Chapter 4628 — A Grown Daughter Is Hard to Keep

Seeing that Wei Zhao had nothing more to add, Shangguan Tianxia did not press him further, and turned the conversation instead: "What do you make of the North Island's Triplex Pavilion as it stands now?"

Wei Zhao thought it over and answered in four words: "Talent in abundance."

"Heh, that isn't wrong, exactly. Since you joined the Welcoming Pavilion, these past two years the Triplex Pavilion has indeed thrown up no small number of striking figures. Did you know that the old relics on the Council of Elders have coined a designation for the lot of you?" Shangguan Tianxia said with a smile.

"What designation?" Wei Zhao asked, startled.

"The Golden Generation," Shangguan Tianxia said, smiling.

"Uh..." Wei Zhao was briefly left speechless. A designation, no less—the grandees of the Council of Elders truly did have far too much time on their hands.

"Exaggerated, perhaps, but not far off the mark. Your cohort of newcomers is outstanding and dazzling in its own right—quite apart from you, Xiao Che and Meng Zhou are both fine, and Xu Lingchong's strength has happened to advance by leaps and bounds these two years, so he too stands as a representative figure of your Golden Generation. Then there are others like Yu Jiang, all of them looking rather promising, and one called Ma Dangfeng—hasn't he been making a stir lately as well? Do you think these people have what it takes to be a Golden Generation?" Shangguan Tianxia named them one by one.

That he could remember these names at all was in itself an acknowledgment of their strength. In times past the Triplex Pavilion would produce the occasional prodigy brilliant beyond measure, but never a clustered eruption like this, and one of Wei Zhao's caliber in particular was a thing seen perhaps once in several centuries.

Because of this suddenly risen Golden Generation, the great majority of people took a most favorable view of the future of the North Island's Triplex Pavilion; once the Golden Generation truly came into its own, North Island's Triplex Pavilion would surely flourish anew.

"Among them, Xiao Che is the only one I know inside and out. He is genuinely a talent of a kind rarely seen, the sort who gathers strength in silence before the eruption. As for the rest, I do not know them well—perhaps they met with some stroke of fortune, but their rise has always struck me as a little strange." Wei Zhao offered his assessment honestly.

"Heh, aren't you the same yourself?" Shangguan Tianxia could not help laughing.

"In oneself and in others, the two feelings are never quite the same. Perhaps it is only my imagination," Wei Zhao said with a shrug.

Shangguan Tianxia smiled, neither confirming nor denying. By now the flavor of the tea had grown exceedingly thin. Tea-drinking is a matter of knowing when to stop, and plainly he was loath to bring out any more Dewtip—that was the apple of his eye. He said at once to Shangguan Lan'er: "Little Lan'er, take Wei Zhao to the study and let him pick a piece of calligraphy."

"All right!" Shangguan Lan'er promptly dragged Wei Zhao off into the study.

A moment later Wei Zhao emerged with a peculiar expression, a long, exquisitely mounted scroll slung across his back. He bowed deeply to Shangguan Tianxia and said, "My thanks for the Pavilion Master's great kindness. Your disciple shall take his leave first."

"You may come often hereafter. Few are the people for whom this old man will bring out the Dewtip; you count as one," Shangguan Tianxia said with a faint nod, then added: "Not that it will be every time, of course. There is not much of the stuff left."

"Understood. With those words from you, this disciple will certainly not stand on ceremony." Wei Zhao smiled, and in high spirits was seen out the gate by Shangguan Lan'er and Little Curl.

When Shangguan Lan'er returned after seeing Wei Zhao off, she wore a furtive, guilty look, and Shangguan Tianxia at once grew suspicious. "Little Lan'er, which piece of calligraphy did you choose for him?" he asked.

"Mm... that True Word one, you know..." Shangguan Lan'er said vaguely, her eyes darting this way and that.

"What True Word? I have written more than a dozen True Words. Which one did you pick?" A sudden foreboding rose in Shangguan Tianxia's heart.

"Just... just the one that gives people a headache to look at..." Shangguan Lan'er said, pouting.

"Gives people a headache to look at?" Shangguan Tianxia grew ever more uneasy, and all at once he gave a shudder. "Little Lan'er, you didn't give him the Ten-Thousand-Word True Word, did you?" he said in shock.

"Yes, I did." Shangguan Lan'er nodded, shrinking her neck.

Shangguan Tianxia nearly spat blood at the words, caught between laughter and tears. "That is our Shangguan family's ancestral teaching, and ten thousand characters besides—it took your grandfather a whole month of hard labor to copy it out..."

"You said yourself I could pick anything in the study. You are the master of the Skypiercer Pavilion, a man whose word is his bond—surely you won't go back on it?" Shangguan Lan'er muttered.

"Go back on it? What is given away is given—how could there be any going back!" Shangguan Tianxia shook his head in exasperation, and could only sigh: "Ah, a grown daughter's heart turns outward, and truer words were never spoken. It has not even come to anything yet, and already she is scheming to fleece her own grandfather."

"How have I fleeced you!" Shangguan Lan'er flushed at once, and ran over to cling to Shangguan Tianxia's arm, coaxing: "Little Junior Brother is no outsider. Giving him the Ten-Thousand-Word True Word does no harm at all."

"Yes, yes, no outsider." Shangguan Tianxia fondly ruffled his granddaughter's hair and said with feeling: "Truly, the boy is uncommon. I had thought he might be the next Gongyang Jun, but this meeting today shows I had still underestimated him. I half regret not having taken him as a disciple back then."

"It is not too late now. Little Junior Brother has not formally taken a master anyway—shall I go and tell him?" Shangguan Lan'er said, her eyes lighting up. If Wei Zhao could enter her grandfather's tutelage, their bond would grow all the closer, and that was something she would gladly see.

"That will not be necessary. Your grandfather was only speaking offhand. If Wei Zhao truly entered my tutelage, it would not be a good thing for him—at the least, I could not do what others have done and raise him to the Nascent Soul within two years. All I can do now is drop a hint or two from the sidelines," Shangguan Tianxia said with a slight shake of his head.

"Oh. All right." Shangguan Lan'er could not help feeling disappointed, then her eyes suddenly darted and she asked: "Grandfather, was this Dewtip prepared for Little Junior Brother?"

"It was," Shangguan Tianxia nodded.

"Really? How could you bear to let Little Junior Brother drink the Dewtip?" Shangguan Lan'er was ever more astonished. Few in all the world could make her grandfather bring out the Dewtip, and by any reckoning she could not see how Little Junior Brother had earned the right—even Gongyang Jun had never received such treatment.

"Heh, a grown daughter is hard to keep. Since you, Little Lan'er, cannot wait for him to drink the Dewtip, what is your grandfather to say?" Shangguan Tianxia looked at Shangguan Lan'er with a teasing smile. (To be continued...) R752