Chapter 4581 — How Could This Be
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"So that means Jia Mufan has already decided to back our leader Wei Zhao?" Xiao Che's heart stirred. This was a rare piece of good news—after all, in the Azure Cloud Pavilion, Jia Mufan was a true heavyweight, a figure whose standing was no lower than that of some of the pavilion's elders, and in some respects even higher.
"It certainly looks that way." Lu Bianren nodded, but then frowned in puzzlement. "But why would he choose this? If Junior Brother Lin had already returned, his choice wouldn't be strange at all. Yet right now Junior Brother Lin's fate is unknown—isn't he afraid that making his move now will provoke that arrogant, overbearing Ma Dangfeng?"
"I think the one he's betting on isn't really Leader Wei Zhao at all, but someone else entirely." Li Zhengming lowered his voice.
"Who, then?" Lu Bianren and Xiao Che asked in unison.
"The master of the Soaring Heaven Pavilion—Shangguan Tianxia!" Li Zhengming's answer was startling, yet on closer thought, it fell squarely within reason.
Wei Zhao was close to Shangguan Lan'er—that was known to everyone in the Threefold Pavilion. What was more, he was the prodigy Shangguan Tianxia had publicly singled out and championed. So, for all intents and purposes, everyone had already spontaneously attached the name Shangguan to Wei Zhao. Which meant, by the same logic, that offending Wei Zhao was offending Shangguan Tianxia, and currying favor with Wei Zhao was currying favor with Shangguan Tianxia.
"By your analysis, Zhengming, Senior Brother Jia really is aiming at something enormous. But then again, if even a figure like him couldn't lay claim to that seat, there's likely no one in the world who could." Lu Bianren let out a long breath, genuinely moved.
Xiao Che nodded along beside him. Though nothing was said aloud, they all now understood what Jia Mufan was after.
Ordinarily, the senior brother in charge of the Azure Cloud Pavilion's inner court would have no point of contact whatsoever with a pavilion master like Shangguan Tianxia. There was only one exception: he had set his sights on the seat of Azure Cloud Pavilion Master itself.
By the rules handed down from the ancestors, anyone who wished to become master of any one of the Threefold Pavilion's three halls had to pass a resolution of the North Island Council of Elders, and above all had to secure the support of the masters of the other two halls. Not one could be lacking.
Given Jia Mufan's current strength and standing, the seat of Azure Cloud Pavilion Master was still far beyond his reach, but with his seniority and his credentials, once his strength was sufficient, there was no reason he couldn't make a proper contest of it. Jia Mufan was preparing for a rainy day.
Lu Bianren, Xiao Che, and Li Zhengming talked it over and sighed a while longer before they each went their separate ways. As for their current strength and standing, they were still a long way off from Jia Mufan, let alone from anything like the seat of Azure Cloud Pavilion Master.
In any case, Jia Mufan's choice was a good thing for all of them—it amounted to gaining a powerful ally. What they had to do now was heal their wounds and cultivate diligently, and when Wei Zhao returned, repay blood with blood!
………………
The South Island. The Five Venoms Swamp.
Standing on the broad back of the Five Fiends Dragon, Wei Zhao had been cultivating amid the Five Elements killing aura for over three full months. As before, he had recently begun to notice that the tempering effect of the Five Elements killing aura here was steadily weakening—at the very least, it was nowhere near as rapid as in the beginning.
Meanwhile, the fruit of those three months was this: Wei Zhao's strength had successfully broken through from the early Nascent Soul stage to the very peak of the early Nascent Soul stage!