Chapter 4998 — The Island Lord's Document
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
"What a pity, though—my brother Wei Zhao here is simply too much of a genius. He has too many talents jumbled together in him, and that's what keeps him from spreading his wings across the sea. If only he couldn't refine pills and could only navigate, how wonderful that would be. What a waste of heaven's gifts." Oda Ba sighed.
"A waste of heaven's gifts?" Oda Zhou did not know whether to laugh or cry. Pointing at Oda Ba, he scolded with a smile, "The man can effortlessly handle someone at the peak of the late Mystic Ascension stage while he himself is only at the early Mystic Ascension stage—and he's a first-grade Mystic-rank alchemist on top of that. If he went sailing with you, that would be the real waste of heaven's gifts!"
"The open sea is where a real man belongs. How is that a waste of heaven's gifts?" Oda Ba retorted, unconvinced.
"You—all these years and you haven't changed a bit. You were like this as a child. Your talent was clearly greater than mine, yet from a young age all you ever wanted was to go adventuring, and you never had the patience for proper cultivation. You even fell out with the family over it, and in the end it came to you running away from home..." Speaking of these old matters, Oda Zhou could only shake his head with a bitter smile. "Our Oda clan is one of the few top-tier great houses on the Cloud Step Island, and yet it produced a third young master like you who never attends to his proper business. One truly does not know what to say."
"Second Brother, why bring all that up..." Oda Ba's face darkened at once. After running away from home, he had made a name for himself through his own efforts, yet to this day he had never won his father's approval. Apart from his second brother Oda Zhou, everyone in the Oda clan still looked at him with contempt. Over time, he had come to want nothing more to do with his family.
"Third Brother, I know you don't like hearing this, but as your second brother I still have to say it. Father may be harsh with his words, but the truth is he wants you to come home more than anyone. Did you know your room in the ancestral mansion is still kept for you? It's been preserved exactly as it was the day you left. Anyone who goes in and disturbs the slightest thing earns Father's fury." Oda Zhou sighed.
Oda Ba fell silent at these words. Sometimes, after drifting on the endless sea for long enough, he too would feel a sudden urge to return to his family—but every time, he snuffed it out almost at once.
One day he would achieve something great through his own strength, something that would make his father sit up and take notice. That was the vow he had made the very day he ran away from home, and it had never changed.
"No matter what, you will always be the third young master of the Oda clan. Since you've come to the Central Island anyway, go back and take a look." There was hope in Oda Zhou's voice.
"Second Brother, you know my ambitions well enough. Don't try to persuade me any further. I set sail tomorrow. Tonight, you and I drink until we drop." Oda Ba shook his head.
"But..." Oda Zhou still wanted to press the matter.
Oda Ba waved a hand to cut him off, then laughed with soaring boldness: "Second Brother, do you know what I'm setting out to do now? A single warship is no longer enough to satisfy my appetite. I mean to become the commander of a fleet that sweeps across the Cloud Step Island—not merely a ship's captain!"
"You want to build a fleet?" Oda Zhou was startled by this mad notion. Treasure ships alone were rare enough; ancient warships were rarer still. Even with all the resources of the Oda clan, no one would dare make such a boast. Oda Ba's goal was truly ambitious beyond measure.
"That's right. This is the goal I'll be striving toward next. On the day I succeed, I'll come home of my own accord." Oda Ba nodded.