Chapter 4581 — How Could This Be

"So that means Jia Mufan has already decided to back our leader Wei Zhao?" Xiao Che's heart stirred. This was a rare piece of good news—after all, in the Azure Cloud Pavilion, Jia Mufan was a true heavyweight, a figure whose standing was no lower than that of some of the pavilion's elders, and in some respects even higher.

"It certainly looks that way." Lu Bianren nodded, but then frowned in puzzlement. "But why would he choose this? If Junior Brother Lin had already returned, his choice wouldn't be strange at all. Yet right now Junior Brother Lin's fate is unknown—isn't he afraid that making his move now will provoke that arrogant, overbearing Ma Dangfeng?"

"I think the one he's betting on isn't really Leader Wei Zhao at all, but someone else entirely." Li Zhengming lowered his voice.

"Who, then?" Lu Bianren and Xiao Che asked in unison.

"The master of the Soaring Heaven Pavilion—Shangguan Tianxia!" Li Zhengming's answer was startling, yet on closer thought, it fell squarely within reason.

Wei Zhao was close to Shangguan Lan'er—that was known to everyone in the Threefold Pavilion. What was more, he was the prodigy Shangguan Tianxia had publicly singled out and championed. So, for all intents and purposes, everyone had already spontaneously attached the name Shangguan to Wei Zhao. Which meant, by the same logic, that offending Wei Zhao was offending Shangguan Tianxia, and currying favor with Wei Zhao was currying favor with Shangguan Tianxia.

"By your analysis, Zhengming, Senior Brother Jia really is aiming at something enormous. But then again, if even a figure like him couldn't lay claim to that seat, there's likely no one in the world who could." Lu Bianren let out a long breath, genuinely moved.

Xiao Che nodded along beside him. Though nothing was said aloud, they all now understood what Jia Mufan was after.

Ordinarily, the senior brother in charge of the Azure Cloud Pavilion's inner court would have no point of contact whatsoever with a pavilion master like Shangguan Tianxia. There was only one exception: he had set his sights on the seat of Azure Cloud Pavilion Master itself.

By the rules handed down from the ancestors, anyone who wished to become master of any one of the Threefold Pavilion's three halls had to pass a resolution of the North Island Council of Elders, and above all had to secure the support of the masters of the other two halls. Not one could be lacking.

Given Jia Mufan's current strength and standing, the seat of Azure Cloud Pavilion Master was still far beyond his reach, but with his seniority and his credentials, once his strength was sufficient, there was no reason he couldn't make a proper contest of it. Jia Mufan was preparing for a rainy day.

Lu Bianren, Xiao Che, and Li Zhengming talked it over and sighed a while longer before they each went their separate ways. As for their current strength and standing, they were still a long way off from Jia Mufan, let alone from anything like the seat of Azure Cloud Pavilion Master.

In any case, Jia Mufan's choice was a good thing for all of them—it amounted to gaining a powerful ally. What they had to do now was heal their wounds and cultivate diligently, and when Wei Zhao returned, repay blood with blood!

………………

The South Island. The Five Venoms Swamp.

Standing on the broad back of the Five Fiends Dragon, Wei Zhao had been cultivating amid the Five Elements killing aura for over three full months. As before, he had recently begun to notice that the tempering effect of the Five Elements killing aura here was steadily weakening—at the very least, it was nowhere near as rapid as in the beginning.

Meanwhile, the fruit of those three months was this: Wei Zhao's strength had successfully broken through from the early Nascent Soul stage to the very peak of the early Nascent Soul stage!

Advancing a single level in three months was markedly slower than his previous pace, yet it was still an exceedingly welcome gain. For one thing, Wei Zhao had taken no elixirs at all during the process—it was a pure, unaided breakthrough, and that alone was precious and rare. For another, the higher the level, the harder each breakthrough became; the time required naturally grew longer as well. That was an eternal truth.

For an ordinary cultivator, a Golden Core expert might need decades to advance a single level, and once one reached the Nascent Soul stage, that span abruptly stretched to over a hundred years. Going several hundred years

Wei Zhao was not a man given to greed, but the opportunity before him now was rare. The peak of the early Nascent Soul stage alone was not enough to satisfy him—he wanted to keep cultivating, to keep breaking through.

But if he wanted to climb higher, the Five Elements killing aura in this place was no longer sufficient. Wei Zhao said at once to the Five Fiends Dragon, "Take us up a bit more. I need a stronger Five Elements killing aura!"

"I'm afraid that won't do…" said the Five Fiends Dragon.

"Why not? Are the killing auras up there so strong even you can't withstand them?" Wei Zhao was stunned. But on reflection, that was simply impossible—the Five Fiends Dragon had roamed the swamp freely before, and even the densest, strongest concentration of Five Elements killing aura in the middle layer had posed no threat to it whatsoever. On the contrary, it had frightened them into scattering in all directions.

"Of course I can withstand them. But even if we went up, it would be utterly useless to you," the Five Fiends Dragon said, swaying its great head.

"What do you mean by that?" Wei Zhao was thoroughly bewildered. He needed a stronger Five Elements killing aura to aid his cultivation—and he didn't even need to risk the middle layer directly; a short flight upward would be enough. How could it be useless?

"Hah, hah—it's hard to explain in words. Go up and you'll see." With that, the Five Fiends Dragon gave its wings a slight beat, and they shot upward a good distance before coming to a stop. Though they had not yet reached the middle layer, the Five Elements killing auras drifting around them were far greater in both intensity and number than at the previous spot.

Wei Zhao was quite satisfied with this, but just as he was about to begin cultivating, he suddenly sensed something was off, and could not help but exclaim in surprise: "How could this be?"

Until now, every wisp of Five Elements killing aura Wei Zhao had encountered—strong or weak—had been utterly single-minded. Basically, the moment they sensed Wei Zhao's aura, so long as he had not wrapped his whole body in true qi, they would launch an attack at once; unless Wei Zhao fled or the killing aura gradually died away in the process, the fight would not end until one side was dead.

Yet the scene before him now completely overturned Wei Zhao's understanding. These Five Elements killing auras were clearly far, far stronger than the ones before! (To be continued) R655