Chapter 5003 — Invited to Liven the Drinking
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 3
Not only that—now, recalling Zhuang Yifan's crude outburst, it had not been his self-deceiving pretense of finding it troublesome at all, but clearly an expression of the very same attitude as Qing Xuanzi's!
This amounted to being not only swept out of Morning Star Academy, but also offending the Alliance Lord, who was then at the height of his power. Whether other Yellow-Rank academies would even be willing to take him in was now an open question. His future was pitch-black.
"Master Zheng..." Wu Che rubbed his hands together, wanting to offer a few words of comfort but not knowing how to begin. Nan Tian Liuguang and Tong Yangxi exchanged a glance, then simply said nothing—this was no place for the likes of them to speak.
Zheng Dongyang ignored him. With a sullen glance at Oda Zhou and Wei Zhao, he felt he had no place to show his face; he didn't even know what polite pleasantries to say. With a face full of gray desolation, he turned and walked away.
Wu Che and the others hurried after him. Once they were out of Island Lord Hall One, Wu Che quickened his pace and caught up to ask, "Master Zheng, what do we do now?"
"What do you mean, what do we do? We eat it cold!" Zheng Dongyang snapped.
"Huh?" Wu Che and the others looked at one another in dismay.
"The game is lost. The few of us alone can do nothing about Wei Zhao and the Heavenly Pill Pavilion, and now I can barely save myself. I can't stay on the Central Island any longer. I must hurry back to the Eastern Continent to clean up the mess—salvage whatever I can." Zheng Dongyang sighed.
He had come to the Central Island this time full of smug ambition, with Wu Che and the rest singing his praises to the skies—and then in the blink of an eye it had come to this, his face covered in dust, scurrying about like a stray dog. Truly, the fortunes of life were capricious.
"What? You're going back to the Eastern Continent?" Wu Che's expression changed drastically on the spot. He had been counting on Zheng Dongyang to refine pills for him. If Zheng Dongyang just went back to the Eastern Continent like this, whom would he turn to in the future? He couldn't very well go ask Wei Zhao for help, could he?
"Your business can wait for another time. In my present state I can't refine pills anyway." Zheng Dongyang gave a bitter laugh and hurried off without further explanation. However one looked at it, he really had no face left to stay on the Central Island.
Wu Che and the others looked at one another, speechless. This time it was not only Zheng Dongyang who had suffered heavy losses; none of them were much better off. The Famous Medicine Sect had failed to eliminate the Heavenly Pill Pavilion, and once the Pavilion grew further in the days to come, their business would inevitably suffer greatly. And Wu Che had offended Oda Zhou over this affair as well; his days ahead would certainly not be easy.
As for Nan Tian Liuguang, who had set his heart on currying favor with Wu Che to climb the ladder, the acting vice island lord post Wu Che had promised him in advance was now far beyond reach. After all, Wu Che could barely save himself. For an ordinary vice island lord to try to push someone into office under such circumstances—the difficulty was only too easy to imagine. Once Oda Zhou stepped forward to veto it, the whole thing would be done for.
The whole party slunk away, and none of it affected the drinking spirits of Oda Zhou and Wei Zhao in the slightest. The two had been somewhat distant at first, but after this storm of shared enmity, and with a few cups of wine in their bellies, their relationship quickly grew familiar.
Of course, this was mainly because Oda Zhou was deliberately cultivating good relations. After all, he was a man from a top-tier clan, and with Oda Ba's reminder as well, he had seen Wei Zhao's value clearly. Otherwise, he would never have brought out even his own prized vintage.