Chapter 3544 — The Arrogant Tagan Long

Wei Zhao was taken aback. He hadn't expected anyone to dare snatch a phone in a setting like this. He thought about snatching it back, then decided against it. His current mindset was to keep a low profile; starting a scene at the Heavenly Tier Assembly would only play into Ancestor Xuanchen's hands—he might well be thrown out of the assembly on the spot!

Besides, the phone had a password lock. Even if Zhong Yongliang took it, he wouldn't be able to get in!

Sure enough, when Zhong Yongliang lit up the screen and saw the password prompt, he was visibly disappointed. Then he idly glanced at Wei Zhao's wallpaper, and envy flooded through him. It was a group photo of Wei Zhao with the Inheritors, along with Bingtang, Xueli, Tianchan, Wang Xinyan, Han Jingyi, and the others, taken in what looked like a small rural town...

Huh? Who's this old man?! Oh—!

Zhong Yongliang saw the old man standing beside Wei Zhao in the photo, and shuddered so violently he nearly flung the phone out of his hand!

My God, isn't that one of the Twin Vajras?! Zhong Yongliang's eyes went wide. He checked several times over—there was no mistaking it, this was definitely one of the Twin Vajras! But how was he posing for a photo with Wei Zhao?

Suddenly, something clicked. This one of the Twin Vajras, he'd heard, was named Lin Dongfang, and Wei Zhao... Holy shit! No way, was it possible?

Zhong Yongliang felt an urge to cry. What the hell was this, some kind of joke at his expense?! He'd been opposing the descendant of one of the Twin Vajras this whole time? This was practically a recipe for getting himself killed! He remembered Lin Dongfang saying he'd introduce him as a lackey to his junior—and that junior was none other than Wei Zhao, wasn't it?!

Zhong Yongliang's terror of Lin Dongfang was deeply ingrained, and in that instant his mind went completely blank. He had forgotten what he was even doing. The scene from his past life—the Mad Dragon Patriarch beaten to death by Lin Dongfang—was still vivid before his eyes...

Wei Zhao watched Zhong Yongliang covertly, but when he saw him standing there dumbstruck, staring at the phone as though struck by lightning, he couldn't help but wonder—surely the man hadn't seen a photo of Gu Mengyao and been overcome with emotion?

"All right, everyone's finished reading this heart-art mnemonic, yes? Then let's move on to the next step!" Lord Libationer Nantian said mildly.

"Indeed, Senior, why don't you tell us about the next stage!" Kang Jingming nodded.

"The next stage is the opening of Cloud Terrace Island. As everyone knows, opening Cloud Terrace Island is an extremely arduous task, so the Inheritors and the Opener must work as one! All Inheritors must be prepared to give and to sacrifice, doing everything in their power to help the Opener withstand the true-qi pressure unleashed when the passage to Cloud Terrace Island is opened! If the Inheritors slack off, the Opener will face unprecedented danger, and all will be lost—the Cloud Terrace Island plan will fail!" said Lord Libationer Nantian.

"Ah!" The crowd erupted in uproar; no one had expected the plan to be so difficult.

Wei Zhao, however, frowned. He had anticipated that the Inheritors might be in danger when opening Cloud Terrace Island, but he hadn't imagined they would serve as the Opener's personal guard—didn't that mean their lives would be at risk?

"Therefore, to ensure the plan proceeds smoothly, and to make the Inheritors willing to give their lives for the Opener, a certain measure must be taken." Here Lord Libationer Nantian paused, then said, "That is—the Opener must copulate with all seven Inheritors at once. I will use a special method to set up a Heart-Link Lock Formation: honor shared, ruin shared. If anything happens to the Opener, all the Inheritors will die! Conversely, if something happens to an Inheritor, it will not affect the Opener! This is also why the Inheritors have been kept virgins! Once an Inheritor loses her chastity for the sake of a man she loves, the Heart-Link Lock Formation becomes void—she will share honor and ruin only with the man she loves, and have no connection to the Opener! And copulation while still a virgin is the crucial step of the Heart-Link Lock Formation!"

"I don't agree!" Wei Zhao hadn't expected this to be the reason the Inheritors were kept virgins, and anger surged through him. He had assumed there was some principle behind it—never had he imagined such a sordid motive!

Every one of these Inheritors was among those dearest to him. How could he possibly agree to such a proposal?

Kang Jingming and Ancestor Xuanchen exchanged a glance, each seeing a cold sneer in the other's eyes. They'd known Wei Zhao would jump up to object—haha, now he'd offend not only Lord Libationer Nantian but every trial participant as well. Let's see how you get out of this one!

"Wei Zhao, are you going to sabotage the entire inheritance plan for the sake of your own selfish desires?" Ancestor Xuanchen said coldly. "Do you mean that because you disagree, Cloud Terrace Island won't be opened? That we needn't go to Cloud Terrace Island at all, and Lord Libationer Nantian made his trip for nothing?"

Ancestor Xuanchen was sinister indeed. With a single speech, he had pushed Wei Zhao into opposition against every cultivator present and against Lord Libationer Nantian himself—and left Wei Zhao with no way to refute him!

Sure enough, the moment the words left his mouth, the trial participants glared at Wei Zhao. They all feared him, and for now dared not speak their anger aloud—but if someone were to raise the call, these people would surely fall upon him in a mob!

"Exactly, Wei Zhao, don't be so petty! I'm only borrowing them for a bit—at worst, once Cloud Terrace Island is opened, I'll give them back to you!" Tagan Long looked at Wei Zhao with a face full of smirking disdain. He had waited a long time for this moment!

He had suffered under Wei Zhao all this while, and now at last he had his chance to turn the tables! Sleeping with Wei Zhao's women—there was nothing quite so satisfying. Especially since Wei Zhao hadn't even taken their virginity; didn't that make him the first to have them? Second-hand was sweet enough—let alone first-hand!

Tagan Long's mind churned ceaselessly with fantasies of pushing down all those Inheritors.

"He's the Opener?" Wei Zhao glanced at Tagan Long and asked mildly, "Why does he get to be the Opener? What makes him so special? Can't anyone else open it?"

"Enough with the useless talk—if he can open it, then he naturally has his special qualities!" Kang Jingming cut in. "You think just anyone can open it? If that were so, Sun Jingyan wouldn't have needed to heal him back then!"

"Him? What's so special?" Wei Zhao shot back. "Tell me—maybe I can open it too."

"You? Dream on, keep fantasizing!" Tagan Long laughed heartily. "I am a cultivator of the five elements, one in a thousand years! I possess all five elemental attributes within my body at once! Only the five elements can open the formation of Cloud Terrace Island—can you do that? An ordinary person who sets foot up there dies instantly! So, Wei Zhao, accept your fate! You're just a loser, and you'll never have that destiny. A person like you is nothing but a supporting character in TV dramas and novels! I'm the protagonist! When the time comes, I'll take good care of your women! Wahahaha—seven of them, just thinking about it feels amazing! Oh, right, and Bingtang—that makes eight... Shen Yushu is my favorite, she's got spirit..." (The second update will be a little later; bridging the plot is rather difficult to write, so you can read it tomorrow. Once we've boarded Cloud Terrace Island and I have a stockpile of drafts, updates will be steady.)RS