Chapter 4649 — The West Island Birthday Banquet
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
This half-finished automatic forging contraption was of vital importance to him and Scrap King. The electronic components had yet to arrive, but that did not mean there was nothing they could do. Forging was slow, patient work, and building an automatic forging contraption of this kind was slower and more patient still—every single part was worth turning over and over in the mind, worth polishing to perfection.
Of course, the real workers here were Han Jingyi and Ning Xuefei; Wei Zhao and Shangguan Lan'er were merely lending a hand. Wei Zhao, a half-baked forger at best, could at least make himself somewhat useful; Shangguan Lan'er was there purely for the fun of it. As for little Curly Bear, the little creature had been packed off to the outer room—if it did not make a mess for them, that was thanks enough.
Three days passed quietly in this fashion, and on this day the long-awaited birthday banquet finally arrived. This was no ordinary birthday, but Ning Xuefei's coming-of-age ceremony at eighteen—a grand festival belonging to the whole of West Island.
Princess of West Island though she was, an ordinary birthday would never warrant such fanfare. At most, North Island might have sent Shangguan Lan'er with two skilled guards; there was no need to dispatch an entire embassy.
The island lord's palace was hung with lanterns and colored silks from top to bottom, every face alight with joy as the guests gathered in the Intercontinental Banquet Hall at the palace's very center. This was West Island's largest banquet hall, a sacred and solemn place since ancient times, opened only on grand festivals—and Ning Xuefei's coming-of-age ceremony was certainly not beneath any festival in importance.
There was still some time before the banquet formally began, but Wei Zhao had arrived early at the Intercontinental Banquet Hall. Only after entering did he discover that the interior had been divided into several zones, each marked with clear lettering.
The largest area was, naturally, the guest zone for West Island itself. Beyond that were laid out in turn Middle Island, North Island, South Continent—and even East Continent!
Among the five great islands of the Heaven Tier, East Continent stood aloof and exalted, a place that generally only people from the other Cloud Tier islands had the privilege of visiting; it was rare indeed for East Continent guests to come out and do anyone honor. It was plain that West Island, though peopled entirely by female cultivators, was not to be underestimated in either strength or connections.
Yet this only surprised Wei Zhao somewhat; he was not greatly shocked. West Island, after all, was a hegemon in its own right—such depth was hardly strange. But when Wei Zhao caught sight of another of the zone markers, he froze on the spot. On that marker were written two characters: South Island.
Wei Zhao could not help glancing back at the marker that read South Continent. Was there not already a South Continent? Why had a South Island appeared separately?
"Could it be…" A possibility suddenly occurred to Wei Zhao. South Continent and South Island looked like the same place, but strictly speaking their meanings were entirely different. South Continent was the collective name for South Island and the surrounding South Continent seas, home to vast numbers of human cultivators; South Island, however, referred specifically to the stronghold of the spirit beast clan!
At this moment, not only Wei Zhao but even Ghost Thing could not help feeling somewhat aghast. From the look of things, those coming to West Island to observe the ceremony were not merely human cultivators from the South Continent seas—there were actually members of the spirit beast clan as well?