Chapter 2652 — Ulterior Motives
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"It's like this..." Zhao Qibing then told Old Master Zhao the whole of it: how Zhao Qiwu had had the devil's own luck and found a hundred-thousand-year heavenly treasure and obtained cultivation pills, and how he himself wished to win the Yu Family's support by forcing himself on Yuning.
"What? You mean Zhao Qiwu is advancing on the Heaven Rank?" Old Master Zhao was startled to the core. Never had he imagined Zhao Qiwu would meet with such fortune—it was utterly beyond anything he had anticipated! For a moment he even felt a trace of regret; he should not have treated Zhao Qilei that way. Had he given up on Zhao Qibing and backed Zhao Qilei instead, the Hidden Zhao Family would have had two Heaven Rank experts in the days to come!
But then that would have been rather unfair to Zhao Qibing—after all, his own Heaven Rank had been Zhao Qibing's gift to him. And matters had come to this pass; the arrow loosed cannot be recalled. The Hidden Zhao Family had already entered Zhao Qilei's name for the Mystic Pill Sect's trial, and there was no taking that back now. He could only grit his teeth and carry on down the wrong road.
So the pressing task now was to bind the Hidden Yu Family to Zhao Qibing's chariot. So long as the Hidden Yu Family backed Zhao Qibing, even a Heaven Rank expert like Zhao Qiwu would be useless; the Yu Family had two Heaven Rank experts, one of them at the peak of the early Heaven Rank, and Zhao Qiwu could stir up no storm at all.
Therefore, as for what Zhao Qibing had said about forcing himself on Yuning, Old Master Zhao might think it did the Zhao Family's reputation no good, but from the standpoint of advantage, it was still worth doing.
The marriage between Zhao Guangyin and Yu Xiaojin had brought the Hidden Zhao Family no small benefit over the years. In former days the Hidden Zhao Family had no Heaven Rank experts at all, and among the hidden families could only be reckoned third-rate—a cut above the Hidden Han Family and no more.
But with the Yu Family's help, the Zhao Family's standing had slowly risen. And though Old Master Zhao was himself a Heaven Rank expert now, compared with the Hidden Yu Family, the Hidden Zhao Family was still far weaker.
Because of the Qi Gathering Pill affair, relations between the Zhao and Yu families had sunk to freezing point. If Zhao Qibing could win the beauty, the two families would be reconciled—and for the Hidden Zhao Family that would be a very good thing indeed.
The only thing that worried Old Master Zhao was Yushan's motive. Old Master Zhao was old and cunning, and he naturally did not believe Yushan would be so kind as to tip Zhao Qibing off—and so kind as to help him into the bargain. It simply did not ring true!
"Yushan—that's what he told you? I keep feeling his purpose is anything but pure!" Old Master Zhao said. "His informing on Zhao Qiwu to you reeks of something strange. He didn't know you at all before—you'd met only once. If you were in his shoes, would you have done such a thing?"
"I wouldn't..." Zhao Qibing shook his head hesitantly, then went on: "But that's only the present me. If it were the old me, and I had the chance to curry favor with the young heir of another hidden family, then yes, I'd have tipped him off too..."