Chapter 4368 — The Skilled Wang Xinyan

Wei Zhao ignored Wei Zhaotong and turned his gaze upon the two skilled retainers. "Gentlemen," he said calmly, "others may not know what this is, but surely even you two cannot fail to recognize this purple-gold jade pendant of mine? You may never have seen one with your own eyes, but you must at least have heard of it. Wei Zhaotong is a man who has exhausted every ounce of conscience and piled up crimes beyond counting. To keep serving him is to play the jackal to the tiger, to share his guilt. I advise you both not to ruin yourselves."

When Wei Zhao had first received that purple-gold jade pendant from Hong Zhong's hands, Hong Zhong had told him that within the Hong Clan Merchant Guild, those of insufficient rank knew nothing of what the pendant signified—but the skilled retainers were the exception. Every so often they were summoned to the guild's headquarters on Central Isle for inspection and training, and any whose seniority was not too shallow might well come to know the pendant's origins.

They were all Hong Clan Merchant Guild people, after all, and unless it was truly necessary, Wei Zhao had no wish to wipe them out to the last man. Yet to his words, the two retainers turned a deaf ear. Not a flicker of hesitation crossed their faces; they merely fixed Wei Zhao and his companions with icy stares, as though the moment Wei Zhaotong gave the word, they would strike without a second thought.

"Hahahaha! Ling Yi, save your breath. A mere escort from the Qingtian Escort Agency, passing yourself off as an honorary vice-chairman of my Hong Clan Merchant Guild—who in their right mind would believe that? Or is it that you never do anything with your head at all?" Wei Zhaotong laughed, his face a mask of mockery.

He knew perfectly well that the purple-gold jade pendant in Wei Zhao's hand was genuine—even the two retainers had, in truth, begun to realize as much—and yet he remained utterly unruffled.

The reason was simple. In the years since he had come to the Weihu Sea Region, he had not yet gained full control of the entire branch guild, but he had at least bribed these two skilled retainers into becoming birds of a feather with him.

The skilled retainers held no superior-subordinate relationship with a branch guild's steward, yet their ties were often exceedingly close. This was a common sight in every branch of the Hong Clan Merchant Guild, and over the years the two retainers present had long since become a community of shared interests with Wei Zhaotong—grasshoppers bound to the same rope, as the saying went.

After all, highway robbery carried risks of its own. Those pirates were killers who did not so much as blink, and without skilled men to go and make contact with them, one might well end up devoured by the very wolves one had loosed.

"Is that so? Then there is nothing to be done. I had meant to deal with Wei Zhaotong alone. But since the two of you insist on standing in the way, do not blame me for being ungracious." Wei Zhao smiled faintly, utterly unconcerned.

"Hmph! Still talking big at this stage? Facing three Nascent Soul cultivators such as us, do you have even half a chance of victory? Do not deceive yourself. You came to our door looking for trouble—even if I kill you outright, Morning Star Academy will have nothing to say about it!" Wei Zhaotong threatened with a cold snort.

Yet before his words had died away, his eyes suddenly flashed. Wei Zhao had thrown caution to the winds and struck without warning!

Wei Zhaotong knew that Wei Zhao and his companions had not come with good intentions, but from the beginning until now he had felt no great worry in his heart. After all, by any measure, his three Nascent Soul cultivators held an absolute advantage in strength, and in his reckoning, so long as Wei Zhao was not a complete fool, he should have known to retreat rather than court humiliation.

But it had never crossed his mind that Wei Zhao's side did not judge the balance of power in anything like the same way.

On paper, the strength of three Nascent Soul cultivators was indeed not to be underestimated. But gathered here were Wang Xinyan and Huang Xiaotao, two of the finest talents Morning Star Academy had ever acknowledged, and beside them the even more formidable and heaven-defying Wei Zhao. Before such a trio, all of it was no more than passing clouds.

One could only say that however crafty and cunning Wei Zhaotong might be, his was still the thinking of a mortal. Before top-tier prodigies like Wei Zhao and his companions, long accustomed to cutting down foes a realm above their own in a single blow, any attempt to gauge the situation with a mortal's reasoning was sheer folly. From first to last, the two sides were not even on the same plane.

Raging Fire Eight-Trigram Combined Palm! Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao struck with perfect tacit accord, two Eight-Trigram Palms landing almost simultaneously upon the retainer on the left.

A dignified Nascent Soul cultivator, this man committed the very same error as Wei Zhaotong: he misjudged the situation and, worse still, underestimated his foes.

So it was that he had not even a moment to react. Struck by both palms, his eyes rolled back on the spot, and amid the startled cries of the gathered clerks and servants he hurtled backward like a kite with its string cut, sailing clean out of the Hong Clan Merchant Guild. For a long while there was no further sign of movement—whether he lived or died, no one could tell.

At the same moment, Wang Xinyan struck on the other side. The martial art she employed was neither fist nor palm, neither leg technique nor weapon. Her only movement was to press her palms together before her.

The others had yet to notice anything amiss, but the retainer standing to her right suddenly turned deathly pale. He felt a ceaseless, rolling sound rise on every side, high and low, unbroken as a range of mountains stretching a hundred miles—a sound that not only unsettled the mind, but, more terrifying still, seemed to bewilder the spirit, so that even the true qi coursing through his meridians slowed and stalled.

The retainer was thrown into panic, yet his first instinct was not to fall back, but to advance—charging straight at Wang Xinyan!

That this man could become a skilled retainer of the Hong Clan Merchant Guild spoke well of his abilities, and his reaction here, almost pure battle instinct, was truly worthy of praise. Had he chosen to turn and flee, the opening he left at his back would only have been greater, and his death would only have come the sooner.

Yet though his choice to advance rather than retreat was not wrong, it was a pity he had so vastly underestimated Wang Xinyan—this direct disciple of the East Sea Divine Nun.

Unlike Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao, Wang Xinyan was a genuine early-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, and with her extraordinary aptitude, together with more than a year of the East Sea Divine Nun's meticulous guidance, one could only say that the Wang Xinyan of today was no longer an existence any ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator could contend with.

The retainer was already swift, but before he could reach Wang Xinyan, the unbroken sound pouring in from every direction grew louder and louder, its grip on his spirit ever tighter. He jerked his head up and gasped, drawing a sharp breath of cold air: behind Wang Xinyan, at some unknown moment, a black-mist phantom had appeared.

That phantom bore down like a towering mountain, and at a glance one knew it was no mortal thing. The transcendent aura faintly emanating from it plainly stood above all in the dusty world, and a dignified Nascent Soul cultivator before it felt as a lowly creature feels before a higher being—his body trembling by instinct, he dared not take another step forward. (To be continued) R466