Chapter 4675 — The False-Man Vine
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
Though Wei Zhao's strength then had been far below what it was now, instinct told him that this False-Man Vine, formidable as it was, could not remotely compare with the monster in the back hills of North Isle. After all, the whole of Half-Moon Lake had been that creature's body, and even the ghostly thing could do nothing to it. This False-Man Vine clearly had not reached such a level.
Wei Zhao weighed the matter inwardly. Judging from the brief exchange between Ren Zhongyuan and the others and this False-Man Vine, his own strength should be enough to slay it—but whether the lot of them together could manage was another matter.
"That's right, now I remember!" Having heard Huo Yudie out, Yi Xiaotian suddenly exclaimed: "This is an ancient battlefield—fragments of intent and spiritual qi linger everywhere. Plants here absorb them and very likely mutate. That is how the False-Man Vine comes to be!"
"It likely absorbs more than mere intent and spiritual qi," Ren Zhongyuan said with a wary look. "It may well swallow up the lingering primordial spirits of the battlefield as well—otherwise how could it become such a terrifying monster?" Their escape unharmed just now had been pure luck; his protective Golden Bell had nearly been smashed apart by the giant vines, and if that had happened, the consequences were unthinkable.
"Ah! Then... then what do we do?" Yao Jiali's face paled further. Of the three she had come off the worst, and the terror the False-Man Vine inspired in her ran all the deeper. In her panic she blurted out: "We're here to harvest Longlife Root—this is the only route, isn't it?"
"You!" Ren Zhongyuan's expression changed at once. He shot Yao Jiali a furious glare, clearly enraged that she had blurted out the purpose of their journey.
"Uh..." Only then did Yao Jiali realize her mistake. They were not the only ones present. Huo Yudie was one thing, but Wei Zhao, an outsider, was trailing along behind them.
"Never mind, no harm in the boy knowing—he has nothing to do with it anyway!" Yi Xiaotian smoothed things over for her. That was the truth of it: Wei Zhao, merely at the peak of the early Nascent Soul stage, was beneath their notice. For the sake of Shangguan Tianxia's name, they would toss him a little something and be done with it. But if he had the gall to stick his hand out for rare heaven-and-earth treasures of the peerless grade, then they would have to teach him a proper lesson.
As the three talked, Wei Zhao was secretly muttering to himself: and what in the world was this Longlife Root?
But from the sound of it, their goal was not the same as Huo Yudie's after all—which meant they knew nothing of her search for the Lei Xuan Vine?
On reflection, that was only natural. Though they belonged to the same academy, the rivalry between them was fierce enough to be called water and fire; true exchange of information was impossible, especially where a strategic-grade treasure like the Lei Xuan Vine was concerned. Huo Yudie had most likely learned of it from her master Liu Ziqi, who was on good terms with West Isle. Ren Zhongyuan and the others probably had no such connections.