Chapter 2065 — So It Was Zhao Qibing

"Good!" Wei Zhao nodded and said, "Then keep an eye out for me, and we'll go together when the time comes."

"Rest assured, Elder Lin, I will certainly keep watch," Han Xiaohu said.

As they spoke, a knock came at the door of the private room—the waiter arriving with the dishes. The two of them tacitly broke off their conversation and waited as the waiter set each dish upon the table one by one. Afterward, the lobby manager presented a few platters of fruit and a bottle of red wine, handed Wei Zhao a *** card, and quietly withdrew from the room, closing the door behind him.

"Elder Lin, please, eat!" Han Xiaohu made a gesture of invitation.

"Let's talk while we eat. It's just the two of us, no outsiders, no need for formalities." Wei Zhao was hungry enough, and without standing on ceremony he picked up his chopsticks and said, "First, tell me—when is this Hidden World Summit to be held, and is there anything I need to prepare?"

"Very well, Elder Lin!" Han Xiaohu nodded, took up his chopsticks as well, and ate alongside Wei Zhao. Between bites he said, "The Hidden World Summit will be held on the fifteenth of this month. The venue has not yet been announced, but barring any surprise, this year's summit will take place in Donghai City—because the host of this Hidden World Summit is the hidden Zhao family!"

"The hidden Zhao family?" A complex light flickered through Wei Zhao's eyes. The hidden Zhao family could well be counted among Wei Zhao's enemies—and yet Zhao Qilei was, after all, Wei Zhao's junior follower!

"Yes. In truth, this Hidden World Summit is not quite like those of past years. It is plainly a coalition of several powerful hidden clans, banding together to carve up the fine treasures my hidden Han family discovered in the ancient ruins!" Han Xiaohu said with some indignation. "Constrained by the rules, they dare not seize them outright, so they invent one pretext after another, hoping to force my hidden Han family to hand over a portion of those treasures!"

"The weak are meat, the strong eat—such is the way of the cultivation world," Wei Zhao said, unsurprised. One could hardly call those hidden clans unreasonable; the cultivation world had always been a place where the strong preyed on the weak. If your strength fell short, whom else could you blame?

And Wei Zhao's high-handed march upon the An family, the grievous wounding of An Jiande, the breaking of An Liwen's legs, the extortion of a vast sum from An Liwen—all of it came down, in the end, to Wei Zhao being strong enough to force it.

The repeated breaking of Zhao Qibing's legs, the blowing up of his tower, the crippling of Zhu Bo—all of it, too, rested upon Wei Zhao's strength.

Otherwise, Wei Zhao would long since have died many times over!

"That much I know, of course..." Han Xiaohu smiled bitterly. "But although my hidden Han family is in dire straits and has already braced itself to bleed heavily, we do not wish to lose too miserably—if we did, my hidden Han family would lose all face among the hidden clans! That is why we hoped to request Elder Lin to step in on our behalf. Even if we win but a single match, it would salvage a little face for my hidden Han family!"

"Ha. And what if I win several matches?" Wei Zhao asked.

"However many matches are won, the stakes won shall all belong to Elder Lin!" Han Xiaohu's eyes lit up at once. "Moreover, the stakes my hidden Han family puts up shall also belong to Elder Lin. Beyond that, Elder Lin may take a few more treasures from my hidden Han family's storehouse, or name other conditions as he pleases!"

"We shall see the events before deciding," Wei Zhao said. He knew that however tempting Han Xiaohu's terms might be, he would still need the strength to earn them. Wei Zhao would not go courting death or undertaking anything too dangerous—for the sake of those treasures, he had no intention of throwing his life away!

Helping the Han family was merely a matter of convenience. Though Han Xiaohu had conducted himself decently enough from first to last, Wei Zhao and the hidden Han family could hardly be called close—he had only taken a piece of colored steel from them. So long as he helped them win the racing competition, he would owe them nothing more.

As for anything else, Wei Zhao would decide according to circumstance; he would certainly not act blindly.

"As for the events, I have not yet received word of the specific rules—that will only be known once we arrive!" Han Xiaohu said. "But judging by the events of past years, there will certainly be racing, tests of reaction, and martial contests. Racing is a dead certainty—it is an important trial for training a cultivator's coordination of hand, foot, and mind!"

"Racing, is it..." Wei Zhao smiled faintly. "Your driving looked decent enough to me. Are they so confident they have you beaten?"

"My little tricks hardly amount to anything..." Hearing this, Han Xiaohu could only shake his head, his face bitter. "I wonder, has Elder Lin heard of the hidden Zhao family?"

Han Xiaohu had received word that Wei Zhao and the hidden Zhao family were at odds, and that the hidden Zhao family had last time sent the late Earth-Rank Zhao Guang'er to kill Wei Zhao, only to be slain by him instead—but such things were difficult to bring up directly.

"The hidden Zhao family?" Wei Zhao lifted the red wine before him, took a light sip, and gave a cold laugh. "Don't tell me they have some fine racer?"

"Just so!" Han Xiaohu nodded. "I hear the hidden Zhao family has newly taken a bastard son back into the clan. That bastard's cultivation is nothing to speak of, but he is most formidable behind the wheel! His racing skill was already excellent to begin with, and afterward the Zhao family's fine hand, Old Bi, took him as a disciple and trained him as a cultivator—which raised his coordination of hand, foot, and mind all the more. In this racing competition, nine chances in ten it will be he who wins... that is, of course, provided Elder Lin does not enter the field!"

"Pff—cough, cough!" Wei Zhao had been drinking his red wine, and at Han Xiaohu's words he sprayed it out in a single burst. "The man you mean is Zhao Qibing?"

"Yes, none other than that Zhao Qibing!" Han Xiaohu nodded. "Elder Lin knows him?"

"Know him? How could I not?" Wei Zhao laughed. "That creature and I are mortal foes—though he has never once come out ahead at my hands. But how did he come to be a fine racer?"

"Zhao Qibing was a fine racer from the very start!" Han Xiaohu said. "In his early years he studied abroad. In the underground racing circuit overseas, he was a champion driver, known as the Hell Road God! A bastard son of a hidden clan like him—before winning the clan's recognition, he was naturally a wastrel young master, and it is only normal that he should love tinkering with cars! I hear that while abroad he once took a fine racer as his master...