Chapter 4088 — Are You Lying to Me?

As [Su Zhaohe]'s cousin, [Su Zhaohu] was a man who had seen a fair bit of the world. [Wei Zhao]'s earlier Wildfire Fist, Form Twenty-Nine, had only carried the might of the Foundation Establishment stage, but this palm strike now was unmistakably the power of the early Golden Core stage!

Only a Golden Core expert could master Golden Core martial techniques—of that there was no doubt. However arrogant and overbearing [Su Zhaohu] might be, he would never dare act recklessly before a Golden Core expert. Even his genius cousin had, to this day, only reached the great perfection of Foundation Establishment!

"Let you go?" [Wei Zhao] lifted his eyelids faintly.

"Yes, yes, this lowly one knows his error, this lowly one will never dare again. You are a lofty Golden Core senior—it is not worth soiling your hands with the likes of me..." [Su Zhaohu] knelt on the ground without a shred of dignity, begging for mercy, sniveling and weeping.

"You called yourself a lowly one, and yet you want me to let you go—so you can fetch your sixth cousin to come kill me, is that it?" The corner of [Wei Zhao]'s mouth curled into an amused arc.

"N-no... that is not it... this lowly one would never dare. You are a Golden Core senior; even my cousin could never be your match..." [Su Zhaohu] kowtowed hastily in utter terror.

[Wei Zhao] gave a cold snort, ignoring his pleas, and turned to look at [Chen Muzhuang] on the other side. "You there, [Chen Muzhuang]. You said just now that these people were all lured here by you?"

[Chen Muzhuang] had long since been frightened out of his wits. He stood frozen for a long while before snapping back to his senses with a start, and likewise dropped to his knees before [Wei Zhao], begging, "Senior, spare this little life of mine! I was forced into all of this by them. If I hadn't done as they ordered, I could never have gained a foothold on North Island—they would have hunted me down and killed me..."

"I'll give you one chance. Kill him." [Wei Zhao] issued the order without expression.

"What?" [Chen Muzhuang] and [Su Zhaohu] were both startled. [Su Zhaohu]'s face twisted with alarm and fury, while [Chen Muzhuang] hesitated.

It was not that his heart had softened—[Su Zhaohu] had burned the bridge so thoroughly just now that in his heart he had already slaughtered the bastard ten thousand times over. But [Su Zhaohu] was [Su Zhaohe]'s cousin. If [Chen Muzhuang] dared kill him, then even if he survived today, he would be dead beyond any doubt once he returned to North Island.

"[Chen Muzhuang], you dare! Touch a single hair on my head, and I'll leave your corpse in pieces!" [Su Zhaohu] threatened in shock and rage.

[Chen Muzhuang]'s heart quailed, but seeing [Wei Zhao]'s piercing gaze sweep toward him, he scrambled to his feet, went forward, and braced himself to strike at [Su Zhaohu].

Killing [Su Zhaohu] only meant being hunted down sometime in the future. But if he did not kill [Su Zhaohu], he would die right now—there was no choice at all.

Seeing the killing intent gather on [Chen Muzhuang], [Su Zhaohu] finally dared not drag things out any longer. Before [Chen Muzhuang] could strike, he exploded into motion, a single finger piercing clean through the other man's heart—one blow, instant death.

Yet before he could draw a breath of relief, [Wei Zhao] spoke up before him with a cold laugh. "Right in front of me, you dare kill a member of our squad—and just now you said you'd never dare again? Are you fucking lying to me?"

"No... no..." [Su Zhaohu] hurried to deny it, but [Wei Zhao] gave him no chance at all. He raised his leg for a Wildfire Thousand Legs and kicked the man dozens of zhang away. By the time [Su Zhaohu] crashed heavily against a tree trunk, he was already a mutilated corpse.

Wildfire Thousand Legs was a martial technique [Wei Zhao] had recently pieced together anew. After all, [Meng Zhou]'s Thousand Legs had been genuinely formidable, and once cultivated it could raise one's movement speed. Now, evolved in [Wei Zhao]'s hands into Wildfire Thousand Legs, it had climbed another level—a highly practical martial technique indeed.

"Se-senior... I'm sorry about before..." Seeing [Wei Zhao]'s gaze fall upon them, [Huang Xiaotao] and [Cong Zhima] were scared half to death. To kill so many people in the space of a few moments—this man did not so much as blink when he killed!

They had done nothing to wrong [Wei Zhao] before, but making a Golden Core expert do menial labor was itself a fatal mistake. Given this man's frightful bloodlust, it was not at all impossible that if he took a sudden disliking, he might kill the two of them along with the rest.

"All right, the two of you needn't be afraid. Get up." [Wei Zhao] shook his head with a bitter smile. In truth, he was not really such a merciless killer; it was simply that he was close to making his breakthrough to Golden Core, and today's Wan Du Golden Core Fruit was truly too important to him.

Besides, during these past six months or more at the Welcome Pavilion, he had been bound by all manner of rules and had to weigh the backgrounds of every rival—this one could not be killed, that one could not be offended, and everything had to be done timidly and hesitantly. It had truly stifled him. Now that he was out in the wider world, meeting such blind, worthless scum, how could he possibly not kill them?

Seeing that [Wei Zhao] truly had no intention of calling them to account, [Huang Xiaotao] helped [Cong Zhima] up cautiously, yet her gaze toward [Wei Zhao] remained full of awe, and she dared not come closer.

[Wei Zhao] shook his head helplessly and said to the two of them, "This mission ends here. It's time we parted ways. Take care of yourselves."

Since his strength was already exposed, [Wei Zhao] could not be bothered to go with them to gather those spirit herbs. Finding the Life-Form Mushroom was the ultimate goal of this journey. Besides, judging by the way things stood, even if he were willing to travel with them, the atmosphere would inevitably be awkward—better to part ways here and now.

"Um... well... the Wan Du... Golden Core Fruit..." [Huang Xiaotao] found it awkward and hard to bring up. Much as she wanted the Wan Du Golden Core Fruit, by any reasonable account these had been taken back from [Su Zhaohu] by [Wei Zhao], which made them [Wei Zhao]'s own, with nothing to do with her or [Cong Zhima].

[Wei Zhao] smiled and tossed two of the Wan Du Golden Core Fruits he had recovered from [Su Zhaohu] and the others to [Huang Xiaotao] and [Cong Zhima]. "I'll take three. You two get one each. Any objections?"

[Huang Xiaotao] and [Cong Zhima] were overjoyed and thanked him profusely. "None at all, none at all! Thank you, Senior, thank you, Senior!"

"No need. You earned them." [Wei Zhao] waved a hand indifferently.

[Huang Xiaotao] and [Cong Zhima] exchanged a glance, then summoned their courage. "Senior, your great kindness we shall never forget! Our mission is now more or less complete, but we're short-handed, and both of us are gravely wounded, so we're preparing to head back now. Only, that would mean taking the spirit birds with us. We don't know what Senior intends to do?"

[Huang Xiaotao]'s worry was this: if the two of them left now and abandoned [Wei Zhao] alone in the perilous Hu Cai Tian Wu Mountains, with no flying spirit beast to ride, then even if he was a formidable Golden Core expert, he would likely find things very difficult. R1152