Chapter 4731 — I'm Not Leaving!

"This…" Huo Yudie's brows knitted at once. She had barely made it back to this place, and had thought that this was all it would take to carry Wei Zhao back to West Island and out of danger—yet now she found herself stuck at the very last step. What was she to do?

One thing was certain: she could not possibly go back alone. To leave Wei Zhao here by himself would be no different from handing him over to death. But together, the two of them could not pass. For a moment she was caught fast between advance and retreat.

"Hey! Are you going or not? We're still waiting in line back here!" While Huo Yudie hesitated in her dilemma, the people queued behind her were already losing patience. They cared nothing for her plight—they were all desperate to get back, and if things dragged on so long that they missed their chance, whom would they have to blame?

"Then… let me think a while longer…" Huo Yudie had no choice but to withdraw to one side for the time being and let the others behind her pass first. Not far from the teleportation array she found a clean spot and settled Wei Zhao there, while she herself kept watch beside him, her face clouded with worry.

Time slipped away bit by bit. One after another, the trial-takers who had returned were sent away, yet Huo Yudie remained at her wit's end, unable to think of a single workable plan.

To be sure, the presence of West Island experts had spared her any harassment from the other trial-takers—even that Han Chen, who had once coveted her beauty, did not dare glance at her twice as he passed by. But that solved nothing. However secure she might be from worry, what use was it to be trapped here with no way out?

Two days later, the full one-month deadline had arrived. By now the trial-takers had all gone. Those who remained were those who knew they could not leave, and they had turned to throw in their lot with Scarface. Now only Huo Yudie and Wei Zhao were left beside the teleportation array.

"This is the final deadline. Are you going or not? If you don't leave now, you truly won't be able to get out. This man is plainly beyond saving—there's no need for you to stay here and be buried with him!" The two West Island experts looked to be preparing to depart as well. After exchanging a glance, their shared womanhood moved them to some pity at last, and they came over to counsel her gently.

"No. I won't leave him behind and go alone. Absolutely not!" Huo Yudie shook her head, her expression firm.

"There's no shortage of fragrant flowers at the world's end—there are plenty of good men in this world. Why must you hang yourself from a single tree?" one of the West Island experts sighed helplessly.

West Island was a society of women's ascendancy; it set no such store by the three obediences and four virtues as other places did. To be buried alongside a man plainly doomed to die—for a woman of standing to throw her life away over a man—such a thing was utterly incomprehensible in her eyes.

"Exactly. You're a Yuanying consummation expert, aren't you, little sister? Even if you give it everything you have, the force you can muster is only enough to activate the array as things stand now. Wait one more day and it will be useless—you'd have to wait for the next trial to open. And you know well enough what this place is like. For a girl like you to try to wait safely until the next trial is sheer wishful thinking. Those people will certainly set their sights on you." The other West Island expert counseled her with earnest sincerity.

The presence of Scarface and his lot had never been any secret, yet the West Island authorities had never shown the slightest intent of dealing with him. If anything, they had been rather indulgent. Put plainly, since this was a trial ground, Scarface and his kind were no different from the other monsters and savage beasts—all of them stepping stones for the trial-takers, and so they were left to run wild.

Huo Yudie shook her head again, then suddenly her eyes flickered. "Elder sisters, if I muster a single strike with all my might and first try to send him through the teleportation—I wonder, would that be possible?"

This was the one method she had hit upon after two days of turning it over and over in her mind. She knew well enough it might not be so easy, but what if it truly were feasible? There was no one else in line now anyway, and she trusted the two West Island experts could give her a clear answer.

"Then you yourself won't be able to get out! The one-month deadline has arrived. To activate the teleportation array now, you must unleash your strongest move, without holding anything back in the slightest—only then can you barely succeed. And even so, you yourself may well fail to get through. This is no jesting matter!" the West Island expert warned her in stern, sharp tones.

"That's right. The one-month deadline is the limit for a Yuanying consummation expert—you cannot afford the slightest depletion!" The other West Island expert also shook her head vigorously, then added, "And if you mean to put him into the array while you stand outside and trigger the teleportation yourself, well, it's not wholly impossible, but the difficulty is tremendous. The array's eye is hidden inside; without some special technique, there's simply no striking it from outside. You had best think this through clearly."

"This…" Huo Yudie bit her lip and pondered. Whether or not it could succeed, why not first try with all her might and see whether she could send Wei Zhao through?

Only, if she did so, then no matter whether Wei Zhao was ultimately sent through or not, she herself would certainly be unable to leave. It amounted to staking her own fate as the wager, gambling to win Wei Zhao a single thread of chance.

As for the difficulty the two West Island experts had spoken of, Huo Yudie did not take it too much to heart. She was, after all, a prodigy disciple of East Continent's Morning Pride Academy—she had the means for this much.

"You'd better come with us. This attempt is utterly meaningless. One of the two of you must stay behind in any case. If you choose him—quite apart from whether it can even succeed—even if it truly did, in his dying state he likely couldn't withstand the physical burden of teleportation, and might well die all the faster for it." Seeing the time nearly up, the two West Island experts made their final plea.

"Ah?" Huo Yudie started at these words. Had the other not reminded her, she would have forgotten this point entirely. The teleportation process placed an enormous burden on the body. For cultivators in ordinary circumstances it hardly mattered, but in a state like Wei Zhao's present one, the other's words were no idle alarm.

What was more, even if Wei Zhao could endure it in his current condition, once he reached West Island, if no one were there to look after him—even a brief window of neglect might breed unforeseen trouble. What if Kaizi and his accomplices were lying in wait right at the teleportation array's far side, watching for the chance to finish him off with a blade?!

Analyzed this way, sending Wei Zhao through alone carried far too much risk—plainly not the wise choice. Yet for Huo Yudie to go alone, she would sooner die than agree.

At this thought, Huo Yudie abruptly set her jaw, and said with resolute resolve, "I thank you both for your kindness, elder sisters—but I'm not leaving!" (To be continued)