Chapter 2156 — The Purpose of the Banquet
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
Old Master Pi's steps faltered for a moment, then he quickened his pace once more, leaving the side hall and returning to the temporary quarters of the Hidden Pi Family.
Pi Zhifeng had long since returned. Finding neither his grandfather nor his younger brother, he paced about in frantic circles. A disciple of the Hidden Zhao Family had come to inform him that dinner would be served in the banquet hall at four thirty, but he had no stomach for it; he brushed the disciple off with a few perfunctory words and sent him on his way.
"Grandfather!" Pi Zhifeng looked up and saw his grandfather walk in carrying his younger brother, Pi Zhitao. He hurried to ask, "Zhihai, is he..."
"Ah..." Old Master Pi shook his head and laid Pi Zhitao on the bed. "Zhao the Medicine King of the Zhao Family has no solution at all..."
"Then my brother is..." Pi Zhifeng was alarmed. He had been close to Pi Zhitao since childhood, and if Pi Zhitao were crippled this time, it would greatly affect his own control over the Pi Family once he became its head in the future!
"It is not that there is no solution... there is a solution, after all..." Old Master Pi's brows knitted deeply, as though he were mulling something over.
"Grandfather, what solution? You look as if it troubles you greatly. Why not tell me, and let your grandson help you think it through?" Seeing his grandfather's expression, Pi Zhifeng asked cautiously.
"Very well, I will speak of it, and you shall help me weigh it!" Old Master Pi nodded. "The matter stands thus..."
Thereupon Old Master Pi recounted, point by point, everything Zhao the Medicine King had said to him, hoping Pi Zhifeng might offer some counsel.
"So that is to say, both Wei Zhao and the Mystic Elixir Sect could heal him?" After hearing his grandfather out, Pi Zhifeng frowned and asked.
"Indeed, though how much credit to give it, I cannot say." Old Master Pi was no fool; Zhao the Medicine King might say such things, but whether to believe him was another matter entirely, and one for Old Master Pi himself. "Zhishan, what do you make of it?"
"Grandfather, the way I see it, this sounds like Zhao the Medicine King deliberately stoking the hatred between our Pi Family and Wei Zhao!" Pi Zhifeng analyzed objectively. "But whether Wei Zhao can heal him is uncertain—however, as for the Mystic Elixir Sect, I fear that even if they could, they would not!"
"Oh? Why do you say so?" Old Master Pi nodded and asked with a hint of approval.
"This refining of true qi—as Old Master Zhao himself said—is a perilous business, spending one's own strength to complete another. What profit could we possibly offer to induce the Mystic Elixir Sect to help us?" Pi Zhifeng gave a cold laugh. "How Zhao the Medicine King was cured of this true qi back then, he did not say—but it was certainly not the Mystic Elixir Sect that cured him!"
"And Wei Zhao?" Old Master Pi was gratified; under his tutelage, Pi Zhifeng was coming more and more to resemble one who stood above others, considering matters ever more thoroughly, unclouded by personal feeling.
"Wei Zhao..." Pi Zhifeng said, "Of Wei Zhao I cannot speak with certainty, but since Zhao the Medicine King has raised it, the matter is likely no fabrication. If we make inquiries, we should be able to verify it. There is no gain to him in deceiving us—there are many ways to deepen our hatred for Wei Zhao, and to spout nonsense on this matter would only harm the Zhao Family's reputation."
"True enough. And so what do you propose?" Old Master Pi nodded.