Chapter 2872 — Kick You

"Squeak, squeak..." The Heavenly Thunder Pig shook its head. Finding a patch of soft soil beneath its feet, it wrote: "Not now. Every day between two and four in the morning is the hour when the spirit beasts rest. That is the best time for us to go look for Zhang Naipao—we won't be attacked by any spirit beasts then."

"Oh? Two to four in the morning? The spirit beasts resting?" Wei Zhao was slightly taken aback. He had not expected the Heavenly Thunder Pig to have not only found Zhang Naipao this time, but to have brought back such good news as well. All along, Wei Zhao had been worrying about how he might follow the Heavenly Thunder Pig safely to Zhang Naipao, afraid they would run into spirit beast attacks along the way.

After all, though he carried the sachet on his person, Tianchan and Yang Qiqi did not—which meant they were still in danger. But the Heavenly Thunder Pig's discovery solved that worry neatly.

"Squeak, squeak!" The Heavenly Thunder Pig nodded and went on writing: "Zhang Naipao is already injured. He's sitting on the ground resting. No need to worry that he'll wander off."

"That's good, then." Wei Zhao nodded. He could well imagine why Zhang Naipao would be injured. Roaming at random through this land of the Five Malevolences, he was bound to run into spirit beast attacks—and since he could fight back, the beasts, once they had taken a loss, would not keep attacking him. And so Zhang Naipao had survived after all.

Tianchan had clearly thought the same thing. She silently counted their luck: this time they had not only found Wei Zhao, but could also report back to Patriarch Xuanchen.

That night, two in the morning finally arrived. Before the Heavenly Thunder Pig had returned, Wei Zhao had still been able to chat and laugh with Tianchan; but once the pig brought definite word of Zhang Naipao, Wei Zhao could only long for nightfall to come sooner, so he could carry Yang Qiqi off to find Zhang Naipao.

The three of them and one pig moved along under the moonlight. Sure enough, just as the Heavenly Thunder Pig had said, no spirit beasts stirred at this hour—it seemed the beasts really had all gone to rest. Along the smooth, level road there was not the faintest breath of danger.

The Dragon of the Five Malevolences had, in fact, long known that Wei Zhao and Tianchan had safely climbed up from beneath the cliff. They had lingered so long at the foot of the Five Malevolences Mountains—and this was the Dragon's own territory. It could not possibly have failed to sense their presence.

Of course, the Dragon of the Five Malevolences had not come down to attack them again either. As the sovereign of the Five Malevolences Mountains, the Dragon hated human cultivators with a passion—especially these who had wrecked its cultivation by devouring the power of its origin. It would certainly not let Wei Zhao and Tianchan off lightly.

But a sovereign has its pride. It had already killed Wei Zhao and Tianchan once; that they had not died astonished it, yet it did not stoop to a second murderous strike. It had merely cast them down the cliff in the same manner as before.

Whether they lived or died was up to their own fate. But what the Dragon of the Five Malevolences had never expected was that these two would actually climb back up again! Since when had that sheer cliff become so easy to scale?

Yet the Dragon's not striking with its own claws did not mean it silently condoned Wei Zhao and Tianchan's second arrival. After Wei Zhao and the others had left, it summoned the spirit beast underling nearest to it and said flatly: "Roar—(All previous rules are hereby abolished. All spirit beasts may move and rest freely!)"

"Woo-woo—" The spirit beast underling hastily signaled its understanding, turned, and ran off to notify the sound-wave flying spirit beasts...

Wei Zhao and the others had no idea that the Dragon of the Five Malevolences would play such a nasty trick on them, throwing the spirit beasts' routine into chaos! Still, word took time to spread. Though the sound-wave flying spirit beasts could swiftly broadcast the Dragon's command far and wide, the underling had to reach them first.

The Heavenly Thunder Pig had an exceptional sense of direction. It scarcely took a single wrong turn the whole way, and Wei Zhao, carrying Yang Qiqi on his back, found Zhang Naipao together with Tianchan!

When Wei Zhao saw Zhang Naipao, he could not help but sigh. A formidable disciple of the Tomorrow Upon Tomorrow sect, and here he sat on the ground in utter dejection, gaping foolishly, eyes glazed, doing heaven knew what—or rather, doing nothing at all!

"Zhang Naipao!" Tianchan called out.

But Zhang Naipao gave no response whatsoever. He did not even raise his head to glance at Tianchan; her call fell on deaf ears.

"He's sunk into the peak state and can't hear anyone calling him." Wei Zhao recalled his own experience and shook his head as he explained.

"Then... how is he supposed to wake up?" Tianchan frowned slightly. If Zhang Naipao did not come to and they brought him back like this to see Patriarch Xuanchen, the Patriarch would surely ask why Zhang Naipao had ended up in such a state. Tianchan feared she might give away Wei Zhao's secret, and she was worried.

"Feng Shipian said before that this is a kind of madness of the primordial spirit. In theory, only he himself can come back to his senses; if others interfere by force, he could easily suffer qi deviation. Unless someone who knows how to send their primordial spirit out of the body communicates directly with Zhang Naipao through the state of the primordial spirit—only that way can Zhang Naipao be brought back to himself," Wei Zhao said. His confidence that Zhang Naipao could heal Yang Qiqi actually came from that ghostly thing in the jade pendant space—that thing seemed to be a high-grade primordial spirit.

"Then... how do we wake him? Do you have a way?" Tianchan was slightly startled. In this state, Zhang Naipao clearly could not heal Yang Qiqi, and she did not know where Wei Zhao's confidence came from.

"Let's get to somewhere safe first. It's too dangerous here. It's already taken us an hour and a half to get here; luckily we're not far from safety, or once the spirit beasts wake up we'd be in for it," Wei Zhao said.

"Ah... if you hadn't said so, I'd have nearly forgotten the time." Tianchan stuck out her tongue nervously.

"I thought you weren't afraid of spirit beasts. When they come, you can just kick them!" Wei Zhao looked at Tianchan's adorable expression and laughed.

"You dare make fun of me?" Tianchan's face flushed red, and she glared at Wei Zhao, half angry, half embarrassed: "I specialize in kicking you, not spirit beasts."

"Specialize in kicking me? Why not say it's a family heirloom—kicking me?" Wei Zhao was taken aback, then smiled wryly.

"What do you think this is, some street-corner family-heirloom phone screen protector?" Tianchan shot Wei Zhao a glare.

"You know about family-heirloom screen protectors?" Wei Zhao was rather surprised. He had only learned of it when he occasionally browsed the web and came across a little street stall that applied screen protectors to phones. Everyone else called it "professional screen protection," but that one family called theirs "family-heirloom screen protection." Wei Zhao had wondered—did their ancestors already have phones? And could apply screen protectors? He had never expected Tianchan to know of it too.

"Some lunatic told me the joke." Tianchan had not known it originally, but Kang Zhaoming came every day to curry favor and told her jokes, so she had learned it. RS

Fastest update, ad-free reading please.