Chapter 3883 — Playing for Keeps

Xiao Ran nodded in agreement. He had seen Wei Zhao fight back in the mortal world, but since arriving on Cloud Step Island the man had gone quiet. Even when he did act, it was only petty skirmishes—Xiao Ran had never once seen Wei Zhao get serious.

What he did not know was that although Wei Zhao had deliberately kept a low profile since coming to Cloud Step Island, he had not been idle the whole time. He had beaten Yu Zhe to within an inch of his life, and had even blasted Nan Tianyong, a peak expert of the late Foundation Establishment stage, until the man was barely clinging to breath—it was just that no one knew he was Lin Er.

Beside him, his long-suffering senior brother looked rather worried. "This Murong Zhen is a peak expert of the early Foundation Establishment stage, you know. Junior Brother Lin might be in danger. Ah, better to be careful!"

Watching Wei Zhao step onto the platform with perfect composure, Murong Zhen suddenly gave a soft laugh. "Brother Lin, this fair lady has wanted a match with you for quite some time. Today the chance has finally come—so do go easy on me later."

Wei Zhao nodded. "Don't worry, I will."

My god! The crowd below the platform could not help but curse in unison. Lady Murong here is a peak expert of the early Foundation Establishment stage—that was plainly just a bit of courtesy. You, a mere early Foundation Establishment cultivator, who the hell do you think you are, putting on such airs?

As expected of the grand master of posturing—no occasion is too solemn for him to strike a pose!

It was not only the crowd below who looked on with contempt; even Murong Zhen was taken aback. That expression, that tone—was he not being a bit too arrogant?

After a brief pause, Murong Zhen collected herself and said, "Good, then. Brother Lin, you must keep your word!"

The words had barely fallen when Murong Zhen's figure dissolved into nothingness. The next instant she reappeared less than three inches before Wei Zhao, a blinding white light at her fingertip aimed straight at his throat—Phantom Finger!

The last time she faced Xiao Ran, Murong Zhen had at least circled him for a while. But this time she opened with a killing move. That showed just how highly she regarded Wei Zhao.

Truth be told, even without her bargain with Meng Jueming, Murong Zhen herself very much wanted to teach Wei Zhao a lesson. She had taken the initiative to flirt and curry favor with him, and the wretch had not appreciated it in the least. How could she let off such a blind, unfeeling creature so easily?

Women, after all, are creatures who never forget a grudge.

"So fierce? Women really are not to be trifled with!" Wei Zhao twisted his mouth in feigned alarm, yet his feet were in no hurry. Treading the Butterfly Microstep, he slipped past Murong Zhen's sudden assault by a hair's breadth at the last possible instant.

"Brother Lin really is no simple man!" Her strike had missed. Murong Zhen had expected as much, but she was still somewhat disappointed.

This, however, confirmed her conjecture: Wei Zhao's strength was indeed far above Xiao Ran and Qiao Hongcai. Had it been Xiao Ran in his place, even if he could have dodged that blow, he could never have done so with such ease and composure.

Murong Zhen saw it clearly. Wei Zhao's response had looked perilous, but in truth it had been entirely under his control. To face her Phantom Finger and remain so composed—this man's strength was far beyond a mere early Foundation Establishment cultivator. He was unfathomably deep!

Wei Zhao smiled faintly. He had not yet used his true strength. This woman Murong Zhen was decent enough—among peak experts of the early Foundation Establishment stage she would not count as weak—but compared with him, she still fell far short.

Even without resorting to cheating tricks like true-qi bombs, Wei Zhao could rely on his own strength alone to fight Yu Zhe, a mid-Foundation Establishment expert, to a standstill—and even beat him half to death. And Murong Zhen was clearly a notch below Yu Zhe.

Hmph! Murong Zhen gave a cold snort at the sight, secretly vexed—and at the same time she put away the last trace of her earlier contempt.

The scene before her made it plain: Wei Zhao, an early Foundation Establishment cultivator, was looking down on her, a peak expert of the early Foundation Establishment stage!

"Brother Lin, do you know why this move of mine is called Phantom Finger?" Murong Zhen suddenly laughed in a sweet voice.

"Phantom Finger?" Wei Zhao raised an eyebrow. The move was certainly fast, and that piercing white light did have a dazzling effect—but it hardly seemed to deserve the word "phantom."

Yet just as Wei Zhao and the crowd below waited for her explanation, Murong Zhen suddenly moved. At first glance the move looked exactly like the one before—but that was only how it appeared to the onlookers below the platform. Standing where Wei Zhao stood, the sensation was something else entirely.

The Phantom Finger a moment ago had been nothing but a single flash of white light. Now, in Wei Zhao's eyes, dozens of white streaks shot toward him at once from every direction—leaving no blind spot in which to dodge.

Visual deception? Wei Zhao grasped it in an instant. Using visual deception to create a so-called phantom effect, leaving the opponent no way to defend?

But was that not a bit childish? At lower levels such a move would indeed be brilliant and impossible to guard against—but cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage and above, even with their eyes shut and no sight at all, could handle combat on the strength of their superhuman perception alone.

Wei Zhao's perception was unquestionably keen. Yet when he closed his eyes, he suddenly sensed that something was wrong—for with his eyes shut, those dozens of white streaks were still there in his mind!

"Did you think this fair lady's Phantom Finger merely deceives the eyes, Brother Lin? How naive!" Murong Zhen laughed coldly in triumph. If it were only such a low-grade technique, how could it possibly be her signature killing move?

Phantom Finger did not deceive sight alone—it deceived the divine consciousness itself!

At the Foundation Establishment stage, sight and hearing and the other basic senses were no longer enough to master combat; what cultivators relied on most was perception through divine consciousness.

And the core essence of the Phantom Finger that Murong Zhen cultivated was precisely the deception of divine consciousness. For the vast majority of cultivators, once even their divine consciousness could not tell true from false, they were utterly lost.

Blindingly fast, yet impossible to distinguish true from false; and Phantom Finger was a classic powerful technique that gathered all one's true qi into a single point to unleash explosive damage—while the spot Murong Zhen chose was invariably a lethal vital point like the throat.

Taken separately, none of these points was especially troublesome. But combined, even a peak expert of the early Foundation Establishment stage at her own level would be under enormous pressure.

"Interesting. So this woman is finally playing for keeps? Wei Zhao can only wait to die now!" Below the platform, Meng Jueming's eyes lit up.

To everyone else, Murong Zhen's move looked no different from her first probing strike; the only one whose divine consciousness was truly deceived was Wei Zhao on the platform. But Meng Jueming had heard people speak of this technique, the Phantom Finger.

To bystanders it looked utterly ordinary—but if this move were truly executed in earnest, it was terrifying, especially when the strong preyed upon the weak. Against such odds, this move was especially effective! (To be continued...)

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