely tail him and set his sights on him.

The result, however, was somewhat unexpected. After two full circuits of the Inner Street, Wei Zhao's senses had failed to catch the slightest trace of the man, and he had reluctantly given up and left the market quarter.

In fact, a full stick of incense's time had passed since he left the market. Cautious as Wei Zhao was, even he had begun to wonder whether this fellow had given up.

And so, with one small lapse of vigilance, the crisis came.

Wei Zhao kept his face calm and ordinary, but inwardly he was sighing at his own good fortune. Without the jade pendant's warning, that blow just now would truly have landed!

This fellow knew full well that he was at the peak of early Foundation Establishment, yet with the strength of a mid-stage Foundation Establishment expert, he had nonetheless trailed him this long before striking—and without the slightest regard for decency, he had chosen an ambush from which there was no evading.

Both the patience and the caution made it unmistakably clear that this was no ordinary or easy opponent. Compared with the shallow display back at the Hong Merchant Guild, he seemed a completely different person!

Looking at the powerful confidence now showing through Yu Jiang's mocking expression, Wei Zhao's heart tightened at once. This fellow had been putting on an act ever since the Hong Merchant Guild; that shallow front had been pure performance, meant to lull him into thinking the man was nothing more than that!

This fellow was far stronger and more cunning than the likes of Meng Jueming!

This was an out-and-out formidable enemy!

Wei Zhao watched every movement of the other without betraying a thing on his face, but inwardly he was utterly on guard.

True, in the month and more since coming to Cloudstep Island, he had seen no small number of formidable figures, and had even felt firsthand the might of elders—experts whose strength far surpassed this man before him.

But in the end, none of those he had met before were true mortal enemies. Never had they so brazenly displayed killing intent toward Wei Zhao. Even Xu Lingchong and Meng Jueming, foes with whom he had deep grudges, would have to rack their brains for a suitable opportunity if they wanted to kill him—unlike this man before him, who without a word opened with a lethal blow.

It seemed the Thousand-Silk Mask had its advantages and its drawbacks after all!