Chapter 918 — Factions Stirring on All Sides

"Mm... you have a point! A true man sets his sights on all corners of the world!" Gu Pengzhan nodded and said, "Can you not recover your strength here in the villa?"

"It is very difficult. I have no way to do it now, and can only go out to search for one," Wei Zhao said.

"Since that is the case, I will not hold you back!" Seeing that Wei Zhao's mind was made up, Gu Pengzhan pressed him no further. "But I hope that after you leave, you will still treat this place as your home, as a haven where you can shelter from the storm!"

"I will," Wei Zhao nodded. "Yaoyao, Xiaoshu and I will always be good friends!"

"Heh, good." Gu Pengzhan said no more. After all, it was not for him to meddle too much in the affairs of young people. Things having come to this point, all he could do was wish Wei Zhao well. "I hope you recover your strength as soon as possible!"

"Thank you, Uncle Chu!" Wei Zhao smiled bitterly in his heart. Recover his strength? He himself had little confidence left. Leaving the villa was, in the old man's words, nothing more than going into hiding. Strength was not so easily regained.

So many inner masters in this world had their meridians struck and injured by others, their martial arts utterly destroyed, and had no choice but to accept the fact of becoming cripples and take up outer disciplines anew!

Yet because they carried injuries, even when they cultivated outer skills afresh, it was very hard for them to achieve much. Most of them stopped at Huang-stage late-phase peak strength, and never broke through again for the rest of their lives!

Outer skills were easy to train at first, but once a certain bottleneck was reached, a breakthrough became extremely hard. Tempering the body, once pushed to its limit, improved with grinding slowness. Unless one was like Ma Zhu, gifted in talent and blessed with a superb physique, it was impossible to reach such a realm!

Come to think of it, Ma Zhu must be even more depressed than himself. His own meridians were severed, yet he could still train in outer skills. But Ma Zhu? He might well end up going home to farm.

"Still, Uncle Chu, I feel that the matter of my lost strength has already been noticed by my enemies, so I think you should find a bodyguard to replace me as soon as possible. Otherwise I fear you will run into trouble..." Wei Zhao said, his expression turning serious as he went on. "After all, many of my enemies are your enemies as well, and many became my enemies because they moved against Yaoyao. If they cannot find me, I fear they will turn back to move against you and Yaoyao!"

"I know that!" Gu Pengzhan nodded and said, "I have already contacted Uncle Qing's junior brother. He also works as a bodyguard for others, though his employer went abroad some time ago. At the moment he is doing a cash escort job for a rich merchant, a one-off assignment. Once the job is finished, he can come over! But he gave me the number of a bodyguard company that provides temporary bodyguards for rich people, and I have hired one there for now to fill in for the time being."

"Mm, what is his strength?" Wei Zhao asked.

"They say he is a Xuan-stage master," Gu Pengzhan said.

"In terms of strength that should be no problem. Unless it is a matter of deep hatred, he should be enough to deter those enemies," Wei Zhao thought for a moment and asked, "When will he come?"

"Within the next day or two," Gu Pengzhan said. "Either today or tomorrow."

"Good, then I can leave with peace of mind!" Wei Zhao nodded.

After Gu Pengzhan finished talking with Wei Zhao, he left the villa. There was a great deal to attend to at the company these past two days, leaving him no time to spare. Yet Wei Zhao did not see the young lady and Xiaoshu come downstairs all evening, and he guessed it was likely because they had lost sleep looking after him the past few days and were now catching up on it.

"Wei Zhao, when are you leaving?" Gu Mengyao asked.

"In the next day or two. Once Uncle Chu's bodyguard arrives, I will leave," Wei Zhao said, with a touch of sadness.

"Mm, will you leave from the villa?" Gu Mengyao asked.

"I suppose so," Wei Zhao nodded.

"Then tell Xiaoshu and me, and we will see you off," Gu Mengyao said.

"All right." Wei Zhao glanced at Gu Mengyao with some surprise. The young lady seemed a little too calm, different from yesterday?

...

In the villa district, the Xiao family had already moved into their newly bought villa.

Xiao Ji was glaring at his wife Gou Huli. "Look at the fine mess you have made? Do you know what kind of people you have offended? Thank goodness I did not listen to you and send Uncle Pi to make trouble for Gu Pengzhan, or it would be our Xiao family in trouble now!"

"What is the matter? Was it not the second brother's idea? Why drag it onto me?" Gou Huli said aggrievedly. "Did we not investigate it clearly? In Gu Pengzhan's house there is only an outer master called Uncle Qing at Huang-stage late-phase peak! Our Uncle Pi is an outer master at Xuan-stage mid-phase!"

"Hmph, but besides Uncle Qing, Gu Pengzhan has another master by his side! An inner master at Xuan-stage early-phase peak!" Xiao Ji said. "Luckily I paid a visit to Young Master Bing, the local boss here, or I would still be kept in the dark! An inner master at Xuan-stage early-phase peak is almost on par with an outer master at Xuan-stage mid-phase. If it really came to a fight, they would still have an outer master at Huang-stage late-phase peak to help out. It is our Xiao family that would suffer!"

"Ah? That cannot be? This Gu Pengzhan, a mere little merchant, is actually so formidable? How is that possible? Have you got it wrong?" Gou Huli gasped, her mouth hanging open in disbelief.

"Hmph! How could Young Master Bing be wrong?" Xiao Ji snorted coldly. "That inner master at Xuan-stage early-phase peak is called Wei Zhao, and he even broke Young Master Bing's leg. Do you think that could be a mistake? Young Master Bing hates him so much he grits his teeth. How could he even get his strength wrong?"

"No way? He dared to hit even Young Master Bing? Is he tired of living?" Gou Huli cried out in shock. "Then what about me? Must I suffer this loss for nothing?"

"What else do you want? They have two masters. Going head to head with them, are we not asking for trouble?" Xiao Ji was in fact very frustrated himself. He had meant to squeeze a large sum of money from Gu Pengzhan, so that the Xiao family would have more leeway doing business in Songshan City!

But who would have thought that upon asking around, Gu Pengzhan would turn out to be no simple man, with hidden dragons and crouching tigers by his side!

At that moment, the second brother of the Xiao family, Xiao Ben, walked in. Seeing the furious Xiao Ji, he smiled instead. "Big brother, you need not be in such a hurry to scold sister-in-law. I have heard a great piece of news!"

For the fastest updates, please read without pop-up ads.