Chapter 3826 — Enemies Are Bound to Meet

"You know me?" Wei Zhao could not help but feel a little surprised.

If this man had been Hong Zhong, whom he had dealt with last time, that would have been a little easier to understand; after all, the man had given him a spirit-jade card, so it was only natural that he should have left some impression. But for this servant, whom he had never met, to know him as well—that was going a bit too far.

"Of course. Every morning and evening we memorize the names and faces of important guests, so that we never neglect a single one. That is the rule of the Hong Merchant Guild," the servant said with a slight smile, and then led Wei Zhao straight up to a private room on the second floor.

Hearing this, Wei Zhao silently praised them. The Hong Merchant Guild truly lived up to its name as a top-tier guild of Cloud Terrace Island—they certainly knew how to conduct themselves!

As he stepped into the private room, Guild Master Hong Zhong immediately beamed with delight and rose to greet him. "Young Hero Lin, it has truly been a long time."

Wei Zhao inclined himself slightly and returned the courtesy. "Guild Master Hong, I trust you have been well. I am afraid I must trouble you again this time."

"Ha ha, Young Hero Lin is too kind. That you are willing to patronize this place is an honor for the Hong Merchant Guild—we could not ask for more. May I ask what you require this time?" Hong Zhong said with a smile, secretly astonished. So this Lin Er had not been found and beaten crippled by Yu Jiang and his lot after all? He truly had some ability!

"I need to prepare some spirit-herb materials, the higher the quality the better, five sets of each." As he spoke, Wei Zhao took out a list and handed it to Hong Zhong. Dozens of kinds of spirit-herb materials were listed on it.

To be safe, and to keep anyone with sharp eyes from recognizing the recipe for the Foundation Establishment Golden Core, the spirit-herb materials required for that core made up only a small portion of the list. As for the rest of the materials listed, apart from serving as a cover, they had another purpose—to fill out his reserve store of spirit herbs.

After all, as an alchemist, one need not demand a reserve store stocked with everything imaginable, but at the very least, when one wished to refine some common basic pill, one should not have to personally make the trip every single time, or even go to the trouble of tracking down every last spirit-herb material one by one. That would be far too unprofessional.

Hong Zhong took the list and gave it a rough scan, then asked with no small astonishment, "Forgive my boldness, Young Hero Lin, but are you an alchemist?"

Apart from alchemists, who would gather so many spirit-herb materials at once to fill out a reserve store, even others who wished to commission pill refinement would at most purchase the corresponding materials, and would never spend spirit jades on so many things they might never use in their entire lives.

"That is correct. I am indeed an alchemist, though only a dabbler—I must beg Guild Master Hong's indulgence." Wei Zhao nodded faintly.

Given that he would very likely have to deal with this Guild Master Hong for a long time to come, Wei Zhao had no intention of concealing this matter. After all, if he needed spirit jades, selling a few pills to this Guild Master Hong would count as a rather good option.

Moreover, there was no real need to deliberately hide the identity of an alchemist. If he chose to conceal it now and later let something slip or was found out, that would be all the worse.

Seeing Wei Zhao admit it, Hong Zhong was startled inwardly, though his face wore a most amiable smile. "Heroes are made in youth—that saying is not the least bit false. Young Hero Lin has a boundless future ahead of him."

Hong Zhong's words were somewhat inflated. Alchemists were indeed honored, but because their strength was generally feeble, in a cultivation world that revered the powerful they hardly deserved the words "boundless future." After all, monstrous alchemists like Zhang Lifeng, the Divine Alchemist and Sage Physician, who could reach the topmost ranks, appeared perhaps once in several hundred years.

Still, if those two top-grade Foundation Establishment Barrier-Breaking Pills last time had truly been refined by this Lin Er with his own hands, then those words fit him more than well enough.

Having spent so many years at the Hong Merchant Guild, Hong Zhong had his own store of wisdom when it came to handling people. Much as he now wished to know whether those two top-grade Foundation Establishment Barrier-Breaking Pills had come from Lin Er's hands, until their relationship grew deeper and more solid, he would not be so foolish as to press his luck with such a question. To learn this time that Lin Er was an alchemist was already quite enough.

"Young Hero Lin, please wait a moment in the private room. I will have someone prepare it at once." Hong Zhong handed the list to the servant waiting at the door. Since it involved dozens of kinds of spirit-herb materials, even though the Hong Merchant Guild stocked them all, it would still take a good deal of time.

Wei Zhao nodded. Having nothing else to do, he simply took the opportunity to wander through the Hong Merchant Guild from top to bottom. With so many treasures of heaven and earth worth astronomical sums, even if he had no intention of buying for the moment, it could never hurt to learn a little more about them while he had the chance.

Yet what Wei Zhao had not anticipated in the least was that, while he was idly wandering the Hong Merchant Guild, he would run into someone without the slightest warning—Yu Jiang.

As the saying goes, enemies are bound to meet. There at the corner of the display cabinets on the second floor, with no mental preparation whatsoever, the two of them came face to face, and for a moment both were struck dumb.

In Wei Zhao's expectations, since today was not an open day for the inner street, an ordinary inner-sect disciple of the Soaring Heavens Pavilion like Yu Jiang should not have been able to enter the inner street at all, much less appear in the Hong Merchant Guild.

Otherwise, if Yu Jiang had had the ability to come and go freely in the inner street, then last time, when they competed for the Star Ink Stone, he would not have had to wait for the inner street's open day to make his move, just as Wei Zhao had.

So although Wei Zhao had been especially careful and cautious earlier when entering the market district, especially while passing through the outer and middle streets, doing his utmost to avoid drawing the attention of anyone with ill intent—guarding precisely against the possibility that Yu Jiang had eyes among them—once he entered the inner street, that vigilance had unconsciously relaxed.

After all, in theory, this Yu Jiang truly had no qualification to enter the inner street; the odds of him appearing there were almost nil.

Yet Wei Zhao had forgotten one thing: Yu Jiang was not alone. He also had a master—Nan Tianyong, supervisory deacon of the Soaring Heavens Pavilion.

With Nan Tianyong's status and position, coming and going in the inner street was naturally no issue. Even so, he could not bring Yu Jiang in and out with him. The problem was that, like Wei Zhao, he held a spirit-jade card from the Merchant Alliance.

Of course, this spirit-jade card had not come from the Hong Merchant Guild, but from another top-tier guild of the Merchant Alliance. In truth, by Nan Tianyong's own strength and status alone, he was still a considerable distance from qualifying for such a card—but he had two elder brothers of far greater power, and this spirit-jade card had been borrowed from one of them!

It was precisely to investigate the matter of Lin Er that Nan Tianyong had gone out of his way to borrow this spirit-jade card!