Chapter 4597 — A Provocation
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
For all his formidable strength, and for all that he seemed to be the man of the hour of late, Ma Dangfeng's circumstances were nowhere near as glorious as outsiders imagined—especially before the likes of Xu Lingchong and his crowd, where he was as wretched and stifled as could be.
As the lowest-ranked among them, he dared not defy a single word from Xu Lingchong or, for that matter, any of the others; all he could do was obey meekly.
And this time in particular, Xu Lingchong had saddled him with an utterly rotten task, so that he had been stewing in a bellyful of rage already. For Lu Bianren to cross his path at precisely this moment was nothing other than a ready-made punching bag delivered to his hand!
Of course, willful as Ma Dangfeng's conduct might appear, this time he had another purpose beyond simply picking a fight with Lu Bianren to blow off steam—and that purpose was the very task Xu Lingchong had just assigned him.
Every disciple, upon entering the inner sect, was required to undertake trial missions at regular intervals. This time Xu Lingchong's order to Ma Dangfeng was to take on a trial mission somewhere near South Island, and use the opportunity to thoroughly investigate Wei Zhao's movements.
When the order had first come down, Ma Dangfeng had nearly gone mad, and only with a great effort had he kept himself from turning on the spot. Mother of hell—here he was, a top-tier new king in his own right, and he was to travel ten thousand li to South Island on a mission? Was his brain waterlogged or what?
Unfortunately, Ma Dangfeng might be the top new king whom all the stars of the Azure Cloud Pavilion gathered round to honor, but before the likes of Xu Lingchong and his crowd he did not count for a fart. Never mind turning on them to their faces—let him so much as grumble behind their backs, and the moment word got out he would be dead without even a place to be buried. Lend Ma Dangfeng a hundred gallbladders and he still would not dare risk it.
To have to travel ten thousand li to South Island in person, all to investigate the whereabouts of a Wei Zhao whose life or death was unknown—such a rotten business would sour anyone's mood, and anyone in his shoes would be cursing up a storm.
Xu Lingchong knew as well that the business was something of an imposition, but he had no choice: Wei Zhao had gone so thoroughly to ground of late that even the mysterious figure could not discover his whereabouts, and so the matter had fallen to Xu Lingchong—who, plainly enough, was not about to suffer the hardship himself. Ma Dangfeng, the freshly minted top new king, had without question become the most suitable man for the job.
With a bellyful of rage and nowhere to vent it, Ma Dangfeng gripped Lu Bianren by the throat with one hand. Had there not been so many Azure Cloud Pavilion disciples around pointing and whispering, he might even have been minded to throttle the life out of Lu Bianren on the spot to relieve the fury in his heart.
Held aloft by the neck in Ma Dangfeng's single hand, Lu Bianren was in as wretched a state as could be: unable to catch his breath, his face had already swelled to the color of a pork liver!
He struggled with all his might, yet could not break free in the slightest; the man's hand felt as though cast from iron, and do what he would, it did not budge an inch.
There was no help for it—the gap in their strength was simply too vast, and he had been caught by the throat before he could even react. Unless Ma Dangfeng chose to let go, the standoff could only end with Lu Bianren's throat crushed or, failing that, with him suffocating to death; and from the look of Ma Dangfeng, the man had not the least intention of loosening his grip.
In Ma Dangfeng's eyes Lu Bianren might be a gutless fellow with no real strength, but in the Azure Cloud Pavilion he was, after all, a disciple of some modest renown! (To be continued...)