Chapter 4972 — The Mortal Woman

At that moment the two of them were skulking atop the city wall, peering furtively down. Su Kesheng was more or less in one piece, but Bao Zuoliang was covered in wounds from head to toe, a truly wretched and bedraggled sight. All of this—reduced to such a sorry state—just for the sake of carrying word back to Chang Minghui. The thought of it was enough to make one's heart ache.

This time they had gone to such pains to incite so formidable an expert to deal with Wei Zhao, and yet Wei Zhao had come away completely unscathed. The outcome had left them both choking on a bellyful of bile; Bao Zuoliang's wounds had been suffered entirely in vain.

But Wei Zhao had already grown to such a terrifying height—what could the two of them do, however unwilling they were to accept it? Could they possibly dig up someone even more ruthless than Chang Minghui to deal with him?

Fortunately, Wei Zhao had finally left. That was the one piece of good news for the two of them; otherwise, they would have had to live in constant dread in Morning Star City from now on. If Wei Zhao ever caught wind that it was the two of them stirring up trouble behind the scenes, the consequences did not bear imagining.

Their worry was not unfounded. In fact, Wei Zhao had already guessed that they were the ones pulling strings in the shadows. After all, the two of them had vanished mysteriously on Thunder Plain Island, and hard on the heels of that, Chang Minghui had come hunting for him. Even if he had not caught the oddity of it at the time, he was bound to work it out afterward.

Wei Zhao gave the two of them a glance that was half smile, half something else, then departed from Morning Star City, showing no intention whatsoever of dealing with them.

It was not that he could not—it was that there was no need. In his eyes, the pair were nothing but clowns capering on a stage. They posed no threat to him, nor to Wang Xinyan and the others. By now, Morning Star Academy had all but been cultivated into his own personal power base; to speak of the insignificant Bao Zuoliang—even if his own father came in person, it would make no difference.

The journey passed without incident, and several days later Wei Zhao arrived at the domain of Xiangyun Academy.

He had rather fancied the notion that running into that great expert of the Western Hills again would have been interesting. And it was hardly impossible: evil cultivators were, as a rule, deeply vindictive. The great expert of the Western Hills had not dared enter Morning Star City, but there was every chance he had been lurking outside all this while, waiting patiently for his prey to stroll by.

As it turned out, though, Wei Zhao had been overthinking it. Months had passed since then. The great expert of the Western Hills had not been sitting idle with nothing better to do—how could he possibly have kept watch outside Morning Star City all this time?

Upon entering Xiangyun Academy, Wei Zhao quickly drew a crowd of passing disciples, who gathered round to gawk. He was not a disciple of Xiangyun Academy, true, but after that half-month-long revolving battle with Leng Rufeng, and then the business of the Road of the Giants last time, his fame here was in no way inferior to Leng Rufeng's own.

Being stared at and picked apart in broad daylight as though he were some rare panda left Wei Zhao momentarily speechless. He had no choice but to employ the Butterfly Microstep and flee into the newcomers' hall. Yet before he could even open his mouth to speak, an ice blade came cleaving straight at his face.

Aiya! Wei Zhao jumped in alarm. Without a second thought he flung up a hand, sending out the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams killing intent. A vivid, lifelike Eight Trigrams flood dragon, accompanied by a dragon's roar, coiled itself directly around the enormous ice blade overhead, shredding it to pieces in an instant, and wiping out the blade's mountain-thick force completely in one sweep.

"Rufeng, don't you recognize me anymore?" Wei Zhao regarded the man in the courtyard with an expression half smile, half something else.

"Ah? Chief?" Leng Rufeng was startled. Once he had gotten a clear look at Wei Zhao's face, his old cheeks flushed red. He had just sensed someone charging swiftly into the newcomers' hall and assumed it was some ill-intentioned sort, so he had struck without the slightest hesitation. Who would have thought the man was Wei Zhao?

"Rufeng, your strength has improved a great deal. Your strike was so quick I nearly got caught by it. Good thing my reflexes are quick enough," Wei Zhao said with a laugh.

"Chief, you flatter me. My little progress is utterly insignificant next to yours. In just a few short months, Chief, you've grown to such formidable heights—I hear you can even defeat giants of the Mountain-Opening stage. A true miracle!" Leng Rufeng exclaimed, eyes shining.

Back when Wei Zhao had first come to the Eastern Continent, any clash between them had been a one-sided, all-around suppression by Leng Rufeng. Even after half a month of hard fighting, Wei Zhao's improvement had been nowhere near so dramatic; in the end he had only forced Leng Rufeng to concede through a war of attrition. And now—Wei Zhao had casually blocked his attack. Who was strong and who was weak was plain at a glance.

"Oh? You know about that too?" Wei Zhao blinked at the words.

"That's no wonder. The disciples who went to the Road of the Giants trial have already returned, and your deeds, Chief, have been spread far and wide. Besides, even if I never set foot outside, I can still hear news of you here," Leng Rufeng said matter-of-factly.

"People here in the newcomers' hall talk about it too? Who?" Wei Zhao asked, rather taken aback.

"Me!" Huo Yudie's voice suddenly came from inside the room. Then two delicate figures darted out like doves in flight, flinging themselves straight into Wei Zhao's arms.

"Wei Zhao, you're back!" Ning Xuefei cried, hugging him joyfully.

"Yes, I'm back." Wei Zhao reached out and rubbed her head, then turned to Leng Rufeng. "I won't be staying here long. Go find Jiang Yuechuan for me, will you? I have something to discuss with him."

"Understood." Leng Rufeng nodded and turned to go.

"Young Master Lin, the spirit tea is ready. Please come in and rest," Yang Qianshuang called out prettily from a little ways off.

"Very well, thank you for the trouble, Miss Yang." Wei Zhao nodded, then, flanked by Huo Yudie and Ning Xuefei, walked into the room, where the three of them drank tea and chatted.

"By the way, Yudie, how did you come to be here?" Wei Zhao asked, somewhat surprised. They had agreed beforehand that he would go to Chenjiao Academy to find Huo Yudie; he had never expected her to turn up at Ning Xuefei's side on her own.

"Because I knew you'd definitely come to Xiangyun first, so I came over," Huo Yudie said with a lift of her brows and a smile.

"Sister Huo came all this way specially, and really it's just so she could spend a little more time with you. Moved, aren't you?" Ning Xuefei chuckled from his other side, clinging to Wei Zhao's arm.

"Feifei, what are you saying!" Her little girlish secret suddenly laid bare, Huo Yudie's pretty face flushed crimson on the spot, and the two girls promptly dissolved into a laughing, chattering tangle.

Wei Zhao, grinning, joined the two girls in their romping for a while. Only when they had caught their breath and sat back down did he speak up. "By the way, Yudie, that matter I asked you to look into before—any new developments?"

"You mean that woman from the mortal realm?" Huo Yudie spread her hands and shook her head helplessly. "I had people look into it again after I got back, and there's still not a whisper. Ever since she vanished so suddenly that last time, she's been like a drop of water evaporated from the world—not a single clue to be found."