Chapter 4697 — Take Me There If You Get the Chance

"If there's a chance..." Huo Yudie suddenly said, then stopped herself.

"Hm?" Wei Zhao frowned, waiting for her to continue.

"If there's a chance... you could take me..." Huo Yudie still hesitated, and the more she spoke the more flustered she became, until at last her voice was so faint it could scarcely be heard—probably only she herself could guess at what she had said.

"Hm?" Wei Zhao turned his head and gave her a strange look. Though the light was too dim to see clearly, the motion came to him instinctively. What on earth was this girl trying to say?

So hesitant and bashful—could it be something dreadfully embarrassing? Surely not. They had shared that awkward moment, true, but from what Wei Zhao could sense, deep down this girl was still a traditional sort of woman.

"If there's a chance... you could take me... to the secular world, to have a look—would that be all right..." Just as Wei Zhao was letting his imagination run away with him, Huo Yudie finally managed to finish her sentence—except her voice was outrageously soft, so much so that even Wei Zhao only just barely caught her meaning.

"You want to go to the secular world?" Wei Zhao could not help but start. The words sounded vaguely familiar; from what he recalled, Shangguan Lan'er seemed to have said something similar.

"If you won't take me, then never mind. I'm just a little curious, that's all," Huo Yudie said, pursing her lips.

"Heh, of course you can go if you want to. But the precondition is that I can make it back myself. Getting from the secular world to Cloud Terrace Island was hard enough; returning from Cloud Terrace Island to the secular world is even harder. We'll see when the time comes," Wei Zhao said with a sigh. The girl's mind was peculiar to the point of being incomprehensible, but he did not dislike it—at least, in his heart, he had already begun to treat her as a friend, not merely a partner bound by mutual advantage.

"Right, I've never heard of anyone being able to go back either..." Hearing Wei Zhao sigh, Huo Yudie hurriedly explained, "I was just talking idly, nothing more. Please don't take it seriously."

"Since you've already spoken up, how could I not take it seriously? We'll see how things go. If I can get back, I'll call on you," Wei Zhao said with a smile. Returning from Cloud Terrace Island to the secular world was indeed very difficult, but judging by the intelligence he currently possessed, the odds of success were actually not as low as one might imagine.

Carefully worked through, there were at least three possible routes. The first, and the most promising and reliable, was to seek out Zhang Lifeng. The old devil's own personal experience had already confirmed that he truly possessed a dependable method, and given the connection between Wei Zhao and Zhang Lifeng, so long as he could successfully find him, he believed the man would not refuse outright. The only difficulty lay in when he might meet this legendary figure who appeared and vanished like a dragon showing its head and hiding its tail.

As for the second route, it lay with the Central Chamber of Commerce, which had burst onto the scene. One thing was clear: the Central Chamber of Commerce must possess a way to travel freely between Cloud Terrace Island and the secular world. If he could manage to pry out the secret, Wei Zhao would naturally have an opening to exploit. This route, however, was far harder than the first—after all, the Central Chamber of Commerce was a gathering of countless experts. Never mind that Wei Zhao could now slay a Xuan Sheng stage master in an instant; if he truly barged in there, he would be a corpse lying in the street within minutes.

The third route, then, lay with Han Jingyi. Though getting her to unravel the mysteries of a teleportation array spanning Cloud Terrace Island and the secular world sounded like a fantasy, had any of her previous researches not been miracles? Given enough conditions and time, Wei Zhao genuinely felt there was nothing impossible about it.

"Mm..." Huo Yudie could not help feeling a little delighted. She knew perfectly well that once this Western Island trial was over, she and Wei Zhao would have no further dealings with each other. Yet hearing these words, a faint hope stirred in her heart—if only she really could follow this fellow to the secular world for a visit.

As the two of them talked, the sky gradually brightened. Visibility was still poor, but at least it was no longer so dark that you could not see your own hand in front of your face. Moreover, after talking with Wei Zhao for a while, Huo Yudie was finally frightened no longer, and the two of them rose at once and resumed their journey.

Yet they had not gone far when Wei Zhao suddenly heard a faint growl from beside him. He instinctively looked toward the sound and saw Huo Yudie with her head lowered and her face red, clutching her stomach—she looked as though she wished she could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

"You're hungry?" A slight curve lifted the corner of Wei Zhao's mouth.

"Cultivators don't need to eat. I'm not hungry!" Huo Yudie kept her head down, not daring to face anyone, but her words came out rather stoutly.

"Heh." Wei Zhao shook his head with a half-smile. It was true that cultivators could go without food, but that did not mean they actually did. It was an innate instinct—even if the body was not hungry, after enough time passed one would still unconsciously have this reaction. Huo Yudie's stomach growling was proof enough.

If cultivators really never ate, then all those fine restaurants on Cloud Terrace Island would have shut down long ago—how could they still be found everywhere as they were now? From what Wei Zhao had observed, the various delicacies on Cloud Terrace Island were in no way inferior to those of the secular world. Some were even priced exceedingly high, and still drew crowds of diners with tables full of guests.

Wei Zhao suddenly produced some exceedingly exquisite and delicious pastries and, turning, handed them to Huo Yudie. "Here. Something to tide you over."

"Where did you pull those from?!" Huo Yudie's eyes went wide with disbelief, and her throat betrayingly worked again and again, as though she were on the verge of drooling.

"Conjured them, of course," Wei Zhao said with a mysterious smile.

"What?!" Huo Yudie was startled anew. She had been watching Wei Zhao the whole time—he clearly had not been carrying anything, not even the backpack an ordinary traveler would have. He had come completely empty-handed. Pulling out some small, close-fitting treasure would not have been strange, but these exquisitely shaped pastries—where on earth had they popped out from? Surely he could not really have conjured them out of thin air. She had never heard of such a divine power in all the world.

"All right, stop staring like a fool. Since there's food ready-made, hurry up and eat." As he spoke, Wei Zhao began eating first himself.

"Wait, save me some!" Huo Yudie was simply too tempted to resist. She stopped fretting over how the things had been conjured and hastily snatched a piece from Wei Zhao's hand, nibbling at it in small bites.

And to be sure, these pastries were not only exquisitely and uniquely shaped, they tasted wonderful as well—and what was rarest of all, they were exceedingly fresh. You would not necessarily find such things even in a bustling, prosperous city, let alone in a desolate wilderness like this. (To be continued.)