Chapter 3242 — Sounding Him Out

"So that's how it is!" Wei Zhao had been nursing the age-old instinct to keep his riches out of sight—if he wore this thing on his finger, what would he do if someone coveted it? He was not yet a top-tier cultivator, after all. Fierce though his reputation might be, he knew exactly how much he was worth.

Still, this changed things—now he need not worry about anyone scheming for it. Taking the ring meant killing him first, and so he need not fear being threatened into surrendering it under any other pretext.

"Indeed, Mr. Wei Zhao. We will take the Black Horse Association's Grand Elder's corpse with us now. Same terms as before—please keep our secret. This mission was carried out covertly, and the one who hired us is himself a man of the Black Horse Association; naturally he does not wish it exposed, for that would do him no good." The Sinister Ancestor spoke on. "And so, to the outside world, this burden can only fall upon Mr. Wei Zhao's shoulders. The man was killed by you!"

"I understand." Wei Zhao nodded. This was precisely the outcome he had hoped for, and he had no doubt about the Bloody Garment Yellow Springs Sect's Sinister Ancestor's words. A sect's own chairman hiring assassins to murder its Grand Elder—spread abroad, that would be a scandal of the highest order, and secrecy was only natural.

With that, the Sinister Ancestor said no more. He hoisted up the Black Horse Association's Grand Elder's corpse, and together with the Bloody Garment Ancestor and the Yellow Springs Ancestor, vanished into the vast night...

Wei Zhao shook his head with a bitter smile, returned to his room, and went back to his cultivation...

He had just brushed against the barrier of the mid Heaven Rank. Wei Zhao would have to push hard now—if he broke through to mid Heaven Rank in one stroke, then perhaps he truly would possess the power to slay a peak late Heaven Rank expert in a single blow, and there would be no need for rumors!

In another room on a different floor of the dormitory building, the old director and Xu Shilan were lodged together. After such an ordeal, mother and daughter surely had much to say to one another. Cheng Yiyi, meanwhile, had a room to herself.

Though Wei Zhao had healed most of her injuries, some surface wounds remained, and so Cheng Yiyi was in truth still in great pain. Yet she could spare no thought for pain now—her heart was filled with torment.

She did not know how to face Wei Zhao, or Xu Shilan, ever again. She wanted to confess everything to Xu Shilan, but for the moment there was no chance—Xu Shilan had been with the old director all along, never giving Cheng Yiyi a moment alone with her.

Just as Cheng Yiyi wavered, her phone rang.

She picked it up, glanced at the caller display, and could not help but heave a deep sigh. Still, she answered. "Boss..."

The man Cheng Yiyi called "boss" was Feng Tianhu of the ancient Feng family. So it was that Cheng Yiyi had all along been a spy he had planted at Xu Shilan's side—or rather, Cheng Yiyi was one of Feng Tianhu's tools for amassing wealth in the mundane world.

"Yiyi, how did it go? Is that old hag dead yet?" Feng Tianhu had in fact already received the text message Cheng Yiyi had sent earlier that night. That Xu Shilan had decided to stay at the orphanage, and that Wei Zhao had stayed there as well, had left him feeling rather uneasy!

Wei Zhao had actually stayed there? Then how was the Black Horse Association's Grand Elder to make his move? But Cheng Yiyi had warned them, and they would not listen—Feng Tianhu could do nothing. What he feared most was the Black Horse Association's Grand Elder being lost here.

Still, on reflection, the Black Horse Association's Grand Elder was a late Heaven Rank peak expert at the great perfection level. Wei Zhao might be able to slay a peak late Heaven Rank expert in a single blow, but that did not mean he could beat a great perfection expert!

After all, these were two different grades, and the gap between them was considerable. Feng Tianhu did not believe Wei Zhao had it in him. If Wei Zhao truly did, would he not have marched straight up to the ancient Feng family and stirred up trouble across the ancient plane?

"No. That assassin is dead..." Cheng Yiyi drew a deep breath and said.

"What!?" Feng Tianhu was truly startled. Speak of the devil and he appears! He could scarcely believe his own ears. "Yiyi, what did you say? The Black Horse Association's Grand Elder—a late Heaven Rank peak expert at the great perfection level—is actually dead? How did he die?"

"How else could he have died..." Cheng Yiyi's heart stirred, and a resolute, determined look came over her face, though her tone was helpless. "I don't know the specifics. At the time, Xu Shilan, the old director, and I all fled, and only Wei Zhao and that Black Horse Association Grand Elder were left in the room..."

"Only the two of them? Wei Zhao killed him??!" Feng Tianhu's eyelid twitched. He had long guessed this possibility, but having it confirmed still left him somewhat afraid and chilled. Good heavens—Wei Zhao could really kill even a top-tier cultivator like a late Heaven Rank peak great perfection expert, a walking land-based atomic bomb? That was simply too formidable!

"I don't know... maybe..." Cheng Yiyi did not put it too definitively, but every word between the lines made clear it was Wei Zhao who had done it. Feng Tianhu naturally took it that way as well.

"Then... that fool from the Black Horse Association didn't give away my identity, did he? Wei Zhao doesn't know it was me who hired them, does he?" After Feng Tianhu's disbelief came deep dread. If Wei Zhao could kill even a late Heaven Rank peak great perfection expert, then killing Feng Tianhu would be as easy as turning over his hand. What... what was he to do?

Feng Tianhu rather regretted it now. Impulse was the devil—he truly should not have entertained thoughts about anyone close to Wei Zhao again. The old director, after all, was Xu Shilan's mother; if Wei Zhao intervened, how could Feng Tianhu come off well?

And now, fine mess that it was, if Wei Zhao did not know, well and good; but if he did, he would certainly not let Feng Tianhu off. Was this not... seeking his own death?

"That I'm not clear on either, because I wasn't at their side. Xiaohan and I were both injured, and Wei Zhao healed my wounds, and then we came out..." Cheng Yiyi said.

"Oh? He didn't suspect you?" Feng Tianhu breathed a sigh of relief. "Good, good! Then listen—tonight, go and ask Wei Zhao for me. Sound him out, see whether he knows the mastermind behind this was me. If he does, tell me at once! So I can prepare my countermeasures. Did you hear me?"