Chapter 1057 — Wei Zhao's Strength

"Oh — then you be careful, all right?" Feng Xiaoxiao asked.

"I'd say he's the one who ought to be careful of you," Wei Zhao said with a laugh.

"Ha ha!" Feng Xiaoxiao brightened at once. "I think so too!"

"But that Xie Yufeng — you'd still do well to be careful around him. When I'm not beside you, you and Xiaoshu had best not provoke him on your own," Wei Zhao instructed.

"Oh? What about Xie Yufeng? What's so special about him? What could he possibly do to us?" Feng Xiaoxiao asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Xie Yufeng is a cultivator — a formidable one at the peak of the early Mystic rank." Wei Zhao saw no reason to hide this from Feng Xiaoxiao; given her family background, she would certainly understand what such ranks among cultivators meant.

"Ah!" Feng Xiaoxiao was startled by his words. "A formidable one at the peak of the early Mystic rank? Really?"

"Really." Wei Zhao nodded.

"You can't be serious? A formidable one at the peak of the early Mystic rank, and he's that pathetic? Beaten black and blue by a few small-time thugs? Sitting down on a shoe with a nail in it? And today he got a thorough thrashing from Wu Tieshou?" Feng Xiaoxiao was unconvinced; it seemed utterly unbelievable to her.

"He is indeed a formidable one at the peak of the early Mystic rank." Wei Zhao nodded earnestly. "Only, for some reason, he deliberately concealed his strength in front of me."

"Oh?" Hearing this, Feng Xiaoxiao furrowed her brow and fell into thought.

If what Wei Zhao said was true, then Xie Yufeng really did seem to have been hiding his strength! Whether that day in the karaoke lounge or this morning when they ran into Wu Tieshou, Xie Yufeng had always seemed full of confidence beforehand, ready to teach the other man a lesson — and then suddenly he had backed down and softened!

Feng Xiaoxiao had been puzzled before, but the thought had never crossed her mind. Now that she considered it carefully, it really was rather strange, and only Wei Zhao's explanation could account for it! Namely, that in front of Wei Zhao, Xie Yufeng was deliberately pretending to have no strength at all!

"Then what does he mean by doing that...? Is he targeting you?" Feng Xiaoxiao was no fool; in a flash she grasped the stakes involved. Xie Yufeng must have some motive for acting this way, and ten to one it was aimed at Wei Zhao. At this thought, her heart tightened. She did not know when it had begun, but Feng Xiaoxiao had truly come to regard Wei Zhao as her boyfriend, as someone she cared about — no longer merely a laboratory specimen for love or a target for revenge. This change had come about imperceptibly, so that even Feng Xiaoxiao herself was not quite clear on it.

Human thoughts are the most elusive of things; love and hate often turn on a single instant — hatred may give birth to love, and love to hatred. Feng Xiaoxiao's present state was one of hatred giving birth to love.

"Perhaps. But a formidable one at the peak of the early Mystic rank is all he is..." Wei Zhao shrugged and spoke as though it hardly mattered.

"Oh?" Feng Xiaoxiao's eyes lit up at once at his words! If Wei Zhao could appear at the auction, then he must surely know something of the great families, and it was only natural that he would know the ranking system of martial artists. So Feng Xiaoxiao found nothing amiss in that. But the fact that Wei Zhao now regarded Xie Yufeng with outright contempt — that told her something!

Since Wei Zhao knew what a formidable one at the peak of the early Mystic rank meant, and yet held him in such contempt, then what was Wei Zhao's own strength? Could it be that Wei Zhao was a cultivator too? A martial artist as well?

Feng Xiaoxiao found it rather incredible! Because of her father's work, she naturally knew more of such inside matters than others — but she also knew all the better how rare martial artists were in the secular world! Yellow-rank adepts were one thing; after all, there were always such adepts to be found at the side of the wealthy!

Many cultivators, upon reaching the Yellow rank, stalled there and went no further. Having no higher aspirations on the path of cultivation, they naturally pursued the money and pleasures of the mundane world; it was nothing unusual for them to sink into the role of running dogs and hired muscle for the rich. But the Mystic rank was not so common. Generally, a formidable one who could cultivate to the Mystic rank, if there was even the slightest chance of advancing further, would not stoop to becoming a bodyguard for the wealthy. Still, nothing in this world is absolute; Mystic-rank adepts were few, but they did exist.

But Wei Zhao, a high school student, actually held a formidable one at the peak of the early Mystic rank in such contempt — then what about himself...? Feng Xiaoxiao had known before only that Wei Zhao was formidable, but she had never imagined he was this formidable! If so, then Wei Zhao really might be even stronger than Xie Yufeng!

"Wei Zhao, darling... you..." Feng Xiaoxiao stared at Wei Zhao wide-eyed, incredulous. "Don't tell me you're even stronger than Xie Yufeng?"

Wei Zhao nodded. Since he had already accepted Feng Xiaoxiao, there were naturally some things he would no longer keep from her. As for matters of strength, Tang Zhi, Gu Mengyao, and Shen Yushu all knew; and besides, Feng Xiaoxiao's father, Feng Tianlong, had once been his comrade-in-arms — how could Wei Zhao possibly hide anything?

"Just a little stronger than Xie Yufeng," Wei Zhao said with a smile.

"Wow!" Hearing Wei Zhao's confirmation, Feng Xiaoxiao was beside herself with excitement and could not help crying out: "Xiaoxiao, you are too awesome! Picking a boyfriend at random, and he turns out to be a Mystic-rank adept — wahaha, I've hit the jackpot!"

"..." Wei Zhao looked at Feng Xiaoxiao's delighted expression, somewhat at a loss for words. He could not fathom what she was so happy about. What use was a Xuan-rank expert? It would not cure her illness either...

"Hahaha, doesn't that mean you're stronger than most of the experts from the great families?" Feng Xiaoxiao circled around Wei Zhao, her eyes sweeping over him from head to toe, as though hoping to spot something extraordinary. "No wonder you could attend the auction — so you're an expert too!"

"I wasn't at the time, only late Huang-rank..." Wei Zhao said. "Though I can generally punch above my level and handle experts a bit stronger than myself..."

The thought struck him that his last breakthrough had been thanks to Feng Xiaoxiao. He had already touched the barrier to the Xuan-rank, but without her push to break down and rebuild, he would never have become a Xuan-rank expert so easily!

"Oh?" Feng Xiaoxiao was slightly taken aback at Wei Zhao's words.

But Wei Zhao had clearly said this to put Feng Xiaoxiao at ease — after all, she had so little time left, and he did not want her living in fear every day.

"Heh, so don't overthink it. Whether it's Wu Chengtian or Xie Yufeng, neither is a problem. Never mind Wu Chengtian — even if his grandfather came, I wouldn't fear him in the slightest." Wei Zhao smiled as he spoke.

"Wu Chengtian's grandfather..." Something suddenly occurred to Feng Xiaoxiao — at the end of the Yanjing auction, she had provoked Wu Chengtian's grandfather, Wu Gonggao. At the time, Wu Gonggao had flown into a rage, looking as though he meant to beat her to death, and Wei Zhao seemed to have stepped in front of her?