Chapter 2124 — An Unexpected Encounter in the Jungle

Wei Zhao, Han Tianba, and Han Xiaopo made their way back toward their temporary lodgings. Along the road, Han Xiaopo fumed, "Boss, that rule is downright infuriating—it's as if they cooked it up specifically to target you. A third-grade elixir, no less! Who on earth could refine one? The rules we'd heard before said the higher the grade of elixir and the shorter the time, the winner—so how did it suddenly turn into a third-grade elixir requirement?"

"Oh? The old rules really were as you described?" Wei Zhao was taken aback for a moment.

"They were! And every alchemy contest at the hidden summits in past years followed those same rules—nothing had changed in ages. A sudden change like this makes it hard not to think it was deliberately aimed at you, Boss!" Han Xiaopo nodded.

"Heh... Old Man You and You Panhu!" A trace of a smile flickered at the corner of Wei Zhao's mouth. He had already planned to give up on this alchemy contest; otherwise, he could never have struck that wager with the hidden Pi family.

Plainly, though, the hidden You family had been too cautious. Seeing him win match after match, they hadn't wanted him to keep winning, so they had deliberately cooked up this sham of a rule—yet instead of trapping Wei Zhao, they had trapped themselves.

Wei Zhao's original thinking had been simple: lose one, gain one. Trade some useless precious ingredient for a body-tempering potion and call it an even exchange, no loss at all. What he hadn't counted on was that he wouldn't lose a thing—he'd walk away with a body-tempering potion for free.

"Exactly, they really are despicable!" Han Xiaopo said. "Still, the good thing is they didn't win either. We haven't come out of this match at a loss."

"Heh, not just no loss—we've made a killing!" Wei Zhao laughed. "My injuries may have healed, but my true qi is badly depleted. If I had to refine an elixir right now, I really couldn't manage even a first-grade one. I wasn't lying to Old Man You before."

"What? You're kidding!" Han Xiaopo was overjoyed at Wei Zhao's words. "Hahahaha! So the old man lifted a rock only to smash his own foot? Serves him right! If they knew the truth, they'd probably die of regret!"

"True and false, false and true—sometimes even when I tell the truth, they don't believe me. Just like before: I told them I couldn't refine the elixir, and they didn't believe it," Wei Zhao said.

"Fair enough. But this quiet little windfall is something we can keep to ourselves—who cares what they think!" Han Xiaopo's mood lifted at once. They might not have taken the championship, but Wei Zhao was still the biggest winner.

"Hm? Isn't that a disciple of the hidden You family from before?" Han Tianba suddenly frowned, looking toward a patch of jungle not far from their lodgings. There was a man there, kneeling beside a poplar tree with a dazed, vacant expression, muttering to himself about something unintelligible. And this man was none other than the hidden You family disciple who had competed in the earlier endurance contest!

Wei Zhao frowned too and followed Han Tianba's gaze. Sure enough, it was the You family disciple who had been injured earlier!

"You two go on ahead. I'll go take a look," Wei Zhao said with a sigh. He didn't know when it had begun, but his heart was no longer as hard and cold as it had been when he first returned to the city...

Was it because of Feng Xiaoxiao? Feng Xiaoxiao's help to Chen Xi had moved Wei Zhao deeply.

Was it because of Yu Xiaoke? Yu Xiaoke's dedication and sacrifice for the orphanage children had touched Wei Zhao even more.

Or was it the eldest young lady's outwardly cold but inwardly warm nature that had, over time, softened him as well?

In any case, seeing the despair, helplessness, and death-wish on this You family disciple's face, Wei Zhao felt an inexplicable sigh rise in his heart. The man was pitiable enough—he had thrown in his lot with the hidden You family, expecting a future of soaring success, only to meet such a wretched end.

If Wei Zhao hadn't seen it, so be it. But he had seen it, and it stirred in him a sense of shared suffering.

Once, Wei Zhao too had known that kind of despair and helplessness! That time he fought Ma Zhu of the Golden Bell Sect, he had been gravely injured and believed he would never cultivate again, never possess strength again. But his employer at the time had treated him in a way utterly different from the hidden You family!

The eldest young lady had stood by him without wavering, even offering to flee back to his hometown with him to take refuge. Compared with that, this hidden You family disciple was rather pitiful—to have followed such a cold-blooded master was his misfortune.

Wei Zhao came to stand silently behind the hidden You family disciple...

The disciple's meridians were all severed, his strength utterly gone, and his body gravely wounded. Naturally he hadn't noticed anyone come up behind him, and he went on muttering to himself...

"Little sister, your brother is useless. In this life, I can no longer avenge you... I thought I'd found a stroke of fortune, that I'd reached the Earth Rank at such a young age, that joining the hidden You family would give me a fine future... but I never imagined..." The You family disciple poured out his grief to himself. "Little sister, perhaps you've long been gone already. Your brother will be coming to join you soon..."

Listening to the hidden You family disciple's words, Wei Zhao felt a weight settle over his heart. This man had joined the hidden You family—seemingly to take revenge? Seemingly for his little sister?

"Aiding the wicked, joining the hidden You family, playing the running dog—the day you joined, you should have been prepared for today," Wei Zhao said flatly.

"Ah!" The You family disciple jumped in fright. He hadn't expected anyone to be standing behind him. He turned instinctively, saw Wei Zhao, and a self-mocking bitter smile crossed his lips. "You've come here to mock a defeated subordinate like me?"

"Defeated subordinate?" Wei Zhao regarded him with interest. "I pushed you from third place down to fourth. You don't hate me?"

"Hate? I'm simply less skilled—why should I hate?" The You family disciple shook his head. "If I hate anything, it's that I didn't choose the right master. You're right. I thought the hidden You family was raising me as a core disciple, but I was nothing more than a dog! Still, I never aided the wicked. Serving as a thug for their family's young masters, currying favor—I disdained to do any of it!"

"Oh? And it's precisely because you disdained to do it that they sent you into the contest," Wei Zhao said with a smile.

The You family disciple was taken aback, then nodded. "Yes... they used me as a tool... Those thugs, as long as they flatter and fawn, as long as they serve as bodyguards for the young masters, they get cultivation elixirs, while I had to risk my life..."

"Regret it?" Wei Zhao glanced at him and asked mildly.

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