Chapter 4327 — Their Separate Fortunes

Newcomers who clearly possessed nothing more than the peak of the Heaven Rank had nonetheless been teleported up there—carried all the way to the East Continent, a place many a Golden Core expert yearned for yet could never reach. There was truly no telling what to say about that.

If one called it good fortune, then in a sense they were indeed fortunate—but for the people concerned, such luck might well turn out to be no blessing at all.

"In terms of overall strength, the East Continent does stand head and shoulders above the other Cloud-Tier islands, but even there, lowly cultivator tribes still exist. Newcomers like us, who come up from the secular world, don't even enter the eyes of the great sects and powers of the East Continent. In the end we can only be banished to those cultivator tribes—and many don't even survive the journey there, dying somewhere along the road." Wang Xinyan sighed as she explained it all to Wei Zhao.

"So for newcomers from the secular world like us, the East Continent is a place of ill omen and deadly peril. By comparison, someone like me, sent to the North Island, might as well have landed in a warm, cozy cradle. I'd say I'm quite lucky." Wei Zhao shook his head and sighed along with her.

Huang Xiaotao, standing to one side, said nothing, but she agreed wholeheartedly. From what she knew, among the several Cloud-Tier islands, the North Island had the most tranquil and peaceful atmosphere of them all, and the lowest degree of danger.

As for the other islands: the East Continent was itself a place of unfathomable depths, and at the same time a place riddled with hidden dangers. Just as Wang Xinyan had said, ordinary people who ended up there found it very hard to adapt.

The South Continent was the territory of the spirit beast clans, and the surrounding seas were a chaotic domain of human cultivators, where factions crushed one another in endless cycles of bloodshed.

The West Island was a nation of women, but precisely because its female cultivators lacked sufficient deterrent force, it was constantly harassed by powerful local tribes from the surrounding waters. The two sides were forever at a standoff, the situation tense.

The Central Island, as the heart of the Cloud-Tier islands, was occupied by all manner of powerful sects and factions. Even with the Island Master's Pavilion holding overall command, friction and strife below were unavoidable. Behind the rise and fall of every sect lay flashing blades and rivers of blood—only much of it was deliberately hushed up by the Island Master's Pavilion.

So, counting them all up, the North Island ended up being the safest of the lot. After all, on the North Island everything was decided by the Tri-Layered Pavilion, and there was no other power capable of standing against them head-on.

Moreover, although the three branches of the Tri-Layered Pavilion competed among themselves from time to time, on the whole they advanced and retreated as one, and there was little internal friction. That being so, they maintained an imposing deterrent force, so that none of the various powers entrenched on the North Island dared to make a rash move.

"For weak newcomers, the East Continent really is no good place. If my master hadn't been visiting other academies back then and happened to pass through there, discovering that I had a sponge constitution, I'm afraid I wouldn't have lived to this day—let alone be standing here meeting you." Wang Xinyan spoke with lingering fear.

"I'd call that the will of heaven, working in the dark." Wei Zhao smiled faintly and comforted her, though inwardly he too felt a chill. If not for the East Sea Divine Nun, and Wang Xinyan left alone in a place like the East Continent, what would have become of her was truly hard to say.

"Mm. Master has always treated me very well, just like her own flesh and blood—indulging me and humoring me in everything. Wei Zhao, would you like to find a chance to meet her?" Wang Xinyan suddenly proposed.

In her heart, the East Sea Divine Nun was her family. If she was half a daughter to the East Sea Divine Nun, then Wei Zhao was half a son-in-law. A son-in-law and a mother-in-law ought to meet sooner or later—and besides, with the East Sea Divine Nun's strength and standing, Wang Xinyan felt that whatever trouble Wei Zhao had, she would surely be able to help.

"I will. But the time isn't right yet—wait until my strength is a bit higher." Wei Zhao smiled.

He had just barely managed to pull the wool over everyone's eyes; if he met the East Sea Divine Nun, that titan of the Mountain-Opening stage, face to face, who knew whether she might see through something? And if she took a liking to his talent, or if Ling Yuanqing and Wei Hebei and their like got wind of it, that would only breed complications.

"Well... all right." Wang Xinyan was briefly taken aback. She had dearly hoped that, seizing this rare opportunity, Wei Zhao might come along with her to the Morning Star Academy. After all, Huang Xiaotao had already taken the East Sea Divine Nun as her master, and to leave Wei Zhao alone in the chaotic Zhenduan sea region—she simply could not set her mind at ease.

"That's right. I still have a great deal left unfinished on the North Island, so for the time being I can't go to the East Continent. Once everything on my end is settled, I'll come to the Morning Star Academy to find the two of you." Wei Zhao nodded in pledge.

"Then... you must be extra careful on your own. As for me and Little Sister Xiaotao, whatever happens, Master will shelter us, and generally speaking we'll stay at the Morning Star Academy and not go out. You needn't worry." Though reluctant at heart, Wang Xinyan would not press him now that Wei Zhao had spoken so.

After all, Wei Zhao had said he would come to the East Continent to find them both, and come he would—it was only a matter of waiting a while longer. Better that than the past year and more, when she had not even known whether he was alive or dead, living each day in anxious dread.

"Mm. You two must take good care of yourselves as well. After you return to the academy, if conditions allow, find a way to write to me. Even if letters can't reach the Tri-Layered Pavilion on the North Island directly, you can still find a way to send them to the Hong Clan Merchant Guild—Xiaotao knows about it. I need only mention it to a friend, and no matter which branch of the Hong Clan Merchant Guild you send your letters to, they'll end up in my hands." Wei Zhao instructed the two girls.

Quite apart from the fact that Wei Zhao was himself an honorary vice-chairman of the Hong Clan Merchant Guild, even though Hong Zhong had earlier been jointly squeezed out at the Central Island headquarters, he was still, in solid fact, a vice-chairman. Even if he could not meddle in matters of vital interest, something as small as using the guild's internal channels to relay letters was no trouble at all—a single word to the East Continent side would suffice.

"Mm, mm." Wang Xinyan and Huang Xiaotao nodded again and again. Even if Wei Zhao had not said so, once far away at the Morning Star Academy in the East Continent, they would certainly have found some way to send him letters. Even if they had no connections of their own, at worst they could ask the East Sea Divine Nun to step in—and since the East Sea Divine Nun doted on Wang Xinyan so, she would surely agree to such a small request.

"And one more thing: after you get to the Morning Star Academy, Xinyan, I'd like you to look after Xiaotao a little more for me. She's new there and doesn't yet know many of the rules. Even if she doesn't go courting trouble, she may well be targeted by others. I can only leave it all to you—after all, you two are sisters." As he said this, Wei Zhao's old face flushed red again, but he steeled himself and gave the instruction anyway. (To be continued) R466