Chapter 3499 — A Change in Attitude
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
Wei Zhao came down to the inn's ground-floor dining hall with Wang Xinyan and Han Jingyi in tow. On the way down, he overheard two men talking not far ahead of them—and one of them was Lou Taixie, the very man he had run into on his way downstairs earlier.
"Brother Lou, formidable as you are, there are a few people in these trials that you absolutely must not provoke!" The speaker was another wandering cultivator from a foreign land. Though a vagrant, he was from the same distant realm as Lou Taixie and had naturally fallen in with him.
"Oh? Little Tu, you're well informed indeed. Go on, then—who is it I can't provoke?" Lou Taixie said carelessly. He was a fine hand at the peak of the Heaven rank, at Great Perfection, and in his eyes there was no such thing as an existence he could not provoke.
"Kang Jingming, from the Kang family, is not to be provoked. He is the son-in-law of Ancestor Xuanchen, the sponsor of these trials. The man is only an alchemist, but we absolutely must not cross him!" Tu Xiaoshou said.
"Oh, that goes without saying." Conceited as Lou Taixie was, he was no fool. He knew the power of the Five Luminaries Sect, and that ordinary folk could never provoke them at will. "Who else?"
"There's also a vicious one in the Tomorrow Upon Tomorrow Sect. Word has it that in every past trial, contestants who clashed with him came off the worse. His name is Zhang Naipao, and the mental cultivation method and oral formula he practices are utterly wicked!" Tu Xiaoshou said.
"Zhang Naipao—I've heard of him. He's a nasty piece of work, all right..." The moment Lou Taixie heard the man belonged to the Tomorrow Upon Tomorrow Sect, his spirit deflated at once. He knew how mighty that sect was—second only to the Five Luminaries Sect.
"And there's one more, the one you must never provoke above all. He's a wandering cultivator, but I hear that in every past trial he has utterly crushed Zhang Naipao!" Tu Xiaoshou said.
"That can't be. A lone vagrant cultivator, that strong?" Lou Taixie had heard Wei Zhao's name before, but inwardly he thought: how strong can a vagrant cultivator be? It was probably all boasting, cooked up to fool people. So he said with some contempt, "From the sound of it, he's nothing special."
"Shh—Brother Lou, mind yourself! Walls have ears. If word of this gets back to Wei Zhao, you'll be courting disaster!" Tu Xiaoshou said in alarm. "Never mind whether the rumors from past trials are true or not—even if they aren't, Wei Zhao is at the very least a man who can stand and fight Zhang Naipao. Even if he lost, Zhang Naipao never did anything to him. That alone shows he's no simple character!"
"Hmph, true or not? Maybe Zhang Naipao took pity on him and spared his life—who's to say!" Lou Taixie snorted, somewhat scornful of Tu Xiaoshou's timidity. "That Wei Zhao, however strong, is at most at the peak of the Heaven rank, at Great Perfection. He has no sect, no school—just a vagrant. You and I are both fine hands at the peak of the Heaven rank, at Great Perfection. Two against one, and we wouldn't be sure of ourselves?"
"That's true enough as far as it goes, but I hear Wei Zhao's mental cultivation method and oral formula are most wicked, and his martial arts are wicked too. He's hailed as the foremost man beneath the Heavenly Dao, and they say he can cut down a fine hand at the peak of the Heaven rank, at Great Perfection, in a single blow. I say caution never hurts!" Tu Xiaoshou lowered his voice.
"Fine, then. Whatever his strength, we've no dealings with him. Let that legendary Zhang Naipao and Wei Zhao settle scores between them again!" Lou Taixie waved his hand.