Chapter 4029 — Clever Ning Xuefei

Bursting into a strange woman's boudoir and then plunging headlong into her bath—and, what was worse, at the very moment she happened to be bathing—was a thought that alone made Wei Zhao's conscience squirm.

Just as Wei Zhao was wondering how on earth to begin, a dense clatter of footsteps came again from beyond the door, disciplined and well-drilled—the Town-North Guard, surely.

"It was right here just now—I told you there was something wrong with this place!" The first voice to ring out was rather familiar; it was none other than Pockmark, the Town-North Guard who had come knocking the night before.

Wei Zhao's heart lurched. The Assembly Hall was on high alert now, and it was no surprise at all that the fluctuations in heaven-and-earth spiritual energy stirred up by his breakthrough should have drawn these Town-North Guards over.

Still, if he were simply caught like this, it would be a real mess.

The Town-North Guard were elite troops, after all. They had already been frightened off once the night before by Ning Xuefei's background, but now that their suspicions had been roused again—and with such a major incident on their hands—it was simply unrealistic to think he could send them packing with a single sentence a second time.

Ning Xuefei, however, shot Wei Zhao a look and motioned for him to hide in a corner, while she herself rose to open the door. Faced with a pack of doubtful Town-North Guards, she gave them no chance to ask a single question and launched straight into a torrent of complaint.

"And what exactly do you think you're doing? Yesterday I had just bought two top-grade Foundation Establishment Barrier-Breaking Pills at auction, and I was at the crucial juncture of breaking through when you lot interrupted me—and now look, the breakthrough failed, all my effort wasted. Is this how the Far North Island treats its guests?" Ning Xuefei pouted, her face the very picture of grievance.

"Er—Miss Ning..." The Town-North Guards exchanged glances, at a loss. Given Ning Xuefei's standing, this black pot she had clapped on their heads was not one that just any of them could afford to bear.

"You came bothering me again last night, and now before the sky is even light, here you are causing trouble again. Is this how the Far North Island treats its guests? Hmph, you tell Steward Song to come tomorrow and pay me back for my pills!" Ning Xuefei scolded furiously, then turned and instructed the little maid who had come running over from next door at the commotion: "Xiaoling, go fetch the clerk from the Hong Clan Merchant Guild. I want to ask whether he has any more top-grade pills. How vexing—they've all been wasted!"

"Ah—yes." Xiaoling shrank back her head and hurried off with tiny, quick steps.

At the sight, the Town-North Guards dared not linger either, and one by one they bobbed and bowed to Ning Xuefei in apology, then scattered in frantic haste.

The time it took to burn a stick of incense later, Xiaoling returned and reported, "Miss, I couldn't find that clerk from the Hong Clan Merchant Guild. Shall I go and ask again once it's fully light?"

Ning Xuefei waved a hand. "No need. I've already had someone else bring him over. You're not needed here—you may withdraw."

"Yes." Xiaoling obediently withdrew at once, and within the room there remained only Ning Xuefei and Wei Zhao once more.

Ning Xuefei blinked her big eyes and puckered her lips at Wei Zhao as though angling for credit: "Hey, you're all right now, aren't you? Don't I look terribly clever?"

"I'm fine now. Thank you for your help, Miss Ning!" Wei Zhao nodded gratefully. Her handling of the situation had not only smoothly fobbed off the Town-North Guards, but also given him a perfectly legitimate excuse for leaving later on. He had not expected that beneath her seemingly careless exterior she was so full of schemes.

Just as he was worrying over how to repay her, Wei Zhao's peripheral vision caught a small wooden box on the cabinet nearby, engraved with the words Hong Clan Merchant Guild—the very two top-grade Foundation Establishment Barrier-Breaking Pills she had mentioned, the ones she had won at auction the day before.

Wei Zhao's heart stirred, and he said at once, "I shall keep Miss Ning's help ever in my heart. Should you ever have need in the future, you may seek out Hong Zhong of the Hong Clan Merchant Guild. Whatever pill you wish refined, simply name it—just say that I gave my word."

Ning Xuefei's lovely eyes lit up at once. This was precisely what she had been thinking of; her stepping forward to help Wei Zhao out of his predicament had in fact been prompted by this very consideration. She had not expected Wei Zhao to bring it up himself, and she nodded repeatedly. "Good, good! I certainly won't stand on ceremony."

Wei Zhao chuckled. In temperament and character, this girl was rather like his senior martial sister Shangguan of the Soaring Heavens Pavilion on North Island—she too must come from a prestigious cultivation family. Only Shangguan Lan'er was not quite so scatterbrained.

Glancing at the sky outside, which was gradually brightening, Wei Zhao took out the Thousand-Silk Mask and prepared to put it on, intending to leave straightaway. He had gritted his teeth and pulled off this Thousand-Silk Mask yesterday after entering the room, precisely so that Miss Ning would recognize him as that little clerk and not drive him out; otherwise, as a complete stranger, he could hardly be sure she would not betray him.

Grateful as he was to this Miss Ning, the situation had turned this place into a hotbed of trouble, and staying long would invite problems.

Besides, Wei Zhao had deliberately refrained from asking her identity—he knew only that the Town-North Guard said her surname was Ning. At a time like this, the more one chatted, the less likely it was to do any good; if he wished to repay her, there would be chances enough in the days to come.

"You're leaving already? Let me see you out. There are lots of Town-North Guards about outside right now—ordinary folk can't simply come and go as they please," Ning Xuefei said, making no move to detain him and instead volunteering the offer.

"Then I'll trouble you." Wei Zhao thought it over and did not refuse. She had just given him a perfectly legitimate pretext, but he was still an unfamiliar face; if he were stopped and questioned back and forth, he might well give himself away.

The two set out at once, and sure enough, the guards outside were far stricter than usual—fully armed Town-North Guards stood at every corner, and not so much as a fly could have hoped to slip out.

Yet when Ning Xuefei escorted Wei Zhao out through the back gate, the Town-North Guards did not come over to question him. They merely looked him up and down once, bowed to Ning Xuefei, and waved them through. Clearly, Ning Xuefei's little performance had done its work; otherwise, even with her personally accompanying him, they would never have let him pass without a single question at a time like this.

Having successfully left the Assembly Hall, Wei Zhao breathed a long sigh of relief—not only for his own safe escape, but, more importantly, because the attitude of these guards made it plain that the on-the-spot disguise he had improvised the day before had indeed worked.

In other words, Steward Song and his people must have already concluded that Zheng Tianjie had died when his pill furnace exploded.

Otherwise—whether Zheng Tianjie were still alive, or had been judged the victim of an assassin's strike—there was no possible way these Town-North Guards would have let him out so easily. They would surely have questioned every person going in and out with the utmost severity, and not even Miss Ning would have been an exception. R1152