Chapter 3027 — The Peculiar Little Shu (Part Two)

"Oh? Fiery Cloud?" Wu Chengtian was briefly taken aback, but he extended his hand nonetheless. "How do you do. I am Wu Chengtian of the Wu family of the mortal realm, one of the younger brothers under Wei Zhao's leadership, a peak late Earth-rank expert!"

"What? The Wu family of the mortal realm? A peak late Earth-rank expert?" Fiery Cloud was startled. Since when did a mortal clan boast a peak late Earth-rank expert? What on earth was going on here? Had he spent so long within the ancient sect that he had lost all track of the changes beyond its gates?

How had the power of these mortal clans caught up with that of the hidden clans? And here was a mere junior, a peak late Earth-rank expert in his own right—compared with the ancient sects, that was hardly a poor showing at all.

Wu Chengtian was also wary that Fiery Cloud might harbor ill intentions, and so he had laid out his own strength first. Seeing Fiery Cloud's astonishment, he went on, "That is right. There are many younger brothers under our leader's banner—scions of the hidden Zhuang family, the hidden Han family, the hidden Pi family. All of them are peak late Earth-rank experts."

A single peak late Earth-rank expert like Wu Chengtian was nothing remarkable in itself, but what astonished Fiery Cloud was that Wei Zhao had so many younger brothers who were all peak late Earth-rank experts. Was it coincidence, or was something else at work?

Yet from what Fiery Cloud remembered, even scions of the hidden clans could hardly muster such numbers of peak late Earth-rank experts. Could their strength have something to do with Wei Zhao? Otherwise, why would every last one of them be stuck at precisely the peak of the late Earth rank—no more, no less?

At this thought, Fiery Cloud felt all the more certain that coming here to call on Wei Zhao had been an utterly correct decision. Wei Zhao was far more powerful than he had imagined!

"Very well. Since Brother Lin is not here, I shall make camp nearby and wait for his return!" Fiery Cloud said. "I have a tent in my car. All along the road I have slept in nothing but that tent, so I am quite used to it."

"What? You want to stay at the gate?" Gu Mengyao felt it was somewhat impolite to leave a guest at the doorstep. Her first thought had been to send Fiery Cloud back, but he was clearly determined to wait here, so after a moment's hesitation she said to Little Shu, "How about we let him into the villa to stay with Wu Chengtian?"

"No!" Shen Yushu cried out at once, refusing. But then, feeling her reaction had been too fierce, she hastily explained, "If strangers move in, I will not be able to sleep at night."

Though Shen Yushu had for the moment satisfied herself that Fiery Cloud had not come to make trouble for her, she was still afraid—afraid that given time he might learn something. She was unwilling to have any dealings with Fiery Cloud whatsoever, and felt an instinctive aversion to him.

Seeing Little Shu's resolute manner, Gu Mengyao knitted her brows slightly, but she could hardly bring the matter up again. After all, Little Shu had a share in this villa too, and she could not disregard her opinion. Yet Gu Mengyao knew perfectly well that Shen Yushu's sleeplessness was certainly not the real reason. A few days ago, Old Master Pi, Old Master Han, and a whole crowd of others had been staying in the villa, and Little Shu had shown no sign of discomfort then.

"It is no trouble. I am quite used to living out here..." Fiery Cloud was somewhat puzzled as well. It seemed he had never offended Shen Yushu in the slightest, so why did she seem to take a dislike to him no matter what?

"Not here either. Go back and wait. Or leave a way to contact you, and when Brother Arrow-Brand returns, I will have him get in touch with you!" Shen Yushu had no desire to see Fiery Cloud the moment she stepped out the door every day; it would sour her mood for the whole day.

Shen Yushu held not the slightest fondness for the Fiery Flame Mountain sect. Had it not been for that sect, her parents would never have been captured, nor held hostage by the Yu family. So even though Fiery Cloud seemed entirely innocent, she still disliked him.

"This..." Fiery Cloud was truly at a loss for words. He looked to Gu Mengyao and Wu Chengtian. "I mean no harm. I have only come to call on Brother Lin, the young hero Lin..."

"Little Shu, come now, the man is Wei Zhao's guest. If he is not to stay in the house, are you really going to forbid him from staying outside as well?" Gu Mengyao felt this was getting rather unreasonable. If you would not let him stay outside, surely there had to be a reason? This was simply making a fuss over nothing.

Fiery Cloud was, after all, the young sect master of an ancient sect, and by this point he felt thoroughly wronged. He had only come to visit Wei Zhao. He was not staying in their house—was even lodging at the gate not permitted? Even a clay figure has a bit of temper; did Fiery Cloud have none? Of course, he dared not actually show any anger. He could plainly sense that if he simply left, Shen Yushu might well fail to inform him when Wei Zhao returned. So he resorted to sheer stubbornness: "This gateway is public space, not part of your house. If I stay here, what business is it of yours? I am making camp right here!"

With that, Fiery Cloud drove his car to the communal parking area of the villa compound, then set up a tent directly in the grass beside it, paying Shen Yushu no further attention.

Gu Mengyao shrugged helplessly. She herself did not much mind Fiery Cloud; the crux of the matter was Shen Yushu. Why on earth had she reacted so violently?

"All right, Little Shu, let us go back. Leave him be. He is staying outside, so he cannot affect us," Gu Mengyao said, tugging at Shen Yushu.

"Oh, fine. But what if he carries Little Shu off? Then Sister Yaoyao will never see Little Shu again..." Shen Yushu muttered under her breath.

"What kind of nonsense is that? Why would he carry you off? He is here to see Wei Zhao, is he not?" Gu Mengyao found Little Shu's behavior today rather strange as well. Only once they were inside the villa did she ask, "Little Shu, what is the matter with you today? You seem so odd. Is this man your enemy?"

"I do not know. Little Shu just cannot stand the sight of him, and does not want him staying here!" Shen Yushu said.

"But we should at least tell Wei Zhao about it, should we not? How about you call Wei Zhao, tell him what has happened, and see what he says?" Gu Mengyao saw no other way. If Little Shu would not talk, questioning her was useless—but they ought to inform the person concerned, at the very least.

"All right. I will call Brother Arrow-Brand." Shen Yushu hesitated, then nodded.

With that, Shen Yushu picked up the phone and started upstairs. Gu Mengyao was puzzled. "Little Shu, why are you going upstairs to make a call? Could you not just call from downstairs? Why put yourself to all this trouble?"

"Oh... well... it is like this. I miss Brother Arrow-Brand quite a lot, and I want to whisper sweet nothings to him. Wu Chengtian is downstairs, so I would be embarrassed..." Shen Yushu said.

"...You, embarrassed?" Gu Mengyao found it all the more peculiar. (Summoning [Monthly] tickets) (To be continued.