Chapter 4227 — Into the Tiger's Den

Still, once the boy came to his senses, he would surely come fawning and begging, meekly offering the woman over of his own accord—though whether he would live long enough to do so was another matter entirely.

"Oh? Then let us wait and see. Show me just how fast you can be!" Wei Zhao answered with an equally cold laugh, the killing intent in his heart surging ever more violently.

Cheng Qitian did indeed seem a man of formidable backing—the fact that he could keep a full Nascent Soul expert as a mere attendant was proof enough of that. But to capitulate the moment one arrived was not Wei Zhao's way, and to hand Huang Xiaotao over besides—never mind whether she would consent, she was the reverse scale at his throat, and how could he not erupt in fury?

It was simply that this place was strange to him and he knew no one. Had they been on the North Island or the Central Island, he would have struck at once and killed this insufferably arrogant Cheng Qitian outright. With Huang Xiaotao at his side, after all, he was invincible among Golden Core cultivators; caught off guard, the man would surely have been struck down. As for that Nascent Soul expert, so long as they escaped this calamity, there would in time be someone to deal with him.

"Good—there's some spine in you. But I would like to see how long you can keep it up!" Cheng Qitian gave a cold snort, then ordered, "Old Kong, we're leaving. Let's see whether this boy dares enter Weihu City in a moment!"

The words had barely fallen when the other party's flying spirit beast whipped up a violent, restless gale and shot swiftly into the distance. In but a short moment it had shrunk to a tiny black speck and vanished from Wei Zhao's and Huang Xiaotao's sight.

Watching that arrogant figure dwindle into the distance, Wei Zhao's expression could not help but turn somewhat grave—though he was rather surprised as well. He had assumed that a man so overbearing would never have the patience to keep waiting, but would simply order that Nascent Soul servant to seize the woman by force.

On paper, after all, he and Huang Xiaotao were only at the early Golden Core stage. By any normal person's reckoning, the two sides were not even on the same level, and snatching what one wanted by force would be a trifling matter.

Yet had the man truly done so, it would instead have given Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao their opening. With one combined strike of their Frenzied Fire Eight Trigrams Palm, even a Nascent Soul expert, caught unawares and struck head-on, would certainly be injured—while Cheng Qitian, a late Golden Core cultivator, would fare no better than Xu Lingchong had in his day.

Only, such a thing demanded the most exquisite timing. It had to be utterly foolproof: once they made their move, there would be no second chance. Since the other party had not let arrogance lower his guard and strike, Wei Zhao naturally would not take such a risk for nothing.

"This Cheng Qitian seems to be a practitioner of the evil arts," Wei Zhao said thoughtfully. Several times the man had demanded that Huang Xiaotao come with him of her own accord; the reason he did not simply seize her by force was, presumably, that he wanted her willing.

"What do we do now? Maybe we should turn back?" Huang Xiaotao was somewhat frightened. Having spent so long at the North Island cultivators' guild, she knew well the trouble a beautiful woman could bring, and for that reason she had always been careful, keeping her veil firmly in place. Yet even so, that Cheng Qitian had fixed his eyes on her.

For the lure a woman holds over a man lies not only in a peerless face and a slender, graceful figure—those too exert a most deadly pull.

"How could we? We've come all this way—how can we simply turn back with nothing done?" Wei Zhao shook his head decisively. His own heart was somewhat heavy just now: to provoke such a seemingly powerful local serpent the moment they arrived—how were they to carry out the task ahead?

"But… from what that man said, it sounds like he means to wait at Weihu City to catch us. Are we still going?" Huang Xiaotao still felt somewhat nervous.

"There's no other way. Even knowing the mountain is full of tigers, we can only walk straight into the tiger's den." Wei Zhao thought it over, and at last made his decision.

In their plan, Weihu City was to be the first stop after reaching the Weihu sea region, for it was the very core of the whole Weihu sea region: together with the several islands about it, it was the most flourishing and central gathering place of cultivators here, and the indispensable transit point for reaching any other part of the Weihu sea region.

Whatever an outsider came to the Weihu sea region to do—whether to gain first-hand, accurate intelligence or to replenish supplies—the first stop was invariably Weihu City. There was no way around it, whatever detours one took.

Yet from what Wei Zhao had learned, there were no unified powers or sects here. Merchant associations, mercenary companies, guilds and all manner of tangled factions were gathered together, among which a few were especially powerful, each going its own way as always—rather like those ancient sects of the secular world.

Whether that Poison Eye Mercenary Company of Cheng Qitian's was numbered among these most powerful factions, however, Wei Zhao did not know.

The Weihu sea region was utterly unlike the North Island, after all. On the North Island, the Three-Tiered Pavilion could stand for a thousand years unshaken; but in the Weihu sea region, even a power at its blazing zenith could be supplanted the very next moment—and that was a most commonplace thing.

In truth, even the most overweening of flourishing powers seldom held sway in the Weihu sea region for more than ten years. So here there were few great houses of old, and many newly risen lords.

And the North Island and the South Island lay far apart, their ties none too close: whatever faint rumor drifted across arrived long after the fact. Even the whereabouts of that Wu Baoliang, as updated by the Law Enforcement Hall—how reliable it was could in no way be guaranteed.

As for this so-called Poison Eye Mercenary Company—when exactly it had sprung up as one of these newly risen powers, whether within the past month or the past year, was all the more impossible to know.

Yet whatever sort of thing this Poison Eye Mercenary Company might be, a man of Wei Zhao's temper could never be cowed by the likes of a mere Cheng Qitian. He had braved a place as perilous as the Central Island, made his name there, and walked away whole—would he now fear this tiny, outlying corner of the Weihu sea region, fear a mere Poison Eye Mercenary Company?

"Oh, whatever happens, I'll follow your lead." Huang Xiaotao nodded. With one simple sentence from Wei Zhao, the unease in her brow vanished utterly into thin air.

As a young woman newly arrived and at once threatened by so powerful a local serpent, it would have been unnatural not to be afraid at all. But so long as she could stay at Wei Zhao's side, she would not knit her brows even to climb a mountain of blades or wade through a sea of fire. Wherever Wei Zhao went, that was her world; all else was passing cloud.

"Very well, then—let us go to Weihu City and have a look at this Cheng Qitian." Wei Zhao smiled faintly, and at once drove the spirit bird beneath them on toward Weihu City. (To be continued...)