Chapter 3846 — The Confidence of Nan Tianguan
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
What remained for Nan Tianguan to do was simple enough: he had only to test whether Yu Jiang was sufficiently loyal, and then decide whether to take him into the fold.
"Is that so? Then, Martial Nephew, go and have someone post a notice in the market square. As for whether the thing can actually be recovered—well, we will leave that headache to the leader himself once he returns." Nan Tianguan was not much troubled by the matter; after all, even if it were recovered at great expense, there would be no benefit in it for him. He had merely mentioned it in passing.
"Yes, this disciple obeys." Yu Jiang nodded hurriedly. Nan Tianguan's words suited him perfectly; otherwise, if the man had truly set his mind on digging out the spirit-jade card, things could well have gone badly for him.
Nan Tianguan paused, then said, "The matter of the spirit-jade card is settled thus. As for that Lin Er—since you, Martial Nephew, are certain he may be connected to Hong Zhong, then it seems this seat must pay a visit to the Hong Clan Merchant Guild."
Nan Tianguan cared nothing for the trifling business of Nan Tianyong being humiliated at the Hong Clan Merchant Guild, but since they were, after all, the Three Heroes of the Nan Clan, such tidings naturally found their way to his ears through the mouths of the sycophants who clustered about him.
Nan Tianguan's attitude toward it was sheer contempt, and in his eyes the third brother, Nan Tianyong, only further confirmed his title of utter fool. A mere peak late-Foundation Establishment cultivator, and the man dared to go provoke the Hong Clan Merchant Guild to its face—if that was not the act of a fool, what was?
Nan Tianyong aside, even Nan Tianguan himself, who surpassed him in both strength and standing, did not dare to treat a colossus like the Hong Clan Merchant Guild with the slightest contempt.
Nan Tianyong pressuring the Hong Clan Merchant Guild with force and status? Simply laughable. To call him ignorant and fearless was already flattering the man; that his head was stuffed with holes was the plain truth.
Nan Tianguan knew well the vast power of the Hong Clan Merchant Guild and feared it profoundly—yet not so profoundly that he dared not scheme against it at all.
After all, he was still the second of the Three Heroes of the Nan Clan. With the leader absent, if he were to turn a deaf ear to the murder of the third brother, Nan Tianyong, his reputation would suffer grievously.
Nan Tianguan was a hundred times, a thousand times shrewder than a simpleton like Nan Tianyong, yet he too could not escape convention; reputation was a thing he had always held most dear. Even though he had not the slightest interest in avenging a fool like Nan Tianyong, for the sake of reputation alone he was compelled to step forward.
Moreover, unlike his own cold and thin-blooded nature, the leader of the Three Heroes of the Nan Clan, Nan Tianxiong, was fiercely protective of his own—otherwise he would not have lent so precious a thing as the spirit-jade card to Nan Tianyong without a second word.
When Nan Tianxiong returned and learned that his younger brother had turned a deaf ear to the death of the third brother, Nan Tianyong, Nan Tianguan could scarcely imagine what wrath would descend upon him.
A clever man like Nan Tianguan would never be so foolish as to threaten and bluster as Nan Tianyong had done last time. The root of his confidence in visiting the Hong Clan Merchant Guild lay in a single detail of what Yu Jiang had said: Lin Er was not valued by the entire Hong Clan Merchant Guild—he was valued only by Hong Zhong, the steward of the guild's North Island branch, and by no one else.
Though it differed by only a few words, the meaning conveyed was altogether two different concepts.