Chapter 3284 — Just Here for the Soy Sauce

"Huh?" Qian Boguang was briefly taken aback, then laughed even harder. "Did you all hear that? These three old things say they have a patron, and a very powerful one at that? Hahahahaha, tell me, lads, have any of you ever heard of the Bloody Garment Yellow Springs Sect having some great patron behind it?"

"No." Dongfang Badao shook his head without a moment's hesitation.

"And our friends from the Tomorrow Upon Tomorrow Cult? Yours is one of the oldest of the ancient sects. Have any of you ever heard that the Bloody Garment Yellow Springs Sect has a patron?" Qian Boguang turned to the Pure Yang Heavenly Venerable and pressed on.

"No." The Pure Yang Heavenly Venerable shook his head too.

"Haha, Bloody Garment Ancestor, you really are a piece of work. Even now you're still trying to fool us. Do you think that because we were fools once, because we believed that wretch Wei Zhao could punch above his level, we'll believe it a second time?" Qian Boguang said mockingly. "Since you have a patron, we won't kill you just yet. I'll give you a chance to summon him. Call your patron out here, and we'll have a word with him, see just what sort of brain-dead fool would dare to back you lot."

"Good. That can be arranged." The Bloody Garment Ancestor nodded very solemnly. Then he said nothing more.

Qian Boguang blinked at that, but he reined in his temper and waited for what would follow. He waited and waited, and after a good long while, the Bloody Garment Ancestor still had not said another word. Growing impatient, Qian Boguang demanded, "Well? Where is he? Your patron? Why aren't you summoning him?"

"Far as the horizon, near as your eyes." The Bloody Garment Ancestor made a gesture of introduction, pointing straight at Lin Dongfang.

Lin Dongfang was sitting with his back to the newcomers, and so, all this while they had been in the shop, they had simply overlooked him.

"What?" Qian Boguang's eyes went wide, and then he laughed until he could scarcely catch his breath. "Hahahahaha, don't tell me, you lot, surely not? You grabbed some random yokel from the countryside and told me he's your patron? Don't tell me this old farmer here is your patron?"

"Yes. That is so." The Bloody Garment Ancestor nodded. "This Mr. Dongfang is the man behind the Bloody Garment Yellow Springs Sect."

"Pfft, cough cough cough." Qian Boguang nearly sprayed out his laughter. "Mr. Dongfang? Don't tell me he's of the Dongfang clan? The head of the Dongfang clan, Dongfang Badao, is standing right here."

"Oh, no. His name is Dongfang; as for his surname, you are not worthy to know it," the Bloody Garment Ancestor said flatly. Lin Dongfang had never revealed his full name at the ancient level; only a handful of those close to him knew it.

"Is that so? Well then, Mr. Dongfang, stand up and let us see what great merits you possess that you dare to be the patron of the Bloody Garment Yellow Springs Sect. Since you are the man behind it, then this debt of ours will be settled on your head!" Even now, Qian Boguang did not believe that Lin Dongfang was the sect's patron and hidden master. The reason was simple: in his eyes, this old farmer was a scapegoat the Bloody Garment Yellow Springs Sect had dragged in at the last moment. Perhaps the Bloody Garment Ancestor and the others were deluded enough to think that by pushing this man out to be slain by them, they could escape punishment themselves. Hmph, they had gravely underestimated their intelligence.

"Very well. Since you all wish to have a word with me, then I shall have a word with you." Lin Dongfang smiled faintly and rose from his seat. In that moment, all the languor of a country physician fell away from him, replaced by the domineering calm of a man of high station.

At this pompous speech, Qian Boguang burst out laughing again, and behind him, the whole crowd who had come along were thinking much the same: this old farmer was a scapegoat the Bloody Garment Yellow Springs Sect had found, and the poor fool did not even realize he was about to die.

Lin Dongfang stood, slowly turned around, and fixed the crowd in the grocery with a piercing gaze. Among them were unfamiliar faces and familiar ones alike, and for a moment he was overcome with emotion.

"Y-y-y-you are—" The first to recognize who Lin Dongfang was turned out to be Zhong Yongliang! Small wonder, though. How could he forget the man who had once killed him with a single punch?

What a horrifying memory it was. He, the Frenzied Dragon Patriarch, a grand-master at the peak of the late Heaven Tier, had actually been slain with one punch? Who would believe it if told? And yet, more than a decade ago, that was exactly what had truly happened.

All those years in the grave, this man before him had been the Frenzied Dragon Patriarch's nightmare. Even after the patriarch had revived himself through Zhong Yongliang's body, if asked whom he least wished to see in this life, this man was one of them.

Yes, it had been too crushing. Seeing this man now, Zhong Yongliang had not the slightest thought of resistance. This was an absolute gap in strength, a chasm that could not be crossed—unlike his grudge with Wei Zhao.

He and Wei Zhao, after all, had started from roughly the same line, had been high school classmates. He believed he had it in him to finish Wei Zhao. But this man before him—Zhong Yongliang felt that even a hundred more years of training would be wasted effort. Even if he truly ascended to the Heavenly Dao, he reckoned he still would not be this man's match.

After all, more than a decade ago, this man was said to have already been an expert of the Heavenly Dao level—or perhaps even higher.

Lin Dongfang glanced at Zhong Yongliang with some puzzlement. This man he did not know, had never seen before. But the people beside him, those Lin Dongfang had seen.

"Frenzied Ox, is it not? More than ten years since we last met. What are you doing here?" Lin Dongfang smiled at the Frenzied Ox Patriarch beside Zhong Yongliang and asked.

"Ah? I— er—" Cold sweat burst out all over the Frenzied Ox Patriarch. He too had recognized who this man was. Was this not one of the Twin Vajra Demons? How had he turned up here? Had he not vanished? Had he not taken a group of people off to ascend to the Heavenly Dao?

Yet however Lin Dongfang had come to be here, the Frenzied Ox Patriarch was shaking from head to toe with fright, and he dared not fail to answer. With no way out, his wits made a sudden leap, and his eyes fell upon the soy sauce barrel inside the grocery. Overjoyed, he blurted out at once, "Mr. Dongfang, I came to buy soy sauce!"

With that, the Frenzied Ox Patriarch turned and went looking for Widow Wang, calling out, "Shopkeeper, some soy sauce for me— ah, this soy sauce, it really does go fast, gone again so soon—"

(To be continued,