護花近衛 - 第3553章 登上雲階島 下 - 翰墨軒

Of course, setting aside Wufa the Boxer and Xiao Che, whose ties with Wei Zhao were not especially close, the only ones here with a deep grudge against him were Kang Jingming and Dongfang Badao.

Zhong Yongliang was Wei Zhao's current underling, so he could at least be counted as an ally—but where had everyone else gone?

Where was Tianchan? Where was Song Lingwei? Where was Zhang Naipao? Where was Ancestor Xuanchen? Where were Bingtang Xueli, Wang Xinyan, and Han Jingyi? They had all vanished together in the teleportation array tunnel before Cloud Terrace Island—so how had they all disappeared?

Still, the high platform Wei Zhao now stood on was surrounded on all sides by sheer cliffs, with nothing on it to serve as cover. A single glance told how many people were present; there was simply nowhere to hide.

"What the hell kind of godforsaken place is this? This is Cloud Terrace Island? Why is there nothing here?" Kang Jingming came back to his senses and could not help but curse furiously. "Damn it, have we been played?"

"Leader Wei Zhao, what do you make of this?" Zhong Yongliang was puzzled too. This was Cloud Terrace Island? But there was nothing on the island—what kind of lousy Cloud Terrace Island was this? And where had that brat Zhang Naipao gone?

"The heaven-and-earth spiritual qi here is quite abundant, that much is true. But we are all alone here, with no sect or people in sight—that is very strange indeed." Wei Zhao had never been to Cloud Terrace Island either, so the place left even him somewhat baffled.

Everyone had imagined Cloud Terrace Island as a wondrous place, full of masters who would help them break through the heavenly dao. But now that they had arrived, there were no masters to speak of—only a sheer cliff and nothing else. How were they supposed to cope?

Gazing farther out, white mist wrapped all around the high platform, making it impossible to see whether anything lay in the distance. The only thing visible was the abyss beneath the platform—a bottomless chasm plunging down beyond the limits of sight, and below that, the mist grew so thick that nothing could be seen at all.

Dongfang Badao was one of the most eager of the group. Upon arriving and finding things so different from what he had imagined—and with so many others nowhere to be found, three-quarters of their number gone in an instant—who could possibly be pleased?

Could it be that when those people came through, they had failed to steady themselves on the platform and fallen straight into the abyss? At this thought, everyone broke into a cold sweat.

But once he calmed down, Wei Zhao did not think so naively. What he felt was this: if the teleportation array of Cloud Terrace Island could send all these people over, surely it would not allow some of them to die? Those people must have been teleported as well—only perhaps to other, similar places.

This reminded Wei Zhao of the trial at the Xuandan Sect, when everyone had been randomly teleported across the Five Evils Wasteland. The environment here resembled that wasteland somewhat; though there was no Five Evils aura here, it was a kind of intuition.

"Wufa the Boxer, what do you think?" Dongfang Badao could not help asking. Wufa the Boxer was the grand elder of the Divine Fist Hall. Because of Li Ciba, the Divine Fist Hall had not opposed Wei Zhao before, though neither could their relationship be called especially good.

"I cannot tell for now." Wufa the Boxer shook his head. "But since Cloud Terrace Island is reputed to be so extraordinary, I doubt it means to do us harm. We should wait a while. Look at Young Hero Lin over there—he is not anxious at all."