Chapter 4035 — Another Rival

"Next, it's your turn," Wei Zhao said, turning his head and smiling mildly at the group.

Damn it! The long-haired man's eyes nearly split with terror, his face draining white. He spun on his heel and bellowed at the few underlings scrambling away in utter disgrace: "Run, you fools! Do you want to end up down there feeding the sea monsters alongside that idiot hedgehog-head? I'm telling you—the Center... the Center will avenge us!"

With that, the whole lot of them lashed their mounts into a frenzy, and in a chaos of squawking birds and flailing limbs they fled at full speed. One of them lost his footing and plunged straight into the sea, swallowed whole by a monster below—yet not one of the others so much as glanced back. In the blink of an eye they had vanished from Wei Zhao's sight.

"These raptor spirit-beasts are genuinely fast," Wei Zhao said, blinking in no small surprise. Rooting out evil to the last, he had meant to wipe them all out in one sweep, but he had not expected their mounts to be quite so swift. "That threat he left behind—what was it about? What center?"

No matter. He had no fear of anyone witnessing that move of his. They had seen only Zheng Tianjie's corpse, not the havoc unleashed by his dan-fire true-qi bomb; and the bodies of the men he had blasted to death had dropped straight down and been devoured by the sea monsters. No one could possibly examine them closely—to say nothing of Zheng Tianjie's corpse, which Wei Zhao had already disguised.

It was only that parting threat of theirs, one phrase of which Wei Zhao had not caught clearly.

"That stands to reason. Raptor spirit-beasts are famed for speed, but their carrying capacity is far inferior to ordinary flying spirit-beasts, and most people can't handle them—the ride is none too steady either. So they're hardly suited to our merchant guild's use." Hong Zhong paused, then asked with concern, "I didn't catch it clearly either. Probably some little interest group they've formed. Young Hero Lin, are you all right?"

With Hong Zhong's sharp eye, even as he marveled at Wei Zhao's earlier display, he could tell that Wei Zhao himself had likely taken some injury.

"It's nothing—just a scratch," Wei Zhao said, all the while circulating his mental cultivation formula within to heal himself, and smiling as though nothing were amiss.

This devastating move, fusing the true-qi bomb with the dan-fire bomb, could—even used at its bare minimum—obliterate a cultivator at the peak of Foundation Establishment in an instant. But the price it exacted was no small thing either: released at close range, he himself suffered no light backlash.

He could enter the jade-pendant space to heal swiftly, and that price was well within what Wei Zhao could bear—but in actual combat, it remained a move that risked his life through and through.

One strike unleashed, and whether or not the foe died, he himself was gravely wounded first. That was a fatal flaw.

Beyond that, though the charge-up time this move required was markedly shorter than the true-qi bomb's, it was still considerably slower than conventional martial techniques. Had his opponent not prattled on so long just now, Wei Zhao doubted he would have had the chance to ready it at all.

So it was clear: for all its immense power, if this move was ever to become a standard killing art, he would have to find ways to keep refining it in the days to come.

"Good, then. Rest up, Young Hero Lin." Hong Zhong nodded to Wei Zhao and asked no further questions.

From that astonishing strike of Wei Zhao's, Hong Zhong could easily have guessed that the death of Zheng Tianjie of the Central Island Pill Hall had most likely come at Wei Zhao's hand. But he had no intention of asking. If Wei Zhao wished to speak, he would; since he did not, Hong Zhong would pretend not to know.

In his eyes, Zheng Tianjie was no different from the men of the Wantong Merchant Guild who had just been killed—all of them rivals to the Hong Merchant Guild, and anyone who threatened it would be dealt with without mercy.

Wei Zhao gave a grunt of assent and was just about to sit down cross-legged when another burst of incredibly swift raptor flight came rushing from behind.

Those few had actually dared to turn back—had they seen that he was injured? Wei Zhao was briefly taken aback, but at once realized he was wrong. This time only three had come after them.

"You all saw that move just now, didn't you? What do you make of it, martial nephew?" Nan Tianxiong asked one of the men behind him in a low voice.

"Reporting to Martial Uncle, the distance was too great to see it clearly, but this disciple is certain—the sensation was identical to when my master was killed. So this Wei Zhao must be Lin Er without a doubt!" Yu Jiang declared with utter conviction.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go after them, brother!" Nan Tianguan could scarcely contain himself. He was a single step from the Golden Core stage, and his hunger for the Star Ink Stone burned more fiercely than anyone's.

"Good. It looks like that brat has spent himself after that one move and has nothing left. As for that old man Hong Zhong, he's nothing but a merchant—in all my years on the North Island I've never heard of him being any kind of fighter. Nothing to worry about. Let's move." Nan Tianxiong grinned and gave the order.

In moments, the raptors bearing Nan Tianxiong and his two companions appeared directly above Wei Zhao and Hong Zhong.

"So they did follow. These three are like ghosts that won't let go." Wei Zhao raised an eyebrow slightly. He had in fact noticed the three of them back at the auction, and had been rather startled at the time, though he had paid them no heed.

Hovering high overhead, Nan Tianxiong looked down upon them and said, "Should I call you Wei Zhao, or should I call you by your other name—Lin Er? My third brother, Nan Tianyong, was killed by you, wasn't he?"

Wei Zhao was about to speak, but Hong Zhong pressed a hand to his shoulder, signaling that he needn't bother with them and should just focus on healing.

"Silent? Then you admit it. The debt for killing a master is irreconcilable—please, Martial Uncles, avenge your disciple!" Yu Jiang put on a mask of grief and wailed as though his heart were being torn apart.

"As if you needed to tell us." Nan Tianguan curled his lip and pointed at Wei Zhao. "I'll give you two choices. One: we throw you down right now to feed the sea beasts, and you die with no corpse left whole. Two: you hand over the Star Ink Stone and the treasures you bid on these past two days of your own accord—and of course you still die in the end, but we'll leave your body intact. Take your pick."

"Heh. Death either way—you're as domineering as ever, sir." Hong Zhong suddenly laughed. "Though last time we merely threw you into the street to be shamed. This time we're out on the vast open sea. If you're thrown down again, it'll be your life."

"Gah!" Nan Tianguan choked on the words. Last time, to learn the truth of Lin Er's identity, he had personally taken Yu Jiang to the Hong Merchant Guild—only to end up exactly like Nan Tianyong, flung from the second floor into the street like a dead dog. That was the greatest humiliation of his life, and now Hong Zhong had thrown it in his face. This was beyond all bearing! R1152