Chapter 4742 — Carrying Things Is My Strong Suit

Watching Scarface's bedraggled figure ahead, Wei Zhao couldn't help but smile. He turned and gave Huo Yudie a long, deep look, tightened his grip on her hand, and said, "You've had it rough these past days. I've kept it all in my heart."

He had never been a man of sweet words. However moved he might be inside, all he could produce were plain, unadorned sentences—yet every one of them came straight from the bottom of his heart, aimed true at its mark.

"It's nothing... it was my duty..." Huo Yudie lowered her head, her face burning red.

"Your duty? Do temporary teammates really carry obligations that heavy?" Wei Zhao couldn't help laughing.

"No... I... that is..." Huo Yudie stammered for a long while without managing a single complete sentence. However one looked at it, this had long since crossed the line of mere temporary teammates—but a girl couldn't very well come right out and admit that she had, for no reason she could name, decided back then to stand guard over him for the rest of her life, could she?

Wei Zhao laughed heartily. Seeing her like that, he stopped teasing her and simply took her hand; with a flicker of movement, the two of them shot straight after Scarface ahead. If they didn't keep a close eye on the fellow, he might well find some way to slip off midway.

Just as Wei Zhao expected, Scarface really did harbor that notion. He knew well enough that he was no match for Wei Zhao, but if he gave them the slip along the way and tucked himself into some remote nook or cranny, Wei Zhao could forget about ever finding him again. After all, when it came to knowledge of the trial grounds, no one under heaven could outdo him, the local snake who knew every inch of the land.

Unfortunately for him, the sight of Wei Zhao catching up in a single effortless step shattered that fond hope on the spot. Astonished as he was, he grew all the more terrified, and he no longer dared harbor the slightest thought of playing tricks. He could only do honestly as Wei Zhao said.

The three of them moved at great speed, and the whole way they were essentially traveling at Scarface's utmost limit. As a peak expert of the early Xuan Ascension stage, even if speed was not his specialty, his top speed was by no means slow; in the space of a single hour they arrived at the oasis at the entrance to the Ten-Thousand-Year Grand Canyon.

"What are you standing there frozen for? What about the gift we agreed on? Hurry up and bring it out—or do you expect me to do it myself?" Wei Zhao shot Scarface a frowning glance.

Scarface trembled with fright. He hastily, trembling all over, hauled out the treasures he had hoarded over all these years. Painful as it was to part with them, compared with his life, what were these treasures worth?

If the treasures were gone, he could bring men and plunder more; but if his life were gone, then everything was gone.

Looking at the various heavenly treasures piled before him into a veritable small hill, Huo Yudie's eyes lit up, and even Wei Zhao could not help nodding. Damn, this profession of mountain bandit chief really did have a future—he truly hadn't seen it before; this fellow Scarface was actually a great wealthy lord!

"You pick first," Wei Zhao said with a smile at Huo Yudie, and she immediately bounded over joyfully. She was not about to be polite to the likes of Scarface, and with her eye for quality, she seldom misjudged the truly good stuff. After a turn around the pile she picked four or five pieces, every one of them a heavenly treasure rarely seen in these parts.

Watching from the side, Scarface felt as though his heart were being bled drop by drop. Had Wei Zhao's accumulated authority not weighed so heavily upon him, he might not have been able to keep himself from risking his life on the spot—every one of the pieces Huo Yudie chose was among his prized possessions!

Apart from that legendary Thunder Mystic Vine, these were the most valuable things in the entire trial grounds. It had taken him decades to collect just these few, and now this little wench had swept them all up, not leaving him a single one.

Scarface would have loved to slap himself fourteen thousand times on the spot. Fuck it all, it was his own accursed mouth—why had he said anything about a gift? Even if he had to give one, he should have found a chance to hide these few pieces away first. Now they had been exposed to Wei Zhao and Huo Yudie in one stroke—it was like delivering a sheep into a tiger's jaws!

Still, it was just as well. At most these two could carry off ten or twenty pieces; no matter how much there was, they couldn't take it all with them. The rest of these somewhat lesser heavenly treasures would remain, after all. He would just have to count this as losing wealth to avert disaster...

With no other choice, Scarface could only console himself thus. At long last Huo Yudie finished choosing, and the little wench still pouted with lingering reluctance—had her pack not been nearly bursting at the seams, she would have liked to take a few more. A rare chance like this was not to be wasted.

"Taking so many gifts from you—you won't hold it against us, will you?" Wei Zhao couldn't help but laugh at Huo Yudie's expression, then turned to glance at the grimacing Scarface.

"No, no, how could I!" Scarface shook his head with a hurried, embarrassed smile, forcing a cheerful face as he said, "It is my honor that you, senior, think anything of these things. The more you take, the more it shows you think highly of me—I'm delighted beyond measure. If you wanted to carry it all off, that would be no matter at all!"

"Really?" Wei Zhao looked at him with a half-smile.

"Really, truer than true gold—every word I speak comes straight from the heart." Scarface thumped his chest. This was not purely a case of slapping his own swollen face to look fat; he had simply gone numb. Since the prized pieces at the bottom of his chest had already been swept away by Huo Yudie, taking another five or six of the lesser ones would hardly sting at all.

"Oh, since you press me so warmly, I shall not decline out of politeness—I'll take it all." Wei Zhao was instantly delighted. He had seen hospitable folk before, but never anyone this hospitable; making friends with a great wealthy lord like Scarface really was a pleasure!

"Yes, yes." Scarface was still echoing him absentmindedly. A moment later he caught on, and the mountain bandit chief—a peak expert of the early Xuan Ascension stage—wore the look of a man about to burst into tears as he stammered, "What? Sen... senior... you're not joking, are you?"

"No, indeed. I'm a very straightforward man—I generally don't joke with people." Wei Zhao nodded solemnly.

"No... that is... what I mean is, with so much here, are you sure you can carry it all away?" Scarface asked cautiously. This was decades of his savings—heavenly treasures of every kind piled into a small hill. Fine, the other party was powerful, but to claim he could carry all of it away—wasn't that nonsense?

"Oh, that's no concern of yours. Carrying things is my strong suit." Wei Zhao smiled faintly, and with a wave of his hand the heavenly treasures piled like a small hill before him vanished into thin air in an instant, clean and complete, not a scrap left behind.

Thud! Scarface dropped to his knees on the spot. His face was a mixture of shock and anguish, his mouth agape, and for a long while he could not produce a single word. He felt his vision go black—from this day forth, his life was one long darkness.

"Many thanks for your gifts. We'll meet again someday—goodbye!" Wei Zhao waved his hand in perfect contentment and, taking Huo Yudie by the hand, strode grandly away. (The School Beauty TV drama has already aired many episodes! Those waiting for it to fatten up can go watch now! For more, follow the public WeChat account yuren22.) (To be continued.)