Chapter 4817 — The Western Mountain Master
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
The reason Wei Zhao had suddenly changed his mind and come here was simple: he had noticed someone following him—and not just for a short stretch, but the whole way from the Xiangyun Academy.
At the speed of Wei Zhao's Super Butterfly Microstep, anyone who could tail him so effortlessly had to be at least a Xuan Ascension stage expert. What was more, even with his spiritual sense, Wei Zhao had only vaguely sensed the presence and could never pin it down—which meant he had to tread carefully. One thing was certain: whatever was behind him was no pushover.
Wei Zhao had guessed correctly. The one trailing him was indeed no ordinary figure; it was the Western Mountain Master, the expert Ren Zhongyuan and Yi Xiaotian had gone to such lengths to summon.
He had picked up Wei Zhao's trail the moment he spotted him at the academy gate, but he had not chosen to strike—not because he didn't want to, but because he didn't dare. Unless he could be sure no one was around, he wouldn't have dared to act even if he'd been given two lives.
After all, this was still within the academy's sphere of influence, and a heretic cultivator of his caliber was a rat scurrying through the streets that everyone wanted to beat to death. The moment he showed himself, he would be set upon from all sides. Though he was a late-stage Xuan Ascension expert, in the Eastern Continent he truly amounted to little; any one of the academy's bigwigs could kill him with ease.
The Western Mountain Master had planned to wait until he was out of the academy's sphere of influence before striking. In the cultivation world no one meddled in others' business, and it was the same here in the Eastern Continent: so long as you didn't run wild inside their sphere of influence, those academy experts would turn a blind eye even knowing full well you were a heretic cultivator—and sometimes they would even work with you, just as Ren Zhongyuan and Yi Xiaotian had done.
Who would have thought Wei Zhao would suddenly change course and enter the small town? The Western Mountain Master had no choice but to disguise himself as an ordinary man and take a room at the same inn. Fortunately this was not a tightly policed main city, or he might not have dared follow him in at all. The town was a混杂 of dragons and snakes, after all—so long as he didn't openly declare himself a heretic cultivator, there was little problem.
Over the next two days, Wei Zhao did not set off for the Morning Star Academy as planned. Instead he wandered here and there about the town, and after a full two days of it, he finally locked onto his tracker: a late-stage Xuan Ascension expert staying in the room directly below his at the same inn.
Wei Zhao could not help but click his tongue in secret. This fellow was truly no simple matter—separated only by a single wooden board, and yet with all his perceptiveness it had taken him this long to ferret the man out. His skill at hiding his presence was simply first-rate.
What puzzled him, though, was this: why would a great expert of the late Xuan Ascension stage follow him for no reason at all? It looked like ill intent—could Yi Xiaotian have hired this one to deal with him? But two whole days had passed, so why was the fellow still holding back? Was he afraid there were too many people about?
Just as Wei Zhao was muttering to himself, a cackling laugh suddenly rang out in his mind: "Why is it that the higher your cultivation, the smaller your guts? What's there to be so startled about? It's just a piece of trash heretic cultivator at the Xuan Ascension stage. Lure him somewhere deserted and finish him off—is there any need for all this hemming and hawing?"
"This thing is a heretic cultivator? No wonder he doesn't dare strike in public!" Wei Zhao started at the words, then shook his head with a bitter smile. "Senior, you make it sound so easy. Even if he is a heretic cultivator, he's still a bona fide late-stage Xuan Ascension expert—no telling who finishes off whom."