Chapter 4250 — Some Doubts Arise

"All right." Wei Zhao gave him a look, nodded, and handed over the pack slung across his shoulders—the same one Chu Bubai had given him that very morning. As for what was inside it, he had no idea.

Chu Bubai rummaged through the pack for a moment, drew out six maps, and handed them one by one to Wei Zhao and the others.

Weren't they already given maps? Wei Zhao was puzzled, but when he took his and looked closely, he understood at once that the two were not the same. Both were maps of the Rufeng Forest, but the one Chu Bubai had provided was plainly much larger than the map issued at the teleportation array, and far more detailed as well.

The map from the array did mark locations, but only vaguely, with few landmark features or reference points noted. The map Chu Bubai gave them, by contrast, marked everything clearly and plainly, from the great ridges and peaks down to the smallest gullies and streams—even someone visiting the Rufeng Forest for the first time could understand it at a glance.

Wei Zhao could not help glancing at Chu Bubai, secretly astonished. Where on earth had this thing come from?

Ordinary maps were easy enough to find, but a detailed map like this was something no ordinary person could possibly possess. For cultivators set on venturing into the Rufeng Forest, the map alone was already a treasure of no small worth.

If word got out, there would surely be buyers offering tens of thousands of spirit jade. In a place as perilous as the Rufeng Forest, a finely drawn map was, to a cultivator, a guarantee of survival.

Still, comparing it with the map from the teleportation array, Wei Zhao noticed that the map Chu Bubai had given them did not cover the whole of the Rufeng Forest—only a portion of it.

More precisely, this exceptionally detailed map was built around a single route, and the route's endpoint was already marked upon it: a small circle in the deep mountains.

"Look closely, everyone. That small circle on the map is where the infant ginseng is likely to be—our destination on this trip. As long as we follow the route marked on the map, we can reach it safely," Chu Bubai declared to them all with great assurance.

At these words, everyone's eyes lit up, and they fairly quivered with eagerness, as though they could already see the infant ginseng beckoning from afar and could hardly wait to set off.

"Brother Chu, forgive me for asking, but is this map reliable?" Wei Zhao suddenly spoke up.

Guo Dengtao and the others were startled at the question and turned as one to look at Chu Bubai. They had been carried away by excitement a moment before; only now, at Wei Zhao's words, did they remember this hidden risk.

Detailed as the map was, if it could not be trusted, then it was no guarantee of survival at all—it would become a deadly trap, leading them all to report to the King of Hell.

"A good question. I can tell you plainly, there is no need to worry—this map is absolutely reliable." Chu Bubai smiled unconcernedly. "To be frank with you all, the route on this map has been passed down through my Gu family for generations. One of my ancestors and his friend came to the depths of the Rufeng Forest core by this very route years ago—that is how this map came to exist."

"A family heirloom map?" Guo Dengtao and Wang Feng were stunned. They knew little of Chu Bubai and had not expected this to be his family's inherited map—no wonder such a thing had never appeared on the market.

"So then, Brother Chu's ancestor must have found the infant ginseng?" Wei Zhao pressed at once. If this route map had been passed down from his forebears, then that ancestor of the Gu family must surely have seen the infant ginseng, and the Gu family after him could hardly have failed to make attempts of their own—after all, no normal person could resist the enormous lure of an infant ginseng.

"You could say so. According to that ancestor of mine, he and his friend stumbled upon the place where the infant ginseng propagated, and so deliberately left this family map behind for the reference of later generations of the Gu family. Unfortunately, after him, though generation after generation of my family cultivated, none ever reached the late Golden Core stage again. Without that strength, the family map was useless, however precious—only after my breakthrough has it finally come into use once more," Chu Bubai explained.

Everyone nodded. The Rufeng Forest was fraught with danger; without at least late Golden Core strength, one would not even dare approach the core depths, and even if one luckily obtained an infant ginseng, it would be of no use at the time.

After all, the Six-Grade pill that gathers an infant into a golden core works only on a Golden Core cultivator at great perfection who is on the verge of condensing a Nascent Soul. Taken directly by one whose strength fell short, it would not bring breakthrough—the body would fail to withstand it and burst, and the precious elixir would become a lethal poison.

Yet Wei Zhao did not wholly believe Chu Bubai's words. On the surface the logic seemed sound enough, but on closer thought, many oddities could still be found.

Had that Gu family ancestor actually obtained the infant ginseng? If he had, he would very likely have become a Nascent Soul cultivator, with a lifespan so long that death would not have come easily—so why had he not returned himself?

And even if that ancestor had not obtained the infant ginseng, or had met with some mishap and died, could the many later generations of the Gu family truly have been so honest? With insufficient strength of their own, would they really have done nothing but sit guarding a treasure mountain and never once set foot in the Rufeng Forest?

By any normal way of thinking, even lacking the strength themselves, anyone guarding such a family map would surely have schemed in every possible way to find reliable help, rather than lift not a single finger.

Even if the martial world was treacherous and outsiders could not be trusted, there were always ways to be found—surely not such utter helplessness as this?

Thought through carefully, all of it raised questions. But Wei Zhao did not challenge him to his face. He did not believe these glib reassurances of Chu Bubai's, yet he did believe the map was most likely genuine. Rather than fall out with him now, it was better to see how matters developed.

"Brother Chu, you said before that last time you were unexpectedly stranded in the Rufeng Forest, and in the core depths at that—I take it you were scouting the route?" Wei Zhao asked suddenly.

"Heh, you've guessed it." Chu Bubai was briefly taken aback, then smiled and explained to them all, "Last time I meant to make an attempt, but having no experience on my first visit, I hadn't worked out the timing in advance. Before I reached the core depths, the miasma had already returned, and I had no choice but to find a way to flee. Still, it was not entirely fruitless—at least I verified the reliability of this map with my own experience, so there is no need for anyone to worry."

"So that's how it is. Since Brother Chu has verified it himself, we can set our minds at ease," Guo Dengtao and the others said, nodding.