Chapter 1431 — What Reward Do You Want
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
Old Master Zhao took the bottle, and at once he grew somewhat excited. Gazing at the little bottle in his hand, he drew a deep breath, carefully opened it, and held it beneath his nose to sniff. His face immediately lit with delight. "That's it! This must be the Qi Gathering Pill!"
Old Master Zhao was on the verge of a breakthrough, and so he had studied the Qi Gathering Pill more deeply than most. He had searched far and wide for such a pill before, and thus knew its appearance and its scent exceedingly well. A single look was enough for him to be all but certain this was the Qi Gathering Pill!
"It is indeed the Qi Gathering Pill!" Old Master Zhao rose abruptly to his feet and looked at Zhao Qibing, overcome with excitement. "Haha! Who would have thought it, who would ever have thought it! Our Zhao family, so great and so full of able men, searched with all its strength for a Qi Gathering Pill and found nothing—and in the end it was the Zhao family's bastard son who found one! I never even mentioned the matter to him, and yet he had the heart for it himself! Look at him, all of you—Guangyin, you look too. This grandson is a good one!"
It was no wonder Old Master Zhao was so excited and so pleased. This was the elixir that would let him step into Heaven rank; you might say Zhao Qibing had become the Zhao family's greatest man of merit, and no one could compare with what he had accomplished.
"You praise me too much, Grandfather. Though Qibing is a bastard son, raised among common folk, Qibing never forgets for a moment that he is one of the Zhao family, and so the affairs of the Zhao family are Qibing's affairs! This was only what Qibing ought to do; there is nothing in it worthy of praise," Zhao Qibing said reverently.
"Good, you are very good!" This time Old Master Zhao finally gave Zhao Qibing a fair appraisal. "You have put your heart into it! This time, what reward would you like? Name it, and so long as your grandfather can manage it, I will grant it."
At his grandfather's words, a wild joy surged in Zhao Qibing's heart! He wanted to be the heir to the Zhao family, to become its future patriarch—but that was not something he could say aloud. He was no fool; his grandfather was only being courteous. If he really came out and asked to be patriarch, that would be presuming upon his own merit. Even if his grandfather said nothing to his face, he would certainly dislike him thereafter, and then he would never become the heir.
So Zhao Qibing kept his countenance unruffled and said, "Your grandson has said already that this was only what he ought to do, and no great service. Since it was only what ought to be done, what reward should your grandson want?"
"Haha!" Old Master Zhao laughed heartily. "Truly no reward? Name it—say you wish to cultivate, or you wish to return to the Zhao family, or even that you be raised as my heir?"
Old Master Zhao's words were tempting indeed, and set Zhao Qibing's heart stirring restlessly. But he knew that this was most likely a test. The first two offers, if he voiced them, his grandfather would surely grant. As for the last—being raised as heir—Zhao Qibing knew that if he really seized the chance and climbed, then the pill would have been given away for nothing!