Chapter 3057 — Cutting Off Wei Zhao's Financial Lifeline

"Of course, of course!" Vice Chairman Ouyang breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed Wei Zhao was not going to pursue the matter after all...

The man quickly packed up the medicinal herbs Wei Zhao required, along with some complimentary ingredients for pill refinement, and loaded them all for him. Wei Zhao did not linger; he took his leave straight away from the Cultivators' Trading Guild.

Only, someone had watched Wei Zhao's entire visit from the shadows. That person was Yu Yi of the hidden Yu family!

Yu Yi was himself a Heaven-tier expert, and tailing Wei Zhao without being detected was no simple feat. But Wei Zhao had never once suspected he might be followed, and having only just ascended to Heaven-tier, he was not much given to using Heaven-tier perception.

Then again, Yu Yi had kept his distance throughout, relying purely on luck to track him this far, and he had also masked his cultivator's aura. It was only natural that Wei Zhao failed to notice—Yu Yi was, after all, a Heaven-tier expert of long-standing fame.

Watching Wei Zhao depart, Yu Yi did not follow. Instead, he placed a call to the Yu family's old ancestor, Yu Tianxing.

"Yu Yi, well? Did Wei Zhao bring out that Heaven-tier weapon?" Yu Tianxing asked.

"Wei Zhao went to the Cultivators' Trading Guild. At first I thought he meant to trade away that Heaven-tier divine weapon, but I was wrong. He came here to sell pills—a great quantity of first-grade pills and a small amount of second-grade pills!" Yu Yi said. The pills Wei Zhao had delivered were put up for sale soon after, and the Trading Guild had made a point of advertising them as the same high-quality pills from the auction, supplied by Mr. Ling. So Yu Yi needed no investigation at all to see what Wei Zhao's purpose had been.

"Oh?" Yu Tianxing paused a moment. "Wei Zhao went to the Cultivators' Trading Guild to sell pills?"

"Yes. But while he was there, Wei Zhao clashed with a cultivator at the peak of mid-Heaven-tier... and Wei Zhao killed him in a single strike." Yu Yi had not witnessed the scene himself, but seeing Elder Dongfang's corpse carried out was enough to imagine how formidable Wei Zhao had become. A knot of worry tightened in his chest: Wei Zhao's rise could no longer be checked. The Yu family was no longer his match.

"What!? Wei Zhao can now kill a peak mid-Heaven-tier expert in one strike?" Yu Tianxing was visibly shaken. "Who was that cultivator?"

"Unknown. Shall I look into it?" Yu Yi asked.

"No need. There's no sense in provoking Wei Zhao over such trifles. From now on, no one in the Yu family is to clash with him. True, we cannot refuse the missions handed down from that place, but we must not let them turn the hidden Yu family into cannon fodder under Wei Zhao's blade." Yu Tianxing instructed.

"Understood." Yu Yi nodded.

"Keep following him. Find out where that Heaven-tier divine weapon really is—whether it is still on Wei Zhao's person." Yu Tianxing ordered.

"Yes, Old Master." Yu Yi answered.

After hanging up with Yu Yi, Yu Tianxing immediately called Xiao Yi, who handled all contact with the hidden Yu family.

"Senior, this is Yu Tianxing. Yu Yi has been tailing Wei Zhao and has gathered some information on his movements, but there is no word of your Heaven-tier divine weapon." Yu Tianxing spoke with great caution.

"None?" Xiao Yi frowned. "What has Wei Zhao been up to?"

"Wei Zhao went to the Cultivators' Trading Guild, then went home," Yu Tianxing said.

"The Cultivators' Trading Guild? Are you certain he did not go there to sell my Heaven-tier divine weapon?" Xiao Yi asked, frowning.

"That should not be the case. Wei Zhao sold some first-grade pills and a small number of second-grade pills, and seemed to have traded for some medicinal herbs. Nothing else was sold," Yu Tianxing said.

"I see..." Xiao Yi nodded. "And that vehicle of mine—is it in Wei Zhao's hands?"

"Well... Yu Yi did not dare approach Wei Zhao's residence. As you know, Wei Zhao is a Heaven-tier expert now, and I fear he would be discovered," Yu Tianxing said.

"Then why not send an ordinary person to look?" Xiao Yi countered.

"That... I will send someone at once!" Yu Tianxing wiped the cold sweat from his brow. Though he ranked among the foremost of the hidden families, before Xiao Yi he trembled with fear and did not dare offer the slightest resistance.

After all, this was a being who could annihilate the hidden Yu family with a flick of his fingers!

"Fine. Report to me the moment you have news!" Xiao Yi said.

Yu Tianxing hung up with the utmost care and could not help but sigh softly. There was no help for it—caught between Wei Zhao and the Five Luminaries Sect, he was in an impossible position. It would have been one thing had Wei Zhao remained weak, but Wei Zhao had grown powerful enough, and Xiao Yi and Xiao Shiyi had both come off worse at his hands. This left the hidden Yu family in a bind, for offending either side was misery. But having chosen the Five Luminaries Sect, the price of betrayal was greater still—they could only walk this road to the end.

After hanging up, Xiao Yi went to see Ancestor Xuanchen and recounted in full detail everything Yu Tianxing had said.

"Wei Zhao went to sell pills?" Ancestor Xuanchen sank into thought upon hearing Yu Tianxing's report.

Kang Jingming was present as well. He was now Ancestor Xuanchen's son-in-law, and their bond was naturally closer for it. The matter had its advantages and disadvantages: he had married a crippled woman, true, but his standing with Ancestor Xuanchen now rivaled even Xiao Yi's.

"Father-in-law, I hear Wei Zhao is in a tight spot. His company owes a mountain of external debt, and his only source of income now is selling pills. Why don't we join forces with the hidden You family and flood the market with first-grade pills? That will surely cut into Wei Zhao's sales. We cannot touch Wei Zhao directly, but we can take an indirect route—striking at him this way is quite a good move," Kang Jingming suggested.

"Hmm... a nasty trick indeed!" Ancestor Xuanchen nodded in approval. First-grade pills were nothing to the Xuandan Sect and the hidden You family—easy to refine, and when the time came, displacing Wei Zhao's market would be a simple matter. The old ancestor was tempted. "Striking at Wei Zhao from this angle is a fine tactic. If we cannot face him head-on, we will sicken him from the flank! Xiao Yi, Zhaoming, begin arrangements at once—let Wei Zhao weep with nowhere to turn!"