Chapter 4843 — The Visit
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 3
"Pfft!" Wang Xinyan choked and burst out laughing, at a loss for words, while everyone else wore expressions of indescribable strangeness. Qing Xuanzi really could let go of his dignity when he chose: taking Wei Zhao as his master was one thing, but now he had thrown caution to the winds and addressed Wang Xinyan as Uncle-Master. What, then, was he going to call Ling Yuanqing and the rest?
Wei Zhao watched with an amused smile, never having guessed that Qing Xuanzi had it in him to become such a clown. Here was a seventh-rank alchemist of advanced years, and few men of his standing could unbend so thoroughly.
At first everyone had been somewhat stiff on account of rank and station—after all, Ling Yuanqing and the others were the Academy's titans, and it would hardly do for them to let down their guard before the younger generation. But after this little interlude, the atmosphere lightened all at once, and for a rare moment there was laughter and cheerful talk on every side, drawing startled glances from the Academy disciples passing by.
Among them all, however, only Chai Laoshi could not relax. With his cautious, deferential nature, it would have been asking too much of him to feel at ease in the presence of Ling Yuanqing and the others.
"Steward Chai, why don't you head back to the Hong Clan Trading Company first? I'll come find you," Wei Zhao said, seeing his discomfort.
"Yes, yes—then I'll take my leave." Chai Laoshi breathed an immediate sigh of relief. Standing among so many titans and grandees was truly crushing; far from chatting and laughing freely, he had been so tense he could scarcely draw breath.
But once he had left the Morning Star Academy and returned to the commercial district within the city, Chai Laoshi's head came up again. After all, he now represented the Hong Clan Trading Company—a company destined to be the foremost in Morning Star City!
Having watched Chai Laoshi out of sight, Wei Zhao and his party strode through the gates of the Morning Star Academy. When he had first come to Morning Star City, Wei Zhao had been at his wits' end over how to get into the Academy; now, with so redoubtable a disciple as Qing Xuanzi, everything had become effortless and pleasant.
The Academy's titans like Ling Yuanqing all regarded Wei Zhao with new eyes, and as for the ordinary disciples, they dared only watch from a distance, not venturing to come near—what if they should displease one of the grandees standing about?
Chatting and laughing all the way, the party finally set aside the question of seniority that Qing Xuanzi had stirred up and agreed that each would go by his own reckoning; otherwise there would be no sorting it out at all.
Wei Zhao was Huang Xiaotao's senior fellow disciple and Qing Xuanzi's master, while Huang Xiaotao was the Holy Nun of the Eastern Sea's personal disciple—reckoned that way, the whole thing was a hopeless tangle that not even a lifetime would unravel. Each would simply follow the reckoning he was accustomed to.
After walking some way together, the party soon dispersed, and Wei Zhao was dragged off by Qing Xuanzi to his pill-refining chamber.
Wang Xinyan and Huang Xiaotao had wanted to come along, but at Wei Zhao's urging they went back with the Holy Nun of the Eastern Sea first; once he was done at Qing Xuanzi's, he would come find the two of them anyway.
As the Academy's chief alchemist, Qing Xuanzi naturally had his residence in the finest spot in the Academy—not only of breathtaking scenery, but steeped in spiritual energy as well.
Following Qing Xuanzi into his pill-refining chamber, Wei Zhao's eyes lit up at once. There was a most ingeniously and uniquely appointed sealed meditation room, set aside especially for refining pills; beside it stood an enormous storeroom, stocked with all manner of rare and wondrous pill-refining ingredients.