Chapter 4550 — Why Didn't You Say So Sooner
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
For high-level cultivators—especially a top-tier spirit beast like Ghost Thing—lifespan, though not endless, was exceedingly long and drawn out. A few years were but a flick of the fingers, gone in the course of a casual seclusion; why risk so much just to fight for those few years, and mangle himself into his present state? By any measure, it hardly seemed worth it.
"Of course I couldn't wait!" Ghost Thing's voice burned with urgency, then he smiled bitterly. "If the spirit beast clan's situation hadn't been so desperate that it singed my very brows, would a man of my temperament ever have swallowed my pride and begged help from a human? Even when I faced the King of Spirit Beasts, I never stooped so low. If I had waited those few years as the old fellow said, I myself would have been fine—but the spirit beast clan would long since have fallen apart. You've seen Vermilion Bird's ambitious posturing for yourself. How could I have waited?"
"That's true enough, but haste makes waste. The way I see it, if you hadn't been so impulsive back then, Senior, and had heeded Zhang Lifeng's counsel to be patient and wait a few more years, things would never have deteriorated to this irredeemable pass. At the very least, with you holding the fort among the spirit beasts, even if Vermilion Bird had installed a puppet as the new King of Spirit Beasts, it could never have covered the sky with one hand and done as it pleased the way it does now," Wei Zhao analyzed.
Before a situation is clear, stillness beats action—that was the lesson of his years of experience. But temperaments differ, and so naturally do styles of handling matters. Had Ghost Thing done as he suggested, he would not have been Ghost Thing at all.
"You're right there. A pity I never met a lad like you back then, or I'd never have sunk to this state. Honestly, your strength may be lacking, boy, but there's really quite a lot about you worth learning," Ghost Thing said with a rueful sigh.
This was no mere courtesy—it was the plain truth. That Wei Zhao could grow at such astonishing speed to his present level in just a few short years was due not only to his talent and fortune, but more crucially to his manner of advancing and retreating with measure. Had anyone else possessed the same talent and fortune, they would likely have been strangled in the cradle long ago.
"Senior, don't mock me. The esteemed former Azure Dragon saying he wants to learn from a mere Golden Core nobody like me—if word got out, I'd be laughed to death." Wei Zhao waved his hand with a smile. After a pause he suddenly said, "By the way, ever since I first set foot on Cloud-Tier Island I've been asking everyone about Zhang Lifeng. Senior, why didn't you say so sooner? You kept silent all that time, and I naturally assumed you'd never met him..." (To be continued..) R527