Chapter 2464 — Journey to the Desolate Village
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
Of course, such things could not be said not to exist. Wei Zhao had read in certain ancient texts that cultivators who reached an inconceivable level of attainment could cultivate a primordial spirit, and that the primordial spirit could leave the body and remain after the flesh had perished.
Only this was not the same as a ghost; it was a great supernatural power of cultivators, fundamentally different from ghosts in the ordinary sense.
The car started up slowly. Whether by design or accident, Wei Zhao's vehicle had ended up the very last in the entire expedition convoy; after refueling, it followed the cars ahead down the slope.
The mountain road was exceedingly rugged—not a proper switchback road at all, but a track the resort itself had cut, closed to outsiders, and so there were not even streetlights. They could make out the road ahead only by the searchlights mounted on the expedition car, and to either side lay dense jungle; anyone faint of heart would have found it utterly chilling.
Wei Zhao felt no fear at all on such a mountain night. Back when he had cultivated on West Star Mountain, the heights there had been even more frightful than this, and the Ulaganhot Mountains were no better, so he was indifferent to it.
Han Jingyi seemed equally unconcerned about her surroundings, fiddling with her tablet the whole while, not even deigning to glance out the window. This left Wei Zhao somewhat speechless—the girl's nerves were simply too thick.
Wang Xinyan, by contrast, was visibly nervous. She too did not look out the window, but unlike Han Jingyi—who had no time to look and thought ghosts outside were less fun than alchemy—Wang Xinyan was simply afraid.
"Where are the ghosts? It's all rumor, just the hotel's way of making money." Seeing Wang Xinyan's fear, Kang Jinglong could not help speaking up. "What ghosts? We study medicine—who's afraid of ghosts? It's all a trick to fool children. I'd dare to laugh at a ghost to its face in a graveyard, hahahaha!"
Hearing Kang Jinglong's words, Wang Xinyan frowned. Even if it was the hotel's money-making scheme, there was no need to say so in the car, was there? The driver was right there—how would he feel hearing that?
Sure enough, the expedition car's driver had initially felt rather guilty toward the people in his vehicle, but hearing Kang Jinglong spout such arrogance, that trace of guilt vanished in an instant. Not a money-making trick, eh? Don't believe in them, eh? Then let you all see for yourselves.
"Ghosts and spirits—you can't say they don't exist," Wei Zhao said. "Anything science can't explain, you can't say it isn't science. We can't explain it now, but someday we may. Hundreds of years ago, if you'd seen an automobile, wouldn't you have thought you'd seen a ghost?"
What Wei Zhao did not say was that cultivation and alchemy were likewise impossibilities in the eyes of ordinary people—but there was still a driver in the car, so he did not speak so plainly.
"Hey, Wei Zhao, what do you mean by that?" Kang Jinglong curled his lip. "I think you're just scared, aren't you? If you're afraid, get out of the car now. We're going to the desolate village—you don't have to come."
Wei Zhao simply could not be bothered with Kang Jinglong anymore; he turned his head away and ignored him.
Kang Jinglong fancied he had won a point over Wei Zhao in theoretical knowledge and was instantly delighted, thinking that in a little while he would restore his heroic image in Wang Xinyan's eyes. After all, he had been beaten by robbers and by Su Lengzi, and bullied by that giant soft-shelled turtle—would he now be afraid of those nonexistent ghosts?
In Kang Jinglong's view, if he acted a little bolder and more fearless in a moment, Wang Xinyan would surely think he was not such a good-for-nothing after all.