Chapter 4998 — The Island Lord's Document

"What a pity, though—my brother Wei Zhao here is simply too much of a genius. He has too many talents jumbled together in him, and that's what keeps him from spreading his wings across the sea. If only he couldn't refine pills and could only navigate, how wonderful that would be. What a waste of heaven's gifts." Oda Ba sighed.

"A waste of heaven's gifts?" Oda Zhou did not know whether to laugh or cry. Pointing at Oda Ba, he scolded with a smile, "The man can effortlessly handle someone at the peak of the late Mystic Ascension stage while he himself is only at the early Mystic Ascension stage—and he's a first-grade Mystic-rank alchemist on top of that. If he went sailing with you, that would be the real waste of heaven's gifts!"

"The open sea is where a real man belongs. How is that a waste of heaven's gifts?" Oda Ba retorted, unconvinced.

"You—all these years and you haven't changed a bit. You were like this as a child. Your talent was clearly greater than mine, yet from a young age all you ever wanted was to go adventuring, and you never had the patience for proper cultivation. You even fell out with the family over it, and in the end it came to you running away from home..." Speaking of these old matters, Oda Zhou could only shake his head with a bitter smile. "Our Oda clan is one of the few top-tier great houses on the Cloud Step Island, and yet it produced a third young master like you who never attends to his proper business. One truly does not know what to say."

"Second Brother, why bring all that up..." Oda Ba's face darkened at once. After running away from home, he had made a name for himself through his own efforts, yet to this day he had never won his father's approval. Apart from his second brother Oda Zhou, everyone in the Oda clan still looked at him with contempt. Over time, he had come to want nothing more to do with his family.

"Third Brother, I know you don't like hearing this, but as your second brother I still have to say it. Father may be harsh with his words, but the truth is he wants you to come home more than anyone. Did you know your room in the ancestral mansion is still kept for you? It's been preserved exactly as it was the day you left. Anyone who goes in and disturbs the slightest thing earns Father's fury." Oda Zhou sighed.

Oda Ba fell silent at these words. Sometimes, after drifting on the endless sea for long enough, he too would feel a sudden urge to return to his family—but every time, he snuffed it out almost at once.

One day he would achieve something great through his own strength, something that would make his father sit up and take notice. That was the vow he had made the very day he ran away from home, and it had never changed.

"No matter what, you will always be the third young master of the Oda clan. Since you've come to the Central Island anyway, go back and take a look." There was hope in Oda Zhou's voice.

"Second Brother, you know my ambitions well enough. Don't try to persuade me any further. I set sail tomorrow. Tonight, you and I drink until we drop." Oda Ba shook his head.

"But..." Oda Zhou still wanted to press the matter.

Oda Ba waved a hand to cut him off, then laughed with soaring boldness: "Second Brother, do you know what I'm setting out to do now? A single warship is no longer enough to satisfy my appetite. I mean to become the commander of a fleet that sweeps across the Cloud Step Island—not merely a ship's captain!"

"You want to build a fleet?" Oda Zhou was startled by this mad notion. Treasure ships alone were rare enough; ancient warships were rarer still. Even with all the resources of the Oda clan, no one would dare make such a boast. Oda Ba's goal was truly ambitious beyond measure.

"That's right. This is the goal I'll be striving toward next. On the day I succeed, I'll come home of my own accord." Oda Ba nodded.

Seeing the unshakable resolve in his eyes, Oda Zhou hesitated for a moment, then at last stopped trying to persuade him. He nodded and said, "I'll be waiting for the day you come home."

"Just you wait." Oda Ba laughed heartily. Then he abruptly changed the subject. "By the way, from what you were saying earlier, Second Brother—has Brother Wei Zhao run into some kind of trouble?"

"Mm, you could say so. But it's only a small matter—a word or two and it's settled. I'll handle it." Oda Zhou nodded.

"Second Brother, there's something I must warn you about. This young man is no ordinary figure. Even from the standpoint of the clan, he is worth cultivating a friendship with. Whatever you do, do not rashly make an enemy of him." Oda Ba's expression turned grave.

"Don't worry. I know how to weigh these things." Oda Zhou nodded. Oda Ba was, after all, a son of the Oda clan who had roamed the seas for three hundred years; his judgment was naturally beyond question. If even he held this man in such high regard, then this was certainly someone worth befriending properly.

The two brothers, reunited after so long apart, drank from dawn till dusk, and then from dusk till dawn again, before Oda Ba, thoroughly drunk, finally saw Oda Zhou off. What they had been drinking was a century-old vintage steeped in the finest spiritual herbs, and its delayed kick was beyond imagining. Only because they had cheated and neutralized most of the alcohol's effect were they still standing; otherwise ten Oda Bas would long since have collapsed.

By contrast, Oda Zhou looked perfectly at ease when he left. His cultivation was far above Oda Ba's, and even without cheating he could have effortlessly dispersed this much alcohol with the true qi circulating of its own accord within him. That was what it truly meant to drink a thousand cups without getting drunk.

Ever since his humiliation at the Tian Dan Pavilion the day before, Wu Miao had been keeping watch in the Island Lord's Pavilion. He would have loved nothing more than to have Wei Zhao thrown into a dungeon and subjected to every torture and extreme punishment in turn—but that was a thought he could only entertain.

To say nothing of the fact that he simply did not have the strength to do it—even if he did find someone capable of dealing with Wei Zhao, he would not dare act rashly before Oda Zhou reached his conclusion. Offending Wei Zhao was one thing, but if he offended Oda Zhou as well, his good days would be over for good.

Wu Miao paced back and forth in Hall Two, the hall reserved for the Executive Vice Island Lord. Every so often he would send someone to Hall One to scout out the situation. Oda Zhou's stance the day before had left him uneasy. Rationally, he did not believe Oda Zhou would offend him—the Executive Vice Island Lord—for the sake of a stranger like Wei Zhao, whom he had never even met. But what if he would?

Oda Zhou had not returned all night, and Wu Miao had spent the whole night on tenterhooks along with him. It was not until morning, when a subordinate reported that Oda Zhou was back, that Wu Miao could no longer contain himself and made ready to go ask Oda Zhou what was going on.

But before he had even left Hall Two, Wu Miao turned back. If he went running over to ask about this himself, would it not look as though he were itching to move against Wei Zhao?

That was indeed what he wanted, but as the number two figure in the official hierarchy, he could not afford to show it so plainly—otherwise Oda Zhou would certainly think less of him.

After turning it over and over in his mind, Wu Miao had no choice but to send one of his trusted subordinates to sound out the situation. Yet the man was back in less than half an incense stick's time, carrying with him an Island Lord's document.

"How did it go?" Wu Miao asked hurriedly.

"You'd better see for yourself, sir. Island Lord Oda specifically instructed that you must go to the Tian Dan Pavilion in person to read this document aloud." The trusted subordinate wore a rather odd expression. (To be continued.)