Chapter 4633 — Sunrise at Sea
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
It was not Shangguan Lan'er alone—even Little Curly Bear, catching sight of Xu Lingchong, made no effort to hide its disdain and pulled a face at him, then immediately made to drag its enormous pair of shears over and charge. The little creature evidently thought the last trim had not been thorough enough and was preparing to repeat the trick.
Catching sight of Wei Zhao and Shangguan Lan'er standing together in the distance, Xu Lingchong's expression turned somewhat complicated, and the moment he glimpsed Little Curly Bear's giant shears, his face became exceedingly ugly—those shears were the very culprit that had startled him awake from countless nightmares.
Still, Xu Lingchong did not dare do anything to Little Curly Bear at this moment, much less clash openly with Wei Zhao. Even Ma Dangfeng, a capable hand of the mid Nascent Soul stage, had been crippled in a single move. Xu Lingchong might consider himself far stronger than Ma Dangfeng, but facing Wei Zhao he could not keep his heart from pounding; the bloody lessons of the past had been far too many, and he did at least have that much self-awareness.
Seeing that Little Curly Bear was on the verge of charging over, Xu Lingchong hastily fled as far as he could, and in the blink of an eye he and Kang Jingming had vanished into the crowd. By the look of it, even if they were lent a few more guts, they would certainly not dare show themselves before Wei Zhao again for some time to come.
The reason Xu Lingchong and Kang Jingming had appeared aboard this ship was that, on the surface, they too were members of the special envoy delegation, going to congratulate Ning Xuefei on her birthday; in truth, however, they carried a secret mission—one that did not come from the Sandie Pavilion of North Island, but from the Center.
As the Center's special envoy to North Island, Xu Lingchong ought not to have left North Island lightly, but now that Zhong Yongliang existed as an equal, he could naturally get out and take on missions. Only by going out on missions would he have a chance to rack up merit, and only then could he climb quickly and put that brat Zhong Yongliang back beneath his heel.
As for how they had managed to slip aboard—for a young master Xu, with his strength and background, such a thing was hardly difficult. The West Island delegation numbered over a hundred souls from top to bottom; to find some pretext and casually insert two more was simplicity itself.
Xu Lingchong had never wanted a head-on clash with Wei Zhao, and the mysterious man had especially warned him about it, telling him that he must never act against Wei Zhao of his own accord, or he would bear all the consequences himself.
Under such circumstances, Xu Lingchong would have to have water on the brain to go provoking Wei Zhao—only a fool would do it. So his principle now was: if he could avoid a clash with Wei Zhao, he would resolutely avoid one. The farther he kept away the better; he did not even mind being a turtle with its head pulled in, for what could one do when circumstances were stronger than the man?
At the conduct of Xu Lingchong and Kang Jingming, Wei Zhao and Shangguan Lan'er both felt rather surprised. True, those two had suffered bloody losses before, but they had never been so sensible. Had their brains suddenly cleared?
"What are those two up to?" Wei Zhao muttered with a frown. His gut told him there was surely nothing simple about this, that some reason must lie behind it. Kang Jingming was one thing, but Xu Lingchong was hardly the sort to bow his head so easily.
Of course, Wei Zhao did not expend more thought on fathoming Xu Lingchong and Kang Jingming; one's level determines one's vision. He would rather spend the time studying Gongyang Jun and Lan Tieshan—those were the ones he needed to take seriously now.