Chapter 4585 — No Turning Back Once the Arrow Is Loosed
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 3
After taking his leave of the Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits, Wei Zhao drew a long, deep breath and leaped onto the spirit bird's back. Wrapping both himself and the bird in true qi, he shot skyward with a violent surge, his figure vanishing in an instant into the five-element killing qi overhead.
At first it was just as before: the five-element killing qi surrounded him on every side, growing from weak to strong, then gradually weakening again after the middle layer. Not only was the oppressive force plainly diminishing, but its quantity was rapidly thinning as well. After rising in this fashion for about the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, Wei Zhao found that the five-element killing qi around him had vanished completely—and there, directly above his head, was a cave mouth!
Wei Zhao had assumed this exit would be like the Five-Venom Swamp, opening onto a vast expanse above. To his surprise, the opening was far smaller than he had imagined—no more than a few dozen feet across. He and the spirit bird could pass through freely enough, but a frame like the Dragon of Five Baleful Spirits would have found it a tight squeeze, and for anything larger still, passage would have been utterly impossible unless the opening were broken open or the creature took human form.
Peering into the opening, he saw nothing but pitch-blackness—nothing within was visible to the naked eye. Only a faint rumbling of water reached his ears, presumably from a very swift current.
"Up there is a vortex passage. As for what lies on the other side of it, that's down to luck," the ghost thing said after probing with its spiritual sense.
"Er—it's not going to be like that vortex passage we saw before, leading straight into the heart of South Island, is it?" A rather bad premonition came over Wei Zhao at once. He had steeled himself to face the Endless Sea, but if he were to be dumped straight into the interior of South Island, that would be downright farcical.
"That I can't say. I did make a special study of the vortex passages around South Island, but that was only a small fraction of them. A vortex passage in a place like this I've never even heard of. Who knows where it leads—it's entirely a matter of luck. Honestly, it's not too late to back out now," the ghost thing said, a rare note of caution in its voice.
"Once the arrow is loosed, it doesn't turn back. We've come this far—what sense would there be in turning around now? Even if it's a mountain of blades and a sea of fire ahead, I'll have to grit my teeth and try. If I don't even have that much nerve, I'll never get out of here in this lifetime." Wei Zhao's resolve was far greater than the ghost thing had expected. Rather than cower and hesitate, he would sooner follow one road all the way into the dark.
With that, Wei Zhao wasted little time dithering. After adjusting his condition a little, he at once ordered the spirit bird to dive headlong into the vortex passage.
The current within the vortex passage was ferociously strong. Had Wei Zhao not shielded himself and the bird all over with true qi at full power, the water might well have torn them both to shreds. Had his cultivation still been at the mid Golden Core stage, he truly might not have been able to endure it—but now he stood at the peak of the early Nascent Soul stage.
The stronger the current, the greater the speed. After Wei Zhao and the spirit bird had been swept along for the better part of half a stick of incense's time, he suddenly felt the ground fall away beneath him—man and bird alike were flung headlong out of the passage, and it was only after a long struggle that he finally managed to steady himself.