Chapter 4585 — No Turning Back Once the Arrow Is Loosed
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
"Ah!!! Then... then what are we supposed to do?" Only now did Wei Zhao snap to his senses with a jolt. Because the sea-beast clan and the spirit-beast clan kept strictly to their own domains, and the vast majority of sea beasts stayed far away from South Island, he had subconsciously shoved this particular danger to the back of his mind—and now a cold sweat broke out all over him.
He recalled that the very first time the old Western Mountain Sect had hunted him, he had already run into the dread ghost-electric ray, a sea beast of truly terrifying power. That had been in waters very close to the island, and even then its strength had left him quaking with fear. Out here, far from South Island, any sea beast he met was bound to be far stronger still—and if his luck turned sour, it would mean certain death.
"Sea beasts are indeed fearsome, but this comes down to pure luck. As long as your luck isn't too bad, you'll at least have some hope of getting out alive. The other two exits, frankly, offer no hope at all. Whether to take the gamble is for you to decide, kid," the ghost thing said after a long moment's thought.
"You've got a point, senior. In that case, we go up through here. A living man can't let himself be drowned by his own piss." Wei Zhao gritted his teeth and made his decision. Fortune favors the bold—often a man is driven to desperate straits by forces beyond his control, with no choice but to harden his scalp and stake his life.
In truth, when you got right down to it, though the Endless Sea was riddled with perils, Wei Zhao had no intention of exploring its depths. The moment he got out, he would have the spirit bird streak toward the surface at top speed—a process bound to be over in an instant. The odds of running into an exceptionally powerful sea beast were actually not that high, and once they burst out onto the surface, the sky would be the limit.
Wei Zhao's decision came as no surprise at all to the ghost thing.
"You're really going out this way? Then you'd better be careful—it does sound a little dangerous," the Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits put in from the side. It had never encountered a sea beast itself, but since even the ghost thing, a former Azure Dragon, was treating the matter so gravely, that proved it was no trifling matter. Quite possibly even its present Earth-Splitting cultivation would be in jeopardy, to say nothing of Wei Zhao, who had only just reached the peak of the early Nascent Soul stage.
"Don't worry. Thank you for everything these past months. I'll take my leave here—until we meet again. I'm sure it won't be long before I come back to South Island to find you," Wei Zhao said with a nod.
These were no empty pleasantries. After all, with the ghost thing still here, once he had gained sufficient strength he would surely accompany it back to South Island—and by the time that day came, the end of the Vermilion Bird would not be far off.
"Good. I'll be here waiting for you both. Take care on the road!" the Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits said with a heavy nod.
After more than three months together, it had come to regard Wei Zhao as a true old friend—and there was the ghost thing besides, a dragon elder it deeply respected. Had its master's dying command not bound it, it would even have been tempted to go out and seek its fortunes alongside Wei Zhao.
Alas, the Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits carried on its shoulders a blood feud as vast as the sea. Before he died, the Five-Venom Flood Dragon had specifically exhorted it to remain here, biding its time and swallowing its humiliation, and under no circumstances to leave this underground space even a single step until its strength was sufficient to contend with the Vermilion Bird—lest it bring down annihilation upon itself.