Chapter 4037 — Where Has Xu Lingchong Gone?

"Still not scramming?" Hong Zhong narrowed his eyes, and the fierce spirit-beasts beneath the feet of Nan Tianxiong and the other two instantly became birds startled by the twang of a bow, beating their wings frantically as they fled in panic.

"Elder Hong, I must thank you for this," Wei Zhao said, slowly opening his eyes.

"Not at all—a mere trifle, lifting a hand. But these men are no easy characters. Though they should rein themselves in somewhat once back on the North Island, Young Hero Lin would still do well to stay a little on guard," Hong Zhong advised.

"Thank you for the warning." Wei Zhao smiled. With his current strength, he was still no match for a hand of Nan Tianxiong's caliber, but he had more than enough to protect himself. In his phone, after all, there was still a trump card he had yet to play.

Meanwhile, the three of them had fled in utter disarray for a full half-hour, until Hong Zhong and Wei Zhao were hundreds of li behind them. Only then did Nan Tianxiong and his companions finally breathe easy, slowly settling their nerves.

None of the three had ever imagined such an outcome. They had assumed that with Nan Tianxiong himself taking the field, this would be a sure thing, easy as pie and twice as pleasant—only to kick a steel plate of such staggering hardness!

"Yu Jiang…" Nan Tianxiong spoke at last, his voice listless. His injuries this time were in fact not too severe; what mattered was the blow to his psyche. To fall from the clouds ten thousand li high down into the dust—it was no more than this.

"Here, Grand Uncle-Master." Yu Jiang hastily pulled himself together and stepped forward.

Nan Tianxiong looked at Yu Jiang, then abruptly raised his hand and slapped him across the face. Caught off guard, Yu Jiang nearly got fanned clean off the back of the spirit-beast, and only saved his little life by snatching at the saddle.

Having barely clawed his way back onto the beast's back, before Yu Jiang could steady himself, Nan Tianxiong dealt him another slap, and his cheek swelled with astonishing speed.

Seeing that Nan Tianxiong was about to strike again, Yu Jiang was scared witless. He hurriedly bent low and kowtowed, begging: "Grand Uncle-Master, this disciple was wrong, this disciple truly was wrong—please, Grand Uncle-Master, spare this disciple just this once!"

"Then tell me—where exactly were you wrong?" Nan Tianxiong said, his face expressionless.

"Uh…" Yu Jiang was struck dumb on the spot, inwardly grumbling that of course his mistake lay in letting Nan Tianxiong kick a steel plate. But to say so aloud—how was that any different from courting death?

"If this seat remembers rightly, you swore up and down that this Wei Zhao was Lin Er!" Nan Tianxiong's expression abruptly turned murderous. "Given Wei Zhao's background, and how close he is with Shangguan Lan'er—even Gongyang Jun speaks up for him, and even Hong Zhong, whose ties with him run so deep, is formidable beyond belief. If he wanted you two dead, it would be easy as pie and twice as pleasant—he need only have Hong Zhong lend a hand. Why would he need to disguise himself as Lin Er? And Hong Zhong said himself that he has known Wei Zhao for ages. If Wei Zhao wanted the Star Ink Stone, would he need to compete with you for it? With his connection to Hong Zhong, it would be a matter of one word! Is he so idle he has nothing better to do than toy with you? Do you take him for a lunatic, or do you take this seat for a man whose brains have been kicked out by a donkey?"

At these words, Nan Tianguan at his side nodded in agreement—thinking it over carefully, that was indeed how matters stood. Wei Zhao had no need whatsoever to change his face and disguise himself as Lin Er.

That was just as well. Though they had come away covered in dust, at least they could now be certain the Star Ink Stone was most likely not on this Wei Zhao. Otherwise, given their own strength, snatching something off Wei Zhao would have been genuinely difficult.

Yu Jiang, who had been so certain of himself all along, could not help but feel his face burn, and he still doubted: "But that move Wei Zhao used just now—it was exactly the same as when Lin Er dealt with my master before. How do you explain that?"

Nan Tianguan thought for a moment and said: "That's hardly strange. I am no alchemist, but even I can see that the principle behind a pill-fire bomb is neither deep nor complicated. Any alchemist of even slightly decent aptitude need only see it a few times and should be able to imitate it."

He was an expert in the Little Formless Divine Art, and when it came to imitating martial techniques, he had the most authority to speak. If he himself were an alchemist able to conjure pill-fire, he would probably have learned the pill-fire bomb long ago.

Yu Jiang was somewhat stymied, yet still unwilling to give up. He could not resist arguing: "Since Wei Zhao is called Lin Yi, couldn't Lin Er be his brother? Just as Grand Uncle-Master is called Nan Tianxiong and my master is called Nan Tianyong. This disciple still feels that Wei Zhao, in both build and bearing, is very much like Lin Er…"

"Go to hell with that! Say one more useless word and this seat will throw you off right now!" Nan Tianxiong said impatiently. Were it not for the fact that Yu Jiang still had some eye for treasure, he would long since have dealt with this troublemaking disaster with his own hands.

Yu Jiang shrank back his neck in fright, one hand shielding his stinging cheek, and at once dared not make another sound. This Grand Uncle-Master was notorious for his ruthless decisiveness—truly provoke his displeasure, and lives would indeed be lost.

As things stood now, it should be certain that Wei Zhao was not Lin Er. And so the trio's attention could only turn back to Kang Jingming—only, if they wished to take any further action, they would have to weigh carefully the attitude of that grand young master, Xu Lingchong.

Little did they know that during these few days they had spent on the Far North Island, the Santie Pavilion of the North Island had already been thrown into utter chaos. The news of Xu Lingchong's disappearance was now known to all, and every man was discussing it over tea and after meals.

Xu Lingchong was one of the foremost young masters of the Chongtian Pavilion, and what was more, he occupied the critical post of managing grand senior brother. In anyone's eyes he was a man of boundless prospects; not long ago he had even presided over Miss Shangguan's birthday banquet, showing his face splendidly before a host of great personages. Yet who would have thought that such a figure, the center of ten thousand eyes, should vanish for no reason at all!

In truth, by reckoning, the time Xu Lingchong had been missing was not long—twenty-odd days at most. To cultivators who routinely went into seclusion for months or even years at a stretch, that was no more than the snap of a finger. An ordinary person would long since have thought nothing of it and never even consider the word "disappearance."

But Xu Lingchong was the managing grand senior brother of the Chongtian Pavilion; every matter great and small, top to bottom, passed through his hands. For him to fail to appear for over twenty days running—that was a serious matter indeed.

What was more worrying still: what exactly Xu Lingchong had gone off to do, even his own grandfather Xu Yuanzheng was wholly in the dark. In the past, to win Xu Yuanzheng's favor, he had reported everything without exception. Now, for over twenty days running, he had neither appeared nor sent so much as a word—the only way to describe it was "abnormal." (To be continued) R655