Chapter 4191 — The Third Pavilion Master of the Welcome Pavilion
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"Third Pavilion Master of the Welcome Pavilion?" Shangguan Lan'er tilted her head and thought it over, then reluctantly nodded. "That's more like it. Grandfather, you can't go back on your word, you know. Let's pinky-swear!"
"Fine, we'll pinky-swear. That old saying about daughters being outward-facing is truer than true." Shangguan Tianxia shook his head with a laugh of helpless exasperation. "But we agree on this first: this stays between you and me. You mustn't breathe a word of it to Wei Zhao ahead of time, understand?"
"I know!" Shangguan Lan'er stuck out her tongue cutely.
Several days later, the annual year-end tournament of the inner-sect disciples finally raised its curtain.
Following the notice he had just received, Wei Zhao made his way to the tournament grounds. The place was no stranger to him—it was North Island Arena, where he had once slain Su Zhaohe in a single move.
What surprised Wei Zhao immensely, however, was that this time he was not the only newcomer from the Welcome Pavilion taking part in the inner-sect tournament—Meng Zhou was there as well!
Gazing at the white-haired figure ahead in the distance, Wei Zhao was secretly startled. This fellow's strength had somehow reached the early Golden Core stage without his noticing. How was that possible?
Had his golden finger not been infallible, Wei Zhao would have suspected his own eyes were playing tricks on him. Lately Meng Zhou had been inseparable from Xu Lingchong, and Wei Zhao had rarely run into him at the Welcome Pavilion—it had been quite a long while since he had seen the man.
But the last time Xu Lingchong brought his people to corner him, Meng Zhou had been present too, and back then the fellow's strength was merely the mid Foundation Establishment stage. Now, less than two months later, he had become an early Golden Core expert—was that not a bit too uncanny?
Wei Zhao himself was a precedent for such madness, true, but his own rise had been forged by a succession of fortuitous encounters, top-grade elixirs, and all manner of heaven-defying golden fingers. Surely one could not claim Meng Zhou had that many hidden cards as well?
What astonished Wei Zhao even more was that Meng Zhou was now walking alongside Xu Lingchong, and amid their conversation, the word "dual cultivation" seemed faintly to come up.
Dual cultivation? Wei Zhao was instantly intrigued. The two of them were inseparable, always in each other's company—it did rather look that way. But the problem was, both of them were men! Even if Xu Lingchong had been snipped, that at most made him neither male nor female, not a woman by any stretch. How could the two of them dual cultivate? What a bizarre puzzle!
Beyond that, seeing Meng Zhou also taking part in the inner-sect tournament actually set Wei Zhao's mind at ease. It meant that even if his being forced into the tournament truly was Xu Lingchong's doing, this young master Xu at least had not yet reached the point of covering the sky with one hand—otherwise there would have been no need to drag Meng Zhou along as a foil.
Moreover, Wei Zhao actually felt little resistance to the inner-sect tournament itself. The core inner-sect disciples were all Golden Core experts, and this was a rare chance for real combat experience—he could not have asked for more.
Perhaps once the inner-sect tournament ended, the opportunity for a breakthrough would arrive, and he would surmount the bottleneck in one stroke to become an expert at the peak of the early Golden Core stage. That would be a fine thing indeed!
Arriving at North Island Arena, he found several dozen people already scattered across the surrounding stands, each of them standing like a deep pool or a mountain, not to be taken lightly. These were plainly all Golden Core experts.
There should be no idlers or riffraff here at such a time. Wei Zhao surmised that everyone present must be core disciples of the Sandie Pavilion taking part in this inner-sect tournament.