Chapter 4391 — Whose Turn Is It Now?

The Zhongshu Merchants' Guild was overflowing with skilled hands. Once the moment truly came when a person was drawn for human experimentation, it would be far too late for anything. Even a fool could work it out: by then there would surely be Xuan Ascension experts holding the fort, and before such absurdly powerful Xuan Ascension masters, even Wei Zhao's hidden cards would struggle to make any real difference. The odds of seizing the chance to slip away were probably less than one in ten.

So if he wanted to keep his life, the only way was to escape this sunless dungeon before he was chosen for human experimentation.

The dungeon was reinforced by protective arrays, its four walls hard beyond measure; even the destructive force of the vast majority of Nascent Soul experts would struggle to bring them down. Yet in Wei Zhao's estimation, so long as his core-fire true-qi bomb was compressed long enough, he still had a strong chance of blasting them open.

Still, blasting the dungeon open was not difficult—but there was no guaranteeing that everyone inside would come out unharmed. The others' lives or deaths need not weigh on him, but having gone to such lengths to find Lu Bianren, Wei Zhao could not simply leave him to his fate.

And the hardest part of a successful jailbreak was not breaking the dungeon—it was the guards outside.

When Ma Tianlang had first dragged Wei Zhao in, he had seen two guards stationed outside, both of them formidable experts; Wei Zhao judged them to be at least peak late-Nascent Soul, and possibly even Xuan Ascension among them!

Had anyone said before today that a Xuan Ascension expert would be posted as a guard, Wei Zhao would have dismissed it as sheer fantasy and refused to believe it. But after what he had witnessed today, believe it he must—if a Xuan Ascension bigwig could serve as someone's underling, then serving as a guard hardly seemed so strange.

Hope for the best; prepare for the worst. Since he had resolved to break out, he had to factor in that worst-case scenario. Otherwise, acting rashly would not only fail to get him out—he would be caught and placed under strict watch, or even sent straight to human experimentation, and then he would truly be weeping without tears.

So until he had thoroughly probed the situation outside, Wei Zhao would not act rashly. For now, the only choice was to play it by ear.

Yet even as Wei Zhao silently weighed his options, he betrayed nothing on his face and began slowly compressing and condensing a top-grade core-fire true-qi bomb.

Even having decided to play it by ear, he still had to have this ultimate weapon prepared in advance. Otherwise, when the chance truly came, it would vanish in an instant, and compressing it on the spot would be far too late.

Wei Zhao said nothing, and the others in the dungeon—Lu Bianren and Sun Hengbiao included—all held their breath, not daring to speak, lest they draw Wei Zhao's attention and displeasure by some misstep. To be beaten half to death by this fiend for nothing would hardly be worth it.

In that pitch-black silence, who knew how long passed before the dungeon door suddenly opened and two figures walked in, one after the other. Wei Zhao studied them without a trace of expression and confirmed that these were the same two guards he had seen before.

Perhaps to overawe everyone in the dungeon and spare themselves unnecessary trouble, the two made no effort to restrain their aura. Their surging, overwhelming presence pressed down over every head, leaving all present trembling with fear and daring not harbor the slightest disloyal thought.

Thank goodness he had prepared for the worst; otherwise, had he rashly tried to break through the dungeon, Wei Zhao reckoned he would already be a corpse by now.

"Whose turn is it this time?" The peak late-Nascent Soul expert pursed his lips toward Sun Hengbiao, while the Xuan Ascension expert stood idly to one side.

A top-tier existence of his caliber was already wasting his talents merely garrisoning this little dungeon. Were human experimentation not the paramount priority of the entire organization, he would not have been willing to remain in such a place at all—and the trivial chore of extracting samples was certainly not something he needed to oversee himself.

Not only him—even the peak late-Nascent Soul expert could not be bothered to scrutinize the people in the dungeon. It was essentially done by order of arrival, with Sun Hengbiao, the "dungeon bully," helping to decide. So long as the Golden Core samples were provided on time, everything else was of no consequence.

"This one, this one!" Sun Hengbiao hastily pointed at someone.

Hm? Wei Zhao's brow furrowed at once—the person Sun Hengbiao had pointed to was none other than Lu Bianren, seated right beside him!

He had gone to such lengths to find Lu Bianren, and before they could even properly reunite, Lu Bianren was to be taken for human experimentation, his life or death thereafter unknown. Was there anything more infuriating in all the world?

Wei Zhao's mind raced, and in an instant his resolve was set: if it truly came to it, then he would have no choice but to unleash his ultimate weapon now. With the tremendous destructive power of a top-grade core-fire true-qi bomb, even a Xuan Ascension expert would struggle to react in time if caught off guard—and amid the chaos, he would grab Lu Bianren and flee!

Even so, the odds of success were hardly high, and unless it was absolutely unavoidable, Wei Zhao did not wish to resort to such a desperate gamble. He shot a venomous glare at Sun Hengbiao.

Sun Hengbiao might be a witless fool, but having suffered so greatly at Wei Zhao's hands, a shadow had already been seared into his heart. The moment he saw that hostile look, his heart lurched and a cold sweat broke out across his back.

By order of arrival, it truly was Lu Bianren's turn this time—but judging by this fiend's expression, he clearly did not want Lu Bianren taken. If he dared defy him, then even the half-life he had so narrowly salvaged might well be buried alongside Lu Bianren.

"Oh no, my mistake, I remembered wrong—it's this one!" Sun Hengbiao hastily corrected himself, quick to read the room, and pointed at random to a man by the door. He would have loved to point at Wei Zhao, but alas, Wei Zhao had only been dragged in today; the guards would surely remember him, and he was a Nascent Soul expert stronger than Sun Hengbiao himself, so they would not take him at all. Pointing at him would be useless—and once the guards left, Wei Zhao would surely be the first to beat him to death!

Had Sun Hengbiao known that Wei Zhao was in truth only a mid-Golden Core expert, he would likely have burst into tears and wept himself unconscious in the latrine.

Reality was simply that cruel. A chance to perhaps easily dispose of Wei Zhao had come his way, and he had not treasured it; later, even if he regretted it, the chance would be gone. (To be continued...)