Chapter 3831 — Swaggering About

Perfect. Yu Jiang was secretly delighted. Once Nan Tianyong dealt with Lin Er, he would find a chance to sneak back and search the man's body for the Star Ink Stones. And if he could also dig up a few more top-grade Foundation Establishment Barrier-Breaking Pills, so much the better.

Just then, a slightly familiar voice suddenly sounded before the two of them: "Is that so? What a pity. I had rather hoped to beg a few pointers from you, Senior. It seems I shall not get the chance."

Nan Tianyong and Yu Jiang started in alarm, for the face that appeared before them with that voice was a familiar one indeed—none other than the very brat who had made them grind their teeth, Lin Er.

In Yu Jiang's estimation, even if this creature had mustered the nerve to leave the Hong Merchant Guild, he would surely have bolted at once, never daring to linger in a place like this, much less show himself before the two of them.

Yet here Wei Zhao stood, bold as brass, right in front of them—less than a zhang away.

Looking at that half-smiling, half-sneering expression on Wei Zhao's face, Nan Tianyong and Yu Jiang, in their astonishment, instinctively took a step back in unison. Only afterward did they realize: one a peak late-stage Foundation Establishment expert, the other mid-stage, and they had actually fallen back a step before a peak late-stage Foundation Establishment whelp! What disgraceful behavior was this?

After leaving the Hong Merchant Guild, instead of seizing the moment to flee, he had actually come strutting up to them of his own accord. Such conduct was nothing short of a suicidal provocation!

In that instant, even a schemer as deep as Yu Jiang became just like his arrogant, overbearing master Nan Tianyong—goaded into a fury by Wei Zhao's utterly provocative gesture!

"Tch. Since you've so obligingly delivered yourself to my door, this granddaddy will teach you a lesson right now. Ready to die?" Nan Tianyong sneered, his aura surging to its absolute peak in an instant, and he made to strike at Wei Zhao, who stood but a few feet away.

This creature really was even stronger than expected! Wei Zhao had known it long before, but now, feeling Nan Tianyong's aura firsthand, he was all the more certain of it.

With his peak early-stage Foundation Establishment strength, when facing other opponents in the past, even if he held no advantage in rank, he was at least never reduced to the absolutely weaker side—never left wholly without room to fight back.

But now, facing Nan Tianyong, a peak late-stage Foundation Establishment expert, even with all the powerful trump cards at Wei Zhao's disposal, he could not bridge such a gulf in rank. If it truly came to blows, Nan Tianyong would not even need any martial technique—a casual palm strike could annihilate Wei Zhao. That was the cruel reality no one could escape.

Yet in the face of Nan Tianyong's utterly unrestrained, biting killing intent, Wei Zhao showed not a flicker of fear. Instead, his face calm as ever, he grinned and said, "Heh. Senior Nan, are you sure you want to do this here?"

"Hah? What sort of dogshit talk is that? Must this granddaddy pick a blessed geomantic spot just to kill you?" Nan Tianyong sneered with utter contempt.

Beside him, Yu Jiang wore the look one gives a fool: "Saying that—are you afraid and trying to stall for time, or trying to beg for mercy? Pity, either way it's a fool's hope. My master isn't so stupid as to believe the drivel of an enemy!"

Those words were meant, of course, to goad Nan Tianyong into striking at once. Yu Jiang would not allow any exchange of words between Wei Zhao and Nan Tianyong—one careless slip, and the secret of his Star Ink Stones might be exposed. That he would never permit; even the faintest possibility had to be nipped in the bud.

Since Yu Jiang had spoken thus, Nan Tianyong naturally wasted no more time. He nodded and sneered, "I told you before: to speak with this granddaddy, a lowly ant like you is nowhere near worthy. Now die!"

With that, true qi swiftly gathered in Nan Tianyong's palm, and in an instant his killing intent surged to the heavens!

Yet Wei Zhao seemed not to regard Nan Tianyong's strike—one fully capable of annihilating him—as worth a glance. With a faint smile, he slung the sack of spirit-herb materials he had bought from the Hong Merchant Guild over his back, turned, and walked off as though nothing were happening.

"??" What the hell was this brat playing at? Had he come all this way to stand before them just to mock and provoke them with his life? Was there a hole in this kid's head?

Nan Tianyong did not hesitate. Urged on by Yu Jiang's gaze at his side, he made to split Wei Zhao dead with a single palm strike right there in the street. Who the hell cared whether the brat's head had a hole in it? Since he had come courting death before him, then let him have his wish and die!

As an inspecting deacon of the Soaring Heaven Pavilion, Nan Tianyong might not have been the sharpest mind, but he knew full well what could and could not be done.

The law of the jungle had always been the most fundamental rule of the cultivation world. No matter how many rules and bounds were set, this had remained unchanged since ancient times. In other words, killing was always perfectly normal in the cultivation world—only that in some places one could do it without a care, while in others certain limits applied.

Generally speaking, in any public place there were scruples about killing, and the Inner Street before them—a high-class district where only the rich and noble came and went—had its share of scruples in abundance.

To Nan Tianyong, however, with his strength and standing, so long as he did not lay hands on a disciple of the Threefold Pavilion, he could cut down Lin Er, a rootless rogue cultivator, in broad daylight before a crowd, and no one would do a thing to him.

After all, the only body in the Threefold Pavilion truly responsible for handling such killings was the Law Enforcement Hall. But remember—he, Nan Tianyong, was himself a member of the Law Enforcement Hall, merely stationed at the Soaring Heaven Pavilion.

What was more, by the unwritten rules within the Law Enforcement Hall, unless a matter involved disciples of the Threefold Pavilion itself, the lives of mere rootless rogue cultivators were of no concern to them—they would not even spend manpower on it.

Yet just as Nan Tianyong was about to strike, just as Wei Zhao seemed about to meet a violent end, a dozen or so powerful auras suddenly descended upon him all at once. Like those few skilled retainers he had encountered earlier at the Hong Merchant Guild, every one of these auras belonged to someone whose strength surpassed his own, a peak late-stage Foundation Establishment expert!

The warning implicit in these dozen or so formidable auras that had sprung up out of nowhere was self-evident. Even a tough man like Nan Tianyong could not help but shiver, for this ominous feeling suddenly reminded him of that stifling humiliation he had suffered at the Hong Merchant Guild last time.

The Jianghu was a treacherous place, and cultivators rarely meddled in others' affairs. Especially a situation like this—a host of formidable experts bursting out of nowhere—simply could not occur under normal circumstances. These people had not even shown their faces, but their identities could be guessed at with one's toes: they must be the skilled retainers kept on retainer by the surrounding establishments, the Hong Merchant Guild among them.