Chapter 4618 — A Harmonious Banquet
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
The banquet began. Everyone sat quietly watching Wei Zhao, waiting for him, the host and center of it all, to deliver the opening words. Wei Zhao's smiling gaze swept slowly across every face, and only then did he finally speak: "It has been nearly two years since we parted. Seeing that everyone is well brings me great joy—there is nothing more important than this. A person ought to be content with what he has. Come, let us raise our cups to our long-awaited reunion. Cheers!"
"Cheers!" Everyone laughed and lifted their cups high, and even little Juanjuan the bear drained its cup in proper fashion. Of course, what it drank was not spirit wine but the spirit-fruit juice everyone had especially prepared for it and Shangguan Lan'er—the drunken frenzy of the Juanjuan bear clan was no laughing matter. If the little thing got drunk on a single cup, the joke would truly get out of hand...
"Little Junior Brother, hurry and tell us about your time on South Island—I can't wait!" Shangguan Lan'er said at once, impatiently.
"Yes, yes, Leader, tell us quickly! We're all waiting to hear about your legendary experiences!" Qiao Hongcai and the others chimed in as well. Up until now, it had basically been Wei Zhao asking about their situation; now it was time for the tables to turn.
"Indeed, this old man is quite curious as well about how you managed to escape from the hands of the Old Sect of West Mountain, Young Hero Lin. Had you returned a few days later, I was already preparing to make the trip to South Continent myself. All this time Chai Laoshi kept saying he could find no word of you, and I began to think he was a fence-sitter who, seeing how things stood, had developed second thoughts. I was just about to go give him a proper interrogation—thank goodness you returned today, or I would have wronged a good man." Hong Zhong laughed along from the side.
Hearing this, Wei Zhao could not help but feel touched. South Continent was universally acknowledged as a land of trouble, a place ordinary people would not go without special reason. Especially for a personage of Hong Zhong's illustrious standing—to go to South Continent in person would mean risking his life.
Because it would inevitably give his enemies and rivals an opening. In North Island and Central Island they would not dare strike from the shadows, but once in South Continent they could act openly and without the slightest scruple; a single word would easily excuse them afterward. Even if they took the opportunity to kill Hong Zhong, there would be no lingering consequences—after all, murder and arson were far too commonplace in South Continent, and such matters could not even be investigated.
"Heh heh. Then where would you like me to begin? The events before I ran into the Old Sect of West Mountain—you should all know about those already, no?" Wei Zhao laughed. He knew North Island had always had people gathering intelligence on him—not only ears from Qingyun Pavilion, but likely from Chongtian Pavilion as well. Otherwise Shangguan Tianxia would not have known his movements so clearly.
"Start from the beginning!" Shangguan Lan'er rushed to say. "I only know some general news about you, Little Junior Brother, but the specifics are quite unclear. And also—how come Sister Xiaotao didn't come back with you?"
"Eh? You still don't know about Xiaotao?" Wei Zhao was slightly taken aback. Huang Xiaotao's affairs had caused quite a stir in South Continent. Granted, it was a world away from here, but surely some word would have drifted over?
"No idea." The others exchanged glances and shook their heads. In truth, they had found it strange from the moment they saw Wei Zhao, only they had been too excited to ask. After all, none of them had any personal ties with Huang Xiaotao—they had merely met her a few times. Only Shangguan Lan'er was relatively close to her. So ordinarily they paid attention only to news of Wei Zhao and never went out of their way to inquire about Huang Xiaotao.