Chapter 3984 — A Dilemma of Retreat and Advance

At an occasion so crowded with the illustrious and the mighty, most people instinctively reined in their aura, lest some great personage take offense at a careless moment and land them in needless trouble. Yet this young powerhouse, the most highly touted of his generation in the Three-Tiered Pavilion, showed not the slightest inclination to do any such thing—he went his own way, utterly indifferent to those around him.

Even so, not a single person around him took offense, and some even went out of their way to nod in greeting—among them no few figures of elder rank within the Three-Tiered Pavilion.

Wei Zhao could not help but feel a chill of alarm. To single-handedly flout custom, and to have everyone around take it as a matter of course, without so much as a whisper of gossip—the sheer depth of power that must lie behind such a thing was easy to imagine. This Gongyang Jun was truly no ordinary figure.

Everywhere Gongyang Jun passed, the crowd fell back and cleared a path; not one among them had the nerve to bar his way—until it came to Wei Zhao's turn.

Even without looking back, Wei Zhao could sense with perfect clarity that overbearing, piercingly cold aura directly behind him, mere inches away—a single step from his back.

In an instant, every eye in the hall was fixed on Wei Zhao.

"Who's that fellow? Never seen him before—could he be some nephew the elders recently brought in?" someone in the crowd whispered.

To be eligible for the Shangguan young miss's birthday banquet, one must surely have formidable backing. That they would speculate this way was only natural.

"Ha, whoever's young master he is, blocking the way in front of Hall Master Gongyang—I've only got one thing to say to him: ignorance breeds fearlessness!"

"Right. The fellow probably doesn't even know who Hall Master Gongyang is, has no idea about these taboos. Pity, really!"

"'Wherever I pass, no one may bar my path'—those were Lord Gongyang's own words, and even the high elders of the council deliberately accommodate him. This fool's picked the wrong day to be so tactless; he's in for it now."

The onlookers around them traded gloating remarks, every face wearing the expression of someone settling in to enjoy a good show.

With his keen senses, Wei Zhao caught every word of those discussions despite their deliberately lowered voices. In a place like this, offending a formidable figure like Gongyang Jun over such a trivial, inexplicable matter was indeed less than wise.

Yet just as Wei Zhao was about to step aside like everyone else, Xu Lingchong spoke up first: "Well, well! If it isn't the strongest newcomer in the history of the Azure Cloud Pavilion. Wei Zhao, your condescending to attend the birthday banquet is truly an honor for me and my junior sister Lan'er. Come, come—right this way, please!"

The moment the words left his mouth, a stir ran through the hall, and even Gongyang Jun, behind Wei Zhao, came to a halt.

"The strongest newcomer in the history of the Azure Cloud Pavilion—isn't that the Divine Physician and Sage Alchemist Zhang Lifeng? Since when did that title fall to some nobody named Wei Zhao?"

"True enough. But I hear this Wei Zhao, like Master Zhang Lifeng, comes from the mundane world. Word is he's been throwing his weight around at the Welcome Pavilion, making quite a name for himself."

"Rubbish. He's nothing but some grass-roots newcomer with a bit of piddling, unimpressive strength. What the hell's he so cocky about? Thinks stepping in a few piles of dog shit makes him the next Master Zhang? One such man in tens of thousands of years—and you think the likes of him could be it?"

Just that single remark from Xu Lingchong set the crowd buzzing, and in an instant Wei Zhao was hoisted onto the pyre—not merely made the target of every eye, but left with no way forward and no way back.

What a vicious little scheme this was! Wei Zhao gave Xu Lingchong a long, deep look. The intent behind those sudden words was plain as day.

Everyone around them was at the very least an inner disciple of the Soaring Sky Pavilion, each with backing of their own—and yet even they might not be qualified to attend the Shangguan young miss's birthday banquet. To suddenly learn that Wei Zhao, a mere grass-roots newcomer, could walk right in—of course he'd become the target of every eye!

Beyond being gossiped about and looked down upon, there was another, far more lethal problem facing Wei Zhao at this moment: Gongyang Jun, behind him.

Had Xu Lingchong not spoken, Wei Zhao could simply have stepped aside like everyone else, and that would have been the end of it. But after Xu Lingchong's public praise that was really a veiled mockery, the nature of the situation had changed entirely.

To back down now would no longer be a trifling matter of choice, but could only be read as one thing: that in front of Gongyang Jun, under the eyes of the entire assembly, Wei Zhao had voluntarily tucked his tail.

Wei Zhao himself did not much care—but he had come here for Shangguan Lan'er's sake, and if he backed down now, it might leave her looking bad too. And so Wei Zhao found himself caught between a rock and a hard place!

Yet if he did not back down, he would very likely offend the lofty Hall Master of the Law Enforcement Hall behind him, Gongyang Jun.

After all, the man had once made the grand vow that "wherever I pass, no one may bar my path." A single glance at the indomitable spirit he carried even now told plainly what kind of dao-heart he held to—so much so that even the high elders of the Three-Tiered Pavilion's council yielded to him by a margin. How much less, then, a mere grass-roots newcomer like Wei Zhao?

Do not yield, and he offended Gongyang Jun; yield, and he might cause Shangguan Lan'er to lose face. Such was the predicament Wei Zhao now found himself in.

Today's birthday banquet was indeed a den of dragons and tigers—he had barely arrived and already run into a trial of this magnitude!

Under the gaze of the whole hall, Wei Zhao suddenly moved. But what set the entire crowd abuzz was that he truly had the nerve not to back down. Instead he walked straight up to Xu Lingchong and the others, took out his invitation, and said coolly, "Young Master Xu, may I go in now?"

"Huh?" Xu Lingchong was dumbstruck. He had never imagined Wei Zhao would react like this—or rather, he had never imagined Wei Zhao would have that kind of nerve.

Put yourself in his shoes: even he, the deeply backed Young Master Xu, would never dare truly block Gongyang Jun's way. He had said what he said merely to make Wei Zhao thoroughly lose face—never dreaming the fool would be stupid enough to go and pick the most idiotic option available. It was a stupidity so magnificent it made one want to throw a party.

Faced with such an unexpected delight, Xu Lingchong was only too happy to oblige. He exchanged a glance with Lou Tianyou and Kang Jingming beside him, then stole a look at Gongyang Jun's expression.

Then Xu Lingchong promptly changed his expression, put on an air of grave propriety, and said, "Hold on a moment, Young Hero Lin. It's understandable that you're eager, attending such a refined banquet for the first time. But our Three-Tiered Pavilion has always held to proper order and rank. As a newcomer to the Azure Cloud Pavilion, surely someone has taught you at least this much? Behind you stands Hall Master Gongyang—do you really think that because a few people praised you as the strongest newcomer, you're entitled to walk ahead of Hall Master Gongyang? Truly, you don't know the immensity of heaven and earth." R1152