Chapter 2785 — Vengeance Possible and Impossible

"This..." Zhang Naipao did not know what to say. He was beside himself with excitement—though what he felt most was joy. Brother Liang was formidable again at last! Before, Zhang Naipao had remained respectful to Zhong Yongliang, yet as his own powers had grown, he had dreaded seeing Zhong Yongliang sink into mediocrity, and there had been nothing he could do about it. Now it seemed Brother Liang had been born to lead—wherever he went, he led, and the moment he joined the Tomorrow Upon Tomorrow Sect, he had risen to the top again!

"Naipao, I had high hopes for you to begin with, and now there is my master's connection besides—the future of the sect rests on your shoulders!" Chunyang Tianzun said.

"Yes..." Zhang Naipao was overwhelmed with emotion.

Gao Xiaofu was delighted too. If Brother Liang was formidable again, did that not mean his own fortunes would rise as well? The disregard they had suffered here would soon turn into flattery from every quarter. When that time came, as Zhong Yongliang's personal lackey, his own prospects would be boundless.

"Oh, right—where is that fellow Kuangniu?" Zhong Yongliang asked.

"Master, Patriarch Kuangniu is in seclusion at the moment. Perhaps..." Had it been Chunyang Tianzun on his own, he would never have dared disturb Patriarch Kuangniu at such a time—but Patriarch Kuanglong was another matter.

"Come on, let us fetch him out. There is something I need to discuss with him as well," Zhong Yongliang said mildly.

"Yes, Master. This way, please!" Chunyang Tianzun hastily gestured for him to go ahead.

"Paozi, Xiaofu, follow me. I am still used to the feel of you two at my back, playing my henchmen," Zhong Yongliang said with a wave of his hand.

"Yes, Brother Liang!" Zhang Naipao and Gao Xiaofu were both delighted. Formidable as Brother Liang had become, he was still the same Brother Liang as before, still treating them as his underlings.

Chunyang Tianzun could not help smiling wryly. It seemed his master's temperament had changed as well—though that was no bad thing. The old master had always worn a stern face and been so severe that he had been afraid just to look at him; the present master was far more easygoing.

The party made their way together to the place where Patriarch Kuangniu was in seclusion, and Chunyang Tianzun went to summon him. With Zhong Yongliang backing him up, he was afraid of nothing.

Patriarch Kuangniu was in the midst of seclusion. Over the years, though he had risen to the peak of the late Heaven Rank, he had not cultivated his way to Great Perfection. Though only a hair's breadth separated him from it, a miss was a miss, and so he spent the greater part of his time in seclusion striving to break through.

Hearing Chunyang Tianzun's summons, Patriarch Kuangniu immediately knitted his brows. He had said that unless the sect faced a crisis of life and death, he was not to be summoned. Yet no warning signal had been sent up in the sect, so they could hardly be in danger. What, then, did Chunyang Tianzun want with him?

"Chunyang, what is it?" Though Patriarch Kuangniu was angry, Chunyang Tianzun was the master of the Tomorrow Upon Tomorrow Sect after all and would not kick up a fuss over nothing, so he asked with forced patience.

"Patriarch Kuangniu, my master has returned!" Chunyang Tianzun said hastily.

"What? What did you say? Your master has returned? Have you lost your mind? How many years has your master been in the ground?" Patriarch Kuangniu was stunned. "Have you not woken up from some midnight dream?"

"No, Patriarch Kuangniu, my master's primordial spirit has seized a body—he has truly come back!" Chunyang Tianzun hurried to explain.

"What? He seized a body?" Patriarch Kuangniu shot to his feet and strode quickly out, only to see Zhong Yongliang smiling at him not far away. Somehow, that smile gave him a familiar feeling!

Cold and irascible as Patriarch Kuanglong was in his entirety, before his two junior brothers he had often worn a rare smile—a smile much like the one Zhong Yongliang wore now!

"Kuangniu, more than ten years it has been. You whelp—you nearly got me killed!" Zhong Yongliang walked toward Patriarch Kuangniu.

"You... are you really my senior brother?" Patriarch Kuangniu knew of such things as primordial spirits, but he was still not quite certain.

"Come, let us go inside and talk it over in detail!" Zhong Yongliang pointed at the place where Patriarch Kuangniu had been in seclusion.

"Very well. Chunyang, you wait outside the door for now. I will go in with... him and test the waters!" Patriarch Kuangniu had not yet confirmed Zhong Yongliang's identity, so he remained half-believing, half-doubting.

The two men went into the inner chamber of the seclusion room, and only then did Zhong Yongliang begin to recount certain secret histories of the sect from those years ago—matters that only the three of them, master and disciples, had known...

Now Patriarch Kuanglong was dead, Patriarch Kuangbao had been forcibly carried off by the ruthless man who had come to make trouble that year, and only Patriarch Kuangniu remained. By rights, no one in the sect should have known of these things anymore—yet Zhong Yongliang recounted them as if counting his own treasures.

Moreover, when Patriarch Kuangniu put certain questions to him about Patriarch Kuanglong, Zhong Yongliang answered fluently, showing a perfect grasp of the affairs of those years. Only then did Patriarch Kuangniu believe in his identity. "You truly are my senior brother! Wonderful—you have finally come back!"

"Haha, Kuangniu, I may be your senior brother, but right now I have nothing but a head full of memories and no strength to speak of. I must cultivate all over again!" Zhong Yongliang laughed and shook his head helplessly.

"That is no matter. The sect holds many rare treasures of heaven and earth—senior brother, you may take whatever you please, and recover your strength soon. Then we brothers shall return to Cloud Rank Island together, set foot upon the Heavenly Way, and bring our second brother back before long!" Patriarch Kuangniu said.

"Bring him back..." Zhong Yongliang smiled bitterly, a lingering fear in his heart. "That man of those years killed me with a single punch—how powerful was he? How are we to go and find our second brother? If our second brother finishes what he set out to do, he will come back on his own. If we go looking for him, we shall either be kept there by force, or killed..."

Zhong Yongliang had inherited Patriarch Kuanglong's memories, and even now he was still afraid of the events of those years. It was a strength that simply could not be surpassed—a great mountain that he could only gaze up at, without so much as a thought of revenge stirring in him.

This was not the same as with Wei Zhao. In his eyes, formidable as Wei Zhao was, there was still hope of surpassing him. Before, he had pinned that hope on Zhang Naipao, judging the gap between Zhang Naipao and Wei Zhao to be not so great, and revenge to be quite possible.

And now he had become Patriarch Kuanglong, which meant that in the future he could go and seek revenge on Wei Zhao himself. But as for going after those two men of those years—he did not even have the courage to imagine it.

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