Chapter 4176 — At Death's Door

The rest of the onlookers were still unable to determine Wei Zhao's age for certain, but Kang Jingming knew it very well: Wei Zhao really was only twenty years old. To succeed in forming a Golden Core at twenty—what the hell kind of concept was that?

Not to mention that Su Zhaohe, this so-called genius who had formed his core at thirty-five, could not compare—even if one scanned the entire history of Yunjie Island and counted every formidable figure one by one, one would probably fail to find a single powerhouse who had formed a core at twenty. What was Wei Zhao, then? A freak, or a madman?

Compared with the shock and helplessness of Kang Jingming and the others, Miserable Senior Brother, Xiao Che, and the rest now let out a long breath of foul air. When they had first learned that Su Zhaohe was at the early Golden Core stage, they had truly been sweating for Wei Zhao—who would have thought that in the blink of an eye Wei Zhao would turn the situation completely around!

To have successfully formed a core back in his Welcome Pavilion days—Wei Zhao was not merely the number one newcomer of the present; even across the entire history of the Sandie Pavilion, he could claim the throne of number one newcomer, and might even surpass a legendary figure like Zhang Lifeng. This was a terrifying achievement worthy of being written into the annals of history!

Miserable Senior Brother and the others were beside themselves with excitement, and over in the stands, Shangguan Lan'er and Huang Xiaotao were even more astonished and delighted. The worry they had felt for Wei Zhao had been greater than anyone's by far.

When they had just learned that Su Zhaohe was actually an early Golden Core expert, Shangguan Lan'er had even grabbed her own grandfather's beard, ready to make Shangguan Tianxia forcibly intervene and call a halt.

As for Huang Xiaotao, though she knew Wei Zhao could escape from the hands of a Golden Core expert, that was a completely different matter from facing an early Golden Core Su Zhaohe in battle.

However much one might dislike Su Zhaohe as a person, one thing could not be denied: this man was strong. At the great perfection of Foundation Establishment he had already been able to mount a head-on counterattack against Golden Core experts—now that he had reached the early Golden Core stage, would he not be even more powerful and unsolvable?

The odds were grim, and the two women's judgment of the situation matched everyone else's. Yet who could have expected that Wei Zhao was already at the early Golden Core stage as well—this was a genuine earth-shaking piece of news!

But the layman watches the commotion while the expert watches the craft. Though the whole crowd had been utterly dazzled, they still failed to see where Wei Zhao's true heaven-defying quality lay. Only Shangguan Tianxia, with a single glance, pierced straight to the essence of it; the look in his eyes as he now regarded Wei Zhao shimmered with an uncommon light.

"A Ten Thousand Beauty Golden Core? Could this little thing have achieved a perfect breakthrough?" Even Shangguan Tianxia, a top-tier magnate, was truly taken aback by Wei Zhao now. Both were early Golden Core, yet the aura surrounding Wei Zhao was simply not something a so-called millennium genius like Su Zhaohe could ever be mentioned in the same breath with.

Forming a core at twenty was already an earth-shattering event, and adding the legendary perfect breakthrough made it even more absurdly heaven-defying. Shangguan Tianxia could not help but give rise to an unprecedented sigh of feeling—the younger generation truly was to be feared!

"What? You are early Golden Core too?" Su Zhaohe, the man himself, was now both shocked and furious. He had thought crushing Wei Zhao would be as easy as crushing an ant, but in this instant he suddenly felt a pang of insecurity.

"Yes, so your proposal of forming a core at thirty-five is far too difficult for me—I really cannot accomplish it..." Wei Zhao shrugged and spread his hands with a playful air. "Barring any surprises, by then I will probably already be at the Nascent Soul stage, so I truly cannot come back and form a core again. I simply cannot meet your requirement..."

The crowd immediately burst into loud laughter. The way of the world had always been to lift up the high and trample the low, and these spectators naturally sided with the strong. Earlier they had assumed Su Zhaohe had Wei Zhao dead to rights, but now it looked as though that was not the case at all, so the wind naturally shifted. Su Zhaohe was arrogant and showy, and there was no shortage of people who disliked him.

"Hmph, Nascent Soul? I'll Nascent Soul you into a ghost!" Faced with the crowd's jeering and mockery, Su Zhaohe's nose twisted with rage in an instant, and his face turned ashen as he snarled in a fit of humiliated fury: "Today I will make you understand properly what it means that there is always someone better! Even among early Golden Core experts there are the strong and the weak—before me you are nothing but trash with an empty rank! Go die!"

As he spoke, the arena beneath Su Zhaohe's feet exploded violently, and his figure instantly dissolved into formlessness. At last he no longer dared to boast that he would give Wei Zhao a free strike.

Su Zhaohe was no fool, after all. Though he believed he could challenge above his level and was invincible among his peers, and still believed he had a hundred-percent certainty against Wei Zhao, this dark horse, he also knew that battles between equals were not so easy to handle. A moment's carelessness and the boat really might capsize in the gutter.

So even at the cost of eating his own words and losing face, Su Zhaohe still chose to strike first. Only the one who laughed last had the right to speak; so long as he could smoothly trample Wei Zhao underfoot, the stronger Wei Zhao was, the more it would set off his own prowess!

"So fast!" Seeing that the fight had finally begun, everyone in the stands perked up and cried out in alarm one after another.

Among all these Sandie Pavilion disciples there was no lack of Golden Core experts, but even by their standards, the sudden sight of Su Zhaohe's skill made them jump, and their faces showed looks of dread.

If a few of the early Golden Core experts present were to go up, far from contending with Su Zhaohe, against the terrifying speed he displayed now they would not even be able to touch the corner of his clothes—they would likely be toyed with and slaughtered with ease.

Nothing is indestructible; only speed is unbreakable. This principle applied not only to martial arts—for cultivators like them, it held just as true.

Yet what he did next was what truly left them gaping.

Bang! A explosive shock suddenly rang out over the arena, and Su Zhaohe's figure, already blurred with speed, abruptly grew a whole notch faster with that shock. The crowd below could not even catch his silhouette with their eyes, let alone contend with him!

"Breaking the sound barrier? Heh, that speed is indeed not bad for an ordinary early Golden Core expert, but before me it is still too weak." Wei Zhao stood on the arena and said with a faint smile, still with his hands behind his back, unmoved.

"At death's door and still putting on airs—I will grant you your wish!" Su Zhaohe grinned hideously, his speed increasing rather than slowing, while his hands hooked into claws. Peerless true qi swiftly gathered at his fingertips, giving off a chilling and terrifying aura; every time they swept through the air they left five trails of true qi behind, like sharp blades.

Then, under the horrified gazes of the crowd below, in the blink of an eye a dense spiderweb had woven itself across the arena, sweeping in from all directions to close in and shroud Wei Zhao.