Chapter 4984 — Not an Opponent

For him to come out here and serve as a hired blade for the Famous Medicine Sect was humiliating enough already. If word got back to the Eastern Continent that he had raised a hand against a disciple of his own Morning Star Academy, how could he ever hold his head up there again?

"Heh. I happen to be a friend of your headmaster, Ling Yuanqing—and the master of your chief alchemist, Qing Xuanzi, besides. What do you make of that?" Wei Zhao said mildly.

"Hahahaha!" Zhao Youque doubled over laughing on the spot, as though he had just heard the joke of the century. Pointing at Wei Zhao and gasping for breath, he wheezed, "If you'd claimed to be a Morning Star disciple, that might at least have sounded halfway plausible—I might even have believed you. But I never took you for such a card! A friend of our headmaster Ling Yuanqing, master of the great Qing Xuanzi—there's a limit to daydreaming, you know!"

It was not only Zhao Youque; the onlookers crowding around all found it too absurd for words. Even those who knew nothing of the Morning Star Academy understood well enough what the headmaster and the chief alchemist represented. This head of the Heavenly Elixir Pavilion could certainly spin a tale without so much as blinking.

"I have said all that needs saying. My advice is that you turn and walk away now—I can pretend I never saw you. Otherwise, don't blame me for showing no courtesy." Wei Zhao's expression remained as placid as ever; the crowd's jeers and sneers had not touched him in the slightest.

"Haha! By all means, spare me no courtesy. But seeing how you've gone to such lengths to cook up such a preposterous lie, I suppose I can show you a little courtesy in return—at the very least, I can promise not to beat you to death." Zhao Youque laughed without the slightest restraint.

"In that case, there is nothing more to say." Wei Zhao smiled a touch helplessly. He had only just left the Morning Star Academy, and here he was about to lay hands on one of its elders—truly, a honorary headmaster like no other.

"Still putting on airs at a time like this? You've gotten addicted to playing the grand personage, haven't you, boy? Let me wake you up properly!" Zhao Youque gave a cold laugh and made to strike.

But before he could truly make his move, Wei Zhao's figure flickered and appeared within ten feet of him—a speed so phantom-like that it gave even a mid-stage Mystic Ascension expert like him a violent start. Before he could react in any way, a heavy blow landed square on his chest, and his whole body was sent flying helplessly backward, kicked clean out of the market street by Wei Zhao.

Hiss! A chorus of sharp intakes of breath rippled through the crowd, and every eye that turned on Wei Zhao now looked as though it beheld a monster. This was a great expert of the mid-stage Mystic Ascension realm—how could he fail to last even a single exchange before this head of the Heavenly Elixir Pavilion? Surely the man was not one of those frauds with a lofty rank and no real strength behind it?

"Let's go in," Wei Zhao said, as though nothing had happened, turning to beckon Tianchan and the others. With his present strength, dealing with an ordinary mid-stage Mystic Ascension expert required none of his hidden trump cards; any casually assembled art of the three elemental attributes was more than enough.

"Oh." Tianchan and the others exchanged glances and nodded numbly. They had always known Wei Zhao was formidable, and that challenging opponents above his level was routine for him—but even so, the difficulty of fighting above one's level at the Mystic Ascension stage was at least ten times that at the Nascent Soul stage. And judging by Wei Zhao's breezy manner, he had not even taken the man's mid-stage Mystic Ascension cultivation seriously. Just how strong was he?!

"The Heavenly Elixir Pavilion is truly unfathomable!" Only now did the crowd of onlookers boil over in earnest. To be sure, there was no direct link between doing business and being powerful, but in this world where the weak were meat for the strong, people instinctively placed their trust in the mighty—at least their words carried more weight, offered more assurance.

Wei Zhao had been here barely an hour: first he had slapped Diao Huanshan, a late Nascent Soul cultivator, flying; now he had kicked Zhao Youque, a mid-stage Mystic Ascension expert, out of sight. His strength was simply outrageous—and in effect, he had just run two advertisements for the Heavenly Elixir Pavilion. Far from losing popularity, the place had gained a good deal.

It is human nature to revere the strong. With such a formidable figure at its head, the Heavenly Elixir Pavilion naturally carried enormous cachet. Many of those now converging from every direction had come for a glimpse of the great expert's face, and with the least bit of guidance, every one of them was a ready-made customer.

Outside the market street, a bedraggled figure hauled himself up out of a heap of scattered refuse—none other than Zhao Youque, kicked there by Wei Zhao. For the Morning Star Academy's sake, Wei Zhao had after all left a measure of leeway; otherwise he would by now have been a corpse no one bothered to claim.

Even so, Zhao Youque had taken no small injury, and the shock in his heart was near unbearable. He was actually beginning to half believe that Wei Zhao had some connection to the Morning Star Academy—after all, a genius who could so easily challenge above his level even at the Mystic Ascension stage was rare indeed here in Middle Island and the other Cloud-Tier Isles. Only in the Eastern Continent were such people at all common.

Limping back to the Famous Medicine Sect, he found Tong Yangxi keeping Zheng Dongyang company over tea. The two of them were badly startled at the sight of him. Diao Huanshan had come back in just such a state before—and now this mid-stage Mystic Ascension expert had fared no better?

"What happened? Don't tell me even you were no match for that Wei Zhao?" Zheng Dongyang frowned, a note of anger in his voice. He had just been boasting to Tong Yangxi that with Zhao Youque's strength the matter would be settled in no time—who could have foreseen such an outcome? It was slapping his own face right in front of Tong Yangxi. Small wonder he was vexed.

"Master Zheng, I am incompetent. Indeed, I was no match for him," Zhao Youque said, shamefaced beyond measure.

"How can this be? Didn't Diao Huanshan say Wei Zhao was only at the early Mystic Ascension stage? With your mid-stage Mystic Ascension strength, Elder Zhao, you couldn't handle him? Did Diao Huanshan misjudge him—that good-for-nothing, more bungle than success!" Tong Yangxi's face darkened.

He had never once looked squarely at the Heavenly Elixir Pavilion; for the past two years it was only the Heavenly Dao Walker's deterrent that had kept him from acting rashly. Now the Heavenly Dao Walker was gone, and he had brought in Eastern Continent experts like Zheng Dongyang and Zhao Youque besides—dealing with a paltry Heavenly Elixir Pavilion ought to have been a trifling matter. How had it turned into such a series of twists and turns?

"Er—well, you can't really blame Vice Steward Diao. That Wei Zhao's cultivation really is only at the early Mystic Ascension stage. It's just that the man can fight above his level—no small matter at all." Zhao Youque still felt a lingering dread at the memory of their exchange. The gap in strength between them had been far too great: he was plainly the one at mid-stage Mystic Ascension, yet before the man he had felt as helpless as a mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator.