Chapter 4249 — A Ready Consent

Huang Xiaotao, meanwhile, was watching Wei Zhao. Even if her own heart was stirred, she would only ever act in step with him; wherever Wei Zhao went, she went.

"If that's really how it is, we can go, but..." Guo Dengtao and Wang Feng exchanged a glance and nodded at the same time, though a last thread of caution remained. Looking at Chu Bubai, they asked doubtfully, "Since it's such a fine opportunity, Brother Chu, why don't you go yourselves?"

Guo Dengtao and Wang Feng could be counted as sworn brothers, but with Chu Bubai their friendship was nowhere near so close. When it came to a top-grade natural treasure like the infant ginseng, cultivators who held strength above all else would disown even their own blood brothers and masters, let alone a bond as shallow as this.

Besides, entering the Rufeng Forest had required the six of them to gather, but there was no such need for the return trip. If they were in Chu Bubai's shoes, they would have split off long ago and slipped in secretly on their own. How could anyone hand such crucial intelligence to so many people, and even go to such lengths to urge everyone to come along?

An infant ginseng was a thing to monopolize if one could; who ever complained of having too much? Would Chu Bubai really be so generous as to hand it over and share with the rest?

Stirred they might be, but as seasoned mid-stage Golden Core cultivators, Guo Dengtao and Wang Feng were no fools. They would not trust Chu Bubai so completely; the depths ahead were fraught with peril, and with their lives and fortunes at stake, they remained cautious.

"On that point, I can tell you frankly: infant ginseng is exceedingly hard to find. Even knowing the approximate location, I couldn't possibly know it precisely—after all, the spot is only marked on a map, and I've never been there myself, so it would be hard to find at short notice." Chu Bubai paused, swept his gaze over the others, and said, "With more people going, it will naturally be easier to find, and we can cut down the time spent searching. In deep mountains and old forests like those, every extra quarter-hour is another measure of danger—I wouldn't dare linger long either."

Guo Dengtao and Wang Feng nodded slightly. Chu Bubai's reasoning was quite fair and entirely understandable, and because of it they regarded him a shade more highly.

Put themselves in his place and think: if they stood where Chu Bubai stood, even knowing the danger, they would never bring out such vital intelligence to share with everyone. That took no small courage.

"You all surely know that infant ginseng needn't be a whole plant—even a small piece can be used to refine a Gestation-Forming Golden Core. So long as we can find a single plant, the six of us split it evenly, and every share will still be enough to refine one such pill. Now you understand what I mean?" Chu Bubai said, his eyes burning as he looked at them.

"Good, we trust Brother Chu. In that case, we're in!" Guo Dengtao and Wang Feng said, nodding heavily in unison.

"Excellent!" Chu Bubai was greatly delighted, then turned to Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao, who had stayed silent off to the side, and asked, "And you two? Will you come with us, or shall we part ways here?"

As he spoke, the atmosphere inside the tree hollow plunged to freezing. Killing intent flickered in Chu Bubai's eyes—clearly, if Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao refused outright, he would erupt and silence them for good.

Should it come to that, Wei Zhao was certain that everyone present, Guo Dengtao and Wang Feng included, would not stop Chu Bubai—they might even join in.

For all that Guo Dengtao seemed the easygoing sort, when a supreme treasure like infant ginseng was at stake, blood brothers could turn on each other in the face of profit, let alone a band thrown together on the spot. If Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao would not join, then they had best be prepared: this secret might leak.

And once word leaked, even if no one in the Rufeng Forest came to contest it, once they succeeded and left, others would inevitably learn that they might be carrying infant ginseng. An innocent man is guilty for the jade he bears—the troubles that would trail after them could be reckoned even on one's toes.

So at present Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao had only two choices. Either they became one of them—only if all prospered together, bound by shared interest, grasshoppers strung on the same line, could the secret be kept from leaking.

As for the other choice, it could only be to silence them. The jianghu was a treacherous place; no matter what oaths Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao swore, the others believed only one thing—only the dead keep secrets. For that, even a man like Guo Dengtao would steel himself to kill.

In an instant they became the target of every eye, watched with such hungry intensity, and Chu Bubai had even deliberately blocked the only opening—one sign of refusal and it would be a turtle caught in a jar. The storm was about to break; Huang Xiaotao's palms broke out in a nervous sweat, and she turned to see Wei Zhao's stance.

Yet Wei Zhao remained utterly unmoved, calmly taking the measure of them all. Chu Bubai had won over Guo Dengtao and Wang Feng, and there was Feng Hongyu besides, so on the surface he held the absolute upper hand—but in Wei Zhao's eyes, this was not even worth calling a threat.

With him and Huang Xiaotao joining forces, Chu Bubai, a late-stage Golden Core expert, was no more than an ant to be crushed at a flick of the hand. Even if all of them attacked together, there was nothing to fear.

One combined strike of their Frenzied Fire Eight-Trigram Palms could instantly kill two of them, Chu Bubai included; another strike, and the rest would all be dead. There was no need at all to play along and feign compliance.

"Of course we'll join too," Wei Zhao said with a faint smile, nodding in good cheer. He truly had set his heart on this infant ginseng; since he was already here in the Rufeng Forest, he might as well follow Chu Bubai and see.

Whatever tricks Chu Bubai played afterward, the absolute strength he and Huang Xiaotao commanded was plain for all to see—it would not be too late to act then. For now, better to keep playing the pig to eat the tiger.

"Good—straightforward!" Chu Bubai visibly froze for a moment, then could not help saying with delight.

As it happened, though Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao had the lowest nominal strength among them, for some reason Chu Bubai was in his heart most wary of Wei Zhao. Whether it was the composed air Wei Zhao displayed, or that unexpected moment earlier when he had produced the spirit-jade card, both made him instinctively feel this man was not so simple, not one to be easily fooled.

Yet he had never expected Wei Zhao to agree so readily and directly—that genuinely caught Chu Bubai off guard. Still, all the better; it saved trouble.

Unless driven to it, he did not wish to turn ruthlessly on his teammates, for even if Guo Dengtao and Wang Feng said nothing, resentment would surely fester in their hearts, and in the operations to come it might well become an unforeseen variable. (Happy Lantern Festival! The School Beauty's Close-Range Bodyguard tribe has events—everyone can search for it via mobile QQ to enter the tribe, or via the public WeChat account yuren22.)

(