Chapter 4611 — About to Need an Amputation
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 3
They watched helplessly as Ma Dangfeng and his men fled in disgrace. The rest stood speechless for a long while, every one of them still gripped by a sense of unreality, exchanging glances despite themselves. A showdown between the previous and current new champions, hyped to the heavens—and it was over just like that...
Before this, Ma Dangfeng had always been an invincible figure in their eyes, and public opinion had been almost unanimously of the view that he would effortlessly crush Wei Zhao, the former new champion. The man himself had bellowed it everywhere, in public and in private alike, swearing up and down that he would grind Wei Zhao underfoot and make him eat shit. So how was it that when it came to the real thing, he turned out to be the sort to be finished off in a single move?
Looking at Wei Zhao's calm, unruffled air, everyone present could not help swallowing hard. More than half of them were in fact Threefold Pavilion disciples, and many were inner sect disciples whose seniority ran far deeper than Wei Zhao's—yet at this moment they no longer dared even to meet his eyes on level terms. They were looking up at him, wholly and utterly.
By the unwritten rules of the Threefold Pavilion, reaching the Golden Core stage automatically admitted one to the inner sect; and once a disciple's strength reached the Nascent Soul stage, he could rise above his fellow disciples to seek the posts of managing senior brother and elder—or at the very least become a big name in one of the important halls.
And Wei Zhao, a transcendent figure who could kill a mid-stage Nascent Soul expert in a single blow, was in everyone's eyes a shoo-in for the Pavilion's upper echelon. Whether he would become an elder or a hall boss in the days to come depended entirely on his own preference. At the thought that Wei Zhao might one day be their direct superior, the crowd naturally felt they ought to act deferential and strive to leave a good impression on him.
"Pavilion Master Ku San, it's been a long time—how have you been lately?" At that moment someone in the crowd finally came to his senses and, plastering on a fawning smile, stepped forward to greet Miserable Senior Brother.
The others were no fools either. Seeing this, they too quickly caught on, and one after another followed suit, grinning as they crowded in to ingratiate themselves with the people around Wei Zhao. They were not close to Wei Zhao himself and dared not approach him lightly to strike up a conversation—but the people around him were another matter.
It was not only Miserable Senior Brother; Lu Bianren, Xiao Che, Qiao Hongcai, and Li Zhengming—not one of them escaped either, and in an instant a crowd had gathered around each of them. After all, one does not strike a smiling face, and though they were vexed at heart, they could not show it. They could only force wry smiles and put up with these people.
Wei Zhao himself, the man of the hour, had for the moment no one bold enough to come curry favor with him. Though he was the one everyone most wished to please, the crowd still had a measure of self-awareness: to speak with an existence capable of killing a mid-stage Nascent Soul expert in a single blow, one needed at least to be of the Nascent Soul level. These people present simply did not qualify—they were not even on the same plane, so how could they possibly hold a conversation?
Making a fool of oneself would not only invite ridicule, but might well breed disgust in Wei Zhao's heart—that truly would be courting death, and when the time came one would not even be able to cry.
Wei Zhao watched this scene with a smile. It was no bad thing that Miserable Senior Brother and the others should be so popular, and he was glad to see it. More friends means more roads; once one has sufficient strength of one's own, a wide web of connections only makes it easier to get things done. As for catching up with everyone, there was no harm in putting that off a little while longer.