Chapter 161 — The Hierarchy of Power
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
That male escort, spineless or not, whether or not he wanted to offend the refined man as a customer, still represented the bar—he was one of the bar's people!
No matter how domineering the refined man might be as a customer, he would not disregard the bar's face and simply drive the escort away! At the very least, he would have to give him some tip as compensation, to let everyone save face.
But the male escort, upon seeing the refined man, had not said a single word—he had simply stood up and left. That meant the refined man was very likely one of the bar's own people, which was why he had left without hesitation.
Having confirmed this, Wei Zhao could not be bothered to play along with the refined man's little games. Beating him up would be simple enough, but inside the man's own bar, Wei Zhao did not want to solve the problem in such a crude and violent way!
True, he could fight one man, even a whole group, but that would expose his strength in front of everyone. Though it would not be his full strength, doing so might provoke even more frenzied retaliation from the other side.
These people were different from Zhong Yongliang and Bu Ruoming at the school. Wei Zhao could sense it: even Gu Pengzhan was somewhat wary of the people behind Gu Mengyao's troubles! Because it was not one person, but a faction—and what had surfaced so far was likely only the tip of the iceberg.
So Wei Zhao simply cut straight to the refined man's purpose, forcing whoever was directing him to come out and speak for themselves. That way he would neither expose his own strength too early nor fail to probe the other side's true depth.
To date, all Wei Zhao had displayed was mere speed... including blocking the bullet at the bank and stealing the gun in the car—none of it had revealed his true strength.
And just now, when he had risen and seized the refined man's arm, Wei Zhao had also held back precisely, using only a level of strength slightly above the refined man's own, feeding him misleading information.
Modern people divided martial arts into four ranks: Heaven, Earth, Mystic, and Yellow. Each rank was further split into three stages: early, middle, and late.
In truth, this was only a rough classification for assessing strength. Different families cultivated different techniques, so two people both at the early Yellow rank might still differ slightly—though probably not by much.
Wei Zhao had learned this back in the special forces, though neither his old man nor his master used such rankings to measure strength.
The old man focused on tempering the body—commonly called external skill—using Chinese herbal medicines he had compounded himself to transform his physique. His master, by contrast, focused on assassination; though body tempering was needed at the early stage, most of it centered on surprise attacks and speed.
Through the old man's forging, Wei Zhao's current strength roughly rivaled the peak of the late Yellow rank. But with assassination and ambush tactics, he could also take down a skilled Mystic-rank fighter. Such fighters were already rare in the city—at least on the battlefield, Wei Zhao had encountered only one expert of that level, and he was a foreigner...
As for the *Xuanyuan Dragon-Residing Art* that Wei Zhao practiced, it was somewhat like the internal techniques cultivated by certain families, though so far the first layer had not noticeably improved his strength.
Practicing the *Xuanyuan Dragon-Residing Art* had only served to cleanse his marrow and improve his body somewhat. Old Man Wei's external herbal treatments ultimately only altered muscle and sinew, doing nothing for the internal organs—but the *Xuanyuan Dragon-Residing Art* was different; it could transform the entire body...
To date, Wei Zhao had only discovered that the *Xuanyuan Dragon-Residing Art* held an absolute advantage in resisting fatigue, and he had just now found that the energy elements within his body could be of some help to the sick.