Chapter 4097 — Swiftly Wanted

"No need. They won't let it go that easily, and this way we move faster." Wei Zhao spoke without turning his head, pouring all his strength into the Butterfly Microstep. Even carrying a person on his back, he was still far faster than Xue Li, a peak Earth-Rank cultivator, could ever have been on her own.

Exquisite as the Butterfly Microstep was, it took only a moment before Wei Shenjin's figure came trailing close behind.

Carrying someone on his back ultimately cost him too much speed, and his pursuer was, after all, an expert of the early Golden Core stage—an early Golden Core cultivator who excelled at lightness skills, no less.

"Die, the both of you!" Wei Shenjin let out a savage laugh, and his already prodigious speed surged even higher. In an instant he shot up behind the pair and drove a palm strike at them, intent on piercing through both bodies at once and killing them in a single blow.

But Wei Zhao had long since prepared for this. True qi gathered at his fingertips, and without so much as a glance backward, guided solely by his divine sense, he loosed a single Furious Flame Finger at the man's thigh. Caught completely off guard, Wei Shenjin took the hit dead-on.

The Finger technique was the martial art Su Zhaohu had used to kill Chen Muzhuang. Its power was considerable, though it was hardly profound. Wei Zhao had grasped it easily after a single look and refined it into the Furious Flame Finger. Now it happened to serve him perfectly—and later he could simply pin the blame on Su Zhaohu. The man was already dead, after all, and the dead could not testify.

By the time these people sensed something was wrong and began to suspect him, he would long since be back on North Island.

"Aagh!" A sharp pain stabbed through his thigh, and Wei Shenjin's face went dark at once. His leg buckled, and he crashed into a heap of garbage at the roadside, forced to watch helplessly as Wei Zhao and Xue Li fled into the distance, unable to rise and give chase. He could only grind his teeth and snarl, "That treacherous bastard—if I'd known, I'd have drawn my sword and run him through!"

As a core disciple of the Snow Sword Sect, the sword was where Wei Shenjin's true strength lay. But drawing his sword would raise a snow omen, and this was the busy district of Cloud Rank Island, where brawling was strictly forbidden by law. Add to that a moment's carelessness, and he had decided to settle the matter with his palms—only to be wounded instead.

"Senior Brother Wei, how did you get hurt?" Situ Qian, catching up from behind, froze at the sight of Wei Shenjin sprawled in the garbage, a sorry sight from head to toe.

Wei Shenjin was a core disciple whom the Snow Sword Sect's higher-ups regarded as a pillar of the sect, a full-fledged Golden Core expert. In Situ Qian's eyes, hunting down Ling Yi and Xue Li should have been effortless—a matter of simply reaching out and taking them.

That Ling Yi had only just recovered from grave injuries, and was even carrying the dead weight of Xue Li on his back—such an obvious target. It would have been a wonder if he could escape from Wei Shenjin's grasp. And yet, who would have thought the boat really would capsize in the gutter?

"It's nothing. I just let him catch me off guard with a cheap trick." Wei Shenjin's face darkened, unable to hide his embarrassment as he answered in a voice thick as stagnant water.

Situ Qian helped him up from the ground, half-believing, half-doubting, and ventured, "So what do we do now? We can't just let that despicable pair run off, can we?"

She could not help but suspect that Wei Shenjin still harbored illusions about that wretched woman and had therefore gone easy on her just now—otherwise there was no way the other side could have escaped so easily. But if that were true, her own position became rather awkward.

If Wei Shenjin still had feelings for Xue Li, how was she supposed to smoothly become his dual-cultivation partner? And beyond that, Wei Zhao's earlier accusation that she was a woman ridden by a thousand men had given her a genuine fright!

So no matter what, she had to find a way to silence that despicable pair for good before she could rest easy. Every day those two lived was one more day of deadly risk.

"How could we possibly let them go? Those two sluts must die! We'll go back right now and report to the sect, have them hunted throughout the city—let's see where they can run!" Wei Shenjin gnashed his teeth in hatred.

Situ Qian's heart leaped with joy at his words; they struck exactly the chord she wanted. She pressed on, "Yes, yes, we'll make sure they can't escape even if they grow wings. But what reason do we give when we report back?"

If he simply told the truth, Wei Shenjin would lose face utterly. He thought for a moment, then said, "We'll say Xue Li eloped with that wild man, and that before fleeing, they ambushed and wounded me!"

"Senior Brother is brilliant! That way she'll be a traitor to the sect—we won't even need to lift a finger. The higher-ups at the sect will absolutely hack that despicable pair to pieces!" Situ Qian praised him, bursting with delight.

The two settled on the plan and acted on it at once. Sure enough, when the Snow Sword Sect's higher-ups learned of the matter, they flew into a rage. Betraying one's sect was the gravest of crimes in any faction. They immediately mobilized the entire sect's strength to hunt Wei Zhao and Xue Li throughout the city!

After all, this was a sect that could hold its ground on Central Island. Once the Snow Sword Sect moved, it moved with the force of thunder. Within a mere half-hour, wanted notices were plastered throughout the city. They bore rough sketches of the pair's appearance and bearing, naming the man a coarse, boorish brute and the woman Xue Li, a serving girl of the Snow Sword Sect.

At the first glimpse of people putting up wanted notices ahead—and of all things, notices for the two of them—Wei Zhao and Xue Li were badly startled. They had never imagined the other side would react so quickly. Fortunately, they had been traveling through deserted alleyways all along, with few passersby about; otherwise their whereabouts would surely have been exposed long ago.

Wei Zhao quickly brought Xue Li to a halt, retreated back into the empty alley, and removed the Thousand-Silk Mask, revealing his true face.

At the sight of that familiar face of Wei Zhao's, a touch of warmth and tenderness came unbidden into Xue Li's eyes. She had known all along that he was Wei Zhao, of course, but facing a stranger's brutish visage and facing Wei Zhao's own features were, in the end, two very different things.

There was no time for her to dwell on it, however. As expected, the wanted notices covered the whole city outside, and she could not help but feel a little afraid and panicked. She lifted her face to Wei Zhao and said guiltily, "Wei Zhao, I'm sorry. It's all because of me that you're caught up in this."

"What nonsense are you talking about? You're my little, little, little, little, little wife—doesn't that count for anything anymore?" Wei Zhao said, deliberately putting on a stern face.

"Heh heh... you still remember that..." Xue Li lowered her head, both happy and bashful, a fetching flush spreading across her fair cheeks like the ripe luster of a blooming flower, stirring an unconscious fondness in anyone who beheld her. Even Wei Zhao stared, eyes fixed, utterly captivated.

"By the way, how did your strength become so formidable? You actually wounded Wei Shenjin, a Golden Core cultivator. Don't tell me you've already reached the Golden Core stage yourself?" Xue Li suddenly asked.