Chapter 2963 — Who Said You Could Leave?
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
The onlookers stared at this dramatic turn of events with bewilderment. Elder Pi and the others in particular could not fathom what kind of temper the Silkworm Mutation was venting. If this were truly about fairness and justice in the Xuandan Sect trials, then simply punishing the black-clad elder would have sufficed; there was no need to consult Wei Zhao or take his feelings into account. Yet now it seemed as though Wei Zhao was the one who mattered most.
Could it be that this was the Xuandan Sect deliberately putting on a show of being trial-taker-centered, so that more trial-takers would trust them and sign up for the next round of Xuandan Sect trials?
"Since Wei Zhao has forgiven you, we will let it go this time," Tian Die'er warned. "There had better not be a next time!"
"Yes, yes! Rest assured, Young Master Tian!" the black-clad elder hastened to promise. Then he yanked Zhao Qibing up from the ground. Zhao Qibing might have lost an arm, but as long as his legs remained, the Thousand Legs cultivation would not suffer. "Young Master Tian, then I shall take my leave..."
"Wait." Tian Die'er spat out yet another word that made the black-clad elder's heart leap into his throat.
"Young Master Tian, is there something else?" the black-clad elder asked cautiously.
"You are free to go, but he is not! He has not knelt yet!" Tian Die'er said.
"He... he is only my disciple, he has nothing to do with this, does he? Besides, he has already fainted..." the black-clad elder said, somewhat helplessly.
"A moment ago, were you not all in this together?" Tian Die'er countered.
"This... fine!" The black-clad elder had no choice. He brought his palm down hard on the back of Zhao Qibing's neck and roused him awake.
"Master... Master, save me..." Zhao Qibing cried out in terror the instant he came to.
"Stop shouting and kneel to Wei Zhao and apologize at once, then I will take you out of here!" The black-clad elder, unwilling to linger in this place of humiliation, snapped at him.
True, the Dark Night Palace's people were all masters of trimming their sails to the wind and shamelessness besides, but even so, it was a rather ugly sight.
"What?" Zhao Qibing was stunned, staring at the black-clad elder in confusion. "Kneel to Wei Zhao? To him? We are members of an ancient sect!"
"I have already knelt, so why will you not? What is all this nonsense!" the black-clad elder roared. "Hurry up!"
Zhao Qibing was somewhat dazed, but then he suddenly caught Tian Die'er's icy gaze and trembled from head to toe. Though unwilling, he nonetheless knelt before Wei Zhao, and the humiliation of it nearly killed him.
Why? Why, when he was already a disciple of an ancient sect, did he still have to kneel to Wei Zhao—a lone wandering cultivator, a defeated foe of the hidden Zhao family? This psychological whiplash was driving Zhao Qibing to the brink of madness!
That very morning, he had come to Wei Zhao full of smug delight, certain he could turn Shen Yushu into a crippled girl right before Wei Zhao's eyes. Yet in the end, it was he himself who had become a one-armed cripple...
"I am sorry, I was wrong..." At this single kneel, Zhao Qibing nearly burst into tears. He had yielded to Wei Zhao before, but things were different now. Back then Wei Zhao had been the strong one and he merely the weak.
But now, when he was clearly the strong one and Wei Zhao the wounded, he had still knelt and still had to apologize—and that was just too damn galling.
Looking at Zhao Qibing kneeling before him, so arrogant not so long ago; at the black-clad elder with a face like iron, not daring to show his fury but not daring to speak either; and then at the Silkworm Mutation, serene and indifferent as though nothing in the world was worth his notice—Wei Zhao finally understood one thing.