Chapter 2076 — An Invitation at the Doorstep

In the blink of an eye it was the thirteenth of the month, two days before the Hidden World Clan Summit. The competition rules had already been sent down to every hidden clan, and Wei Zhao met Han Xiaopo as promised.

This time it was after school. Han Xiaopo called him. Wei Zhao had already told Gu Mengyao, Shen Yushu, and Han Jingyi about the Hidden World Clan Summit and that he might be away for a few days; for safety's sake he had them stay in the school dormitories, not wanting them going to and from school on their own.

Judging by how things had gone lately, Wei Zhao's enemies had all gone quiet—at least for the time being, none of them had any designs on him—so the young ladies should be in no danger; even so, staying inside the school was the safer course.

"Boss!" Catching sight of Wei Zhao, Han Xiaopo waved to him eagerly. He had been waiting a long while in the parking lot outside the school gate.

"You're here?" Wei Zhao nodded. "Where are we going now?"

"Boss, if you've nothing else on, stay at my place tonight. Tomorrow is the registration day for the Hidden World Clan Summit, the competition officially begins the day after, and we need to study the rules ahead of time!" Han Xiaopo said.

"You're worried about your strength?" Wei Zhao gave a faint smile and glanced at Han Xiaopo.

"That… well, it would be a lie to say I wasn't. There's less than two days left, and my strength is so poor—if I really go into that two-person cooperative match, I'll only be a drag on you…" Han Xiaopo was not being coy; he spoke the plain truth.

"Two days. That's enough," Wei Zhao said lightly.

"This…" Han Xiaopo was slightly taken aback, unable to guess by what means Wei Zhao meant to raise his strength within two days. But since he had already acknowledged Wei Zhao as his boss, he ought to trust him. So he said, "I'll do whatever Boss says!"

"Let's go. First to your Hidden Han Family," Wei Zhao said.

"Yes, Boss, please get in!" Han Xiaopo was still driving the same Mercedes-Benz S600. He respectfully opened the door and let Wei Zhao in, then took the driver's seat and started the car. As he drove he said, "Boss, the old master has already prepared the materials for the Qi-Gathering Pill. The moment you arrive at the Hidden Han Family, he'll present them to you with both hands!"

"No rush about that." Wei Zhao had not set out to covet the Hidden Han Family's treasure in the first place; it was only that Han Xiaopo was too impatient, too eager to prove his sincerity, and so had brought out such a fine thing. But since it was of use to Wei Zhao, there was no reason on earth for him to refuse.

The Hidden Han Family's seat was not in the urban districts of Donghai City but close to its outskirts. At the edge of a small town on the outskirts of Donghai City stood a vast manor, with no sign or house number of any kind, yet enclosed by very high walls; anyone who did not know the place, coming here for the first time, might well take it for the site of a prison.

In fact, that was the first impression it made on Wei Zhao as well. The manor's exterior was unremarkable, thoroughly low-key, unlikely to draw much notice—and yet this was the seat of the Hidden Han Family, one of the hidden clans!

It was Wei Zhao's first time at a hidden clan, so the architecture here rather intrigued him. So this was what a hidden clan looked like! Truly a clan hidden away within the city! Only, by his recollection, he seemed to have visited a hidden clan once before as well—but where exactly, he could not remember. Could it have been a dream?

Han Xiaopo's car stopped at an unremarkable entrance to the manor. Unremarkable as it was, an ordinary car that came here would never have the gate opened for it at will! Presumably a camera had picked out Han Xiaopo's car, for only then did the manor gate swing open of its own accord.

"The security here is pretty strict. This gate is no simple piece of design!" Wei Zhao said, studying the manor gate.

With Wei Zhao's experience and trained eye, he could tell not only that the gate's design was somewhat unusual, but that it must be meant for anti-theft and anti-intrusion.

"Oh? Boss, you understand this sort of thing too?" Han Xiaopo was rather surprised. The Hidden Han Family's gate had indeed been custom-designed by professional security designers, with anti-theft and anti-intrusion functions: it could send out a warning signal the moment someone forced an entry or tried to pry the gate open, and in an instant discharge a high-voltage current—even an ordinary cultivator could not withstand that voltage!

Only a master of the Golden Bell Cover or Iron Shirt arts, whose body turned aside blade and spear, water and fire alike, could escape such physical harm! So the defense was strict indeed.

"A little," Wei Zhao said mildly. Safe as the gate looked, he had ways of dealing with it—only he did not say so.

"Heh, Boss really is a man of wide learning!" Han Xiaopo said in genuine admiration. "For an ordinary cultivator, to focus single-mindedly on cultivation and achieve something on that path is already remarkable enough. But Boss not only refines pills, he can race cars, and he even understands these security measures—truly admirable, especially with strength like his on top of it all!"

Once the car passed through the gate, it had not gone far before reaching a guard post—the quarters of the Hidden Han Family's gatekeepers. Though the Mercedes' plates belonged to the Hidden Han Family, that only got one through the first checkpoint; at this second one, a manual inspection was still required.

"Young Master Po!" Yet when the guard disciples came over and saw that it was Han Xiaopo driving, they stopped obstructing them at once; after a respectful greeting they raised the barrier and let the car pass smoothly into the interior of the Hidden Han Family manor.

"Seems your standing in the Hidden Han Family is quite high?" Wei Zhao asked, taking in the guard disciples' reaction.

"It's all right. Among my generation I count as one of the more outstanding members; I have a chance at becoming heir to the third-generation young family head." Before Wei Zhao, Han Xiaopo was not overly modest.

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