Chapter 1850 — Three Families Join Forces

"Very well, I'll contact them at once!" Old Man Wei said.

After ending the call with Mo Kongwen, Old Man Wei dialed Gu Mengyao's number directly, only to be met with the recorded message that the phone was switched off.

He tried Shen Yushu's number—also off. Wei Zhao's number—still off!

This set Old Man Wei's heart lurching with alarm, yet anxious as he was, a thousand li away there was nothing he could do.

After several failed attempts, Old Man Wei had no choice but to call Mo Kongwen once more.

"Old friend, what news?" Mo Kongwen was in truth just as anxious.

"Can't reach them..." Old Man Wei sighed. "Perhaps they've already run into trouble and gone into hiding..."

"Ah... perhaps it is all fated by some hidden design. Little Yi is a skilled Earth-rank fighter now; facing Earth-rank opponents will be a tempering for him. Without adversity, how can one grow?" Mo Kongwen hesitated, then said, "Back then, the master and he... was it not the same..."

"Let us hope so!" Old Man Wei nodded.

Songshan City.

Though the scavenging trio of Gu Mengyao, Shen Yushu, and Granny Sun had kept a low profile, they had still drawn the attention of the other scavengers.

After all, picking up over ten thousand yuan's worth of old goods and junk in a single day was simply outrageous. Even if they concealed it deliberately, there is no wall in this world that lets no wind through—especially when everyone sold their salvaged appliances and electronics to the same place, so sooner or later they were bound to cross paths!

So once the trio's income became known, many scavengers eyed them with envy and resentment. Had Granny Sun not been an old hand in the trade, scavenging for over ten years and commanding absolute prestige, there was no telling what sort of ostracism they might have suffered!

But Granny Sun was a veteran, and though many envied and resented them, there was nothing anyone could do.

The affairs of Granny Sun and the others could only become idle gossip for after-dinner chatter...

This turn of events filled Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu with deep worry. Fame is dangerous—pigs grow fat and people grow famous. Under ordinary circumstances Gu Mengyao would not have cared; she would not have minded even having her photograph taken as the "loveliest scavenger girl." But now, for Wei Zhao's sake, her identity must not be exposed!

So Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu could only pray in their hearts that Wei Zhao would wake soon and put an end to this scavenging chapter of their lives. Fortunately, scavenging was a fairly independent trade with little contact with the outside world; word of their trio spread only among the scavengers and had not drawn the attention of anyone else...

The people of the Hidden You Family, the Hidden Yu Family, and the Hidden Zhao Family had all come to Songshan City.

Unlike the Hidden Yu and Hidden Zhao, the Hidden You Family had come merely to watch the excitement—or rather, to "probe." The Hidden You Family's Earth-rank experts had appeared in Songshan City alongside those of the Hidden Yu and Hidden Zhao, yet the Hidden You Family had little interest in whether Wei Zhao lived or died.

Though Wei Zhao had offended You Panhu of the Hidden You Family, the grudge between the You Family and Wei Zhao was not deep. It was the Kang Family, rather, that bore Wei Zhao a bitter hatred, and so You Shisan's visit this time was in truth a matter of acting according to circumstance.

Before departing, You Zhentian had made it clear: if Wei Zhao could be found and both the Hidden Yu and Hidden Zhao Families took action, then there was no harm in You Shisan joining the fun—after all, it would count as repaying a favor to the Kang Family. With Wei Zhao dead, the Kang Family would be deeply grateful to the Hidden You Family and would work all the harder to earn money for them.

But if the other two families would not act, the Hidden You Family would certainly not be the one to stick its neck out.

The Hidden Yu Family was different. Having allied with the Zhao and You Families, Yu Liu had come to Songshan City once again, determined to have Wei Zhao. Never mind that Wei Zhao had wiped out the secular Yu Family—the mere fact that he had snatched away the Qi-Gathering Pill was enough to justify the Hidden Yu Family's intervention.

As for the Hidden Zhao Family, their involvement this time was entirely due to the feud between Zhao Qibing and Wei Zhao; in truth it was also to coordinate with the Hidden Yu Family and to make a probing move.

In fact, this was also because the Hidden Zhao Family had always felt indebted to the Hidden Yu Family, and so when the Hidden Yu Family issued the call, they followed the momentum and sent their people down from the mountain.

Toward Wei Zhao, Bi Lao and Zhao Qibing naturally harbored bitter hatred and wished to be rid of him at once, and so the Zhao Family also dispatched an Earth-rank expert—one of quite high grade!

Zhao Guanger was a second-generation disciple of the Hidden Zhao Family, of the same generation as the young family head Zhao Guangyin, and currently possessed late-stage Earth-rank strength.

The reason Zhao Guanger was sent down was in fact to slay Wei Zhao in one decisive blow and leave him no possibility of turning the tables!

Yet at the Hidden Zhao Family's clan council, Zhao Qitan raised a dissenting voice—he did not approve of sending the family's experts to deal with Wei Zhao.

"Bi Lao, this Wei Zhao is young yet already an early-stage Earth-rank expert; the power behind him is likely considerable. There is no need for our Zhao Family to wade into these troubled waters. Let the Hidden Yu and Hidden You Families act, or we can simply send some early-stage Earth-rank expert along to stand on the sidelines..." Zhao Qitan said. "Late-stage Earth-rank experts—our Zhao Family's strength is limited, and experts of that caliber are too few. If anything should go wrong..."

"The power behind him?" Zhao Qibing gave a cold laugh. "If he had backing, would he be hiding? Have you ever seen a disciple of an ancient sect who has suffered a qi deviation go into hiding? With Yu Liu hunting him down, has anyone come forward to back him up? And you call that having backing?"

"This..." Zhao Qitan had only wanted to stop the Zhao Family from acting, but Zhao Qibing's words were quite reasonable, leaving him unable to refute them.

"Enough, it is decided. I have already sought the old family head's instructions, and so it is settled!" Bi Lao waved a hand. "If Wei Zhao is not eliminated, Qibing's ventures in Songshan City will suffer as well—and those are a major source of money for our Zhao Family. Zhao Qitan, do not interfere further!"

Bi Lao's decisiveness came from having received the old master Zhao's hint and support. The Yu and Zhao Families were in-laws, so the Zhao Family naturally knew of the matter of the Yu Family's lost Qi-Gathering Pill and how Yu Huoxing had pinned the blame on Wei Zhao. Thus the old master Zhao meant to seize this opportunity to destroy Wei Zhao and wipe away all traces.

Only then could he be forever at ease that his own embezzlement of the Qi-Gathering Pill would never come to light.

So even without Zhao Qibing as a pretext, the old master Zhao would still have sent the family's experts to kill Wei Zhao and settle the matter once and for all.

This, too, was why the Zhao Family had deployed such formidable experts.

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