Chapter 1516 — Zhang Naipao Seeks Help: Zhao Qilei and the Others All Believed That Wei Zhao Had Been Healing His Wounds All Along, and Though Some Time Had Passed, They Were All Cultivators and Knew Full Well That Even a Trifling Internal Injury Might Well Require a Day and a Night of Rest, Which Was Nothing Out of the Ordinary in the Least!
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
Unless, of course, Wei Zhao himself meant to move against him. But if Wei Zhao truly intended to strike at Zhao Qilei, then asleep or awake made no difference at all. Zhao Qilei absolutely did not believe himself stronger than Zhang Naipao or Feng Nitian. If Wei Zhao wished to strike, he could put him to death here and now; there was no need whatsoever to wait until he was asleep.
So Zhao Qilei dropped to the ground and slept, calm and untroubled, paying no mind to what dangers might come.
Seeing Zhao Qilei so utterly at ease, Yubing shook his head and smiled. This fellow really was a character; he was far more formidable than his own cousin by blood. Yet who would in the end head the Zhao house was not for Yubing to say. That was the Zhao family's own affair.
Yubing and his cousin had never been close. It was not as though the cousin's becoming head of the Zhao house would win Yubing any benefit. Relatives they might be, but where the interests of the house were concerned, interests came first.
And never mind a cousin; even a clan kinsman like Yushan could turn into an enemy over interests.
So Yubing had no real trouble dealing with Zhao Qilei; he merely thought the fellow's habit of trimming his sails to every wind made for poor character.
...............
At the seat of the Tomorrow and Tomorrow Sect, meanwhile, Zhang Naipao had by now rushed back to his own sect. He had driven to the nearest airport, then flown back to the city where his sect was located. His present strength could no longer sustain a long journey.
But this way, he had made rather better speed.
"Brother Naipao, how is it you? Weren't you taking part in the trial?" asked the disciple guarding the mountain gate, puzzled to see Zhang Naipao coming up the mountain.
"Mm..." Zhang Naipao's heart was afire with urgency; he had to see his master. He had no leisure now to say much to the gate-keeping disciple. His thoughts were a tangled mess; he did not know how he was to face his master.
He was the pride of the Tomorrow and Tomorrow Sect, a disciple even the sect's ancestral elders regarded highly. Yet in the trial his meridians had been severed one and all, and he had become a cripple. What face did he have left to meet these people who had pinned their hopes on him?
Watching Zhang Naipao's departing back, the gate-keeping disciple frowned, cursing inwardly: "Damnation, putting on airs! Just a dead eunuch, that's all he is. If I had castrated myself I'd surely be stronger than him! But I'm no fool. I know I've not the aptitude to advance to the Heaven Level, so once I've cultivated my way to the Mystic Level, I'll go out to the secular world and serve as a close guard, living the sweet life, personal bodyguard to some campus belle or the like. What a cushy life that would be!"
Of course, he did not yet know that Zhang Naipao was ruined. Had he known, he likely would not have uttered even that "Brother Naipao."
"Master! I beg you, Master, save me!" Zhang Naipao arrived before the gate of his own master, the present head of the Tomorrow and Tomorrow Sect, and fell straight to his knees upon the ground. He was terribly afraid, afraid his master would abandon him and drive him down the mountain. If that came to pass, Zhang Naipao would sooner be dead.