Chapter 5003 — Invited to Liven the Drinking
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
"Right, this time someone shamelessly claimed to be Master Qing Xuanzi's master, but his master passed away many years ago. Naturally, Master Qing Xuanzi would be the most furious of all—it makes sense that he would write this letter." Zheng Dongyang was still rationalizing, still not having learned his lesson, and read it aloud for all to hear: "Zheng Dongyang, you dare to slander my master. I hereby expel you. From this day forth, Morning Star Academy has no place for you. No need to come crawling back!"
Silence. Hall One instantly fell into a strange sort of silence. Zheng Dongyang was dumbstruck, and Wu Che and his companions were dumbstruck as well, while Oda Zhou was struggling hard to hold back his laughter. As acting island lord, if he were to burst out laughing in public at a time like this, it would seem a bit undignified.
Pfft! Wei Zhao had no such scruples. He sprayed out a mouthful of wine on the spot, glanced at the petrified Zheng Dongyang, and said to Oda Zhou, "This fellow's day job wouldn't happen to be a comedian, would it? Don't tell me you hired him to liven up the drinking?"
"I didn't spend a single spirit jade on him," Oda Zhou said, straining to keep a straight face.
"Free of charge? So this one is a veteran artist of both virtue and art—truly, my admiration knows no bounds!" Wei Zhao said with the utmost gravity, full of admiration.
Pfft! This time even Oda Zhou finally burst out laughing. He hadn't expected this Wei Zhao to be such a joker too—of both virtue and art, where did he come up with that?
Zheng Dongyang's face had turned completely black as a pot bottom. He had no mind at all now to refute Wei Zhao's sarcasm; his head was full of that one line from Qing Xuanzi. What on earth was this? Wei Zhao was actually Qing Xuanzi's master?!
If Zheng Dongyang still couldn't put two and two together at this point, still couldn't tell he had kicked an iron plate, then he truly would have been a fool beyond saving. They were both high-grade alchemists—he himself was merely a seventh-grade alchemist, while Wei Zhao was Qing Xuanzi's master. He couldn't even match the man's disciple. What the hell was the point anymore?
With Qing Xuanzi's words laid out like that, it meant he could never go back to Morning Star Academy. Everyone knew the chief alchemist held absolute authority over the other alchemists of the academy. Since Qing Xuanzi had told him to get lost, Ling Yuanqing would certainly not say a word against it.
Even if Zheng Dongyang was a seventh-grade alchemist and could make his way anywhere in any Yellow-Rank academy of the Eastern Continent, since Qing Xuanzi had taken a dislike to him, Morning Star Academy had no other choice. If they went against Qing Xuanzi's wishes and forcibly kept him on, the two would affect each other, and neither would be able to refine pills in peace.
So in any academy of the Eastern Continent, the chief alchemist's word was final—whoever he told to leave had to leave, with no room for negotiation. The academy could only keep this one, the strongest of them all.
Zheng Dongyang felt as though he had been struck by five thunders at once. There was no thunder tribulation, true, but he looked no different from a man struck by lightning. Not a trace of his former smug arrogance remained in his spirit; instead, there was only a gray desolation.
To be sure, as a seventh-grade alchemist of standing, Zheng Dongyang would never lack for a meal wherever he went. But the problem was that he had built up Morning Star Academy over so many years, with all his connections and foundations rooted there. Now a single sentence from Qing Xuanzi had sent all his years of painstaking effort down the drain, and going elsewhere meant starting from scratch. No one could accept that.