Chapter 4950 — Settling the Academy Feud
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 3
This had once seemed a distant, unattainable hope. Zhuang Yifan had to exhaust every scheme just to find an Earth-Rank, First-Grade alchemist, let alone a Second-Grade one.
But now Wei Zhao's appearance had given him hope. The man was not yet a ready-made Earth-Rank, Second-Grade alchemist, but if he could refine the Earth-Solidifying Pill within a single day, then he could not be far from Earth-Rank, Second-Grade—one might even say it was only a matter of days!
Wei Zhao smiled noncommittally and changed the subject. "President Zhuang, speaking of which, there is actually a matter on which I would like your help."
"Oh? Master Lin need only give the word. I shall see it done." Far from showing the least hesitation, Zhuang Yifan's eyes lit up. He had been worrying that the favors he had sold Wei Zhao were nowhere near enough—after all, the price of persuading a future Earth-Rank, Second-Grade alchemist to do one's bidding was steep, and if the debt of gratitude ran too shallow, what if Wei Zhao simply refused him outright when the time came?
"Good. This matter really is best suited to President Zhuang. I shall not stand on ceremony, then." Wei Zhao nodded and gestured toward Liu Ziqi and Li Ren, seated among the guests. "President Zhuang is surely aware of the feud between Morning Star Academy and Morning Pride Academy. I am on good terms with both, and it puts me in an awkward position to be caught in the middle. So I wished to ask President Zhuang to step forward and speak to them, to let the two academies set aside old grievances and be reconciled. I wonder if that would be convenient for President Zhuang?"
"But this is a fine thing! There is nothing I like better than playing the peacemaker and earning goodwill on both sides. I have heard of the business between those two academies—how many years has it been now? If you ask me, they should have shaken hands long ago. Master Lin is indeed a man of understanding!" Zhuang Yifan agreed readily and declared with enthusiasm, "Then let it be so: once this Giant's Road trial is over, I shall pay a personal visit to both academies. I trust there is no one who would not do me this courtesy?"
"President Zhuang jests. If you would condescend to come in person, it would be our academy's greatest honor. With you speaking the word, there is no one in the academy who would not comply!" Liu Ziqi and Li Ren were instantly overwhelmed by the favor. They had assumed Zhuang Yifan would at most send someone with a message; never had they imagined he would agree on the spot to come in person. Wei Zhao's face, it seemed, was truly as vast as heaven.
"Heh heh, then I shall trouble President Zhuang." Wei Zhao merely smiled faintly, betraying not the slightest concern over the matter—otherwise, had he been as overwhelmed as Liu Ziqi and Li Ren, all the lofty airs he had put on earlier would have been wasted for nothing.
"What talk of trouble is this? For such a trifle, what is there to speak of trouble? Master Lin, you are treating me as an outsider! Come, let us drink!" Zhuang Yifan, eager to seize the chance to draw closer to Wei Zhao, piled on the kind words and toasted him again and again. Spurred on by him, the mood throughout the hall gradually warmed, and there was indeed something of a victory banquet about it.
And while the company were passing cups back and forth, Bao Zuoliang and Su Kesheng—the two who had slipped away earlier on the back of a flying spirit beast—had already appeared in Dingcheng Town, and had even managed, as they had hoped, to reach the guest-receiving hall of the town lord's mansion.
At this moment, however, both were in a sorry state, still bearing their wounds. Who had told them to force their way into the town lord's mansion? That they had not been beaten to death outright by the mansion guards was already a stroke of luck.