Chapter 4064 — What Kind of Joke Is This?

"Wei Zhao, as a new disciple of Yingxin Pavilion, you actually dare to break the rules—openly parading two brothel women around in broad daylight, swaggering right up to the gates of my Hong Clan Merchant Guild! Where does that leave the reputation of the Sandie Pavilion?" Si Haitao berated him with a face of righteous indignation—except that the pair of leering little eyes he kept darting toward the two women still gave his true nature away.

Back when he had gone carousing at the brothel, he had heard Nan Tianxiong and Nan Tianguan mention it in passing: the Sandie Pavilion had always been strict with its disciples and absolutely forbade them from taking up with brothel women—offenders were severely punished without exception.

Of course, rules were rules, and they were mainly aimed at newcomers. Men like Nan Tianxiong and Nan Tianguan never took such sect regulations seriously; so long as they were not caught red-handed, it was all just empty talk.

Having just come from the brothel himself, and with the liquor still working on him, Si Haitao subconsciously took the two women for brothel women as well. After all, if they were Wei Zhao's girlfriends, he could have one at most—how could two come at once?

Wei Zhao was a cultivator, after all; he could not possibly take an ordinary woman as a companion. At the very least he would find a female cultivator—but female cultivators were all proud and lofty. Even Si Haitao himself had only one female cultivator wife at home!

Only the women of brothels could pull off such a three-in-bed affair. Still, brothel women were bold and inventive, capable of far more open things than this—he himself had just enjoyed a threesome.

"What did you say? I advise you to watch your mouth, Your Excellency—careful lest disaster come out of it!" Wei Zhao's aura turned cold and sharp at his words.

"Ho ho, with that piddling strength of yours, you still dare play the tough guy in front of me?" Si Haitao burst into wild laughter, pointed at Wei Zhao, and sneered, "Honored retainers, help your proprietor subdue him! Notify the Pavilion Master of Yingxin Pavilion to come collect his man!"

The moment the words left his mouth, four unfathomable figures appeared without warning around Wei Zhao, hemming him in tight on all sides.

Wei Zhao's heart tightened—these four honored retainers were nothing like the ones he had seen before!

At the Hong Clan Merchant Guild, the honored retainers were hired by the guild, but each also had designated masters they served. The original four had already gone to Middle Island together with Hong Zhong; these four were unfamiliar faces who answered only to Si Haitao.

Different people or not, anyone who could become an honored retainer of the Hong Clan Merchant Guild was at least a Golden Core expert—of that there was no doubt.

Seeing that Wei Zhao dared not make a move, Si Haitao's smile grew even more smug. He turned his leering gaze to the two women: "You two beauties—what you sell when you come out is spirit jade, isn't it? Your proprietor has plenty, and I guarantee I'll pay more than that penniless brat ever could. Why not follow me from now on?"

The situation had shifted abruptly. Ning Xuefei and Shangguan Lan'er had been rather dazed at first, but now that an old man was so brazenly molesting them in public, they finally came to their senses.

"You old bastard! What did you call me?" Shangguan Lan'er was so furious she ground her teeth.

"You... you... you actually called us brothel women? I'll fight you to the death!" Ning Xuefei, her pretty face flushed crimson with rage, threw all caution aside and struck straight at Si Haitao.

The two of them were, by status, little princesses—noble figures who could not suffer the slightest indignity. And now they had been publicly insulted as brothel women?!

Seeing the two women actually dare to raise a hand against him, Si Haitao was briefly taken aback. Instinct told him something was off, but with the liquor rising in him he could not put his finger on what. He promptly met them with a lewd grin: "Haha, plenty of spirit! Your proprietor likes little peppers like you! But since you're selling anyway, surely what that brat Wei Zhao can do, your proprietor can do too...?"

As he spoke, Si Haitao reached out to grope Ning Xuefei and Shangguan Lan'er—but before he could lay a hand on them, five figures suddenly flashed out behind the two women. Before Si Haitao could even make out what was happening, a foot slammed into his face and sent him flying a full ten-plus zhang into a wall!

The onlookers hurriedly scattered, and the four honored retainers, seeing things turn sour, immediately abandoned Wei Zhao and rushed over to shield Si Haitao, squaring off against these five who had appeared from nowhere.

As it turned out, the momentum of every single person on both sides was evenly matched—all five of these newcomers were Golden Core experts as well!

Even leaving Si Haitao out of the count, there were already a full nine Golden Core experts facing off in the field, which truly stunned the surrounding crowd. Golden Core experts were always a rare sight—how had so many suddenly cropped up? For a moment it felt as though Golden Cores were walking the streets everywhere.

"These people are core disciples of the Chongtian Pavilion!" someone among the crowd suddenly exclaimed in a low voice. The disciples of the Sandie Pavilion all dressed differently, so anyone paying the slightest attention could recognize them at a glance.

The four honored retainers of the Hong Clan Merchant Guild felt their hearts clench at these words. Four against five—they had been at a disadvantage to begin with and dared not act rashly; and if the other side really were core disciples of the Chongtian Pavilion, then they were dealing with local snakes through and through. Once this blew up, they simply could not afford to provoke them!

These five Chongtian Pavilion experts had of course been arranged by Shangguan Tianxia. Shangguan Lan'er had only recently been kidnapped; even with the broadest of minds, her grandfather could not possibly leave her without any precautions—and now that Ning Xuefei, a bona fide princess of West Island, was here as well, all the more reason to guard them thoroughly.

Otherwise, if anything at all happened to Ning Xuefei here, it would immediately become a crisis between the two islands—and with the slightest mishandling, even a full-scale war between the islands was not out of the question. It had to be guarded against.

As the two sides faced off, the leader of the five Chongtian Pavilion experts looked coldly at the four retainers opposite him: "Insolent fools! Of these two young ladies, one is the daughter of the West Island Lord and the other the granddaughter of my Chongtian Pavilion's Master. You dared publicly insult them as brothel women and even lay hands on them—I truly cannot fathom why the Hong Clan Merchant Guild would send such an idiot and scoundrel to be its proprietor! I must give an account to the great personages above me. If you dare stand in my way, then try me!"

With that, this Chongtian Pavilion expert's figure blurred, and the next instant he appeared directly above Si Haitao's head. Without a word, he seized him by the neck with one hand and hoisted him into the air.

As for the four honored retainers, the information revealed in his words left them so shaken that they did not dare move for the longest time, able only to watch helplessly as Si Haitao was manhandled.

What kind of joke was this? Two women—one backed by the West Island Lord, the other by the Chongtian Pavilion's Master! Even the Hong Clan Merchant Guild's headquarters could not afford to provoke such terrifying backing. Yet Si Haitao had been blind enough to publicly molest them—the damn fool was courting death on his own; surely he could not drag the four of us down to be buried with him! (To be continued) R655