Chapter 3555 — The Bitter Senior Brother

His manner, however, was nowhere near as arrogant as that of the previous two; on the contrary, he seemed rather approachable.

"Very well, thank you, Senior!" Xiao Che glanced at Wei Zhao, then climbed onto the flying spirit beast.

Wei Zhao followed him aboard.

The spirit beast rose slowly into the air, and Xiao Che could not help asking, "Senior, how should we address you?"

"Enough, stop calling me Senior. I am nothing but a miserable wretch—just call me Bitter Senior Brother." The freckled man shook his head.

"Huh?" Xiao Che was taken aback. He had found the freckled man approachable, but he never expected him to be this easygoing—going so far as to give himself the nickname Bitter Senior Brother.

"You two are both loose cultivators from the mortal realm, aren't you?" Bitter Senior Brother asked.

"You could say so... How did you know?" That surprised Wei Zhao. He roughly knew Xiao Che's background; calling him a loose cultivator was fair enough, since the Xiao family was no longer an ancient clan.

"Six people were sent to the northern island this time. The first to come for recruits was someone from the Soaring Heaven Pavilion—those two must be ruthless figures from a major sect, no?" Bitter Senior Brother asked with a smile.

"Indeed, Bitter... Senior Brother, how do you know?" Xiao Che was surprised as well.

"The second to come was from the Mystic Mechanism Pavilion. Those two must be cultivators who look quite advanced in years, no?" Bitter Senior Brother went on guessing.

"Right again." Wei Zhao nodded. "Bitter Senior Brother, why is that?"

Bitter Senior Brother did not explain; he merely continued, "I am the guide envoy of the Azure Cloud Pavilion. Among the three pavilions, ours ranks lowest in standing. Every time, we choose last, and the disciples who join us are mostly loose cultivators of humble origins."

"Uh... so what you mean, Senior Brother, is that those people earlier have, in effect, joined the Soaring Heaven Pavilion and the Mystic Mechanism Pavilion?" Wei Zhao was rather startled. He had not imagined Cloud Terrace Island would be like this—that sects existed here at all, and that within this one sect there appeared to be three distinct factions. That was somewhat troubling.

"Precisely! The Soaring Heaven Pavilion is the most orthodox of the pavilions on the northern island of the Heaven Rank. It is filled with second-generation cultivators and the outstanding descendants of the island's prestigious old families; even those who came from the mortal realm are core disciples of major sects." Bitter Senior Brother said, "They are the ones you must never cross on the northern island of the Heaven Rank. Next is the Mystic Mechanism Pavilion. That place is full of old men—though of course one cannot say the other pavilions have no old men; it is simply that theirs has a great many, and they are not fond of taking in youngsters. Not even those who look young and reached the Heaven Rank early with eternally youthful faces will do—unless they are their own descendants. These people flaunt their seniority; several of them were founding elders of the northern island of the Heaven Rank. Their strength may not match the Soaring Heaven Pavilion's, but it is by no means weak! And the weakest of all is our Azure Cloud Pavilion!"

"Well... humble origins aren't necessarily weak..." Wei Zhao said with a bitter smile.

"Heh, we still fall far short!" Bitter Senior Brother shook his head. "Our foundation in cultivation was never as solid as theirs to begin with. So even at the same peak of the late Heaven Rank—great perfection—there is still a gap. Breaking through to the Heavenly Way, which is my current level—what we call an accomplished expert of the Foundation Establishment stage—even here there are distinctions of strength. Don't be fooled by how fine the Azure Cloud Pavilion's name sounds; when it was first named, it meant that those of humble origins could rise straight to the blue clouds here. But... heh heh. Also, do not mention the term 'Heavenly Way' again. The Heavenly Way is a vast category; if you tell others you are an expert of the Heavenly Way, they will think you arrogant!"

"Oh? We can't even say that?" Wei Zhao was slightly taken aback. In the mortal realm, did they not all speak of the Heavenly Way? Could there be even higher levels above Foundation Establishment? As for the matter of the three pavilions, Wei Zhao did not much care for the moment.

"Indeed. What is called the Heavenly Way is an ethereal, collective term for a level." Bitter Senior Brother was generous with his words, telling all he knew and holding nothing back. "Previously, we cultivators refined qi and refined the body, both inner and outer schools—all of that was the elevation of the body's strength. The Heavenly Way, however, is a pursuit that defies heaven itself. You may also understand it as true cultivation. What came before was cultivation; now it is true cultivation. In the mortal realm before the Heavenly Way, your strength was equivalent to the Qi Refining stage among true cultivators. Only upon setting foot on the Heavenly Way does one enter the Foundation Establishment stage—only then has one truly touched the path of true cultivation."

"You are of the Heavenly Way, yet you are not the strongest?" Wei Zhao had not expected that there seemed to be many gradations even above the Heavenly Way.

"Naturally. I am only an expert of the early Foundation Establishment stage. Above me there is the peak of early Foundation Establishment, the mid Foundation Establishment..." Bitter Senior Brother explained.

Hearing this, Wei Zhao's earlier self-satisfaction plunged straight to the bottom of a valley. Back in the mortal realm, he had used the Omnipotent Heart Method together with the Chronicle of Creation's Battle Verse and the fourth layer of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art, Seizing Heaven, to break through to the Heavenly Way—a brand-new level of strength. Wei Zhao had thought he had already reached the endpoint of cultivation, the final station!

All he had to do was set foot on Cloud Terrace Island, find Zhang Lifeng, the peerless medical sage and alchemy god, and find a way to revive Yu Xiaoke and the Pangolin—then he could go back. But to his surprise, Yu Xiaoke had still not awakened, and now seven more inheritors had fallen unconscious. The weight on Wei Zhao's shoulders was truly mountain-heavy.

Still, that was endurable—he could simply ask Zhang Lifeng about it all together. What he had never expected was that his own strength was in fact the weakest! It seemed to sit rather at odds with the grand, high-profile manner in which Wei Zhao had intended to search for Zhang Lifeng upon arriving here.

"All right, but from the look of it, our Azure Cloud Pavilion is the most harmonious of the pavilions. Bitter Senior Brother is so amiable, while those two envoys from before were proud to death!" Xiao Che nodded in agreement.

He did not think there was anything wrong with joining the Azure Cloud Pavilion. He was a low-key person, and after coming here he would naturally keep a low profile as well. He had no backing, and his own strength was not especially great, so he was careful in all things.

"Harmonious? Heh heh..." Bitter Senior Brother gave a strange laugh. "I will say no more. You will understand once you go and see for yourselves..."

"Is it not so?" Wei Zhao was slightly startled. He had assumed that since the Azure Cloud Pavilion was full of humble origins, it ought to be a very harmonious pavilion.

"That I am harmonious does not mean others are. It is because I am a bitter wretch that I was sent to fetch people. I am just a fellow who gets bullied—that is simply my nature..." Bitter Senior Brother shook his head.

"Is fetching people such a bad job? Those two from before... they both seemed very formidable, didn't they?" Xiao Che asked, puzzled.