Chapter 2216 — Striking Up a Conversation

The car soon reached the foot of the Wulonghaote Mountains. There, however, several great families and the two major gangs had men stationed to keep lone adventurers out of the range, and also to keep ordinary folk from straying in and meeting with disaster.

They had, of course, in truth made the Wulonghaote Mountains their own private preserve. Any lesser force or petty gang that wished to enter the range for training or adventure had to pay a hefty fee.

For the Tagan family, though, there was no obstacle at all. Especially once they saw that the driver was none other than Young Master Tagan Long—naturally they waved him through.

At the foot of the mountains the whole party changed into specialized climbing gear. The Eighth Protector took the lead to clear the way, with Lazi, Wei Zhao, and the other adventurers in the middle, while the Fifth Protector—a man of peak late Earth-rank strength—accompanied Young Master Tagan Long at the very rear.

The whole of the Wulonghaote Mountains had but a single path up and down. Everywhere else was dense jungle, riddled with danger: if it was not poisonous herbs, then it was venomous insects. Unless one were a dedicated alchemist or apothecary, no one dared enter lightly.

Even a cultivator could be killed by a single bite from a venomous snake or insect. A brush against a poisonous plant might prove fatal as well.

"Stay together and keep your wits about you—don't wander off! If you stray from the path and get poisoned by insects or herbs, you have only yourselves to blame!" the Eighth Protector bellowed from the front.

At these words everyone could not help but grow more vigilant. Wei Zhao alone paid it little mind. For one thing, he had spent years dealing with venomous insects and herbs; Old Man Wei had not only grown a whole garden of medicinal plants but also kept a great collection of poisonous creatures and plants for researching gu poisons and the like. Ordinary venoms, then, were hardly enough to trouble Wei Zhao.

Sun Jingyan, on the other hand, was rather afraid, and instinctively edged closer to Wei Zhao's side. And not far behind them, a look of envious, jealous hatred shot from Young Master Tagan Long's eyes!

"A woman this fine ought to be mine!" Tagan Long muttered to himself, a lecherous gleam in his eyes.

"Young Master Tagan Long, the grand plan must come first," the Fifth Protector whispered in reminder. "Once the mission is done, there will be plenty of chances."

"Good!" Young Master Tagan Long nodded and set other thoughts aside for the moment.

Ordinarily, if Wei Zhao had not been paying attention, he would never have stooped to eavesdropping on their talk. But now—he had suspected from the start that the purpose of this expedition was not so simple, not as straightforward as Lazi had made it out to be, and this Young Master Tagan Long clearly harbored ill intent toward Sun Jingyan. So all the way up the mountain Wei Zhao had kept his eye on Tagan Long and the Fifth Protector, and their conversation had reached his ears without a single word missing.

Once the mission was over… there would be chances, would there? A cold sneer flickered at the corner of Wei Zhao's mouth. He had to admit that the force assembled around Tagan Long was formidable—but Wei Zhao had never come here in good faith to do this mission at all!

By the time the mission was over, Wei Zhao would long since have gone on to the Middle Vein and the Upper Vein. Even if Tagan Long wanted to find them then, he would not be able to!

And Tagan Long's earlier words only hardened his resolve to make a little trouble for the man when they dealt with the fire lion.

The party had climbed some five or six hundred meters up the mountain path when suddenly a giant python burst from the trail! Though it had not reached the level of a spirit beast, it was a mutant creature, far more formidable than an ordinary python.

The spiritual Qi of heaven and earth in the Wulonghaote Mountains was thicker than elsewhere, and so spirit beasts were plentiful here, and mutant monsters many.

To Wei Zhao's eye, this giant python was about the equal of the white python Yang Qiqi had faced during the trial at the Ice Palace. It posed no threat whatsoever to the Wei Zhao of today, and naturally would be no threat to the Eighth Protector either.

Sure enough, the Eighth Protector raised a hand and swept down a knife-hand strike that landed square on the top of the python's head. The beast did not even struggle once before it was smashed heavily to the ground and lay motionless—dead as a doornail, plainly.

The black-clad and green-clad experts, and even the white-clad brawny fellow, all changed color! So this Eighth Protector was a real expert as well! They lacked Wei Zhao's discerning eye and did not know the Eighth Protector's true strength—but if it had fallen to them to deal with this python, it would certainly not have been so easy!

They might in the end have just barely managed to slay the python, but never so cleanly!

For experts of their Yellow-rank level, their attack power was in truth about the same as Yang Qiqi's had been back then; Yang Qiqi had struggled mightily against the white python, so they too would surely have found it no easy task.

Wei Zhao, however, was unimpressed. Formidable as the python was, if he were to fight it, it would still be a one-move affair.

The python's appearance was plainly an accident. In theory, no spirit beast should come rushing out onto the mountain path; this python must have been so ravenous it would eat anything—but it had picked the wrong meal.

This time there was no further danger along the way. They advanced another kilometer or so and came to a rather open stretch, where the Eighth Protector halted.

"Everyone, this is our destination. It is here that we shall encircle and capture the fire lion!" the Eighth Protector said. "Lazi, deploy everyone to the advantageous positions; I will go use a special method to lure out the fire lion cub!"

"Yes, Eighth Protector!" Lazi nodded, took out the map, and, following the battle plan marked on it beforehand, stationed Wei Zhao and the others at the four blind corners. This was a small formation; so long as they held these four corners, there would basically be no problem.

Sun Jingyan stood not far behind Wei Zhao. She was nominally here for training, so naturally she would not take part in the rounding up of the cub.

It was at this moment, however, that Young Master Tagan Long chose to come over most inopportunely. He turned a mild, refined gaze upon Sun Jingyan and said politely, "Greetings, beautiful miss. Allow me to introduce myself: I am Tagan Long, eldest son of the Tagan family of Ruileida Town, an expert of the mid Yellow rank. A great pleasure to meet you!"

"My apologies, but we are about to encircle a spirit beast. Please do not let your attention wander, Young Master Tagan Long, or if the grand undertaking is delayed, that would be a shame," Sun Jingyan said coolly, with a manner that kept others at a thousand miles' distance. "You are only a mid Yellow-rank expert, and I hear this fire lion can hold its own against Yellow-rank experts. Do be careful, Young Master Tagan Long."

A flicker of anger crossed Tagan Long's face. He had not expected Sun Jingyan to be so insensible. He, the eldest young master of the illustrious Tagan family, one of the two or three most formidable figures in this whole town—whoever he spoke to, was it not they who scrambled to answer?

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