Chapter 4981 — How Did He Deal With You Before?
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
"I've no time to waste words on you. If you had any sense you'd get out now—otherwise don't blame me for what comes next." Wei Zhao flicked him a glance, cool and flat.
"Oh ho! As expected of the man at the head of the Heavenly Elixir Pavilion—so young, and such a big mouth on you!" Diao Huanshan laughed aloud, his face a mask of mockery, then sneered: "But a big mouth alone won't frighten anyone. You think you're the Heavenly Dao Walker or something, that one casual sentence will cow an expert of my caliber—late Nascent Soul? I'll throw those words right back at you: if you've any sense, crawl back into your Heavenly Elixir Pavilion at once, or don't blame me for showing no mercy. The Heavenly Dao Walker is not here now, and it would be child's play for me to put you snot-nosed pups in your place!"
"Is that so? And how, exactly, did Brother Heavenly Dao Walker deal with you last time?" Wei Zhao asked, the subject veering all at once.
"What?" Diao Huanshan started, thinking Wei Zhao meant only to shame him with the memory—but before his embarrassment could curdle into rage, Wei Zhao's hand had already swung up and slapped him across the face.
Diao Huanshan's instinct was to strike back—only to discover, to his utter horror, that he could not move at all.
There was no mystery to it. The aura pouring off the man before him was simply too monstrous, stronger even than the Heavenly Dao Walker's had been in his day.
A Mystic Ascension expert! Diao Huanshan was struck dumb on the spot, and the whole crowd of onlookers with him, every last one of them staring at Wei Zhao in disbelief. The man was one of the legendary Mystic Ascension experts!
A personage of such terrifying rank—ought he not keep himself secluded and rarely seen? What was he doing in a market street like this? And from what Diao Huanshan had just let slip, this man was at the head of the Heavenly Elixir Pavilion?!
Wei Zhao had employed no martial art at all, only the simplest offhand wisp of true qi—and Diao Huanshan was sent flying in full view of everyone. He was, after all, only a late Nascent Soul cultivator; if trash of that sort could still strike back against Wei Zhao as he was now, then the sun would truly have risen in the west.
Diao Huanshan was slapped clean out of sight, and the square was left with nothing but the rise and fall of gasps, a chorus of sharp intakes of breath. Some who had been swayed by his words a moment before now changed their minds again—so it seemed the Heavenly Elixir Pavilion, young as it was, had backing that was no small matter, and might not necessarily lose out to the Famous Medicine Sect.
"Everyone!" Wei Zhao cupped his hands and spoke in a clear, carrying voice to the assembled crowd. "My Heavenly Elixir Pavilion does business with its doors open, and our reputation has always spoken for itself. I, Wei Zhao, make you this pledge here and now: be it fourth-grade, fifth-grade, or sixth-grade, whatever elixirs the Famous Medicine Sect has, the Heavenly Elixir Pavilion will have—and what they don't have, we will have as well. I ask only that you wait and see!"
The words set the whole square abuzz, and every appetite there was whetted at a stroke. Diao Huanshan had gone to such lengths for no purpose but to steal away their trade, yet once Wei Zhao crossed his scheme, not only had the crowd failed to be drawn to the Famous Medicine Sect—their anticipation for the Heavenly Elixir Pavilion had only grown. What kind of smash-the-signboard visit was this? It was plainly a delivery of goodwill...
That said, Wei Zhao walked into the Heavenly Elixir Pavilion, flanked by Tianchan and Xueli. Two years had passed, and the furnishings and arrangement within had not changed in the slightest; it was just as it had been, and the sight stirred a pang of feeling.