Chapter 2513 — How Am I Supposed to Prove It? Wei Zhao Would Have Dealt with You Himself Long Ago If He Wanted You Dead—Why Would He Need Me? I'm Just Being Used as a Weapon! Once We Become Enemies, Once Hidden You Family and the Cultivators' Guild Become Enemies, He'll Be Delighted!

As it happened, the short expert had overthought things—Wei Zhao truly had not been thinking along those lines at all. It was true that Wei Zhao could cripple him with a single palm strike, but that depended on catching him off guard with a surprise attack. If the short expert had true qi shielding his body, that palm would not have killed him.

What was more, Wei Zhao could unleash only two palm strikes before exhausting every last shred of bodily strength and true qi. There was simply no way he could trigger the seventh form of the Frenzied Fire Eight Trigrams Palm in succession.

So Wei Zhao had no confidence in dealing with the Heaven Rank vice president. All he could do was hold him off and flee. Yet Wei Zhao did not want the Heaven Rank vice president to know he was afraid. After all, you could dodge the first day but never the fifteenth—he had to put a scare into the Heaven Rank vice president and plant a seed of dread in his heart. Wei Zhao would still need to attend the marketplace and the trade fairs in the future; it would not do to forge too great a feud with the Cultivators' Guild.

If the Heaven Rank vice president took fright and gave up on the spot, that would be the most ideal outcome of all.

To the Heaven Rank vice president's ears, the short expert's words struck like a thunderclap—so shocking, so staggering that he could scarcely believe they were true. Could it really be that Wei Zhao, an expert at the peak of the mid Earth Rank, truly had what it took to defeat Third Elder You, and to defeat him as well?

But the Heaven Rank vice president knew Third Elder You could not be lying. Third Elder You was, after all, a full-fledged Heaven Rank expert—how could he possibly tell such a lie? That would be toying with his own reputation! A dignified Heaven Rank expert afraid of a mid Earth Rank expert at the peak of his grade? If word of that got out, it would be the joke of the century. Unless it were truly the case and he had been driven to it with no way out, Third Elder You would never have spoken of it so recklessly.

At this thought, the Heaven Rank vice president could not help reassessing Wei Zhao. Recalling how effortlessly Wei Zhao had crippled his two disciples, fighting far above his own rank, the Heaven Rank vice president finally realized that he had been thinking about the matter far too simply. This mid Earth Rank expert at the peak of his grade was no ordinary mid Earth Rank expert at the peak of his grade!

Still, a few doubts lingered in his mind. If Wei Zhao were truly so formidable, so overwhelming, why not simply join forces with Third Elder You and wipe them out outright? Why resort to such tactics as these? Making an enemy of Hidden You Family and of himself? But now that everything had been laid bare, how could they still be enemies?

Drawing a deep breath and struggling to steady his emotions, the Heaven Rank vice president raised his head and looked at Wei Zhao. "What should I call you? I must admit, I underestimated your strength before."

"My surname is Ling," Wei Zhao said indifferently.

"Mr. Ling, do you truly have the strength to wipe us out?" The Heaven Rank vice president hesitated a moment, then asked bluntly.

"Heh. How about this—let us run a little test. Stand right there and let me hit you once. Experience it for yourself, and see whether I have it in me to destroy you all," Wei Zhao said with a smile.

"Ha-ha, Mr. Ling jests..." How could the Heaven Rank vice president possibly agree to such a proposal? Had he not heard Third Elder You's account, had there been no precedent of Wei Zhao crippling his two disciples across rank boundaries, he might just have agreed. But now, he would not dare attempt it even if you beat him to death.

Disbelief was disbelief, but Third Elder You was no fool. Had Wei Zhao lacked that strength, would he have submitted? Third Elder You had even flatly refused his own grandson You Panga's proposal to join forces against Wei Zhao, and had slapped the boy for it. Absurd as it seemed at first glance, a moment's reflection revealed the truth buried in it—Wei Zhao was genuinely no simple matter!

"I am not jesting," Wei Zhao said flatly.

"Very well, Mr. Ling. Since our grievances have already been laid out in the open, let us speak plainly, man to man. I want to ask you—why not act yourself, directly, instead of sending Third Elder You? Do you truly wish to set Hidden You Family and us at each other's throats?" The Heaven Rank vice president voiced the doubt in his heart; something about the whole affair had always struck him as off.

"Of course not." Wei Zhao shook his head. "I did not want to act myself because I cannot easily control my strength when I strike. One blow from me, and you would either die or be crippled. I sent Third Elder You precisely because I wanted to resolve the conflict between us smoothly."

"Resolve it smoothly? You mean you do not wish to fight?" The Heaven Rank vice president was taken aback and asked.

"You are the vice president of the Cultivators' Guild. You are nothing like those two nobodies guarding the gate before. If I killed you, justified or not, it would amount to a slap in the face of the Cultivators' Guild. Would your president not avenge you?" Wei Zhao countered. "Formidable as I am, able to fight above my rank, if your Cultivators' Guild brought in several Heaven Rank experts of higher grade, I would certainly be no match for them!"

"Mm... that is true..." The Heaven Rank vice president nodded, conceding the point. What Wei Zhao said was not wrong. He was the vice president; his status and position were utterly different from those two gatekeeping disciples. Disciples died and that was that—apart from their master, no one would avenge them. But if he, the vice president, were killed, that would be no ordinary matter!

Even the other vice presidents who had quarreled with him in the past would step forward to avenge him. Former disputes were mere private grudges; now they would be compelled to present a united front and uphold the face of the Cultivators' Guild.

"And most important of all, I will have dealings with you in the future. Making enemies would do me no good," Wei Zhao said.

At the mention of Wei Zhao's business of consigning pills for auction, the Heaven Rank vice president felt a stir in his heart and found himself believing Wei Zhao's words. Still, he had not experienced Wei Zhao's fearsomeness firsthand as deeply as Third Elder You had, so he asked, "Then how will you prove that you have the power to destroy us? So long as you can prove your strength is comparable to mine, we will let bygones be bygones. I will pursue nothing further, and I will take it upon myself to settle our grievances and make a friend of you! You should understand—the world of cultivators reveres strength above all. Only with that strength will I speak to you as an equal!"

"Then how would you have me prove it?" Wei Zhao kicked the question right back to the Heaven Rank vice president.

"This..." The Heaven Rank vice president furrowed his brow. He too was pondering—just how was Wei Zhao to prove such a thing? Fighting above one's rank was not something one could demonstrate simply by circulating one's mental cultivation formulas and unleashing one's power. No matter what Wei Zhao displayed, it would still only be the strength of a mid Earth Rank expert at the peak of his grade!

While the Heaven Rank vice president was lost in thought, the skinny scarecrow at his side was in a frenzy of anxiety. From his master's tone, it seemed he intended to sue for peace on his own initiative—that would never do! Would his eldest and second senior brothers have died for nothing? RQ

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