Chapter 918 — The Stirring of the Various Factions

"Hmm... you have a point there! A true man's ambitions lie in the wider world!" Gu Pengzhan nodded. "But can't you recover your strength while staying in the villa?"

"It's very difficult. Right now I have no way, so I can only go out and look for one," Wei Zhao said.

"Since that's the case, I won't stand in your way!" Seeing that Wei Zhao's mind was made up, Gu Pengzhan did not press him further. "But after you leave, I hope you will still think of this place as your home — a harbor where you can shelter from the wind!"

"I will." Wei Zhao nodded. "Yaoyao, Xiaoshu, and I will always be good friends!"

"Heh, good." Gu Pengzhan said no more. Young people's affairs were not his to meddle in too much, after all; matters having come this far, all he could do was wish Wei Zhao well. "I hope you recover your strength as soon as possible!"

"Thank you, Uncle Gu!" In his heart, however, Wei Zhao smiled bitterly. Recover his strength? He had little confidence of that himself. Leaving the villa — in the old man's words — was nothing more than going into hiding. Was strength so easily restored?

In this world, so many skilled internalists had been crippled for life because their meridians had been injured in combat, forced to accept the fact that they were finished as martial artists and to take up the external arts all over again!

But these people, already carrying their injuries, found it hard to achieve much even after retraining in external techniques. Most halted at the peak of the late Yellow Rank, and for the rest of their lives never broke through again!

The external arts were easy enough to train at first, but once one hit a certain bottleneck, breakthroughs became exceedingly difficult. Body tempering, once it reached its limit, improved at a painfully slow pace. Someone like Ma Zhu — unless he were exceptionally gifted with a superb constitution — could never have reached such a realm!

Think about it: Ma Zhu must be even more depressed than he was. His own meridians were severed, yet he could still train in the external arts — but Ma Zhu? With any luck, the man would have to go home and farm.

"But Uncle Gu, I have a feeling my enemies have already caught wind that I've lost my strength, so I think you should find a new bodyguard to replace me as soon as possible. Otherwise, I'm afraid you'll be in trouble..." Wei Zhao's expression turned grave. "After all, many of my enemies are your enemies too. A lot of them came to hate me because they were after Yaoyao. If they can't find me, I'm afraid they'll turn back and come for you and Yaoyao!"

"I know that!" Gu Pengzhan nodded. "I've already contacted Uncle Qing's junior fellow disciple. He works as a bodyguard too; his employer went abroad a while back. Right now he's on a cash-transport job for a wealthy merchant — a one-off assignment. Once it's finished, he can come over! But he gave me the number of a bodyguard agency that provides temporary protection for the rich. I've hired someone there for now, as a stopgap."

"Hmm, what's his rank?" Wei Zhao asked.

"Word is he's a Mystic Rank expert," Gu Pengzhan said.

"Strength-wise there's no problem, then. So long as they're not sworn enemies, he should be able to deter them." Wei Zhao thought for a moment. "When does he arrive?"

"Within the next couple of days," Gu Pengzhan said. "Either today or tomorrow."

"Good, then I can rest easy!" Wei Zhao nodded.

After finishing his talk with Wei Zhao, Gu Pengzhan left the villa. The company had a great deal to keep him busy these two days, leaving him no time to spare. Yet Wei Zhao had not seen the young lady or Xiaoshu come downstairs all evening. He guessed that, having slept poorly the past few days while looking after him, they were catching up on their rest.

"Wei Zhao, when are you leaving?" Gu Mengyao asked.

"In the next day or two. As soon as Uncle Gu's new bodyguard arrives, I'll go." As he spoke, Wei Zhao felt a pang of sorrow.

"All right. So you'll be leaving from the villa, then?" Gu Mengyao asked.

"I expect so." Wei Zhao nodded.

"Then tell me and Xiaoshu — we'll see you off," Gu Mengyao said.

"All right." Wei Zhao gave her a rather strange look. The young lady's mood seemed a little too calm — different from yesterday, somehow?

……………………

In the villa district, the Xiao family had already moved into their newly purchased villa.

Xiao Jizheng glared at his wife Gou Huli: "Look at the fine mess you've made. Just who have you gone and offended? Thank goodness I didn't listen to you and send Uncle Pi out to make trouble for Gu Pengzhan — otherwise it would be the Xiao family in trouble!"

"What are you blaming me for? Wasn't it the second brother's idea? How did it end up on my head?" Gou Huli sounded aggrieved. "Didn't we investigate it thoroughly? In Gu Pengzhan's household there's only one external-school expert called Uncle Qing, at the peak of the late Yellow rank! Our Uncle Pi is an external-school expert at the mid Profound rank!"

"Hmph — but besides Uncle Qing, there's another expert at Gu Pengzhan's side! An internal-school expert at the peak of the early Profound rank!" Xiao Ji said. "It's a good thing I paid a visit to that local power, Young Master Bing — otherwise I'd still be in the dark! An internal-school expert at the peak of the early Profound rank and an external-school expert at the mid Profound rank are about evenly matched. And if it really came to a fight, they'd have an external-school expert at the peak of the late Yellow rank lending a hand as well — the Xiao family would be the ones to suffer!"

"What? That can't be. This Gu Pengzhan — a petty merchant — is actually that formidable? How is that possible? Are you sure you didn't get it wrong?" Gou Huli was startled, her mouth hanging open in disbelief.

"Hmph! How could Young Master Bing possibly be wrong?" Xiao Ji gave a cold sniff. "That internal-school expert at the peak of the early Profound rank is called Wei Zhao. He broke Young Master Bing's leg — tell me, was that a mistake? Right now Young Master Bing hates him with gnashing teeth. How could he be wrong even about his strength?"

"You're joking? He even dared to hit Young Master Bing? Must be tired of living!" Gou Huli blurted out in shock. "Then what am I supposed to do? Am I to just swallow this loss for nothing?"

"And what else did you have in mind? They have two experts — are we supposed to bang our heads against theirs? Only a fool with nothing better to do would try that." Xiao Ji was in fact deeply frustrated. He had meant to squeeze a large sum of money out of Gu Pengzhan, which would have made the Xiao family's business in Songshan City far more comfortable!

But he had never imagined that a few inquiries would reveal Gu Pengzhan to be no simple man — that hidden dragons and crouching tigers lurked at his side!

Just then Xiao Ben, the second son of the Xiao family, walked in. Seeing Xiao Ji fuming, he merely smiled: "Elder Brother, there's no need to scold Sister-in-law so anxiously. I've heard of a rather important matter!"