Chapter 4507 — A Chance for Revenge

"Well, the Xishan heretics were formidable enough, true—but from what I hear, the two sides never actually came to blows. All the righteous alliance knew was that Xishan lay somewhere between Xidao and the waters of Nanzhou, but the exact location was anyone's guess. On top of that, the seas out that way are hellishly treacherous, and the place seems to be ringed with all manner of esoteric formations. The alliance spent a whole month out there and never did find the heretics' lair; in the end they had no choice but to let the matter drop." Qi Wenmo explained.

Even this much he had only by hearsay, and his grasp of the affair was anything but clear. What he told Wei Zhao was simply the version that circulated most widely in the teahouses and alleys; whether any of it was true, only those who had been there could say.

"So that's how it was." Wei Zhao nodded in sudden understanding. That, at least, made a certain sense. Had the two sides truly clashed in earnest, and the righteous alliance still failed to beat back a single Xishan sect, it would have been too embarrassing for words—wouldn't it have amounted to a Yunzhai Island staging of "the Six Great Sects Besieging Light Peak"...

While the two exchanged whispers, Cheng Haonan had strutted over to the side of the Old Sect of Xishan, smugness written across his face. The old sect's next words, however, made every eyelid in the hall twitch: "Cheng Haonan is now a disciple of this sect. I have formally taken him as my apprentice. From what you were all saying just now, it sounded very much like you meant to kill him?"

"No, no, no—nothing of the sort! Senior, you misunderstand." Hai Wuliang nearly died of fright on the spot and rushed to defend himself. Then his gaze flicked to Wei Zhao, who stood nearby wearing a look of utter contempt, and at once he bellowed out a frame-up: "It's Ling Yi! Yes, Ling Yi is the one who wants to kill him!"

The crowd was struck speechless yet again. To be shameless to such a degree, Hai Wuliang truly was one of a kind. Not a moment earlier the man had plainly been using Cheng Haonan to burnish his own reputation; now that disaster loomed, he had dumped the whole thing on Ling Yi without so much as a blink.

"Ling Yi?" Following the direction of Hai Wuliang's pointing finger, the Old Sect of Xishan turned his sinister, unfriendly gaze upon Wei Zhao, and with a grating cackle said: "My former apprentice, Wu Baoliang—he died at your hands?"

"That's right." Wei Zhao nodded mildly, his expression composed. There was no denying a thing like that; and given his temperament, he would never have dreamed of denying it anyway. He was not, after all, Hai Wuliang.

"Ho—so you own up to what you've done, do you? Didn't expect a real man out of you!" The Old Sect of Xishan's already grotesque features turned more hideous still, and he barked coldly: "Do you know that he was not only this sect's personal disciple, but my own nephew?"

"I didn't know before. Now I do." Wei Zhao remained as placid as ever, though inwardly he mused: no wonder the two of them both sported a pair of triangular yin-yang eyes—so they really were uncle and nephew.

At this reply, delivered in a tone fit to annoy a man to death, the faces around them turned distinctly odd. Qi Wenmo, Qi Mingyuan, Chai Laoshi and the others in particular were breaking out in cold sweat on his behalf. Young Master Ling was still too green after all. This was no time to stand stiff-necked and play the hero—people really did die at times like this.

Sure enough, the Old Sect of Xishan went livid, his face turning a shade of iron so dark it nearly matched his eyebrows. The black mist above his head came surging out in an instant, and the whole sky went dim, a doomsday sight of black clouds bearing down upon the city.

Just when everyone thought the old sect had reached the end of his patience and was about to give the order to kill—that Wei Zhao was this time surely doomed—the black clouds overhead dispersed for some unknown reason, and the heavens turned clear again, a boundless blue with the sun blazing high.

The killing intent around the Old Sect of Xishan abruptly vanished into nothing. Instead of fury, he laughed: "Guts. Damned if you don't have guts! This nephew of mine was just like you—back in the day he dared break out of the mountain over some trifling matter. This sect always said it: no show-off of a heretic cultivator ever came to a good end. He's fallen to what he is today, and he died deserving it—not wronged in the least."

At these words, not only did the rest of the crowd find themselves baffled, but even Wei Zhao was somewhat taken aback. What was the old man getting at?

Everyone had assumed this was the prelude to avenging Wu Baoliang. Yet the man had pivoted mid-sentence to declare that Wu Baoliang had died deserving it. The ways of the exalted were indeed unfathomable; the twisted logic of a Mountain-Opening heretic colossus was more incomprehensible still.

"This sect also hears that the Longzhou Escort Agency was driven out by you people?" The Old Sect of Xishan drew his gaze back from Wei Zhao and turned to ask about something so utterly unrelated that the crowd grew more bewildered than ever, staring at one another in blank confusion.

"No, no, no—not driven out, not driven out at all." Hai Wuliang was the first to snap out of his stunned daze, and he hurried to say: "The Longzhou Escort Agency ranks second, and from this day forth it's the Six Great Escort Agencies. That old chestnut about the Five Great Escort Agencies should have been revised long ago."

Another wave of disgust swept the crowd. Damn the man, was there no limit to his shamelessness? The ironclad rules of the Nanzhou Escort Alliance, revised just like that? And "Six Great Escort Agencies," no less—even at a moment like this he hadn't forgotten to look after his own Sihai Escort Agency. Truly, he had reached a pinnacle of sly old cunning!

In the presence of a Mountain-Opening heretic colossus, no one dared make a sound for fear of his own life, yet most of them still had at least a shred of self-respect left. Hai Wuliang, though, was another matter entirely. The man had plainly become the heretic's running dog, and far from being ashamed of it, he wore the shameless look of a true hero—the kind who knows when to bend and when to stretch.

"Heh heh. You're a sensible one, at least. Off with you, then." The Old Sect of Xishan smiled with a hint of mockery and turned to Cheng Haonan: "Apprentice, time to get down to proper business. This sect grants you the chance to take your revenge with your own hands—go and finish off that Ling Yi. After that, we'll go together to the Longzhou Escort Agency and hold the fort there. It's rare enough that I come out; this time I have no small amount of business to attend to."

Long Kuiba was overjoyed at these words. Even when Hai Wuliang had just said that his Longzhou Escort Agency would be restored to the rank of second agency, he had not been this thrilled—after all, that was only what was owed him, something he had long been prepared for in his heart, nothing to make a fuss over.

But now the Old Sect of Xishan had actually said he would come to the Longzhou Escort Agency and hold the fort. This was a piece of good fortune beyond his wildest dreams!

Long Kuiba was so excited he nearly slapped himself. Damn it all—this was a genuine Mountain-Opening colossus! So what if he was a heretic cultivator? Who would dare say a single word against him now?

Never mind that in the waters of Nanzhou people were forever spouting nonsense about how right and evil could never coexist—the conduct of those present, Hai Wuliang above all, made it plain enough: the biggest fist is the only truth. So long as one's strength was hard enough and overbearing enough, even a heretic cultivator could become the mainstream. Don't like it? Then one punch and you're dead! R1152