Chapter 4390 — Most Familiar Indeed
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
Wei Zhao was somewhat taken aback as well, though he did not think Lu Bianren was lying—Lu Bianren had always gone about things openly and honorably, by the straight and square path; he was not the sort to concoct a lie over a matter like this.
"What information had you gone to gather?" Wei Zhao pressed on, betraying nothing.
"That... might I not say?" Lu Bianren said, somewhat awkwardly.
The others broke into an uproar at once, and Sun Hengbiao wore the look of a man beholding a corpse. This fiend before them had beaten a vicious fellow like himself half to death without a second thought—and you, a mere Golden Core cultivator, dare put on airs before him?
It was only a harmless question, after all—no one was going to carve the flesh off your bones. Was it worth provoking such a savage brute over a trifle like this?
Even if there truly was something unspeakable in it, couldn't you just cobble together some lie and smooth it over? Why be so blunt—was this not asking for death?
But such was Lu Bianren's way: what could be said, he said; what he did not wish to say, he said so outright. To spin a lie was easy enough, but to do so would be to cease to be Lu Bianren.
Lu Bianren had no particular ties with anyone in this dungeon, and the crowd all gloated, waiting for Wei Zhao the fiend to fly into a rage, waiting for the spectacle—yet Wei Zhao's reaction was wholly beyond their expectations.
"Very well. Let it go for now." Wei Zhao nodded faintly, his expression bland, and turned straight to the next man.
Such a placid response left the crowd half wondering whether their eyes had deceived them—Sun Hengbiao especially, who nearly cursed aloud on the spot. When it had been his turn, this fiend's hand had been savage and ruthless enough; there had been no such willingness to talk things over!
Even Lu Bianren himself felt a touch surprised. He had braced himself for the other's fury—who would have thought it would be brushed aside so lightly, settled with a single offhand sentence? With anyone else, the man before him would most likely have kicked him sprawling...
Lu Bianren could not help but wonder: could this jarring sense of familiarity really be no illusion? Had he truly dealt with this man before?
Everyone exchanged glances, not daring to make a sound, able only to swallow a bellyful of questions and watch as Wei Zhao went on questioning one after another.
At last, when everyone in the dungeon had been asked in turn, Wei Zhao betrayed nothing, found himself a spot, and sat down cross-legged—and as chance would have it, right beside Lu Bianren.
At this, even the bewildered crowd began to catch a whiff of something. This fiend, more brutal even than Sun Hengbiao, was plainly treating Lu Bianren differently!
In this dungeon, Lu Bianren had always kept quiet and said little, never once overstepping, and in the eyes of the crowd had always been the sort to be pushed around—but now, from here on, they would have to weigh their dealings with him a little more carefully.
Lu Bianren was easy to bully, true enough—but if that brought down the displeasure of the fiend beside him, then a man might weep and find no grave to cry at.
And so, not only was the crowd startled and suspicious, but even Lu Bianren himself muttered inwardly: had he or had he not dealt with this man before? The face was unfamiliar, but the air about him was indeed quite familiar.
Yet no matter how Lu Bianren and the others might guess and wonder, Wei Zhao would not open his mouth, silently turning over in his mind the most pressing matter at hand: how to get out of here.