Chapter 4631 — Departure for West Island

With the aptitudes these people had, if Wei Zhao had been around the past two years, Xiao Che and the others would likely already be fine Golden Core cultivators. They would not still be lingering at the Foundation Establishment stage as they were now.

Wei Zhao himself had already reached the peak of the early Nascent Soul stage. The gap in strength was too great—these little brothers could no longer serve as his trusted right and left arms; instead, they would become burdens.

So no matter what, Wei Zhao had to find every possible way to raise everyone's strength as quickly as possible, and the most basic requirement of all was to guarantee a sufficient supply of pills. Even when Wei Zhao was absent, that supply must never be cut off.

Once everyone was properly settled, Wei Zhao's next order of business was to set out for Zhong Island. Although Hong Zhong could help ship the pills there, Wei Zhao felt it necessary to make the trip in person. For one thing, he might have a chance to see Zhang Lifeng; for another, it was time to visit Tianchan and Xueli.

Having made up his mind, Wei Zhao first went to the Hong Chamber of Commerce and had Hong Zhong send the pills ahead. At the same time, he asked for a chamber pass. With that in hand, his flying spirit beast would be able to take off and land at the Zhong Island docks. It still would not be allowed into the airspace above Zhong Island, but that alone made things far more convenient.

Leaving the Hong Chamber of Commerce, Wei Zhao headed for the Spirit Beast Grounds, the place where the Sandie Pavilion specially bred and kept spirit beasts. These days the spirit bird was quite the tyrant there, living a very comfortable life indeed.

Never mind that the spirit bird had no powerful innate racial talent to speak of—it made up for it with its high rank. There were only a handful of Nascent Soul stage spirit beasts in the entire North Island Spirit Beast Grounds. If any beast dared to stir up trouble with it, it could simply run circles around the poor thing until it collapsed from dizziness. Who would dare provoke it?

Before that, however, Wei Zhao still had to go see Shangguan Lan'er, say hello and goodbye, and hand her the pills he had just refined. She was one of his own, after all. Her fine background was her own business, but Wei Zhao could not play favorites and leave her out.

What Wei Zhao had not expected was to run into Shangguan Lan'er halfway there. He called out to her from a distance with a smile. "Oh? What a coincidence—I was just looking for you!"

"Hehe, I was just looking for you too!" Shangguan Lan'er lit up at the sight of Wei Zhao and came skipping over, unable to hide her delight. "Little Junior Brother, you're going back to work!"

"Back to work? For what?" Wei Zhao blinked.

"Have you forgotten all about your position?" Shangguan Lan'er rolled her eyes at him.

"My position? Second Senior Brother, inner sect steward of the Qingyun Pavilion?" Wei Zhao said, puzzled.

"What? You're the Island Flower's personal bodyguard—did you forget?" Shangguan Lan'er pouted.

"Pfft..." Wei Zhao burst out laughing. Only then did he recall that when Ning Xuefei first came to North Island, Shangguan Tianxia had bestowed on him the post of envoy reception officer. Plainly speaking, it made him the two girls' personal guard. But that business was long over—nearly two years ago now. Surely a temporary post so obviously meant as a joke did not still count?

"All right! Little Junior Brother, hurry up and get your things together—you're coming with me, your senior sister, to West Island to guard the flower!" Shangguan Lan'er announced impatiently.

"West Island? Guard the flower?" Wei Zhao grew more baffled by the moment.

"That's right—Ning Xuefei's birthday is coming up soon!" Shangguan Lan'er said excitedly, then complained, "Last year I didn't even go to her birthday because you had vanished without a trace, Little Junior Brother. But this year I absolutely have to be there! And now you're back, Little Junior Brother—hee hee, heaven is helping me!"

"So that's what this is about. Well then, I don't have much to get ready. When do we leave?" Wei Zhao nodded in immediate agreement.

His relationship with Ning Xuefei was quite good, and since Shangguan Lan'er had brought it up, there was no harm in agreeing. There was nothing urgent on Zhong Island for the moment anyway; he could go after returning from West Island. Attending a birthday banquet alone should not take much time.

"Today!" As soon as Shangguan Lan'er said it, she pulled Wei Zhao toward Hualan Residence. He had nothing to pack, but she was another matter—there was a whole pile of birthday gifts prepared for Ning Xuefei alone, to say nothing of all her own bits and pieces. Naturally, all of that fell to Wei Zhao, her capable flower-guard, to carry.

Arriving at Hualan Residence, Wei Zhao could only take up the role of a beast of burden with a look of helpless resignation.

When Shangguan Tianxia learned that Wei Zhao was willing to serve as her personal guard, he naturally had no objection. He merely chuckled, gave a few instructions, and then went off to his study to practice calligraphy, seemingly not worried in the least about his granddaughter going to West Island.

Wei Zhao could not help but wonder privately: was this a hundred percent trust in him, or had other protective measures been arranged? Shangguan Lan'er was the little princess of North Island. If he were the only one accompanying and protecting her on a trip to West Island, that seemed a little far-fetched, did it not?

It was not until the very moment before Shangguan Lan'er bade Shangguan Tianxia farewell that the old man cleared up Wei Zhao's doubts. Though on the surface Wei Zhao alone was the capable hand accompanying her this time, two figures of formidable strength and status would be following in secret.

One was Shangguan Tianxia's trusted subordinate, Lan Tieshan, the senior inner sect steward of the Chongtian Pavilion. The other was someone Wei Zhao knew rather well: Gongyang Jun, the head of the Law Enforcement Hall!

Openly and secretly combined, there were only three of them, which looked rather thin. But any one of them, sent out alone, was a powerful figure who could make the entire North Island Sandie Pavilion tremble—especially Gongyang Jun, who was widely acknowledged as destined one day to stand at the very summit of North Island.

No wonder Shangguan Tianxia was so at ease. With these three protecting her together, if anything still happened to Shangguan Lan'er, it could only mean one thing: some power had declared full-scale war on North Island!

Of course, such a thing was impossible. Though the North Island Sandie Pavilion had never been especially aggressive, it did hold sole dominion over an entire island. No matter how powerful a force might be, anyone wanting to challenge it would first have to weigh the matter very carefully.

After bidding farewell to Shangguan Tianxia, the party set out at once from Hualan Residence for the North Island docks.

At the front walked Shangguan Lan'er, light of step and high of spirits. Next came Little Curly Bear, huffing and puffing as it dragged along a giant pair of scissors, casting the occasional unfriendly glance around—every inch the loyal canine defending its mistress. Last of all came Wei Zhao, wearing a look of utter resignation, buried under bundles and parcels piled into a small mountain. What kind of dashing flower-guard was this? He was nothing but ready-made free labor.

As for those two other guards of exceedingly lofty origins—well, since it had been said they were protecting in secret, they naturally would not appear within sight. Otherwise Wei Zhao might have had it a little easier, with at least two more backs to carry the load... (To be continued.)