Chapter 4620 — Visiting the Scrap King
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
Such talk was not idle speculation. Many sects on Central Island also held recommendation rights, but unlike the low-key Tri-Stack Pavilion of North Island, they always handled matters with public competition in the name of so-called fairness—and in the end, of all those prodigies sent to East Continent Academy, scarcely any ever returned to serve their own sects!
Because from the very start, the academy had been their goal; their sect was merely a stepping stone, and once the goal was achieved, why would they ever come back to serve a stepping stone?
But being recommended by the Tri-Stack Pavilion for advanced study and single-mindedly wanting to go to East Continent were two entirely different matters! It was like a man in the secular world attending a school while everyone around him had his heart set on testing into a better school elsewhere; once he got in, he naturally would never return to the old one.
But if he were an employee of a company and one day the boss said to him, "I'm giving you a chance to go study and further your training," the man would surely be moved to tears of gratitude—and once his studies were complete, he would still return to the company.800
"That makes sense. And the second reason?" the crowd asked.
"The second reason, of course, is to bide our time and hide our light. For any sect or power, the more prodigy disciples it can recommend to East Continent Academy, the stronger its future strength will be. Since we can be certain these disciples will return to North Island in the future, naturally we keep them hidden away as our trump cards!" Hong Zhong could not help but laugh as he answered with a question of his own.
"I see!" Everyone nodded one after another. The reason a trump card was a trump card was that it left others unable to gauge one's true strength and thus inspired fear; once it was played and made known to all, not only could it no longer seize the initiative, even its deterrent power would be greatly diminished.
"Little Junior Brother, so after that you and Sister Xiaotao parted ways?" Shangguan Lan'er continued, steering the talk back on topic.
"That's right. Xiaotao went straight off with the Divine Nun of the East Sea. I returned to Weihu City alone. As it happened, on the way I ran into those pirates from before and took the goods back from them, then went back to confront Wei Zhaotong. After that I agreed to join the Qingtian Escort Agency in the South Continent Escort Gathering—you all must know about that by now, surely?" Wei Zhao asked.
"We know, we know—they say you killed the evil cultivator Wu Baoliang at the gathering, and that stirred up the Old Sect of West Mountain, who hunted you all over the world," Shangguan Lan'er said, and Lu Bianren and the others nodded along.
"I have heard the name of the Old Sect of West Mountain. Word has it he is the second-ranking figure of the West Mountain evil faction, an unfathomable evil cultivator of the Mountain-Opening Stage. That you could escape from his hands unscathed, Young Hero Lin, is truly inconceivable," Hong Zhong could not help but sigh.
Only one who had reached a sufficient level could truly understand how terrifying a Mountain-Opening Stage titan was. He knew far better than the muddled crowd just how difficult such a feat was.
"Heh, in truth it came down mostly to luck. With my strength I could never have shaken off his pursuit, but by a stroke of chance I fled into South Island, and he dared not pursue me deep into it—after all, the spirit-beast clan is not to be trifled with. So I simply hid on South Island and cultivated, and only recently did I completely throw off the Old Sect of West Mountain's surveillance and manage to slip away and return," Wei Zhao explained in a few brief words. As for the Five-Poison Swamp and the Five-Venom Dragon, there was no need to tell the others in detail—a passing mention would do.