Chapter 4906 — Neither Advance Nor Retreat

"All right, then—you can search along with us. Remember the traits. When you find something close enough, bring it to us and we'll identify it for you. Let's go." Wang Xinyan smiled, cast one last glance at the spot where Wei Zhao had leapt down, and then took the lead, setting off to try their luck in the surrounding area.

By then, Wei Zhao had been falling through the mist for some time before his feet finally met the ground below. The basin was far deeper than he had imagined; had he not finally used a blast of true qi to lessen the force of his descent, the impact alone might have injured him.

Wei Zhao surveyed his surroundings warily. From above, the mist had looked thick enough; now that he was down here, it had not thinned in the slightest—rather, it had grown denser still. Everything before his eyes was a blurred expanse of fog; he could make out nothing at all. And worse, in this place even his divine sense could not perceive a thing.

"Senior!" Wei Zhao hastily called on Old Ghost for help. This place was dangerously unpredictable; to stumble about blind here was little different from courting death.

In matters of divine sense, Old Ghost was among the foremost on Cloud-Tier Isle, and in the past his perception had never failed him. This time, however, his tone was grave: "Now this is truly strange—this place can even block my divine sense!"

"What?!" Wei Zhao was startled, and asked in shock, "Even you cannot perceive anything, Senior? How is that possible?"

"It is indeed unbelievable. The legendary City of Thunder Burials lives up to its name—strange beyond all measure," Old Ghost said, astonished and full of doubt.

"Then what do we do now?" Wei Zhao stared into the misty blur before him, his heart crawling with dread. If even Old Ghost could not perceive anything, then this place was plainly a death trap for him; should the slightest mishap occur, it was likely more than he could survive.

"Never mind—we should go back. This is no place to linger," Old Ghost had no choice but to say. Had he been at full strength, he would certainly have explored it thoroughly, but alas, he was now nothing more than a wisp of primordial spirit; if some powerful being truly did emerge, he would not be able to protect Wei Zhao.

"Right!" At those words, Wei Zhao withdrew without the slightest hesitation. If even Old Ghost said so, then this place could not be lingered in for even a moment—otherwise his life might well be at stake.

Yet before Wei Zhao had retreated two steps, a chill rose again and again in his heart: behind him was emptiness!

After all, he had jumped down clinging close to the cliff face. By his earlier reckoning, should anything go wrong, he could simply climb the rock face back up—that was child's play to him. But in this moment he discovered to his horror that there was no cliff face behind him at all!

Shocked beyond measure, Wei Zhao refused to believe it and retreated another several dozen zhang—still nothing!

"How is this possible?!" A thought struck Wei Zhao. His eyes could not see far here, and his divine sense could not perceive anything, but he had other means of fixing his position.

At once Wei Zhao picked up a stone from beside his feet and flung it into the distance. That way it would make a sound, and would not immediately give away his position and invite a killing intent; he meant to judge his surroundings by sound.

Crack! The stone struck another rock somewhere far off with a crisp clatter—but the result sent another chill through Wei Zhao's heart: there was no echo!

No echo meant this place was utterly open and empty; it meant there was no cliff face anywhere nearby at all!

Wei Zhao broke out in a cold sweat. The feeling now was downright hair-raising—this place was far too uncanny. A blanket of mist, divine sense blocked, and most absurd of all, the cliff face behind him had vanished without a trace. Even Old Ghost could not perceive anything. It was eerie beyond all reason.

"A formation! There must be a formation here!" A thought burst into Wei Zhao's mind. This could only be explained by a formation; without one, it would be impossible that he could retreat without ever reaching an edge.

"Perhaps..." Old Ghost said, none too certain. His knowledge far surpassed Wei Zhao's, and indeed all of this could only be explained by a formation—yet that there should exist in this world a formation so profound that even he could detect not the slightest trace of it was, well, a bit too fantastic.

"Senior, what do we do now?" Wei Zhao asked hurriedly. He was by nature a man of firm judgment, but such a situation as this he had never heard of nor seen. Without finding the way in, retreating from this place was all but impossible.

"If it is a formation, then we must find the formation's eye for any chance of breaking it. As things stand, we can only search for it," Old Ghost said gravely.

"Mm, that is all we can do." Though his intuition warned him most ill, Wei Zhao had no other choice. He could only steel himself and begin probing his surroundings. Even if he could not find the so-called formation's eye for the time being, he must at least first make clear what this place was like—whatever happened, he needed to be mentally prepared.

Yet before Wei Zhao could take two steps, thunder and lightning suddenly flashed overhead!

Because of the heavy mist, visibility here was wretched, to say the least; whether one could not see one's own hand before one's face or not, what was overhead could not be made out at all. But in this moment, accompanied by a tremendous peal of thunder, an incomparably powerful bolt of lightning pierced the fog and split the heavens, and Wei Zhao saw it plain and clear!

At the sight, Wei Zhao's heart gave a lurch: this bolt was no longer merely deep blue—it had already verged upon purple.

Ever since he had received the lightning inheritance of the giant electric eel, he had possessed a very clear understanding of the power of lightning. Ordinary lightning was pale blue; a stronger thunder tribulation was pure blue; and the tenfold thunder tribulation he had endured before had been nearly deep blue.

The might of purple lightning, however, far surpassed deep blue. After all, by the strength of the giant electric eel at the Sea-Splitting stage, apart from its strongest killing move—the black heavenly punishment—its ordinary thunderstrikes were merely deep purple.

Though the bolt overhead was not deep purple but only near-purple, it was already enough to make Wei Zhao's heart pound with fright. He had seen the giant electric eel use deep-purple thunderstrikes to slay several Sea-Splitting stage spirit beasts outright. Even if it had looked like a sneak attack amid the chaos, the fact that a single blow could kill on the spot was enough to set forth its terrifying might in full.

Deep-purple thunderstrikes could slay Sea-Splitting stage spirit beasts; then this near-purple bolt, even if somewhat inferior, would surely be more than enough to do away with a mere Wei Zhao at the early Profound Ascension stage, would it not? This was far more powerful than a thunder tribulation!

In his shock, Wei Zhao had no time to scrutinize his surroundings further. He at once employed the Butterfly Microstep and, without the slightest hesitation, turned and fled.

At first glance this choice seemed foolish, for even if this near-purple bolt were circling overhead, it would not necessarily fall upon this very spot; wherever he ran, the odds of being struck were much the same. And with his vision so poor, he was all too likely to run into other dangers besides.