Chapter 2218 — A Counterproductive Favor

None of those three was easy to provoke. The little fire lion possessed a high intelligence and knew perfectly well that fleeing in their direction again would only be asking for trouble. The only option worth testing lay on Wei Zhao's side.

Still, Wei Zhao could not go easy on it openly; he had to put on a show. This was not yet the time to break with the Tagan family. Wei Zhao intended, once the mission failed, to pretend he would stay on the mountain to help the Tagan family continue searching for traces of the fire lion.

The Tagan family would surely welcome such a free laborer standing watch on the mountain. They would assume Wei Zhao was coveting those Minor Qi-Gathering Pills and unwilling to give up on them, and it would rouse little suspicion.

Wei Zhao's figure moved swiftly, and in an instant he had planted himself before the little fire lion, one palm striking toward it.

A flash of dread crossed the little fire lion's eyes. It had not expected Wei Zhao's body and speed to be the finest of the four, and judging by that fierce palm strike, taking it head-on would leave it in a sorry state. Instinctively, the little fire lion let out a mournful howl.

Wei Zhao's palm landed on the little fire lion's body, and to its astonishment, it felt no pain at all. Instead, a pure wisp of true qi entered its body, swiftly healing every injury it had suffered before.

In truth, the little fire lion's wounds had not been especially severe to begin with, and the second use of Wei Zhao's Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art healed at tremendous speed; the whole process was completed in a single instant.

Having healed the little fire lion, Wei Zhao suddenly exerted force in his hand and "sent" it flying. It looked as though it had been struck away, but Wei Zhao had used a clever, yielding strength. The little fire lion was not hurt in the slightest.

Moreover, as he sent it off, Wei Zhao condensed his true qi into sound and said to it, "I cannot let you go from my side. You must still find your own way to break through. But if you are wounded, you may come back, and I will heal you."

A trace of shock flickered in the little fire lion's eyes. Its strength was wanting, but its intelligence was high—such was the advantage of spirit-beast bloodline. It understood Wei Zhao's words well enough, yet was greatly puzzled. Why would Wei Zhao spare it?

And Wei Zhao seemed so formidable—able to heal it in an instant? Why could a human heal a spirit beast? Was it not only healing-type spirit beasts that could heal spirit beasts? Puzzled as it was, the little fire lion knew this was no time for questions, and it must keep up its disguise so as not to fail Wei Zhao's kindness.

After landing heavily on the ground, the little fire lion pretended to writhe in agony for a good while before it climbed to its feet. Yet this time it was full of confidence, and it began taking the initiative to attack the green-robed expert. In its mind, being wounded did not matter so long as Wei Zhao was there to heal it in an instant.

It need only hold out for a time. Once its father, the great fire lion, saw that it had gone missing, he would surely come looking for it.

Of the experts present, the strongest was only the Fifth Protector, at the peak of the late Earth-rank—not even the equal of the old masters hidden away in the Yin, Zhao, You, and Tang families. There was no chance at all of them detecting Wei Zhao's small movements or his condensed-qi voice.

With Wei Zhao's assurance, the little fire lion simply stopped thinking about escape, for under the siege of these men, fleeing would be very difficult. And it could not choose Wei Zhao's side: Wei Zhao had helped it, and to flee from him instead would be to harm him.

So the little fire lion turned from fleeing at first to provoking them of its own accord—fighting the green-robed expert, then the black-robed expert, then the burly white-robed man, cycling back and forth like this, which left the three of them thoroughly exhausted, while the little fire lion only grew braver the more it fought.

"Fifth Protector, what is the matter with this little fire lion? It seems to have an abundance of stamina?" Tagan Long asked, somewhat impatiently.

"I am not certain... but according to the records, a little fire lion ought not to have such vigor as this. Could this be a purebred little fire lion?" The Fifth Protector could see no clue either, and could only surmise that this little fire lion was naturally robust.

"No matter. The stronger this little fire lion is, the more prestige I shall have once it becomes my contracted spirit beast," Tagan Long said with a nod.

Inwardly, the Fifth Protector felt relieved; had he known the little fire lion would be so full of energy, he would have been certain that this scheme of recruiting adventurers to wear down its stamina was the right one.

Only, if after a time they still could not exhaust the little fire lion's strength and the great fire lion came in answer, then these adventurers would surely become the sacrifices of this operation. The fire lion was a spirit beast that repaid kindness and vengeance alike with perfect clarity—it remembered favors, but it also remembered grudges. When the great fire lion arrived, all four of these men would have to die.

By contrast, those of them who had not raised a hand might draw the great fire lion's retaliation, but would certainly not be wiped out root and branch—merely warned. By then, so long as Young Master Tagan was kept safe, his taking a minor wound would be no problem at all.

He carried many healing pills on his person; treating a light wound was a trifling matter.

What the Fifth Protector knew, the Eighth Protector naturally knew as well. Standing to one side with Lazi, he watched with great anxiety, longing to pitch in yet not daring to. For one thing, he feared the fire lion's retaliation later; for another, his pitching in would do no good.

With his mid Earth-rank strength, a full-force strike would certainly injure the little fire lion gravely, but that was not the outcome he wanted. Once he struck with all his might, the little fire lion's meridians would surely be shattered; and if its meridians were shattered, the contract pill, once swallowed, could not be refined and merged into them. It would be as good as swallowed for nothing, and the contracting effect would not be achieved.

But if he did not strike with full force, what difference was there between him and these Yellow-rank experts in wearing down the little fire lion's stamina back and forth? The four of them were already sufficient, and he was unwilling to take the risk—lest the affair fail and he earn the great fire lion's enmity.

The little fire lion's chief targets were the green-robed expert, the black-robed expert, and the burly white-robed man; only occasionally would it turn and attack Wei Zhao.

To the onlookers, however, there was nothing strange in this. The little fire lion's intelligence was exceedingly high, and it must surely see that Wei Zhao was the strongest fighter of them all. It would rather fight the other three than Wei Zhao, and only when occasionally driven into a corner would it trade a blow or two with Wei Zhao.

From the way Wei Zhao had struck it flying, from how it lay on the ground and needed a long struggle before it could rise, one could also see plainly that it had suffered the worst at Wei Zhao's hands! (To be continued.) RQ

For the fastest updates, please read without pop-ups.