Chapter 4612 — Seeing Lan'er Again

Fortunately, the gap in strength between Wei Zhao and Ma Dangfeng had been so vast that the outcome was decided without a single visible move. Had two Nascent Soul cultivators of real skill truly come to blows, this place of his would long since have been flattened. That he had escaped disaster today was entirely thanks to Wei Zhao.

A ceaseless stream of well-wishers crowded in to make nice with him, and many of them were Azure Cloud Pavilion disciples besides, people he rubbed shoulders with every day. Senior Brother Miserable and the rest of that bunch were honest, good-natured folk who could not bring themselves to turn anyone away cold, so they could only grit their teeth and deal with each one in turn.

Only Wei Zhao was left to enjoy his leisure, sipping his spirit tea at a comfortable pace. The guild steward, quick to read the situation, had even swapped his pot for a superior grade of spirit tea—a stash he had treasured for years without ever bearing to drink it himself, and now he had laid out real capital to curry favor with Wei Zhao…

In the midst of the hubbub, the packed crowd suddenly parted of its own accord, opening a narrow lane down the middle as clean as a dividing line. The people in front grumbled at first, but the moment they glimpsed who was coming from behind, they promptly bowed their heads in respectful silence and scrambled nimbly out of the way.

Wei Zhao was slightly taken aback, but then his face broke into a smile. Through the crowd came Little Curly Bear, abandoning its usual plump and amiable demeanor, vaulting from one person's head to the next and clambering up onto Wei Zhao with hands and feet alike. Perched on Wei Zhao's neck, it quivered with excitement—and at that same moment, a woman of clear, ethereal beauty appeared before Wei Zhao. It was none other than Shangguan Lan'er.

Looking at this little senior sister, who could no more hide her delight than Little Curly Bear could, Wei Zhao could not help but stare blankly for a moment. After a year and a half apart, Shangguan Lan'er was as innocent and unspoiled as ever, yet in both figure and bearing she had plainly matured. To her fresh, pure loveliness there now clung a faint, elusive charm that set a person's cheeks burning without their knowing why.

Wei Zhao had long since seen every manner of beauty; his fair confidantes were each a peerless flower of the world. Yet seeing Shangguan Lan'er this time, he could not help but marvel that the girl was truly born to be a beauty. Even now she was enough to make a man lose his grip—and when she came into her full bloom in the years to come, would not every glance and every smile steal a man's soul away?

"Little junior brother, you're not hurt, are you?" Shangguan Lan'er, for her part, had not the slightest awareness that she was a walking disaster of a beauty. Perhaps because she had prayed for Wei Zhao every single day, a year and a half apart had left not the least trace of unfamiliarity between them. Ignoring the crowd's strange looks, she hopped and skipped over to Wei Zhao's side, nudged Little Curly Bear aside, and the master and her pet each took practiced possession of one of Wei Zhao's arms.

"No, I'm not," Wei Zhao said with a smiling shake of his head. Then he could not help asking, "How did you know I was here?"

"Hehe, Grandfather told me! He said that wretch Ma Dangfeng had latched onto you, so I came over to see you!" Shangguan Lan'er stuck out her tongue with a giggle, secretly proud of her own success. If she had not insisted last time that Grandfather tell her the moment there was any news of Wei Zhao, she could never have gotten here so quickly.

"Pavilion Master Shangguan?" Wei Zhao was startled. It was no wonder he drew attention now that he had returned, but for word to reach Shangguan Tianxia's ears so quickly was a most intriguing thing. To command such attentive concern from one of North Island's foremost figures—his treatment was truly remarkable.

"Hehe, little junior brother, you were on South Island so long—what fun things happened? Come on, tell your senior sister! I've never once been to South Island in all my life! Is it true there are spirit beasts everywhere, and did you see any other Curly Bears?" Shangguan Lan'er asked, impatient for answers.

Apart from North Island, she had only ever been to Central Island and West Island—the former being the undisputed heart of the Cloud-Tier Isles, the latter the territory of her closest friend Ning Xuefei. South Island, though, was out of the question. That place was a nest of trouble for human cultivators; for ordinary folk it hardly mattered, but if a top-tier figure of North Island like Shangguan Tianxia were suddenly to appear in the South Continent seas, it would stir up no end of chaos.

"That's a long story. I'll tell you all about it slowly once we're back," Wei Zhao said with a smile. He called out to Lu Bianren, Senior Brother Miserable, and the others, and then, surrounded by the crowd, they made their way back in grand procession to the Azure Cloud Pavilion.

In theory Wei Zhao no longer had a residence in the Azure Cloud Pavilion—his old Residence Number One had long since been seized by Ma Dangfeng. But when Wei Zhao heard this, he only laughed it off. Ma Dangfeng had been able to hold Residence Number One only because Wei Zhao had not been back; now that he was, what claim could Ma Dangfeng possibly have?

Wei Zhao at once led the group straight to Residence Number One, sending word to Hong Zhong at the Hong Merchant Guild along the way. The whole party then set about preparing a banquet at Residence Number One, and the entire faction bearing Wei Zhao's name gathered joyfully under one roof to welcome him home and wash the dust of his journey away.

Beyond that, Wei Zhao sent word to no one else. By the rules, after vanishing for so long—and especially after crippling both of Ma Dangfeng's knees the moment he returned—he ought at the very least to report to the Azure Cloud Pavilion's upper echelon. But Wei Zhao had no such intention whatsoever.

He now held not the faintest shred of goodwill toward those so-called senior elders of the Azure Cloud Pavilion. That they had backed Ma Dangfeng in seizing his residence behind his back was simply beyond forbearance; had it been someone of a hotter temper, he would have stormed their doors and demanded satisfaction!

Wei Zhao, however, had no leisure for such things, so he simply chose to ignore them. From this day forth Residence Number One was his again; if any elder took issue with that, let him come and say so to his face—though he doubted any of them had the nerve.

Truth be told, before Wei Zhao had left for the South Continent, he had thought that anyone who could become an elder of the Azure Cloud Pavilion must be no ordinary character. But times had changed, and his horizons had risen with his strength. Now he could snuff out a Mystic Ascension cultivator with a single move—as for those so-called elders, most of them merely Nascent Soul, how much weight they could possibly carry in his eyes was a real mystery to behold…

While Wei Zhao and his people bustled merrily about preparing the banquet at Residence Number One, Ma Dangfeng—its master in name—was in a truly sorry state. Both his knees had been ground to powder by Wei Zhao's Five Elements killing aura. Though he would not be a total cripple for life, even the medical prowess of North Island's Pill Hall would not mend him easily.

Even on the most optimistic estimate, full recovery would take at least half a year. Unless a medical sage like Zhang Lifeng attended him in person, he would be a complete invalid for the next six months. His own words had indeed come home to roost—lying at home day after day to recuperate, with not a ray of light to be seen!