Chapter 3804 — The Little Senior Sister's Message

To reach such a level, however, was for the present still nothing but wishful thinking.

But one thing at least could not be wrong: even if Wei Zhao's own strength stayed the same, leading a pack of frail, feeble underlings was one thing, and leading a pack of fierce, formidable ones was quite another—the intimidation factor was on a completely different order. This had already been demonstrated to perfection in Meng Jiuming himself.

Back in the mundane world, Wei Zhao alone had been enough to beat all comers under heaven, so the importance of powerful underlings had not yet stood out. But now, transplanted to Cloud-Tier Island, where Heaven-Tier experts were as common as dogs and Foundation-Establishment cultivators were found on every street, everything had to start over from the beginning—and the significance of it all was utterly transformed.

Cloud-Tier Island—a rather apt name, really. The Heaven-Tier was merely where everything began; Heaven-Tier, basically speaking, amounted to the most ordinary existence of all!

So Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai alone were not enough. As for Li Zhengming, that promising seedling, so long as his loyalty could be guaranteed, Wei Zhao would not stint on the benefits he bestowed upon him—even firing up the furnace and refining a batch of pills solely for his sake was not out of the question.

Once the fourth round of the newcomers' challenge tournament ended, Wei Zhao went back at once to heal Qiao Hongcai's injuries. When the healing was done, he followed his usual routine and channeled true qi into the eighty spirit-herb seeds within the jade pendant space.

Apart from the eighty spirit-herb seeds still showing no sign of sprouting whatsoever, everything proceeded according to routine—except that, unexpectedly, he received a letter.

The letter bore no signature, yet Wei Zhao was utterly certain who had written it: his little senior sister, Shangguan Lan'er, whom he had not seen for some time.

And the reason he could tell it was Shangguan Lan'er behind it was simple enough—because the one who had delivered the letter to Wei Zhao was Shangguan Lan'er's exclusive spirit pet, Little Curly Bear.

As the only granddaughter of Shangguan Tianxia, Pavilion Master of the Soaring Heavens Pavilion, Shangguan Lan'er was the undisputed little princess of the Tri-Pinnacle Pavilion. Her upbringing was strict in the extreme, and her every move drew the gaze of others; at most, she could seize a moment when no one was watching to slip out and play a little.

Therefore, even when something important came up, Shangguan Lan'er generally could not simply come looking for Wei Zhao directly—the target was far too conspicuous, inviting gossip and wagging tongues, and it would also expose the false front she and Wei Zhao had deliberately put up, rousing the suspicions of Xu Lingchong and his lot.

At such times, all she could do was pin her hopes on Little Curly Bear, to carry word to him when no one was about.

And Little Curly Bear, ever fond of play, clearly could not have asked for a more welcome task. After all, to it, Wei Zhao was nothing short of a temptation—and it had once blundered its way to Wei Zhao's cave dwelling before, so it knew the road well enough.

Yet even with its surpassing intelligence, Little Curly Bear could never have guessed that Wei Zhao had by now changed cave dwellings. To avoid prying eyes, the creature still came as dusk was falling, and furtively went straight to trigger the restriction of Cave Dwelling Fourteen at the foot of the mountain.

It waited outside, sly as a thief, for a short while—only to find that the one who emerged was not Wei Zhao at all. Little Curly Bear was struck dumb on the spot, and once it came to its senses, it fled in terror, legs flying.

Fortunately, the one now residing in Cave Dwelling Fourteen at the foot of the mountain was none other than Xiao Che, one of Wei Zhao's own.

Piecing this together with how Little Curly Bear had clung to Wei Zhao back at the rear-mountain hall and refused to come down, Xiao Che quickly worked it out: the little thing had most likely come looking for their leader. Without a word, he ran straight to Cave Dwelling One at the foot of the mountain and fetched Wei Zhao out, and only then was Little Curly Bear caught and brought back halfway.

It was just as well the little creature's legs were short and its speed poor; otherwise, with night already fallen, had it been left to run off in blind panic, heaven knew what great mess might have ensued.

Having accompanied Wei Zhao in chasing Little Curly Bear back, and seeing the little thing perched on Wei Zhao's neck in such intimate fashion, Xiao Che could not help asking in puzzlement, "Leader, didn't you say this little thing's master is at odds with you? So how come it—?"

That the eldest Miss Shangguan disliked Wei Zhao was, thanks to the embellishments of interested parties, virtually common knowledge throughout the Welcome Pavilion; and judging by how Shangguan Lan'er had appeared to look on from the sidelines several times before, she did indeed seem to hold no fondness for Wei Zhao—which only cemented the rumor further.

Wei Zhao smiled faintly. "This is a tacit understanding her master and I deliberately put on, to lull that young master Xu into complacency. Xiao Che, it's enough that you know—don't go telling anyone else."

"Rest easy, Leader, I understand." Xiao Che was enlightened at once, and then filled with solemn respect. His own leader Wei Zhao could actually be on familiar terms with a noble personage as lofty as the eldest Miss Shangguan—and could even get her to cooperate of her own accord in putting on a show. Truly, he was unfathomable.

Bringing Little Curly Bear back to his present Cave Dwelling One at the foot of the mountain, Wei Zhao watched as the little creature fumbled and fidgeted before finally fishing a small envelope out of its little shorts. One could tell the envelope had originally been quite exquisite, but after being pulled from the little thing's shorts, its appearance was crumpled beyond all compliments.

A word more: though Little Curly Bear was a spirit pet, Shangguan Lan'er had specially designed a pair of shorts for it, nicely described as being to spare it from running about bare.

Wei Zhao unfolded the letter, torn between laughter and tears. The handwriting on it was delicate and fresh, yet the one matter it spoke of made Wei Zhao knit his brows slightly.

Shangguan Lan'er's message said that recently an inner-sect disciple of the Soaring Heavens Pavilion named Yu Jiang had been going about asking everywhere after the latest doings of the Welcome Pavilion, paying particular attention to the formidable newcomers who had risen of late. Word had it that Nantian Yong, the Soaring Heavens Pavilion's supervisory deacon—and this fellow's master—had previously gone to the Hong Clan Merchant Guild to kick up a fuss, only to come away with a face full of dust. After returning to the Soaring Heavens Pavilion, he seemed to be helping with the same business, and making no small stir of it.

Shangguan Lan'er had originally taken not the slightest interest in such rumors, but the moment she heard the phrase "formidable newcomers," she suddenly thought of Wei Zhao. After all, if one spoke of the most dazzling newcomer in the Welcome Pavilion, then even setting all the Tri-Pinnacle Pavilion newcomers together, it could only be Wei Zhao.

After all, he had consecutively scored divine-tier perfect marks in the first two rounds of the newcomer assessments—something no other newcomer would even dare imagine. The Tri-Pinnacle Pavilion newcomers were scored separately, true, but the difficulty of the first two rounds' assessments had been identical; on that point alone, the other newcomers had no choice but to concede.