Chapter 4992 — Only Half a Day

The elite guards of the护卫队 scrambled out in a panic. At their level of strength, even the slightest spillover from such a clash would be fatal. There had been more than one or two cases in the past of people being maimed or killed by collateral damage from Wu Miao's "Tiger Descending the Mountain" move—the lessons of the past were plain to see, so at a time like this, of course they wanted to get as far away as possible.

"A tiger? It does look rather imposing, but I wonder whether it can beat my dragon." Wei Zhao gave a faint smile and casually flung out a wisp of Five Elements Eight Trigrams killing intent. Accompanied by a low, rumbling dragon cry, a golden Eight Trigrams dragon that seemed almost solid descended upon the little Heavenly Pill Pavilion. An overwhelming pressure, as if from some primordial beast of antiquity, bore down upon them and forcefully drove the colorful tiger opposite it back several steps.

"True qi transforming into spirit?" Wu Miao's eyelids twitched wildly in terror. As the Standing Vice Island Lord of the Central Island, his knowledge and insight far surpassed ordinary people, and he instantly saw the essence of this Eight Trigrams flood dragon. This thing had given even a late Opening Mountain expert like Chang Minggui a great fright—let alone him, a mere peak late Xuan Ascension cultivator.

Although the colorful tiger he had conjured also looked lifelike, it was nothing more than a special illusion produced by his dual water-and-fire aspect. To put it plainly, it was true qi that merely had the shape of a tiger—it did not even count as true qi taking form, let alone the higher realm of true qi transforming into spirit.

Wu Miao's move could only frighten laymen at best; at most it was a pauper's version of true qi taking form. Who would have thought that today he would run into the real thing—that he would actually come up against true qi transforming into spirit!

Every movement of the colorful tiger depended on Wu Miao's true qi to sustain it, so when it was frightened back, it was in truth Wu Miao himself who was frightened back. But the Eight Trigrams flood dragon Wei Zhao had conjured was different. It already bore a faint aura of a true spirit beast, and needed no constant control from Wei Zhao's mind—it could launch attacks all on its own.

As the colorful tiger retreated again and again, the Eight Trigrams flood dragon let out a dragon cry and pounced straight at it, following up with two dragon claws and a lash of its tail. In an easy, effortless motion, it tore the colorful tiger to shreds.

That was not the end of it. The Eight Trigrams flood dragon coiled itself tightly around Wu Miao next. Listening to the dragon cry so close to his ears and feeling the almost tangible pressure of a ferocious beast, Wu Miao was scared half out of his wits.

A mighty expert at the peak of late Xuan Ascension, now bound fast by the Eight Trigrams flood dragon—no matter how desperately he struggled, he could not move so much as an inch. The only fate left to him now was to fold his hands and await death. Such an outcome truly left everyone's jaws hanging.

The elite guards crowded outside the door and the onlookers exchanged glances, not daring even to breathe too loudly, for fear that a careless move would draw the attention of this Eight Trigrams flood dragon that had appeared out of nowhere. Even a personage of Wu Miao's caliber had no power to fight back—let alone small fry like them.

"Well? My dragon isn't too bad, is it?" Wei Zhao strolled slowly up to Wu Miao and said, arms folded, thoroughly at his ease.

Since he had developed the Five Elements Eight Trigrams killing intent not long ago, frankly even Wei Zhao himself did not know just how powerful the Eight Trigrams flood dragon was. The only time he had used it before was against Chang Minggui—but the gap in strength and cultivation between them had been far too great, and the flood dragon had been easily destroyed the moment it appeared. It had been hard to judge its true effect.

But now Wei Zhao had caught a glimpse of the truth. Judging from how the Eight Trigrams flood dragon had effortlessly crushed Wu Miao, it would surely make short work of a Xuan Ascension great-circle expert as well, and should be enough to put up a fight against a weaker early Opening Mountain expert like Zang Zili.

In terms of sheer destructive power and explosive force alone, it probably could not match the ultimate move Thunder Burial, but this move had the advantage of requiring no buildup—it could defeat an enemy in an instant, and its combinations were extremely flexible. So long as Wei Zhao split his attention slightly, he could coordinate perfectly between his true body and the Eight Trigrams flood dragon, achieving a form of two-against-one.

This conclusion delighted Wei Zhao inwardly. It was practically a top-tier, advanced version of the left-hand-versus-right-hand technique! Had he mastered this move back when he faced Zang Zili, he would not have had to fight so laboriously at all. He could have established absolute, one-sided suppression—Zang Zili might not even have been able to fight back.

"You... don't you dare do anything rash!" The pressure of being bound by a ferocious beast was simply more than any normal person could bear. Wu Miao's voice even trembled now, yet he still refused to show weakness before Wei Zhao, forcing himself to stay calm as he said, "I am Wu Miao, the Standing Vice Island Lord. If you dare touch a single hair on my head, you will be making an enemy of the entire Central Island. Weigh the consequences for yourself!"

"Is that so? I'm so scared." Wei Zhao did not take the other's threats to heart at all, and said with a curl of his lip, "Is the Central Island a business your family runs, that whatever you say goes? Hmph—since you chose to be a running dog of the Famous Pill Sect, you should have been prepared for this. Since you dared come after me, you should naturally be ready to be dealt with by me. Isn't that the way of it?"

"I..." Wu Miao was instantly choked speechless. He truly regretted agreeing to help the Famous Pill Sect now. He had assumed this was just some insignificant small fry—who would have known he would turn out to be such a slab of solid iron!

The other was only at the early Xuan Ascension stage, yet he had casually dealt with Wu Miao, a peak late Xuan Ascension expert—and with a legendary method like true qi transforming into spirit, no less. Wu Miao was no fool. He knew what this represented, and he knew even better that this was absolutely not something he, a mere Standing Vice Island Lord, could settle.

This time, the Zheng family had really set him up!

"I'll spare your miserable life this once. I'll give you half a day to return those five seventh-grade Great Rejuvenation Pills of mine. If you can't manage it, that's fine too—I'll come to your door myself. But when that happens, I won't be nearly so pleasant to talk to." Wei Zhao looked Wu Miao in the eye and said calmly, "Remember, I'm really not a man of good temper. I only let someone go once."

Wu Miao was already drenched in cold sweat from fright, and at these words he was overjoyed. He thought to himself that though this man was terrifying, in the end he still did not dare truly provoke the Island Lord's Pavilion—otherwise, once he truly made an enemy of the entire Central Island, what good would his strength do him?

With that thought, the bit of dread that had just risen in Wu Miao instantly dissolved into nothing. The identity of Standing Vice Island Lord was his greatest talisman—so long as this Wei Zhao did not dare make an enemy of the Central Island, he had him right where he wanted him!