Chapter 2710 — Yu Xiaoke Has Vanished
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
The Qi Gathering Pill, for instance, was one of them. But Zhang Lifeng had taken the recipe and replaced several extinct ingredients with materials that still existed. The effects were somewhat diminished, yet on the whole the pill could still achieve a measure of what a Qi Gathering Pill ought to do—and that was precisely the wonder of Zhang Lifeng!
In his day Zhang Lifeng had gathered a great host of skilled hands about him, and this too was why: with Zhang Lifeng at one's side, one commanded inexhaustible **resources.
Still, in Wei Zhao's view, altering a pill recipe was no great feat—with his own abilities he could do it easily enough. Alchemy, however, was another matter. Wei Zhao's constitution determined that he could never practice alchemy.
Having finished reading Zhang Lifeng's life and deeds, Wei Zhao found that White Leader had finished as well. "Little Yi, shall we go?" White Leader asked him.
"All right!" Wei Zhao answered, then called to Yu Xiaoke, "Xiaoke, let's go."
But the moment Wei Zhao turned to look at Yu Xiaoke, he froze in astonishment—Yu Xiaoke was gone!
Yes, Yu Xiaoke had vanished without a trace!
In the empty tomb chamber only Wei Zhao, White Leader, and the Thunder Pig remained. Wei Zhao needed no lamp; with his eyes closed he could sense everything in the chamber. And here... there was no sign of Yu Xiaoke!
"Yu Xiaoke!" Wei Zhao cried out, instinctively turning toward the entrance of the main tomb chamber—only to see that the stone door was still shut, and had not been opened!
A chilling dread surged from the soles of Wei Zhao's feet to the top of his head. Where had Yu Xiaoke gone? Could this ancient tomb be haunted? How could Yu Xiaoke have vanished into thin air?
White Leader's scalp prickled too. "Little Yi, what is this..."
"Who is playing tricks?" Wei Zhao's sharp gaze swept every corner of the main tomb chamber, yet he still found nothing amiss. Apart from a huge coffin, there was nothing else at all in this main chamber. If someone had been hiding here beforehand to make mischief, Wei Zhao could not imagine where they might have concealed themselves.
But if no one was playing tricks, then where on earth had Yu Xiaoke gone?
Could it be that the tomb robber who had come here before, who had touched the Records of Strange Tales and Marvels and taken the Shennong Cauldron, had never left—but was hiding somewhere in this tomb, waiting for a chance to strike at Wei Zhao and the others?
At that thought, cold sweat broke out on Wei Zhao at once. There were only two possibilities: either this tomb robber was not human at all—only thus could Yu Xiaoke's silent disappearance be explained—or this person's strength was extraordinarily high, perhaps a peak late-stage Heaven Rank expert. Only such an expert could work mischief under Wei Zhao's very nose without a sound.
Yet even a peak late-stage Heaven Rank expert should give off true qi fluctuations when moving. Could it be an external-school expert?
And most crucially, Wei Zhao could not make sense of it: in this sealed tomb chamber, even if a Heaven Rank expert had appeared, how had Yu Xiaoke disappeared? She and the Heaven Rank expert must have somewhere to hide, surely?
Wei Zhao's gaze roamed the chamber and finally came to rest upon Zhang Lifeng's coffin.
"Patriarch Zhang Lifeng, forgive my disrespect..." Wei Zhao murmured to himself as he walked toward the coffin. This was the only place in the entire chamber where a person could hide!
Otherwise—the chamber was a sealed stone room, and no one could hide in the walls, the ceiling, or the floor. Only this coffin was suspect.
"Little Yi, do you mean Yu Xiaoke has crawled into that coffin?" White Leader had caught Wei Zhao's meaning as well, and asked with a strange look on his face.
"I don't know either, but it's the only place I can think of. In this whole chamber, where else could a person hide but here?" Wei Zhao was not certain either, though he could hazard a guess.