Chapter 3842 — The Southern Pass

It was only that the other party would not make a move; because of the cave-dwelling rankings, Wei Zhao and the others had no way to go looking for trouble with Meng Zhou of their own accord, and could only wait passively. Then again, no matter how meteoric Meng Zhou's rise might be, with Wei Zhao's strength there was no need for him to take the man seriously at all—he would meet any change by holding fast.

Just as Wei Zhao was single-mindedly nurturing the seeds of the devouring-heart linglong grass, something entirely expected happened: after Yu Jiang carried Nan Tianyong's corpse back, the whole of Soaring Heavens Pavilion was thrown into an uproar.

Nan Tianyong, after all, was no ordinary figure; he was the Pavilion's supervising deacon. For a key man in such a crucial post to be killed on Sandie Pavilion's own territory was nothing short of a provocation against Soaring Heavens Pavilion—there was simply no way it would not cause an uproar!

Yet before the Pavilion's higher-ups could respond, Yu Jiang had already gone ahead and sought out one of Nan Tianyong's two brothers—the second of the Three Heroes of the Nan Clan, Nan Tianguan.

By Yu Jiang's own reckoning, he had originally meant to invite both of Nan Tianyong's elder brothers—his two master-uncles—but as ill luck would have it, Nan Tianxiong, the leader of the Three Heroes of the Nan Clan, had happened to be away on a mission to the outer islands, so the only one still on the northern island of Cloudstep Island was the second brother, Nan Tianguan.

Still, even if Nan Tianguan was the only one, with his strength and standing—both above Nan Tianyong's—it would be more than enough to blow this matter up out of all proportion! After all, Nan Tianguan's cultivation was a cut above Nan Tianyong's.

What greatly exceeded Yu Jiang's expectations, however, was that upon seeing Nan Tianyong's corpse, this full-blooded second brother, Nan Tianguan, showed not the slightest grief on his face—instead, it was all cold laughter.

"Hmph! That thing, the third one—dumb as a brick and foul as a latrine, and weak into the bargain! When we first pushed that piece of trash into a vital post like supervising deacon, I already knew something like this was bound to happen—and sure enough!" Nan Tianguan's face was all merciless mockery, without a shred of brotherly feeling.

Yu Jiang was dumbstruck on the spot. He had been somewhat worried that the man would press the matter too far and discover traces of his own sword qi on Nan Tianyong's corpse; that sword-qi wound at the heart, though very similar to the other wounds caused by true qi all over the body, could still, if someone carefully compared them, give away something fishy.

But now Yu Jiang realized he had been worrying about entirely the wrong thing. With an attitude like Nan Tianguan's, there was no chance the man would care how his so-called master Nan Tianyong had actually died; what he was probably thinking now was, why had this useless third brother taken so long to die?

The thing Yu Jiang most needed to worry about now, on the contrary, was whether this second brother, Nan Tianguan, would actually stand up for his cheap master at all!

If Nan Tianguan was utterly indifferent to Nan Tianyong's death, then Yu Jiang's plan to use it to blow the matter up would be rather hard to pull off. Nan Tianguan was, after all, Nan Tianyong's full-blooded elder brother; if even a close kin like him would not step forward to speak, then even if the Pavilion's higher-ups were forced by public pressure to intervene, they probably would not take the affair much to heart.

In that case, Yu Jiang's goal of using Nan Tianyong's death to alarm Sandie Pavilion and the Law-Enforcement Hall, and thereby ultimately force Wei Zhao out into the open, would become rather unrealistic.

Just as Yu Jiang was racking his brains over how on earth to persuade the man to stand up for his cheap master, Nan Tianguan spoke up of his own accord.

"That said. I may not think much of that trash the third one, but he was, after all, one of the Three Heroes of the Nan Clan. To let him be killed like this and do nothing would be to lose face for the Three Heroes entirely. Besides, when the leader comes back, I'd have a hard time explaining it to him." Nan Tianguan shook his head with an expression of impatience.

After brooding a moment, Nan Tianguan reluctantly rose from his grand-master's chair. "Fine, fine. Brothers after all, whatever one says. I suppose I'll put myself out and make the trip with you! Nephew, who did you say killed this trash?"

Yu Jiang started at the question, then hastily answered, "A wandering cultivator by the name of Lin Er."

"A wandering cultivator?" Nan Tianguan shot Yu Jiang a glance and could not help asking doubtfully, "My third brother may be a bit of trash, but he's still one of the Three Heroes of the Nan Clan, and his strength just barely reached the peak of the late Foundation Establishment stage. How could a mere wandering cultivator have killed him?"

Across the five great islands of the Heaven Rank, wandering cultivators of humble origin were numerous, but for want of cultivation resources most of them scraped by at the very bottom—real experts were few and far between, and those above the peak of the late Foundation Establishment stage could be counted on one hand.

That Nan Tianyong should have been killed on Sandie Pavilion's own territory by a mere wandering cultivator—the odds of such a thing happening were close to zero.

To kill an expert at the peak of the late Foundation Establishment stage, and leave him not even a chance to flee, the killer would have to be at least at the great-perfection of Foundation Establishment. And finding such an expert among the wandering cultivators—easier said than done!

Yu Jiang nodded hurriedly. "Master-Uncle, I too found it utterly unbelievable that this Lin Er could kill Master. But he really is a wandering cultivator who popped up out of nowhere, and his apparent strength is only the peak of the early Foundation Establishment stage..."

"Pfft! Peak of the early Foundation Establishment stage?" At that, Nan Tianguan sprayed a mouthful of tea right into Yu Jiang's face, and his pair of triangular eyes glared at him with ill intent. "Are you fucking kidding me? Tired of living, are you?"

Ordinarily, even against experts of the same rank, wandering cultivators of humble origin—naturally disadvantaged in cultivation resources—were no match for sect cultivators like those of Sandie Pavilion. In other words, even if the other man had been an expert at the peak of the late Foundation Establishment stage, he would have had a hard time taking down Nan Tianyong—let alone at the peak of the early stage.

Even granting the wildest supposition—that the man really was a powerhouse capable of punching above his level—he could at most cross one rank. A late-stage Foundation Establishment expert striking back to kill one at the peak of the late stage was, though still exceedingly rare, not entirely unacceptable.

But that a mere wandering cultivator at the peak of the early Foundation Establishment stage could kill Nan Tianyong, an expert at the peak of the late stage—such bullshit no one would believe; not even a ghost would believe it!

Nan Tianguan reacting like this was only natural, and Yu Jiang had foreseen it. He could only smile bitterly, wipe the tea from his face, and hurry to explain, "Master-Uncle, don't get excited. I don't believe this Lin Er is only at the peak of the early Foundation Establishment stage either—it's just that the man very likely concealed his strength, and with my poor eyesight I simply couldn't see through him."