Chapter 4632 — Two Guards
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
Amid their banter, Wei Zhao and Shangguan Lan'er returned to where they had first come aboard. By now the cargo on the docks had been loaded almost completely, and the various parties bound for West Island had all taken their places, ready to set sail at any moment.
A final crowd came surging in from the Cloud-Climbing Ladder, and Wei Zhao suddenly noticed that, for some reason, a circle had been deliberately left open in their midst. One careful look, and his heart skipped a beat.
In the middle stood two figures. One was dressed all in black, his bearing utterly unremarkable, and he had not spoken a single word from first to last—and yet he could not be hidden, for he blazed like the sun. This was Gongyang Jun, the foremost of North Island's new generation.
Besides Gongyang Jun, there was another man in that empty circle, robed voluminously in blue from head to toe. By his looks he too was a youth of under thirty, though the air about his brow was far gentler than Gongyang Jun's. If Gongyang Jun was cold and aloof, keeping all comers a thousand li at bay, this man was nowhere near so forbidding. Yet what others felt from him was less gentleness than plainness—the sort of face that is hard to pick out of a crowd.
Even so, the people around him had still consciously cleared a wide berth, and the deference shown him was in no way inferior to Gongyang Jun's. This was the senior disciple and steward of the Chongtian Pavilion's inner court—Lan Tieshan.
The post of senior disciple and steward of the Chongtian Pavilion's inner court marked, by and large, the highest standard among the Sandie Pavilion's disciples; there could not be much difference.
While Wei Zhao was sizing up Gongyang Jun and Lan Tieshan, the two in turn glanced his way, though they withdrew their eyes at once, wearing the same unsmiling, silent look, as if none of this had anything to do with them. A moment later they had melted into the crowd without a trace.
"Weren't they supposed to be guarding us in secret? Why are they showing themselves so openly?" Wei Zhao muttered. By their own conduct the two were indeed anything but showy, yet the behavior of those around them made it plain that their boarding the ship was already known to all and had long since caught the eyes of the attentive.
"Hee hee, those two have always been like that. Even if you told them to act in secret, they would never make a point of hiding their tracks—sneaking about simply isn't their style. Little Junior Brother, don't think Senior Brother Lan is any less proud than Senior Brother Gongyang just because he isn't as icy; his pride is not one whit inferior. My grandfather said so, you know." Shangguan Lan'er explained from the side.
"I see." Wei Zhao could not help a laugh at that, though it was not hard to understand. Gongyang Jun and Lan Tieshan alike were dragons among men; their pride came from their formidable self-assurance, so such airs were only natural.
As he was pondering Gongyang Jun and Lan Tieshan, Wei Zhao's peripheral vision suddenly caught two familiar figures. When he saw them clearly, he curled his lip at once—Xu Lingchong, that idiot, with Kang Jingming, his sycophantic little sidekick, trailing along.
"What are those two doing here? Don't tell me they're going to Ning Xuefei's birthday banquet too?" Wei Zhao knitted his brows slightly. (To be continued.)