Chapter 1434 — Bidding Farewell to Ergoudan
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
Yu Ning was at once anxious and furious. Of all the people Wei Zhao could have chosen to make an enemy of, he had to pick the worldly Yu family. Did he not see that this only made the matter between the two of them harder and harder? For years Yu Ning had been fighting her own quiet battle; nothing had come of it, yet hope had never left her heart. But if Wei Zhao and the Yu family became enemies, then even that hope would be gone.
"There can be no reconciling this..." Yu Bing said with a bitter smile. "One dead and one wounded in the worldly Yu family, that is a blood feud, a hatred that outlives life itself. Even as the hidden Yu family, we cannot simply force such hatred down. Keeping out of it ourselves is one thing, but to ask them to give up their vengeance would be asking too much of anyone."
"One dead, one wounded!" Yu Ning had not expected Wei Zhao to be so ruthless, to leave the worldly Yu family with a death and a wound. That was hatred beyond all mediation, even for the hidden Yu family.
Yu Ning understood as well that the hidden great families weighed everything by one measure: profit above all. Personal feeling was merely a footnote, consulted only when interests happened to balance. So this time her own family would certainly not take Wei Zhao's side, and there was nothing she could do about it.
"Don't fret, little sister. I will do my best to persuade Father to keep our hidden Yu family out of it, and then the only ones after Wei Zhao will be the worldly Yu family. He should be able to handle that. He is no fool. If he knew he was no match for them and still offended them, would that not be madness?" Yu Bing said. "It has been so long, and the worldly Yu family still has not managed to do anything to him. That alone proves the point."
"Then that will have to do. Brother, thank you for this." Yu Ning nodded, somewhat relieved. So long as the hidden Yu family kept its hands off, Wei Zhao's danger should be no great matter.
"Between brother and sister there is no need for such courtesy. I will do what I can," Yu Bing said with a nod.
Meanwhile, in the Yu family's council hall, Yu Xiaochen received the returning elder of the clan, Yu Huoxing.
"So you found neither the Qi-Gathering Pill nor the alchemist's notes? And not only did you come back empty-handed, you came back wounded?" Yu Xiaochen asked in a low voice, watching Yu Huoxing.
"Yes... Clan Head... that ancient tomb was far too perilous, and the tomb robbers fell to quarreling among themselves. Several of them died, and in the end no one entered the underground palace..." the elder said cautiously. In the presence of the clan head, Yu Xiaochen, he did not dare the slightest presumption. Yu Xiaochen was a master at the peak of the late Earth-rank, his strength far above the elder's own. And with a guilty conscience besides, Yu Huoxing scarcely dared to breathe.
"Useless!" Yu Xiaochen said, with the tone of one whose iron refuses to become steel. "A simple task, and this is what you make of it? Useless!"
Inwardly, Yu Huoxing nursed his grievance. If you had not refused to cure my poison, why would I ever have handed over the pill? And had I given it up sooner, would you have paid a billion to heal me? You would have left me to live or die on my own! He knew the Yu family's ways all too well.
The clan head, Yu Xiaochen, was a man of boundless self-interest. Ask him to spend a billion on a Qi-Gathering Pill and he would not blink; but to spend a billion healing Yu Huoxing's wounds was utterly out of the question. So Yu Huoxing had simply kept the truth to himself. The Yu family could hardly have any dealings with that band of tomb robbers; as long as he said nothing, how would they ever learn what had really happened?
And the Zhao family, having got the better of the bargain, would surely keep silent as well. On that point Yu Huoxing was fairly easy in his mind.