Chapter 4154 — Wei Zhao Is Ling Yi

He had once held Wei Shenjin in the highest regard, and had been working all along to arrange the match between Situ Qian and him. Who could have foreseen that barely a few days after the wedding, the man would be beaten into a cripple, transformed in one stroke from a promising prospect into worthless stock—how was he supposed to bear the shame of it?

"Elder Situ might as well summon him for a look. This news of mine, I believe, is something he has been awaiting for a very long time," Nantian Jiguang said, feigning profundity and deliberately whetting their appetite.

"Could it be...?" Situ Guangzong's eyes lit up at once; he had already guessed a thing or two. He agreed on the spot: "Very well, very well. Dean Nantian, please wait a moment—this old man will send for him right away. Oh, yes, and have Elder Wei Feng fetched as well. He too is of the Wei family and shares some blood ties with Wei Shenjin; he has been deeply concerned about this matter all along."

"All the better. Elder Situ, bring him by all means," Nantian Jiguang and Si Haitao and the others said, nodding again and again. They had come this time to borrow a knife to kill a man, and of course the more knives the better. An extra elder-level expert was only welcome; best of all would be the entire Snow Sword Sect turning out in full force—that would suit them perfectly.

Situ Guangzong at once gave instructions to the Snow Sword Sect disciples guarding the gate, sending them off in different directions to summon the men, while he himself stayed to chat and jest with Nantian Jiguang and the rest.

A short while later, Wei Feng strode in at the head of the group—a middle-aged man of broad, resolute features whose strength ranked among the first rate even within the Snow Sword Sect. Behind him followed Wei Shenjin and Situ Qian.

Situ Guangzong made the introductions. After the two sides had exchanged a round of pleasantries, they came straight to the point.

"I will not deceive you, gentlemen. The news I bring this time concerns none other than that martial brute Ling Yi, whom your esteemed sect has been hunting throughout the city yet has never once managed to trace," Nantian Jiguang said, clearing his throat.

"The martial brute Ling Yi!" The words gave them all a start. Even Situ Guangzong, who had harbored his suspicions beforehand, felt a jolt of alarm to hear it spoken aloud; and as for Wei Feng, his expression changed on the instant. Wei Shenjin was a disciple he had promoted and cultivated with his own hand, and now the fruit of years of painstaking effort had been destroyed at a stroke—his hatred for that martial brute Ling Yi yielded to no man's.

Of everyone present, it was paradoxically Wei Shenjin, the injured party himself, who proved least agitated and least shocked by the news. His hatred had now been wholly redirected onto that whore Situ Qian.

True, it was the martial brute Ling Yi who had struck the blows that crippled him, but strictly speaking they had both been mere pawns played against each other by schemers. That lewd, despicable bitch Situ Qian was the true author of it all, the one most deserving of being carved into ten thousand pieces.

As for Situ Qian, she cared even less about the matter. Her mind was fixed solely on finding herself a wild man out there for her pleasure—ideally one even more powerfully built than Senior Brother Ma, and not bad to look at either.

"Where is he? Has he already fled to the outer islands?" Situ Guangzong asked on behalf of them all.

"No. He is on the Middle Island right now, and living in grand style," Nantian Jiguang said with a faint shake of his head.

"How is that possible?" Situ Guangzong and the others exchanged looks of bewilderment. The entire Snow Sword Sect had thrown its full strength into the hunt; even though many hands had been withdrawn these past few days, the citywide search had never stopped. If this martial brute Ling Yi was still on the Middle Island, how could he be living in grand style without their knowing? The bounty the Snow Sword Sect had posted was by no means small.

"It is the simple truth. The reason he has been able to slip past your sect's eyes is simple enough: he has changed his face, that is all," Nantian Jiguang said with a curl of his lips and a faint smile.

"Does Dean Nantian mean that the martial brute Ling Yi now wears a human-skin mask and has taken on another appearance?" Situ Guangzong and the others looked at one another.

Such a thing was hardly novel; some within the Snow Sword Sect had speculated as much before. But even so, without knowing what appearance he had assumed, they had no way to counter it at all.

"Quite the contrary. The martial brute Ling Yi was nothing but a human-skin mask; his present face is his original one. As for his current identity, you gentlemen have doubtless heard of it. Elder Situ, that day at the Island Master's Pavilion on Zhongding Mountain, you may even have come face to face with him. He is the brother-in-law whom the Heaven-Coursing Way championed publicly, and at the same time the proprietor of the Heaven-Elixir Pavilion—Wei Zhao." Nantian Jiguang finally revealed the truth.

"That Wei Zhao is the martial brute Ling Yi?" Situ Guangzong and the others were startled. With the combined influence of the Heaven-Coursing Way and the Heaven-Elixir Pavilion, Wei Zhao's name had by now gradually entered the sight of the Middle Island's mainstream circles; no small number of people had heard of him.

"Does Dean Nantian have proof?" Wei Feng asked in a heavy voice. He was not well acquainted with Nantian Jiguang, and hearing such a thing so abruptly could not but rouse his suspicions. After all, if Wei Zhao and the martial brute Ling Yi really were one and the same, then some of the things he had done before became rather baffling.

Eloping with Xueli, for instance: if the martial brute Ling Yi had possessed so powerful a patron as the Heaven-Coursing Way, then to carry Xueli off he would have needed at most a single word. The Snow Sword Sect could never have gainsaid him over a mere little serving maid—so why go to the trouble of changing his face and sneaking about to stage an elopement?

"Of course I have proof. We would never stoop to deceiving your esteemed sect in such a matter—what benefit could that possibly bring us?" Nantian Jiguang exchanged a glance with Si Haitao and the others, and then recounted the whole affair of Wei Zhao from beginning to end, including the evidence establishing that Wei Zhao was the martial brute Ling Yi.

Fighting his way up from the mundane world, reaching Cloud Terrace Island in less than a year, befriending a top-tier expert of the Heaven-Coursing Way, and now opening the Heaven-Elixir Pavilion to become a proprietor raking in gold by the day—Wei Zhao's legendary course left them all staring open-mouthed. Situ Qian in particular had her eyes fairly shining.

Had she known that thing was so formidable, she never should have sent him off to see Xueli back then; she ought to have kept him for herself. With such power and such backing, and with so many beauties around him besides, his prowess in that quarter must surely be heaven-defying—he was a prize son-in-law such as one might search the whole world over and never find!

Ah, what a waste! Situ Qian lamented even as she grew wanton, fantasizing about herself in bed with Wei Zhao; her body stirred at once, and she could not help secretly twisting and shifting twice, until even her breathing began to come quick and short.

Amid his shock, Wei Shenjin noticed Situ Qian's lewd manner. No need to ask what the shameless woman was thinking—he was so enraged that his fists clenched tight, the knuckles cracking with a pop-pop-pop. This brazen bitch who had been ridden by a thousand men!