Chapter 4950 — Settling the Academy Feud

Keep a certain distance from a man like that, and you remain allies standing on equal footing—Zhuang Yifan would have to pay you the proper courtesies whenever he needed something. But let that distance close, and you became his underling; and when a leader calls upon an underling for help, where is the need for courtesy? That is simply the natural order of things!

"Since that is how it is, I shall not press the matter. Master Lin, you have done me an enormous service this time. I shall keep it in my heart, and you will be repaid in full." Zhuang Yifan nodded gravely, then suddenly asked, "Master Lin, I have met Earth-Rank, First-Grade alchemists before, but I have never heard of one who can bring a pill to completion in a single day. I fear you are rather more than a mere Earth-Rank, First-Grade alchemist, are you not?"

Wei Zhao nearly laughed aloud at that. Zhuang Yifan's reaction was cut from precisely the same cloth as Qing Xuanzi's had been back then—except that what he had refined then was a Seventh-Grade Great Return Pill, and he had been suspected of being Earth-Rank, First-Grade; now he had refined an Earth-Rank, First-Grade pill, and he was being suspected of being Earth-Rank, Second-Grade...

A delightful misunderstanding, of course. Wei Zhao would have been far too naive to deny it on the spot. In dealings with a man like Zhuang Yifan, the higher one's standing, the better—an Earth-Rank, Second-Grade alchemist was worth far more to court than an Earth-Rank, First-Grade one, was he not?

Still, Wei Zhao was not fool enough to simply admit to being Earth-Rank, Second-Grade. It would have been an impressive bluff, true—but what if the man promptly proposed that he refine an Earth-Rank, Second-Grade pill?

Wei Zhao had only just become capable of refining Earth-Rank, First-Grade pills. Should he attempt a Second-Grade one, his true qi might not even be strong enough—and would he not then have dug a pit for himself?

"You flatter me. I am still striving toward Earth-Rank, Second-Grade," Wei Zhao said with a faint, inscrutable smile.

That single answer was guaranteed to set the imagination racing. It was the plain truth, yet to ears that did not know better it sounded like modesty—and it plugged the pit neatly at the same time. Surely Zhuang Yifan could not ask a man still striving toward Earth-Rank, Second-Grade to refine an Earth-Rank, Second-Grade pill?

"Just as I thought. Master Lin is truly extraordinary. I have been blind." Zhuang Yifan was at once filled with solemn respect. The standing of an Earth-Rank, First-Grade alchemist alone was enough to put him on a par with Zhuang Yifan himself; and should the man become an Earth-Rank, Second-Grade alchemist, Zhuang Yifan would not even feel worthy of sitting beside him as an equal—at the very least he would have to take the lowest seat at the table.

"Not at all, not at all. I am still a hair's breadth from Earth-Rank, Second-Grade. President Zhuang knows as well as I that at such a level, an insurmountable barrier may appear at any moment. So near and yet so far—a man may spend his whole life and never cross it. There are more such cases than one could ever count." Wei Zhao's manner remained thoroughly "modest."

"Indeed, indeed. But that is true of other men. For a peerless prodigy like you, Master Lin, such a barrier is merely a matter of sooner or later." In his excitement Zhuang Yifan had unmistakably slipped into the honorific. His mind was racing now—if Wei Zhao truly could become an Earth-Rank, Second-Grade alchemist, that would be an immense temptation for him.

With his present cultivation at the late Heaven-Opening stage, barring that mishap when he had forced his way toward the late Heaven-Opening peak, under normal circumstances he no longer had any use for an Earth-Rank, First-Grade pill like the Earth-Solidifying Pill; only a pill of the higher Earth-Rank, Second-Grade could carry him further.

This had once seemed a distant, unattainable hope. Zhuang Yifan had to exhaust every scheme just to find an Earth-Rank, First-Grade alchemist, let alone a Second-Grade one.

But now Wei Zhao's appearance had given him hope. The man was not yet a ready-made Earth-Rank, Second-Grade alchemist, but if he could refine the Earth-Solidifying Pill within a single day, then he could not be far from Earth-Rank, Second-Grade—one might even say it was only a matter of days!

Wei Zhao smiled noncommittally and changed the subject. "President Zhuang, speaking of which, there is actually a matter on which I would like your help."

"Oh? Master Lin need only give the word. I shall see it done." Far from showing the least hesitation, Zhuang Yifan's eyes lit up. He had been worrying that the favors he had sold Wei Zhao were nowhere near enough—after all, the price of persuading a future Earth-Rank, Second-Grade alchemist to do one's bidding was steep, and if the debt of gratitude ran too shallow, what if Wei Zhao simply refused him outright when the time came?

"Good. This matter really is best suited to President Zhuang. I shall not stand on ceremony, then." Wei Zhao nodded and gestured toward Liu Ziqi and Li Ren, seated among the guests. "President Zhuang is surely aware of the feud between Morning Star Academy and Morning Pride Academy. I am on good terms with both, and it puts me in an awkward position to be caught in the middle. So I wished to ask President Zhuang to step forward and speak to them, to let the two academies set aside old grievances and be reconciled. I wonder if that would be convenient for President Zhuang?"

"But this is a fine thing! There is nothing I like better than playing the peacemaker and earning goodwill on both sides. I have heard of the business between those two academies—how many years has it been now? If you ask me, they should have shaken hands long ago. Master Lin is indeed a man of understanding!" Zhuang Yifan agreed readily and declared with enthusiasm, "Then let it be so: once this Giant's Road trial is over, I shall pay a personal visit to both academies. I trust there is no one who would not do me this courtesy?"

"President Zhuang jests. If you would condescend to come in person, it would be our academy's greatest honor. With you speaking the word, there is no one in the academy who would not comply!" Liu Ziqi and Li Ren were instantly overwhelmed by the favor. They had assumed Zhuang Yifan would at most send someone with a message; never had they imagined he would agree on the spot to come in person. Wei Zhao's face, it seemed, was truly as vast as heaven.

"Heh heh, then I shall trouble President Zhuang." Wei Zhao merely smiled faintly, betraying not the slightest concern over the matter—otherwise, had he been as overwhelmed as Liu Ziqi and Li Ren, all the lofty airs he had put on earlier would have been wasted for nothing.

"What talk of trouble is this? For such a trifle, what is there to speak of trouble? Master Lin, you are treating me as an outsider! Come, let us drink!" Zhuang Yifan, eager to seize the chance to draw closer to Wei Zhao, piled on the kind words and toasted him again and again. Spurred on by him, the mood throughout the hall gradually warmed, and there was indeed something of a victory banquet about it.

And while the company were passing cups back and forth, Bao Zuoliang and Su Kesheng—the two who had slipped away earlier on the back of a flying spirit beast—had already appeared in Dingcheng Town, and had even managed, as they had hoped, to reach the guest-receiving hall of the town lord's mansion.

At this moment, however, both were in a sorry state, still bearing their wounds. Who had told them to force their way into the town lord's mansion? That they had not been beaten to death outright by the mansion guards was already a stroke of luck.