Chapter 4955 — A Swift Escape
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"Don't worry. Tonight's fishing may look dangerous, but it is actually relatively safe. If I cannot survive even an opportunity as good as tonight's, then sooner or later I will die at Chang Minghui's hands anyway. So this is unavoidable—I can only stake everything when my odds are best, and thus still have a chance to win. Otherwise I have no chance at all." Wei Zhao's tone was resolute.
Wang Xinyan and Huang Xiaotao had both fallen silent; they knew further persuasion would be useless. But Huo Yudie still wanted to say something—she was certain Wei Zhao had more than this one method, that there must be some safer, more prudent choice.
Yet before Huo Yudie could speak again, Wei Zhao's expression suddenly turned stern, and he said in a low voice, "The fish has taken the hook!"
Before the words had died away, a giant wind blade condensed from a raging gale came shrieking down from the sky, smashing down upon the treasure ship from above. A burst of radiance flickered over the heads of Wei Zhao and the others, silently blocking the enormous wind blade—this was the treasure ship's protective formation.
But hard on its heels came another giant wind blade. The treasure ship's formation flickered once and shattered with a bang. Though it had already absorbed the vast majority of the force, the ship still rocked violently, and enormous waves tens of zhang high erupted from the surrounding sea as if from nowhere. It was just as Li Ren had said—a formation of this level could not hold off a late-stage Kaishan expert.
"Look after yourselves—don't interfere!" Wei Zhao's voice was still echoing across the ship, but his whole body had already shot away in an instant, hurtling off the treasure ship with the speed of a thunderclap and racing toward the League branch.
"Hmph! Still hoping to find Zhuang Yifan to save you at a time like this? You think you can escape to the League branch?" Amid a howling, ravaging gale, Chang Minghui descended from the sky onto the docks with a cold snort and gave chase to Wei Zhao at speed.
"So fast!" Sensing the terrifying aura closing in behind him, Wei Zhao could not help but feel his heart leap with fright. He was already exerting every ounce of his power, employing not only his ultimate Butterfly Microstep but even the art of true-qi propulsion—this was, so to speak, the very limit of what he could do.
By way of comparison, this speed was even far greater than that of Zang Zili in the early Kaishan stage. At least, when he had contended with Zang Zili back then, he had not gone all out like this; the ultimate Butterfly Microstep alone had been enough to run Zang Zili in circles. Yet compared with Chang Minghui behind him, the gap was far wider than that between the tortoise and the hare.
Though both were Kaishan-stage titans, Chang Minghui and Zang Zili were plainly not figures on the same plane. The former was late Kaishan, the latter early Kaishan—and the former was a late-stage Kaishan alchemist besides. If their strength did not differ a hundredfold, it surely differed by several tens of times; the two were simply not comparable.
"Truly a fish that costs a man his life," Wei Zhao sighed inwardly, not daring to slacken for an instant. He had been on the verge of being caught at any moment as it was; to let his attention wander now would be no different from courting death.
Even so, the distance between them shrank in an instant from a hundred zhang to ten. At such close range, Wei Zhao could smell the tangible killing intent wafting from behind him.