Chapter 2204 — Wei Zhao's Worry

"I..." Han Jingyi's voice caught for a beat. "What do you mean, jealous?"

"Heh heh..." Wei Zhao did not explain. He figured Han Jingyi surely knew—she was only pretending not to. Perhaps Shen Yushu had a point after all: how could someone as clever as Han Jingyi possibly fail to grasp something so basic?

"Then it's settled, Brother Wei Zhao. From now on you have to treat Jingjing like a treasure, and you can't ever throw Jingjing away," Han Jingyi said.

"Good. It's a promise," Wei Zhao said.

Perhaps the conversation between Wei Zhao and Wang Xinyan earlier had pricked at Han Jingyi—whatever the cause, her manner today was a little off. Yet once the two of them reached the parking lot, Han Jingyi was herself again, wearing that silly, adorable look, and the moment she got into the car she began fiddling with her tablet and said no more.

Back home, Wei Zhao told Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu that he was planning to go with Sun Jingyan to the Wulong Haote Mountains, and that he had arranged for Wu Chengtian to protect them in his absence.

"In theory, you shouldn't be in any danger over this period. I'm bringing Wu Chengtian in only as a precaution against a few blind fools," Wei Zhao said. For the moment, none of the hidden clans would dare make a rash move.

"Arrow Card Bro, you're leaving again..." Shen Yushu was reluctant to see him go. "Why don't you take little Shu and Sister Yaoyao along?"

"The Wulong Haote Mountains are fairly dangerous. If all of you came, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to look after everyone," Wei Zhao said honestly. "Protecting Sun Jingyan alone will already be hard enough..."

"Is that so... ai!" Little Shu sighed. "Now I won't get to see Arrow Card Bro for a while again... and after that..."

There she stopped and said no more. That baffling half-sentence left one at a loss.

"Anyway, I'll be back before long, and I'll bring you something nice," Wei Zhao said.

"That's enough, little Shu. Wei Zhao's going to take care of real business—it's not as if he isn't coming back," Gu Mengyao said. She too felt that Shen Yushu seemed a little down today, as though once Wei Zhao left she would never see him again. "Didn't Wei Zhao say so? In the future we'll all be living together."

"I know... but..." Shen Yushu shook her head. "Never mind. It's time for the cartoons—let's watch TV..."

"Little Shu, what's wrong?" Wei Zhao also felt something was a bit off with her.

"Nothing at all... Arrow Card Bro." Shen Yushu smiled. "I just don't want you getting tangled up with Sun Jingyan, that's all. Look, you've already got Wang Xinyan and Han Jingyi as candidates, and now you're mixed up with Sun Jingyan too—that's a recipe for chaos!"

"..." Seeing that Shen Yushu did not want to talk, Wei Zhao did not press her. He stood up and said, "I'm going to the backyard to check on General Weiwu and the Heavenly Thunder Pig, and the Wind-Thunder Purple Lightning Beast too!"

In the villa's backyard, the Wind-Thunder Purple Lightning Beast, being the lowest-ranked spirit beast here, naturally had the outermost stall in the spirit beast shed. Fortunately it had a thick hide; by the nearly twelfth month, the temperature in Donghai City had turned quite cold, but it would suffer no harm from it.

"Wind-Thunder Purple Lightning Beast!" Wei Zhao called toward the shed where the spirit beasts lived.

Hearing Wei Zhao's call, the Wind-Thunder Purple Lightning Beast immediately came bounding out in delight! These past two days it had been waiting with mounting impatience for Wei Zhao to upgrade it.

Though the beast knew very well that in a mere two days there was little chance Wei Zhao could manage an upgrade for it—and over these past few days it had learned a thing or two about Wei Zhao's situation from General Weiwu and the Heavenly Thunder Pig!

Wei Zhao really could upgrade spirit beasts, and as his own rank rose, he could upgrade them step by step! For instance, back when Wei Zhao was a Profound-rank expert, he had upgraded General Weiwu, an ordinary dog, into a spirit beast of peak late Profound-rank strength, and had done the same for the Heavenly Thunder Pig.

And once Wei Zhao became an Earth-rank expert, they had risen with the tide as a matter of course, becoming spirit beasts of peak late Profound-rank strength.

Hearing this, the Wind-Thunder Purple Lightning Beast had been both astonished and overjoyed. If this kept up, becoming a Profound-rank, Earth-rank, or even Heaven-rank beast was no dream at all! Yet for it to climb on its own from Yellow-rank to Heaven-rank would be a thousand times harder.

Heaven-rank aside—even advancing a tiny step from its current peak late Yellow-rank to a full, perfect peak late Yellow-rank was all but impossible!

At first, the Wind-Thunder Purple Lightning Beast had come here with Wei Zhao hoping to snatch an easy advantage, but now its thinking was entirely different. Hearing Wei Zhao's summons, it naturally came running out in high spirits.

"Roar, roar!" The Wind-Thunder Purple Lightning Beast trotted up to Wei Zhao's feet, fawning. It was hard to imagine that a spirit beast so large would curry favor with Wei Zhao like a pet.

"Wind-Thunder Purple Lightning Beast, much as I'd like to upgrade you, I can hardly vouch for your loyalty to me!" Wei Zhao knew the beast could understand him, so he did not beat around the bush. "You're different from General Weiwu and the Heavenly Thunder Pig. Those two are on excellent terms with me—we've been through a great deal together—so I upgraded them. But you... we've known each other far too short a time."

"Roar?" The Wind-Thunder Purple Lightning Beast looked at Wei Zhao with a somewhat woebegone expression. Did it not know full well that Wei Zhao did not trust it? But as things stood, how was it supposed to prove its loyalty to him?

"You probably know that there used to be a lion here with me, but I never upgraded that lion—precisely because it was unwilling to bow its head to another. If I'd upgraded it, it might well have slapped its rump and walked off," Wei Zhao said.

The Wind-Thunder Purple Lightning Beast nodded. It knew Wei Zhao was telling the truth; it had heard about that lion as well. So at this moment it turned a pitiful gaze on the Heavenly Thunder Pig and General Weiwu, hoping they might put in a good word for it.

"There's no use looking at them. If you can prove your loyalty, it's not impossible that I'll make you a spirit beast of peak late Profound-rank strength today!" Wei Zhao said. "You could soon be the same as them—but if you can't prove it, I'll have a hard time trusting you!"

"Cheep, cheep..." The Heavenly Thunder Pig squealed twice at the Wind-Thunder Purple Lightning Beast. Wei Zhao could not understand what it was saying, but the Wind-Thunder Purple Lightning Beast certainly did!

For the fastest updates, please read without pop-ups.