Chapter 4924 — You Don't Even Share Your Father's Surname?
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
But not this time. Their earlier exchange had laid the gap in strength between them bare for all to see. Chang Laiting was no fool; arrogant as he was, he knew he was no match for Wei Zhao. So he could only change tack and directly use his formidable background to crush the man with sheer influence!
"Oh? Aren't you Chang Laiting? We crossed paths just a few days ago—I'm not that forgetful. What else is there?" Wei Zhao gave him a lukewarm glance.
"Hmph, good that you know it. I don't mind telling you—I am the son of Zang Zili, chief alchemist of Dingcheng Academy!" Chang Laiting announced his pedigree with his nose in the air.
As the words fell, a great clamor of discussion erupted around them. The chief alchemist of any academy was a personage of consequence, at minimum one of the academy's top five senior figures—though under normal circumstances, however lofty the chief alchemist's status, he could only rank second, beneath the academy's headmaster.
Dingcheng Academy, however, was a very special case. There, the chief alchemist's status superseded even the headmaster's, for it was an academy devoted chiefly to alchemy—at least half its disciples were alchemists!
It was no exaggeration to say that Dingcheng Academy was the cradle of high-grade alchemists. To become chief alchemist in such an academy carried a weight far beyond that of any ordinary Yellow-Tier academy. In the Yellow-Tier Sea Region of the Eastern Continent, it was practically the banner and standard-bearer of all alchemists—its status and influence were no small matter.
Wei Zhao, however, knew none of this. To be precise, even if he had known, he would not have taken it to heart. After all, even a seventh-grade alchemist like Qing Xuanzi was willing to take him as master. Dingcheng Academy might be a cradle of alchemists, but it could hardly make a seventh-grade alchemist willingly become another's disciple, could it?
"Oh, your father's surname is Zang, but you go by Chang? Are you from a second marriage?" Wei Zhao's attention had snagged on something rather peculiar, and he wore an expression of eager curiosity and gossip.
Chang Laiting nearly spat a mouthful of blood at that. "That's my mother's surname!" he raged.
"Oh, I see. So the chief alchemist of Dingcheng Academy is a woman. My apologies." Wei Zhao smiled with not a shred of sincerity, then obligingly asked, "And your father?"
"Hmph, I'm about to tell you. You'd best plant your feet steady, lest I scare you flat on your back—making a public spectacle of yourself would be far too ugly!" Chang Laiting said with a look of lordly disdain.
"Oh, I'm listening. Don't worry about me—I've always got a big heart. Go ahead and try to scare me!" Wei Zhao smiled faintly, wearing the playful look of a man practically begging to be slapped in the face.
This little bastard really is asking for a beating! Chang Laiting ground his teeth in fury at the sight, yet dared not strike outright, and could only keep up his air of disdainful superiority. "Listen well—my father is the town lord of Dingcheng Town!"
Another gasp of shock rippled through the crowd, but Wei Zhao merely looked enlightened, nodding again and again. "Oh, now I understand. Your Dingcheng Academy is a tiny backwater place—other people's academies are cities, but yours is a town."
Aiya! Chang Laiting was so enraged he nearly coughed up blood, and everyone else around them collapsed in disbelief, staring at Wei Zhao as though he were an alien. Where on earth had this idiot crawled out from, daring to call Dingcheng Academy a tiny backwater place in front of everyone?