Chapter 3912 — The Dreaded Tentacle

"Tch! So this really is a place where even a Core Formation expert can lose his life. I still don't know what that thing down there actually looks like, but it's certainly a nasty piece of work!" Watching the crimson tentacle shoot toward him, Wei Zhao's heart went cold.

He was suspended in midair, unable to change speed or adjust direction—the moment of greatest helplessness. If that crimson tentacle seized him, or worse, dragged him down into the Half-Moon Lake, then given his strength there could be only one outcome: certain death.

Yet Wei Zhao had taken nothing for granted; he had prepared long in advance. Throughout the hour he had spent observing the giant spirit beast's patterns of movement, he had never been idle, quietly gathering power for a trump card strong enough to answer it.

In that split second, the top-grade true-qi bomb he had been charging all along flew from his hand and slammed down head-on.

Boom! After a somewhat muffled detonation, the lake surface gradually fell calm—and staring at the scene beneath his feet, even Wei Zhao stood a long while with his mouth agape.

The last time he had used a top-grade true-qi bomb against Nan Tianyong, the commotion had shaken the entire market district. He had expected the same effect this time, but to his surprise, the bomb's blast against the crimson tentacle amounted to no more than a stone dropped into a pond—it merely set the surface of Half-Moon Lake trembling slightly. Nothing more.

What stunned Wei Zhao even more was that though the crimson tentacle had taken his top-grade true-qi bomb dead-on, the result was nothing but a momentary check to its movement. It did not even bear a scratch; it remained crimson and sleek, lively as ever.

What a terrifying thing! Dread filled Wei Zhao's heart. An existence that even a top-grade true-qi bomb could not handle was far beyond his capacity—any thought of trading blows with it was suicide. To come out of this alive at all would already be a stroke of tremendous luck.

Still, that top-grade true-qi bomb had not been entirely useless: at least it had successfully blocked the crimson tentacle's attack, and in that opening Wei Zhao had finally managed to dart onto the trunk of the central fir tree as he had hoped.

But this was no time to breathe easy, for the crimson tentacle was astonishingly long, and where Wei Zhao now stood at the edge of the fir, he could be snatched down at any moment—and this time he had no top-grade true-qi bomb left to fall back on.

The instant his feet found the branch, Wei Zhao shot upward without hesitation, and to break free of the crimson tentacle's pursuit he even resorted to a true-qi ** technique, instantly pushing his speed to its utmost.

With no leisure to probe what unknown dangers might lurk in the canopy above, Wei Zhao had only one thing to do now: escape the crimson tentacle below. If he could not manage that at once, then given the speed the thing had just displayed, his chances today were truly grim.

As Wei Zhao desperately raced upward, the crimson tentacle indeed kept prowling and watching below; at the slightest opening it would strike like lightning, as it had before, and kill in a single blow.

Fortunately Wei Zhao was decisive enough. Once he was a full twenty meters above the lake surface, the crimson tentacle sullenly withdrew beneath the water, and as the last ripple smoothed away, Half-Moon Lake regained its former calm—as if that eerie tentacle had never been there at all.

"Phew! As expected of my junior brother—his strength far surpasses his senior sister's! Looks like I'll have to train hard once we're back; I can't let my junior brother leave me too far behind!" Shangguan Lan'er, who had been watching the fight from behind the tree, breathed a great sigh of relief. "Isn't that right, Little White!"

The little Curly Bear nodded along.

Brief as that scene had been, Miss Shangguan Lan'er could see the peril in it. Had it been any other peak early-Core Formation expert—or even a mid-Core Formation one—they would surely have been done for outright; there was no way they could have withdrawn unscathed as Wei Zhao had.

Wei Zhao himself, however, was nowhere near as relaxed as Shangguan Lan'er imagined. Standing atop the fir's canopy at that very moment, in the space of a few blinks he had been drenched in cold sweat.

Facing that crimson tentacle, the sense that his life might be snatched away at any instant was like facing a death god descended upon the world of men. Wei Zhao had not felt this heart-in-throat terror in a very long time.

"What in the world is this thing? A single tentacle is already this insane—if its true body came up, would anyone even be allowed to live?" Wei Zhao could not help but wonder in alarm.

Even without seeing its true face, judging merely from that vast black shadow at the lake bottom, this one paltry tentacle could not possibly represent its full strength; it might well be no more than a little trick for hunting prey.

If a single tentacle could withstand the full force of a top-grade true-qi bomb without a scratch, then the strength of the main body was all the more unimaginable. No wonder it could slay a mighty Core Formation expert—it was truly no small matter.

"Forget it. Since I've made it up here, I may as well find the thing first." Wei Zhao shook his head and put the giant spirit beast at the lake bottom out of his mind. From the look of it, the creature would not come up easily, and while he remained among these fir trees he could set its threat aside for the time being.

Still, perilous as that last step had been, Wei Zhao did not believe reaching the fir tree meant success was assured. By the logic that the closer one comes to a treasure the greater the danger, the truly lethal part was only now beginning.

Precious natural treasures are often guarded by powerful spirit beasts. The nameless colossus at the lake bottom was already a terror in the fullest sense—yet after all, it could not climb trees, nor could it truly approach the heart of this giant fir. That was its natural disadvantage.

According to Shangguan Lan'er, this giant fir had stood for at least several thousand years; it was said to have existed already when Half-Moon Lake was discovered, and its most exquisite treasure lay within the hollow at its heart.

So in Wei Zhao's view, apart from the nameless terror at the lake bottom, another guardian spirit beast was very likely hidden within the tree hollow. Its strength might not match the horror below, but to dwell as its neighbor, it could hardly be weak—it must be guarded against.

Only after a careful close-range survey did Wei Zhao find an entrance atop the canopy, leading straight down into the hollow within. (Little White is a Curly Bear; "curly" and "circle" are both "juan" on the input method, so sometimes when typed it comes out as circle. Already corrected.) R1152