Chapter 3805 — First Impressions
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
As things stood, Wei Zhao had no way to make contact with them at all; and even if a chance for a face-to-face meeting arose, by any ordinary logic the prudent course was to avoid it, never to step forward and seek them out.
Otherwise, at close quarters, he might well betray some flaw and walk straight into the snare. Once a cultivator reached the mid-Foundation stage, after all, his senses grew formidably keen; it would not do to be careless.
But if he had not even the chance to make contact with them, what was he to use to mislead them? This was plainly a paradox of his own making.
"I have it!" Wei Zhao pondered a moment, and of a sudden his eyes lit up.
In his present identity as Wei Zhao, he truly could not step forward and seek out Yu Jiang and Nan Tianyong of his own accord; and even if he did make contact, to make them shift their attention away from Yingxin Pavilion was simply unrealistic.
For in fixing upon Yingxin Pavilion, and upon its newcomers at that, they had by that very fact ruled out the other possibilities. From such a starting point, any attempt to mislead them was doubly hard—and if the traces of deception grew too heavy, he would only hand them a handle against himself.
Yet even if he could not turn their attention away from Yingxin Pavilion, Wei Zhao still had a way to make himself vanish from their sight—and to do it without leaving a trace.
The logic was simple: if he could contrive that they should be the first to rule him out among the suspects, then no matter how long they kept watch over Yingxin Pavilion afterward, no matter how meticulous their inquiry, they would never think of him again—because deep in their minds they would already have branded him impossible.
And to bring this about, the difficulty of the operation was not high at all. He need do only one thing: before they narrowed the circle of suspects, make them come and meet him of their own accord.
On the face of it, such a scheme was no different from walking headlong to his own death. And yet—the man who had fought Yu Jiang was Lin Er, and Lin Er and the present Wei Zhao wore two entirely different faces.
Before they had seen Wei Zhao's face, Yu Jiang and Nan Tianyong, piecing together the various rumors lately circulating about Yingxin Pavilion, would easily fasten upon Wei Zhao. And once Wei Zhao was matched to Lin Er, the results would only grow more alike with every step, until the identification was confirmed beyond doubt.
For the target was too conspicuous. The Lin Er they sought had peak early-Foundation strength, while this Wei Zhao of Yingxin Pavilion had only early-Foundation strength—but then, so long as a man set his mind to it, strength of that sort could be hidden well enough.
What was more, Wei Zhao had taken a full-force blow from a peak early-Foundation cultivator head-on in the endurance assessment, and recovered within moments—that alone could stand as proof of peak early-Foundation strength.
These were the flaws that bound Wei Zhao to Lin Er. Once the match was truly made and the guess confirmed in their minds, then even if they afterward discovered that Wei Zhao's looks differed from Lin Er's, they would inevitably veer toward thoughts of disguise or a human-skin mask—and in the end, the day his identity was exposed would still come.
So to let Yu Jiang and Nan Tianyong go on investigating in this fashion was a very dangerous thing for Wei Zhao.
The only way out of this crisis was to give them a preconception first.