Chapter 3921 — The Reason for Letting Her Go

"You!" Murong Zhen was instantly furious, but thinking of the other's strength, she could only swallow her anger and say, "Fine. I stand corrected."

She had still hoped to seize the chance to feign repentance and start anew; given Shangguan Lan'er's naive, childish nature, there might have been an opportunity to draw closer to her and make it easier to strike later. But now, having taken that blow from Wei Zhao, she abandoned the notion on the spot.

Shangguan Lan'er might be childish and laughable, but Wei Zhao was not necessarily as childish. If she stayed here playing such tricks now, she might well be slapped to death by Wei Zhao—and then she would be weeping with no grave to cry at.

Watching Murong Zhen's bedraggled back as she fled, Wei Zhao could not help sighing. He said to Shangguan Lan'er, "That woman has a viper's heart. After what I did today, I truly do not know whether it was right or wrong. From now on, you had best be on your guard."

"Mm, I know." Shangguan Lan'er nodded obediently, then suddenly caught on and bared her claws: "I'm your little senior sister, you know! If even you know it, would I, your senior sister, not know? What exactly do you mean by that, little junior brother—are you looking down on your senior sister?"

"Ah? Wouldn't dare, wouldn't dare!" Wei Zhao broke into a sweat at once. This little girl really did change her face from one moment to the next.

"That's more like it... Ouch!" Shangguan Lan'er proudly brandished her fist, but the motion pulled at the wound on her shoulder, and the pain struck so sharply that tears came to her eyes.

A moment ago her attention had all been on Murong Zhen, so the injury on her shoulder had not seemed so bad. But now, looking at it, not only was the wound a horrifying sight, the waves of agony radiating from it were enough to make one's scalp prickle.

Shangguan Lan'er was no ordinary young miss; at the very least she was a peak expert of the early Foundation Establishment stage, and ordinary hurts were nothing to her. But this wound had been left by Murong Zhen's Phantom Finger: after striking her shoulder, the technique had not only ground the flesh, but the fingers had been fitted with claw tips bearing sharp barbs. It was venomous in the extreme.

Even a peak expert of the early Foundation Establishment stage might not be able to bear such outrageous agony, let alone a pampered young miss like Shangguan Lan'er.

Wei Zhao's eyelid twitched. He hurried forward to examine her wound and found it deep enough to expose bone. Fortunately, there was no sign of poison.

"Come, let's find somewhere hidden. I'll treat your wound." Wei Zhao scooped up the dazed Little Curly Bear at his side and at once led Shangguan Lan'er away.

After all, this place was not far from the Half-Moon Lake. If he lingered too long here, he could not guarantee that the terrifying existence which even that ghostly thing feared might not suddenly attack him. Even if its true body could not move, its vine whips or the puppets it fashioned might well be able to reach this place.

Finding a hollow tree, Wei Zhao began treating Shangguan Lan'er's injury. With the power of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art, healing a wound like this on her shoulder was no trouble at all.

Still, the process was agonizing in the extreme. To keep this young miss from crying out in pain and drawing some unnecessary trouble, Wei Zhao had no choice but to think up topics of conversation to distract her.

"Little senior sister, you surely understand the principle of pulling the weed out by the roots. With such a good opportunity just now, why did you let Murong Zhen go?" Wei Zhao asked.

The question was not purely to distract her; Wei Zhao himself was genuinely curious.

For a young miss like Shangguan Lan'er, sheltered from the world, not daring to kill because she had never seen blood was understandable enough. But in a situation like the one just now—having been repaid kindness with such malice by Murong Zhen, knowing full well what would come of letting her go, and not even needing to do the deed herself—any normal person would not have softened.

"Eh? Her name is Murong Zhen? Little junior brother, do you know her?" Shangguan Lan'er asked in surprise, forgetting even the agony in her shoulder.

"She's a newcomer who joined the Azure Cloud Pavilion partway through. Before that, she seems to have been a relative of one of the elders of the Skyward Pavilion," Wei Zhao explained.

Shangguan Lan'er froze for a moment. Only after a good while did she react with a belated "Aiya": "Now I know why she wants to kill me—she's that woman I ran into at Huayang Residence! But I only ever saw her that one time, we shouldn't have any grudge. She scolded me for being ill-bred, and I didn't even talk back!"

So that was it! Wei Zhao understood. The reason Murong Zhen had been demoted to a newcomer of the Azure Cloud Pavilion probably traced back to offending Shangguan Lan'er. After all, even if Shangguan Lan'er herself did not mind, others around her, eager to curry favor, would have taken care of it on her behalf.

Otherwise, no matter how venomous Murong Zhen's nature, she would not have gone so far as to repay kindness with malice and insist on putting this young miss to death.

"A woman like her—it's probably precisely because you never took her to heart that she hates you all the more. In the end it's jealousy at work. This time you kindly let her off, and she will likely only grow worse. She will certainly keep looking for chances to strike at you," Wei Zhao said with a faint shake of his head.

From where he stood, no matter how he looked at it, Shangguan Lan'er's decision was playing with fire; sooner or later it would drag her down with it.

"Mm, but I still don't want to kill her. Not just her—any other person, any spirit beast, all living things—I don't want any of them to die because of me." Shangguan Lan'er paused, her eyes clear as water: "Because I want to achieve great compassion."

"Great compassion?" Wei Zhao was taken aback. It was the first time he had heard the term, and it did not sound like anything within the normal scope of cultivation.

"Grandfather said that anyone who harbors great compassion can, in ways unseen, alter their fate and fortune, so their grand vow is certain to be fulfilled. That's why I must achieve great compassion," Shangguan Lan'er said with unprecedented seriousness.

"Then what is this grand vow of yours?" Wei Zhao asked curiously.

Shangguan Lan'er smiled brightly: "Why, to bring my daddy back safe and sound, of course!"

"Your daddy? What happened to him?" Wei Zhao was surprised again.

He had been here long enough by now, and great figures like Shangguan Tianxia, the Pavilion Master of the Skyward Pavilion, were already familiar to his ears. Yet of Shangguan Lan'er's father—Shangguan Tianxia's only son—he had never heard a word, as if the man did not exist at all.

By rights, with a mighty patron like Shangguan Tianxia behind him, even the poorest cultivation aptitude should have been enough to thrive; there was no reason he should have no presence at all in these Threefold Pavilion grounds.

"Grandfather told me that Daddy went with some others on a very mysterious mission. He's been gone several years now, and to this day there's been no word at all." Shangguan Lan'er's face fell, her eyes going dull. R1152