Chapter 2484 — Wait for Me
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"This… well, it happened like this…" Under the gaze of so many cultivators who had witnessed the whole affair, the Yellow-rank disciple dared not let his tongue run loose; he could only speak the truth. To brazenly call a stag a horse before them all would leave the Cultivators' Trade Association with no credibility left to speak of.
After all, everyone knew that the Trade Association's earnings from invitation letters were only one part of its income; the bulk of its profits came from commodity auctions. And the reason those auctions were so sought after by the multitudes was precisely the Association's fairness and impartiality, its refusal to sell counterfeit goods, and its sterling reputation.
Otherwise, to whom would they sell their auction lots? It was true that these two disciples, while guarding the gate, extorted bribes from cultivators seeking entry, and that this Heaven-rank elder, as their master, had turned a blind eye and tacitly permitted it.
In truth, it was also because no real trouble or disturbance had ever come of it. The cultivators eager to enter the market had no choice but to accept it—who would dare push back the way Wei Zhao had? As a rule they feared the guards' strength and were unwilling to forfeit their chance to trade inside the market, so they swallowed their anger and endured.
As for high-rank cultivators, the two guards did not dare provoke them at will, and that was why things had remained peaceful all along. Who could have imagined that today they would run into Wei Zhao, a man with a burr in his hide, who, after the clash, struck and killed outright? Those two guards had kicked a steel plate.
Listening to the Yellow-rank disciple, the vice president—that Heaven-rank elder—wore a face of indescribable gloom. He had, in fact, already suspected that these two guards, having failed to extort a bribe, deliberately made things hard for Wei Zhao and provoked him into killing them. Yet he was not entirely certain, for in his impression his two disciple-guards had always known their limits, generally choosing Yellow-rank and Mystic-rank cultivators as their marks; they rarely troubled even cultivators above the late Mystic rank, let alone an expert of the Earth rank—and a peak mid-Earth-rank expert at that. That made it even less likely.
So he had previously clung to a shred of hope, telling himself his two disciple-guards could not be that foolish. If the conflict had arisen over something else—even if his own disciples had struck first—it would still be Wei Zhao who had killed them, and he would have had grounds to seek revenge. But now it appeared that they truly had tried to extort a bribe from Wei Zhao, and only then, driven to desperation, had he struck.
Although the vice president had already come to hate Wei Zhao in his heart, before so many witnesses he naturally could do nothing to him. He could only wait until the Cultivators' Trade Fair was over, and then find an opportunity to act.
"So that is how it was—then I have wronged this young brother." The Heaven-rank vice president regarded Wei Zhao with a mild countenance and nodded. "My apologies. On behalf of the Cultivators' Trade Association, I offer you my apology, young brother. This is a problem caused by our own lax management. Even if you had not acted, young brother, once we had investigated and confirmed the matter, we would have purged our own house of these two disciples."
"That is most reassuring." Wei Zhao nodded, wearing an outward look of great admiration, while inwardly he cursed the old man roundly. This old fellow can certainly play the good man—he probably hates me to death by now, doesn't he?