Chapter 2259 — Continued Attention
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
In theory, this set of alchemist's notes from the Xuandan Sect was worth, by any measure, every last item traded away for it—a few ingredients and one broken cauldron that could never be repaired. To obtain such material in exchange was a bargain.
One had to remember that the Right family had slaved for the Xuandan Sect for years, paying no small price, before this material ever came into their hands.
And there lay the crux of the matter: this material—the Right family already possessed it, so naturally it was worthless. This sort of thing could be copied. What came first was precious; what came later differed not at all from waste paper.
"Never mind. You and Panhu couldn't have known about this material, so I don't blame the two of you!" Old Master Right waved a hand and sighed. "Go on out and ask Panhu—what does Wei Zhao have to say for himself this time?"
"Yes, Father!" Right Zhentian breathed a sigh of relief, yet secretly lamented: the material they had traded back was one the family already owned! As for the broken cauldron and those few ingredients, the Right family hardly cared; they were merely chafing.
Old Master Right and Right Zhentian stepped out. Right Panhu, still oblivious, thought he was about to be commended; he rose to speak, but then caught sight of his grandfather's and his uncle's dark faces and was at once bewildered.
"Panhu, we've been played by Wei Zhao again this time!" Seeing Right Panhu's stunned expression, Right Zhentian spoke up to explain.
"What? What do you mean, played by Wei Zhao again? That can't be!" Right Panhu was baffled. "I inspected that material myself—it is genuinely an alchemist's notebook, and a highly useful one at that. I read a few pages at random and benefited greatly. How could we have been played?"
"There's nothing wrong with the notebook itself; it is a fine piece of work. The trouble is that our family already has this very notebook..." Right Zhentian gave a bitter smile. Even if Panhu had examined it thoroughly before making the exchange with Wei Zhao, he likely would never have spotted the problem.
After all, Panhu had never read this material, and Right Zhentian himself had scarcely read any of it either. He would probably have made the same mistake.
"What? Our family already has it?" Right Panhu blurted out in shock.
"This alchemist's notebook is in fact the Xuandan Sect's alchemist's notebook." Old Master Right sighed and waved a hand. "What puzzles me is how it ended up in Wei Zhao's hands. Tell me carefully—what exactly did you say to Wei Zhao back then? Do not leave out a single detail!"
"Yes..." Right Panhu's heart went cold. He hurriedly began recalling with care, and recited his earlier conversation with Wei Zhao to Old Master Right word for word. "The situation at the time was like this..."
Having heard Right Panhu's account, Old Master Right knitted his brows and was silent for a long while. At last he said, "Wei Zhao is a cunning one indeed! I reckon Wei Zhao must have known this was the Xuandan Sect's alchemist's notebook—that is why he showed it to that Han Jingyi and also traded it to you. Otherwise, if it had truly been Elder Bai's own alchemist's notebook, then even if he traded it to you, he would surely have done so in secret, and would never have let a third person know of it or see it!"
Right Panhu mulled it over carefully, and indeed it was so. This thing was so important—without Elder Bai's permission, would Wei Zhao have shown it to Han Jingyi? The only explanation was that Wei Zhao knew the material was in fact the Xuandan Sect's alchemist's notebook, not Elder Bai's legacy, and that was why he had shown it to Han Jingyi...
And he himself had laughably believed he had caught Wei Zhao in a bind, forcing him to trade the material over for inspection. What a fool he had been!
But such is the way of things: at the time one cannot see clearly, and afterward one is left with nothing but regret.