Chapter 4984 — Not an Opponent
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
For him to come out here and serve as a hired blade for the Famous Medicine Sect was humiliating enough already. If word got back to the Eastern Continent that he had raised a hand against a disciple of his own Morning Star Academy, how could he ever hold his head up there again?
"Heh. I happen to be a friend of your headmaster, Ling Yuanqing—and the master of your chief alchemist, Qing Xuanzi, besides. What do you make of that?" Wei Zhao said mildly.
"Hahahaha!" Zhao Youque doubled over laughing on the spot, as though he had just heard the joke of the century. Pointing at Wei Zhao and gasping for breath, he wheezed, "If you'd claimed to be a Morning Star disciple, that might at least have sounded halfway plausible—I might even have believed you. But I never took you for such a card! A friend of our headmaster Ling Yuanqing, master of the great Qing Xuanzi—there's a limit to daydreaming, you know!"
It was not only Zhao Youque; the onlookers crowding around all found it too absurd for words. Even those who knew nothing of the Morning Star Academy understood well enough what the headmaster and the chief alchemist represented. This head of the Heavenly Elixir Pavilion could certainly spin a tale without so much as blinking.
"I have said all that needs saying. My advice is that you turn and walk away now—I can pretend I never saw you. Otherwise, don't blame me for showing no courtesy." Wei Zhao's expression remained as placid as ever; the crowd's jeers and sneers had not touched him in the slightest.
"Haha! By all means, spare me no courtesy. But seeing how you've gone to such lengths to cook up such a preposterous lie, I suppose I can show you a little courtesy in return—at the very least, I can promise not to beat you to death." Zhao Youque laughed without the slightest restraint.
"In that case, there is nothing more to say." Wei Zhao smiled a touch helplessly. He had only just left the Morning Star Academy, and here he was about to lay hands on one of its elders—truly, a honorary headmaster like no other.
"Still putting on airs at a time like this? You've gotten addicted to playing the grand personage, haven't you, boy? Let me wake you up properly!" Zhao Youque gave a cold laugh and made to strike.
But before he could truly make his move, Wei Zhao's figure flickered and appeared within ten feet of him—a speed so phantom-like that it gave even a mid-stage Mystic Ascension expert like him a violent start. Before he could react in any way, a heavy blow landed square on his chest, and his whole body was sent flying helplessly backward, kicked clean out of the market street by Wei Zhao.
Hiss! A chorus of sharp intakes of breath rippled through the crowd, and every eye that turned on Wei Zhao now looked as though it beheld a monster. This was a great expert of the mid-stage Mystic Ascension realm—how could he fail to last even a single exchange before this head of the Heavenly Elixir Pavilion? Surely the man was not one of those frauds with a lofty rank and no real strength behind it?
"Let's go in," Wei Zhao said, as though nothing had happened, turning to beckon Tianchan and the others. With his present strength, dealing with an ordinary mid-stage Mystic Ascension expert required none of his hidden trump cards; any casually assembled art of the three elemental attributes was more than enough.
"Oh." Tianchan and the others exchanged glances and nodded numbly. They had always known Wei Zhao was formidable, and that challenging opponents above his level was routine for him—but even so, the difficulty of fighting above one's level at the Mystic Ascension stage was at least ten times that at the Nascent Soul stage. And judging by Wei Zhao's breezy manner, he had not even taken the man's mid-stage Mystic Ascension cultivation seriously. Just how strong was he?!