Chapter 4043 — The Disappearance of the Young Junior Sister

From beginning to end, he went over the entire forging plan he had long since conceived, reviewing it again and again, revising it again and again without the slightest impatience—so exacting was Scrap King's demands that even the word "nitpicking" no longer did justice to them.

Working alongside Scrap King, tense yet orderly, Wei Zhao finished the last of the preparatory work and spoke up: "Everything is ready. Surely now we can finally begin the forging?"

To his surprise, Scrap King, jittery as ever, went through the whole thing from the top one more time, then shook his head. "Not yet."

"What? Still not yet?" Wei Zhao was dumbstruck. He was an assassin by training; his patience was hardly poor. But after so many long rounds of preparation and review, even his patience was nearly worn through.

This Scrap King fellow truly lived up to his reputation as a research-type talent—once he threw himself into something, the sheer stubbornness of his dedication was more than any ordinary person could endure.

"Brother Lin, could you go find some finished weapons or artifacts from outside? Grade doesn't matter much. I have an idea—they might come in useful during the forging," Scrap King said, rubbing his forehead.

Wei Zhao thought for a moment, then pulled out a ring and handed it to him. "Would this true qi ring do?"

Scrap King's eyes lit up, and he nodded again and again. "Yes, yes—any finished divine weapon will do. They're only auxiliary materials; better to have them and not need them. Best to bring several pieces of this kind of weapon."

"In that case, I do still have a few weapons from before. I've no use for them now anyway—I can bring them all for you to use in the forging." What Wei Zhao meant were the Heaven-tier weapons he had collected back in the mortal world. This was the perfect occasion to put waste to use.

After telling Scrap King, Wei Zhao immediately sought a quiet corner, intending to dig those few Heaven-tier divine weapons out of the jade pendant's space. But just then, a strange throbbing suddenly welled up in his heart.

Its source was the true qi fluctuation of the blue-glowing mother-and-child necklace on his chest. Wei Zhao had never imagined that after giving that necklace set to Shangguan Lan'er only a few days ago, it would already prove useful.

Sensing Shangguan Lan'er's position through the mother-and-child necklace, Wei Zhao was startled to find that she was now extremely far away. Though still within the bounds of North Island, from the look of it she had at least left the Santie Pavilion's territory entirely.

The resonance between the mother-and-child necklace only sent a clear warning when Shangguan Lan'er sensed danger and her heart was tense. That ruled out the possibility that Shangguan Tianxia had taken her out. To have left the Santie Pavilion so far on her own—this young junior sister must truly have run into trouble.

At the very moment Wei Zhao sensed the crisis, far away at the other end of North Island, in a stretch of desolate wilderness, within a ruined martial training ground, Shangguan Lan'er was trussed up tight. As for the little curly-furred bear that never left her side, it had simply been knocked unconscious, stuffed into a burlap sack, and tossed in a corner—still reeking of liquor.

"Hey, you lot dragged me out to this godforsaken place—what exactly do you want?" Shangguan Lan'er's behavior at this moment would have made anyone's jaw drop. Far from the fear and cowering of before, she was angrily berating the two black-clad masked men before her.

Even as she spoke, she stole a glance at the little curly-furred bear in the corner, a glimmer of hope hidden in her eyes.

The root of this whole mess lay with that little creature. If it hadn't slipped out to steal a drink, Shangguan Lan'er would never have rashly followed it out. Otherwise, had she stayed within the heavily guarded bounds of the Chongtian Pavilion, these two masked men alone would never have had the chance to abduct her.

Still, recalling how the little thing had gone berserk after drinking spirit wine last time—that miraculous display—Shangguan Lan'er felt rather confident at heart. It had even bitten off Xu Lingchong's family jewels. Dealing with these two masked men, who didn't look especially strong, ought to be no problem at all, right?

One of the masked men glanced at her and said in a hoarse voice, clearly deliberately disguised: "Isn't it obvious? Kidnapping you, of course. Kidnapping a precious young lady like you—is that so strange?"

"Pfft. Kidnap me? Do you really think you'd dare go demand a ransom from my grandfather?" Shangguan Lan'er curled her lip in disdain. Even if her own strength was lacking, she could tell these two weren't crazily powerful. To try to lock horns with her grandfather Shangguan Tianxia was simply impossible.

"Who told you kidnapping is always about ransom? Hmph, spoiled young ladies like you are so ignorant!" the masked man retorted mockingly.

Shangguan Lan'er was instantly taken aback. Then the other masked man spoke—in a woman's voice that sounded rather familiar: "With that great obstacle Xu Lingchong out of the way, the leader can smoothly rise to the top this time and become Shangguan Tianxia's son-in-law before long!"

The male masked man shot her a glare, glanced cautiously at Shangguan Lan'er, then turned and snapped, "Don't talk nonsense!"

The female masked man was unperturbed. "What's there to be afraid of? Once the rice is cooked, do we really need to worry this little girl won't accept it? We're only doing this because we've no other choice. Otherwise, given how things stand between the leader and her—not bad, true—it's still far from enough to win Shangguan Tianxia's approval. His status just won't do, after all. Just a newcomer from the Yingxin Pavilion—he can't reach that high!"

As the two masked figures spoke, they kept watch on Shangguan Lan'er's expression—only to find that this little girl showed none of the puzzlement or sudden realization they had expected. Instead, she was looking at the two of them as though they were lunatics.

Were these two brain-damaged? What kind of garbled nonsense were they even spouting?

Shangguan Lan'er paid their words no mind at all. She merely stole a glance at the little curly-furred bear, discovered the little creature was snoring like thunder, and rolled her eyes in exasperation. Sleeping at a time like this—the little thing really couldn't be counted on!

Shangguan Lan'er was speechless, but the two masked men were even more speechless than she was. They had racked their brains to come up with that little speech and deliberately said it to her face—only for the girl to pay it no attention whatsoever. What could anyone do?

Who knew whether to call Shangguan Lan'er thick-skinned beyond measure or simply not very bright? Words with such an obvious pointed meaning—how could she hear them and have no reaction at all?

The two masked men exchanged a silent look, at a loss. They couldn't very well repeat the whole thing to her face again—that really would make them look insane.

And so they waited until the sun sank in the west. The two masked men went out to rest and eat, and another masked man came in to take their place. R1152