Chapter 2791 — Feng Shihua
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
Wei Zhao was taken aback for a moment. This fellow really is friendly enough, he thought—not a trace of the airs a Heaven Rank expert ought to have. A rare specimen indeed. And that name of his, Shipian—"Poetic Verses"? Why did it sound so much like a man of letters, nothing at all like a cultivator? Then again, the man carried himself with an elegant grace, and there was something of the scholar about him.
Only, something about the man struck Wei Zhao as familiar, as though he had seen him somewhere before. A vague sense of recognition...
Feng Shihua? Of the Feng family? Wei Zhao suddenly thought of Feng Nitian, whose name had come up in those two men's conversation earlier, and his expression shifted slightly. That was it—he must resemble Feng Nitian. Could this man be of the ancient Feng family?
At that thought, Wei Zhao grew wary of him. Harmless as the man appeared, with all the manner of a good-natured gentleman, Wei Zhao was not one to trust appearances alone. If this man knew that Feng Nitian had been crippled by his own hand, might he not strike without warning?
"So it is Young Master Feng. A pleasure," Wei Zhao said, neither warm nor cold, and offered no introduction of his own. Who knew whether the Feng family of today had learned that Ling Yi was in fact Wei Zhao? If they had, would this not be the moment for an open falling-out?
Zhao Qilei, too, saw that Wei Zhao had no wish to make their acquaintance, and so he merely cupped his hands toward Feng Shihua without a word.
"Will you two not join me for dinner? Feng's treat?" Feng Shihua sensed the coldness of the pair but could not guess what had caused it. He had been perfectly warm, had he not? Why did Wei Zhao look straight through him as though he were not there?
"No need. We have only just arrived and must see to our rooms first. Go on ahead and eat," Wei Zhao said evenly.
"This... very well, then." Feng Shihua did not press the matter. Every man has his own inclinations; if the other was unwilling to dine with him, there was nothing to be done. He left with the man who had come down the stairs with him.
Wei Zhao and Zhao Qilei went upstairs. Zhao Qilei was puzzled but asked nothing—if they had been able to hear Feng Shihua speak earlier, then Feng Shihua could very likely hear them now.
Only once they were inside the room—and Zhao Qilei went not to his own but to Wei Zhao's first—did Wei Zhao say, "That Feng Shihua seems to be of the same family as Feng Nitian. The two must be connected somehow."
"Ah?" Zhao Qilei was startled, then thought it over. Was it not so? There was a certain resemblance about their brows and eyes. He had been running with Feng Nitian back at the Ice Palace trial, so he remembered him well; he simply had not made the connection before. Now that Wei Zhao had pointed it out, it came to him at once. "They really do look alike. Could this man... be here for revenge?"
"That I cannot say. It may be that he has simply come for the trial," Wei Zhao said. "From the way he speaks and acts, he seems somewhat naive, without much experience. But a man's face is not his heart—no one can be sure he is not a fool playing wise."
"True enough. In any case, we had best be on our guard," Zhao Qilei said with a nod.
Meanwhile, Feng Shihua had gone with the other man to the inn's dining hall. There were no other eating houses nearby—only the one inside the inn, so there was no other choice.
"Brother Feng, what sort of people were those two? They seemed rather unsociable," said the man with Feng Shihua. He was a wandering cultivator, belonging to no sect or school, and it was no small feat that he had cultivated to the peak of the late Earth Rank. A wanderer of that level who had resisted the worldly temptation to serve as a rich man's guard and instead persevered in bitter cultivation was truly rare.