Chapter 4843 — The Visit

"Didn't see that coming, did you, Qing Xuanzi? Wei Zhao is the senior fellow disciple of my own pupil—they were both disciples of the Threefold Pavilion of the North Island in their day. WwW.XsHuotXT.com" The Holy Nun of the Eastern Sea could not help laughing. "Qing Xuanzi, oh, Qing Xuanzi. All these years you've been itching to get one over on me, but now there's no point thinking about it at all—he's come out a generation below me."

Ling Yuanqing and Wei Hebei could not help but smile at that. In any academy of the Eastern Continent, a chief alchemist ranked among the highest of the high; and where the chief alchemist was as formidable as the one at Xiangyun Academy, it was quite normal for him to be reckoned the academy's second most powerful figure.

At the Morning Star Academy, however, the standing of the three titans was unshakable, secured by sheer strength. Yet Qing Xuanzi was not the sort to resign himself to standing in anyone's shadow. He could never eclipse Academy Head Ling Yuanqing, nor was he likely to eclipse Vice-Academy Head Wei Hebei, who commanded a great multitude of disciples. That left only one target: the Holy Nun of the Eastern Sea, who stood all but alone.

She bore the title of Vice-Academy Head, yet rarely concerned herself with the Academy's affairs, and her only personal disciples were Wang Xinyan and Huang Xiaotao. Apart from her formidable strength, the Holy Nun was, one might say, the easiest of the Academy's titans to surpass—and in truth Qing Xuanzi had long had every chance of eclipsing her. Popular opinion had already quietly begun to cast him as the Academy's number three.

But now—well, after this little turn of events, that was hardly likely anymore. Qing Xuanzi shook his head with a bitter smile. "Ah? How did it come to this?"

"Such is the way of the world, Qing Xuanzi. Best just accept your fate, hahahaha!" Wei Hebei laughed heartily from the side.

"Er... fine, fine. But what does any of that matter now? For me, refining pills is what counts." Qing Xuanzi laughed at himself too. Compared with rank and reputation in the Academy, his only concern was pill refinement; if he could make even an inch of progress in the Way of pill refinement, he would gladly give up all the rest.

Ling Yuanqing and the others exchanged smiles. A chief alchemist utterly absorbed in his craft was a blessing any academy would pray for.

"Heh, let me introduce you properly." Wei Zhao smiled and nodded to the two young women. "This is my junior fellow disciple from the North Island, Huang Xiaotao. And this one—well, she's my deskmate, Wang Xinyan."

"What? What's a 'deskmate' supposed to mean?" Qing Xuanzi was struck dumb once again—and not only he; Ling Yuanqing and the others all wore looks of blank bewilderment.

The Holy Nun of the Eastern Sea was the most astonished of all. She had always assumed that only Huang Xiaotao among her disciples had any tie to Wei Zhao; never had she imagined that even Wang Xinyan shared such a bond with him. Only—what on earth did "deskmate" mean?

"Master Qing Xuanzi, don't listen to his nonsense..." Wang Xinyan's face flushed as she hurried to protest, at the same time shooting Wei Zhao a reproachful glance—which only warmed his heart. However many times he saw that endearing look of hers, he never tired of it, just as on the day they first met aboard the train.

"No, no—how could I be worthy of the title 'Master'!" Qing Xuanzi waved his hands again and again, then hastened to correct himself. "Since you are my master's... deskmate, that makes you my elder. This disciple pays his respects to Uncle-Master Deskmate..."

"Pfft!" Wang Xinyan choked and burst out laughing, at a loss for words, while everyone else wore expressions of indescribable strangeness. Qing Xuanzi really could let go of his dignity when he chose: taking Wei Zhao as his master was one thing, but now he had thrown caution to the winds and addressed Wang Xinyan as Uncle-Master. What, then, was he going to call Ling Yuanqing and the rest?

Wei Zhao watched with an amused smile, never having guessed that Qing Xuanzi had it in him to become such a clown. Here was a seventh-rank alchemist of advanced years, and few men of his standing could unbend so thoroughly.

At first everyone had been somewhat stiff on account of rank and station—after all, Ling Yuanqing and the others were the Academy's titans, and it would hardly do for them to let down their guard before the younger generation. But after this little interlude, the atmosphere lightened all at once, and for a rare moment there was laughter and cheerful talk on every side, drawing startled glances from the Academy disciples passing by.

Among them all, however, only Chai Laoshi could not relax. With his cautious, deferential nature, it would have been asking too much of him to feel at ease in the presence of Ling Yuanqing and the others.

"Steward Chai, why don't you head back to the Hong Clan Trading Company first? I'll come find you," Wei Zhao said, seeing his discomfort.

"Yes, yes—then I'll take my leave." Chai Laoshi breathed an immediate sigh of relief. Standing among so many titans and grandees was truly crushing; far from chatting and laughing freely, he had been so tense he could scarcely draw breath.

But once he had left the Morning Star Academy and returned to the commercial district within the city, Chai Laoshi's head came up again. After all, he now represented the Hong Clan Trading Company—a company destined to be the foremost in Morning Star City!

Having watched Chai Laoshi out of sight, Wei Zhao and his party strode through the gates of the Morning Star Academy. When he had first come to Morning Star City, Wei Zhao had been at his wits' end over how to get into the Academy; now, with so redoubtable a disciple as Qing Xuanzi, everything had become effortless and pleasant.

The Academy's titans like Ling Yuanqing all regarded Wei Zhao with new eyes, and as for the ordinary disciples, they dared only watch from a distance, not venturing to come near—what if they should displease one of the grandees standing about?

Chatting and laughing all the way, the party finally set aside the question of seniority that Qing Xuanzi had stirred up and agreed that each would go by his own reckoning; otherwise there would be no sorting it out at all.

Wei Zhao was Huang Xiaotao's senior fellow disciple and Qing Xuanzi's master, while Huang Xiaotao was the Holy Nun of the Eastern Sea's personal disciple—reckoned that way, the whole thing was a hopeless tangle that not even a lifetime would unravel. Each would simply follow the reckoning he was accustomed to.

After walking some way together, the party soon dispersed, and Wei Zhao was dragged off by Qing Xuanzi to his pill-refining chamber.

Wang Xinyan and Huang Xiaotao had wanted to come along, but at Wei Zhao's urging they went back with the Holy Nun of the Eastern Sea first; once he was done at Qing Xuanzi's, he would come find the two of them anyway.

As the Academy's chief alchemist, Qing Xuanzi naturally had his residence in the finest spot in the Academy—not only of breathtaking scenery, but steeped in spiritual energy as well.

Following Qing Xuanzi into his pill-refining chamber, Wei Zhao's eyes lit up at once. There was a most ingeniously and uniquely appointed sealed meditation room, set aside especially for refining pills; beside it stood an enormous storeroom, stocked with all manner of rare and wondrous pill-refining ingredients.

"Worthy of the Academy's chief alchemist—the scale of this spirit-medicine storehouse seems even more extravagant than my own," Wei Zhao could not help sighing inwardly.

And rightly so: his own storehouse had been built up over only a few years, whereas Qing Xuanzi's had cost him centuries of painstaking effort—there was simply no comparing the two!