Chapter 3863 — Only Enemies Remain
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
This time she was truly furious, her dignity wounded beyond bearing. The aura of a cultivator at the very peak of the early Foundation Establishment stage surged from her body without the slightest reservation, bearing down upon Wei Zhao's head.
No matter how she might play the frail flower, she was in the end a genuine expert at the peak of early Foundation Establishment. To deal with a mere "early Foundation Establishment" cultivator like Wei Zhao would, in her estimation, be no more than a matter of reaching out and taking what she wanted.
Women are not to be provoked—and a woman of her sort, narrow of heart yet formidable in strength, is even less to be provoked!
"I shall ask you one last time: do you mean to be my friend, or my enemy? Think it over carefully before you answer, or you will live to regret it—this beauty guarantees it!" Murong Zhen declared in a cold voice.
"Ha, so seduction having failed, you turn to coercion? Barely a day in the Welcome Pavilion, and already she cannot wait to build her own faction—this woman's ambitions seem anything but small!" Wei Zhao laughed inwardly at the sight, though his face betrayed nothing at all.
Under the pressure of Murong Zhen's aura, Wei Zhao paused a moment, then answered with perfect composure, "Miss Murong, we might have kept to our own wells and our own rivers. I had no intention of making an enemy of you. But if you insist on it, then I shall have no choice but to oblige."
"Hmph! Oblige? You, an early Foundation Establishment cultivator up from the mortal realm—do you even have the right to say such a thing in my presence? You are far too arrogant for your own good!" As she spoke, Murong Zhen made to strike in her fury.
Not a friend meant an enemy—there was no third possibility.
As for Wei Zhao's talk of wells and rivers, to Murong Zhen it was so much flatulence. If she meant to have her revenge on Shangguan Lan'er, she must at any cost accumulate strength and build her own power. And among all the newcomers of Qingyun Pavilion, those with the true potential to serve as her cannon fodder numbered only a scant few.
Among them, the likes of Meng Zhou were of Meng Jueming's inner circle, and Meng Jueming was one of Xu Lingchong's men. Against him Murong Zhen could not contend for the present—which meant that even if she cast aside her pride and offered herself in seduction, she could never make Meng Zhou and his kind truly loyal to her. At best she might use them a little behind Young Master Xu's back.
But Wei Zhao and his companions were different. They were true nobodies, utterly without background or patron to speak of. A little cunning and a few tactics might well be enough to bring such men groveling at the hem of Murong Zhen's pomegranate skirt.
To subdue Wei Zhao's little band, the crucial first step was naturally to subdue Wei Zhao himself—capture the bandit chief first, and the rest follow. Once Wei Zhao was dealt with, the two beneath him, Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai, would be no trouble at all.
Moreover, in Murong Zhen's eyes, Wei Zhao himself was in truth the most capable and promising of all the newcomers. Once he was hers, then should some stroke of fortune come his way in the days ahead, he might well grow into a personage of some consequence.
So subduing Wei Zhao was for Murong Zhen an absolute necessity. That was why, even after the cold rebuff she had suffered by day, she had come to his door by night, cast aside her dignity, and offered herself in seduction—and if need be, she would not even have minded letting Wei Zhao taste a little sweetness. After all, Murong Zhen had always been most confident in her own flesh.
A fine vision it had been—only by now it had all dissolved into mist. Since seduction had failed, she could only change tack: if soft means would not serve, then use hard ones, and bring the full weight of her strength to bear until Wei Zhao bowed his head.