Chapter 5155 — The Magnate Wei Zhao
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"This man is truly no simple sort." Bing Wushuang could not help but glance at Wei Zhao again. This was the first time he had met Wei Zhao face to face since leaving the Primordial Alliance; before, he had known the name only because of something involving Leng Leng. The only one who truly inspired his wariness and hatred was Lin Dongfang. As for Wei Zhao, in his eyes the man carried no weight at all—or more precisely, had no real presence whatsoever.
But from this moment on, Wei Zhao had gained a measure of standing in his eyes. Setting everything else aside, the mere fact that he could produce so many spirit jades in one go was remarkable in itself—a manifestation of strength.
Of course, it was only a measure of standing. Never mind that he was now an expert of the late Golden Core stage; even back when he had been at the early Golden Core stage, he would never have truly regarded a master of the consummate Foundation Establishment stage as worth his attention. At most, such a one was merely a somewhat sturdier ant.
"In that case, I take it no one has any further objections?" Xin Yi'an said, deliberately addressing himself to Xue Jianming.
Everyone was watching him as though at a joke, and Xue Jianming instantly flushed red to the ears. He had half a mind to keep making trouble, but that great chest of spirit jades was simply too conspicuous. Money can make the devil turn a mill; under such circumstances, what nonsense could he possibly say?
"Very well. Next I will announce the group assignments. This afternoon, mining begins with the first group; after three days, the second group will take over. Since there are no objections, we proceed accordingly." With that, Xin Yi'an made the final announcement.
On paper, Wei Zhao and the others were assigned to the first group along with the rest of the Cangwu Sect disciples from North Island—except that Qiu Lingshan, Wu Chengtian, and the others had long since used that great chest of spirit jades to buy themselves leave.
A short while later, Xin Yi'an was preparing to lead the first group down to the undersea spirit ore site. But when he turned his head, he froze on the spot. "Martial Granduncle? You mean to go down as well?"
"Nothing better to do, so I thought I'd go down and have a look with you all." Wei Zhao nodded. For all his casual, indifferent air, he was in fact rather interested in this undersea spirit ore site. After all, the Primordial Alliance's people would not remain here long; once the mortal-world training was over, this site would be masterless, and Qiu Lingshan could be set to organizing men to continue mining it.
Of course, there was a precondition: the quality of the undersea spirit ore site had to be high enough. If it was the sort of worthless mine that yielded only a few pieces of spirit jade in ten days or a fortnight, then it was a genuine white elephant—and Wei Zhao, after all, had no shortage of spirit jades.
"Oh, I see." Xin Yi'an understood at once, immediately grasping Wei Zhao's intent. Rich water should not flow into an outsider's field, after all; better that undersea spirit ore site should benefit this martial granduncle than some stranger.
Wei Zhao smiled faintly and offered no explanation.
The waters around the archipelago were not deep, and that undersea spirit ore site lay almost on the extended shelf of one small island, where the water was no more than ten-odd meters deep. With diving equipment, such a depth would pose no difficulty even to ordinary folk, let alone these powerful cultivators.
Naturally, Xin Yi'an would not provide them with any diving equipment—only the most basic mining tools. So they had to rely on their own breath-holding. It looked a little troublesome, but it was hardly an insurmountable problem; cultivators were long-winded by nature, and once they mastered the knack of exchanging air underwater, they could stay beneath the surface for a very long stretch.