Chapter 4326 — Meeting Again

What was more, the East Sea Divine Nun had also noticed that her newly accepted disciple, Huang Xiaotao, though for some reason she kept her face veiled, was by figure and bearing a rare beauty in her own right. Standing beside Wang Xinyan, the two were well matched, each with her own charms; and if the two girls were to walk out together, the allure of it was more than any ordinary man could withstand.

With the East Sea Divine Nun's blessing, Wang Xinyan took Huang Xiaotao along, bade a word of farewell to her two martial uncles, Ling Yuanqing and Wei Hebei, and then, her heart brimming with joy and her steps light, she departed.

What she meant to do now was naturally not to take Huang Xiaotao back to the inn, but to hurry off to a private meeting with Wei Zhao!

Given the tacit understanding between Wei Zhao and Wang Xinyan, he could hardly fail to know what she intended. He smiled faintly, then promptly left the Zhenduan Plaza—there was no point in his lingering there any longer, and he had already finished his test; no one would stop him from going out now.

Yet once he had walked out of the Zhenduan Plaza, Wei Zhao found himself at a loss as to where to go. Wang Xinyan and Huang Xiaotao were too conspicuous; they could hardly have stayed here waiting for him.

But when he turned his head, Wei Zhao was at once amused: on the notice board not far off, a fresh notice had been posted, its ink not yet even dry, and a ring of onlookers had gathered around it—most of them, like Wei Zhao, hopefuls who had come for the selection and been eliminated, all of them pointing and muttering at the notice.

"Hey, can anyone tell me what characters are written up here? I've had a few years of schooling, after all—how is it I can't make out a single one?" someone grumbled, utterly baffled, while the others around him wore the same blank, bewildered looks.

"Let me have a look." A voice Wei Zhao found rather familiar suddenly spoke up. It was none other than Ge Wei, that South Continent information broker known as Ge the Inquisitor. How he had slipped out here, no one knew; boasting himself a man of wide experience, he pushed his way up and squinted at it for a good while—then ended up as dumbfounded as the rest. "Good grief, what characters are these? All crooked and squiggly like tadpoles—no proper horizontal strokes, no proper verticals. Some joker must have scribbled this to make fools of people..."

The onlookers all nodded in agreement—all but Wei Zhao at the back, who at these words did not know whether to laugh or cry. What was written there was perfectly proper English; small wonder these fellows could make nothing of it.

"Heh. More than a year apart, and the girl's grown clever." Wei Zhao smiled faintly. This was undoubtedly Wang Xinyan's handiwork. No one here could read English, so she could post it out in plain sight without fear of anyone divining its meaning; and since it was in a conspicuous spot, she need not worry that he would miss it. Two birds with one stone.

Straight ahead, turn left at the third alleyway. There is a teahouse. Be there, without fail!

Wei Zhao silently committed the words to memory, and then, unable to contain the leap and thrill in his heart, set off briskly in the direction indicated. Soon he came to the teahouse at the third alleyway, called the Yanshui Teahouse.

Compared with the clamor outside, the teahouse was sparsely peopled at the moment. Those who came to Zhenduan City at this hour had all come for the Morning Star Academy's selection, and at this time they were still gathered in the Zhenduan Plaza.

"This way, young hero, please come in. Will you take a seat at the open tables downstairs, or a private room above?" A teahouse waiter came up at once to greet him, attentively ushering Wei Zhao along.

Wei Zhao glanced about him, but did not see Wang Xinyan or Huang Xiaotao in the hall below, so he said to the waiter, "I'm looking for someone. They should have arrived already."

"Ah, I see. This way, please." The waiter had presumably been given instructions beforehand; he nodded in understanding and led Wei Zhao up to a private room on the upper floor.

Only after the waiter had gone did Wei Zhao push the door open and step inside. The figures of two girls came into view—none other than Wang Xinyan and Huang Xiaotao.

He closed the door behind him. Across a space of two or three zhang, Wei Zhao and Wang Xinyan simply gazed at each other in silence. Neither spoke a word; time itself seemed to halt at that very moment.

After a long while, Wei Zhao and Wang Xinyan, as though their hearts were in perfect accord, moved toward each other at the same instant. The corner of Wei Zhao's mouth curved into a handsome arc, and then he opened his arms and abruptly swept Wang Xinyan into his embrace, holding her tight.

Huang Xiaotao stood by watching, and before she knew it her eyes had gone red—not from envy or jealousy, but from heartfelt joy for the two of them. Lovers they had been, yet after their transport to the Cloud Terrace Island they could only be parted at the ends of the earth; now at last they could hold each other once more. This single embrace of deep affection—how the two of them had yearned for it for a full year and more!

From the time they had met until now, she had not spent long in Wang Xinyan's company, yet in that brief time she had already come to know that Wang Xinyan, like Shangguan Lan'er, was a kind and very easy girl to get along with; and in some ways, Wang Xinyan's temperament was even more like her own, so that the two of them found more in common.

In truth, only a short while had passed since they met, and Wang Xinyan and Huang Xiaotao had already skipped past the stage of martial sisters and were simply calling each other sisters. After all, because of Wei Zhao, the two of them truly were sisters in the fullest sense—a bond even closer than that of disciples of the same sect.

With Huang Xiaotao as their witness, Wei Zhao and Wang Xinyan held each other tightly, as though each wished to fuse the other deep into their embrace, unwilling to part for the longest time. A year's separation and a thousand words unsaid—all of it was in that one embrace.

This scene lasted for the better part of an incense stick's burning before the two at last drew apart with reluctance, tears glistening in their eyes as they looked at each other and smiled.

"All right, you two, don't just stand there. Sit down and have some tea," Huang Xiaotao said with a smile from the side.

"Very well." Wei Zhao and Wang Xinyan exchanged a smile and then took their seats one after the other. Thereupon Wei Zhao, unable to restrain his curiosity, skipped straight past the usual inquiries about how each had fared and asked Wang Xinyan, "Tell me, how did you end up in the East Continent? And you even took the East Sea Divine Nun as your master—when I saw you go up there earlier, I was truly dumbstruck..."

"Little Sister Xiaotao has already told me all about it—said you were practically drooling..." Wang Xinyan laughed, covering her mouth with her hand, and then explained. "When I was transported up, I was in fact sent straight to the East Continent."

"What?" Wei Zhao was taken aback. He had assumed that since the East Continent was so transcendent, with so many experts gathered there, and since so many formidable cultivators from other Cloud Terrace Islands were not even qualified to go there, to say nothing of the multitudes transported up from the mortal realm—(To be continued) R655