Chapter 4948 — Better Not

"Has something happened?" Wei Zhao was briefly taken aback, but before he could push forward and ask what was going on, the crowd ahead spontaneously parted to open a passage.

Then Zhuang Yifan came up to meet him in person, all smiles. "Master Lin is indeed a man of rare punctuality and good faith. Come, come—this way, please!"

The crowd from the other academies erupted at once. Though the great majority of them had already heard about that morning's affair, they had only heard tell of it and never laid eyes on the man himself; only now were they seeing Wei Zhao for the first time—this ruthless character who had toppled Zang Zili despite being outclassed in rank!

And what astonished them even more was that Zhuang Yifan, as the Alliance Chairman, not only refrained from punishing him, but actually lowered himself to come out and welcome him in person—so much so that he had left all these academies of theirs standing outside in the cold wind. This was, quite frankly, treatment reserved for a guest of the highest distinction. Just who on earth was this Wei Zhao?

Wei Zhao himself hardly knew whether to laugh or cry at the sight. So these people had been shut out precisely because of him. To get him to brew pills for him, Zhuang Yifan really had gone to no small trouble in every conceivable regard.

"To have Chairman Zhuang come out to receive me in person—I am truly overwhelmed." Wei Zhao offered the greeting with a smile.

"Not at all, not at all. This is the most basic courtesy due a Mystic-rank alchemist. To say nothing of this Yellow-rank sea region—even in a Mystic-rank sea region it would be the same. Master Lin need not be so modest." Smiling, Zhuang Yifan ushered Wei Zhao into the banquet hall that had long since been made ready. Only after they had entered were the people of the other academies finally able to file in behind them.

Inside the vast banquet hall, a hundred tables of wines and dishes were laid out in full array. After Zhuang Yifan personally led Wei Zhao to the seat of honor at the head table in the very center and sat him down, the rest of the crowd went searching for their own places.

These seats were not to be taken at random—which table belonged to which academy was explicitly prescribed. Top-tier academies like Thunderclap Academy were placed right beside the head table, their every move watched with close attention, while those no-account little academies were simply relegated to the back by the gates, so far off that not a soul could be seen, let alone any sense of presence.

Yet even a top-tier academy like Thunderclap could only be near the head table; it could never claim a seat at it.

The head table had only eight places, long reserved exclusively for Zhuang Yifan and the other high officers of the Academy Alliance. Beyond that, only a very few academy representatives were ever permitted to share a table with them. In times past, had the head of Thunderclap Academy come in person, he might have been allotted a place; but this time only the Libation Officer leading the delegation had come—how could he be qualified to sit at the same table as Zhuang Yifan?

From every direction, the hundreds of tables of people watched the head table's every move. Wei Zhao was without question the focus of their talk, and every face was written over with envy and jealousy.

In this Yellow-rank sea region, to sit at Zhuang Yifan's side was the height of glory—even most academy heads had no such qualification. How much less a young man of no renown like Wei Zhao?

But compared with that, the others who successively took their seats at the head table made their jaws drop even further. Wang Xinyan, Huang Xiaotao, Huo Yudie, Liu Ziqi, Li Ren—just what sort of people were these?!

Precious places that belonged to the Alliance's high officers had been thoroughly occupied by these wholly unrelated figures. What sort of celebration banquet for the Road of Giants was this? It was practically Wei Zhao's family dinner. Had Zhuang Yifan taken leave of his senses?

Arranged the way he had them seated, the other academies might as well not bother going on at all. In days to come, the academies the Alliance favored would surely all be decided by Wei Zhao, and the rest could only stand far off to the side.

The crowd whispered and murmured among themselves, yet openly not one dared show the slightest displeasure. Even Wang Dianxing of Thunderclap Academy, seated not far away, could do no more than shoot Wei Zhao sidelong glances, daring to resent but not to speak.

Thanks to Wei Zhao, he had already been beaten into a daze before his attempt to break through to the Mystic Ascension, which directly caused that attempt to fail. Once the foremost of the Four Young Masters of the Nascent Soul, he now cut a thoroughly good-for-nothing figure, with not a trace left of the proud aura of a favored son of heaven. This one-time genius could be considered utterly ruined.

Wei Zhao did not so much as glance at a defeated opponent like that. It was only the low murmur of discussion around him that made him faintly uncomfortable. Zhuang Yifan's arrangements really were a touch too arbitrary; to make room for the likes of them, he had with a single word shunted the other Alliance high officers off to other tables. This Alliance Chairman was so high-handed that one hardly knew what to say...

Yet this, too, was a manifestation of his formidable strength. Even holding the post of Alliance Chairman, the power he ultimately wielded still had to be won by strength. Were a man of ordinary ability to hold this chair, even if he were not left a figurehead, he would find it very hard to cow so many Yellow-rank academies.

As for Zhuang Yifan, with the terrifying power of his late Earth-Splitting stage, no one in these parts could contend with him at all. The authority of the Alliance Chairman in his hands was naturally domineering in the extreme—by and large, he did whatever he pleased, and no one dared breathe a word against it, only obediently falling in line.

"Master Lin, I entrust this matter of the pill refinement to you. Zhuang offers you a cup—down the hatch first!" Zhuang Yifan paid no heed at all to the astonished looks of those around him and opened straight away with a toast. A dignified Alliance Chairman lowering himself so far, with scarcely a shred of reserve—such a thing was a category all its own.

"Chairman Zhuang is too kind." Wei Zhao drained his cup in turn.

"Master Lin, I know you will surely need a good rest these days, so I have had a separate courtyard prepared here at the branch—the setting is absolutely unmatched, and I trust it will satisfy you. What does Master Lin think?" Zhuang Yifan proposed in a most earnest tone.

"Oh?" Wei Zhao gave him a look of amused appraisal. On the face of it, Zhuang Yifan's pains seemed well meant, and his manner was so earnest as to leave no room for fault; but his intent was hardly as simple as the surface suggested. This was plainly a fear that he might slip away, and so a means of keeping him under soft house arrest at the Alliance branch.

Zhuang Yifan met Wei Zhao's gaze with a smile. He, a dignified Alliance Chairman and a mighty expert of the late Earth-Splitting stage, was lowering himself so far before a junior like Wei Zhao—all, of course, for the sake of the Earth-Solidifying Pill. Some precautionary measures were only necessary; after all, they were utter strangers to each other. Who was to say whether this young man of such formidable background could be relied upon?

Their gazes clashed invisibly. After a moment, Wei Zhao suddenly smiled faintly and shook his head. "Many thanks for Chairman Zhuang's kindness, but I think it won't be necessary." (To be continued.)