Chapter 3827 — No Fighting Allowed

If one piece of Star Ink Stone had turned up at the Hong Merchant Guild, then perhaps there was a second—no one could say for certain.

And even if there were no Star Ink Stone, there might still be other heaven-and-earth treasures to be found. Yu Zhe had spent three years in the Scripture Pavilion, and his eye for certain rare and secret treasures was keener even than that of the appraisal experts in some merchant guilds. There might well be an opportunity to snap up a bargain.

As for his appearing at the Hong Merchant Guild at this moment, that was no cause for surprise either. Despite the recent uproar, and though the guild had declared in so many words that his master Nan Tianyong was not welcome to set foot inside, it had never once said that Yu Zhe himself was barred from entering.

And reasoning much as Wei Zhao had, Yu Zhe had been keeping close watch on the outer and middle streets of the market these past days, even prodding his master Nan Tianyong into spending a great many spirit jades to recruit certain merchants as eyes watching Lin Er's movements. Yet the last thing he had ever expected was to come face to face with Lin Er here in the Hong Merchant Guild—on a day that was not even a day when the inner street was open!

The Star Ink Stone snatched away, the sneak attack launched midway, and then being beaten half to death in return—Yu Zhe's rancor toward this Lin Er was truly a hatred to the bone; he wished he could flay the man's skin and drink his blood. Otherwise he would never have gone to such lengths, stirred up such a commotion, and dug three feet into the earth to drag Lin Er out!

But now, meeting him face to face with no warning whatsoever, Yu Zhe was just like Wei Zhao—stunned for an instant.

A moment later, the two of them reacted almost at the same time, and their first impulse was to strike a killing blow at the other. After all, both Wei Zhao and Yu Zhe knew full well that the feud between them was a fight to the death, that there was no possibility whatever of clasping hands and making peace.

This enmity was far deadlier than the opposition between Wei Zhao and those men of the Welcome New Pavilion. Meng Jueming and the rest, Xu Lingchong included, likewise regarded Wei Zhao as a thorn in their eye and a spike in their flesh, but not to the point of a fight to the death—at least they would not risk everything and pay any price to kill him.

Even Nan Tianyong, Yu Zhe's master, did not necessarily harbor such a deadly intent toward this Lin Er. Only Yu Zhe—Yu Zhe alone—had to kill Lin Er.

There was only one reason: the Star Ink Stone.

Cultivators are the most practical of people. Where profit is concerned, there are no eternal friends and no eternal enemies—unless one is deeply won over, like Xiao Ran, Qiao Hongcai, Li Zhengming, and Zhong Yongliang.

Even being beaten half to death by Lin Er before—to be frank, Yu Zhe might not have gone to such lengths to dig Lin Er out on that account alone. The fundamental reason that drove him to it was one thing only: the Star Ink Stone.

The Star Ink Stone—before a treasure great enough to change a cultivator's fate, one might disown even one's own father. If Yu Zhe could simply let Lin Er, the enemy who had beaten him half to death, go unheeded, that would be a wonder to behold.

In an instant, the two of them raised their aura to the utmost without the slightest reservation, their strongest killing moves on the verge of erupting.

After all, they had already fought a desperate battle before, and each knew the other's strength well. Whether it was Wei Zhao, who had gained the upper hand last time, or Yu Zhe, who held the advantage in cultivation grade, neither dared to slight the opponent before him—otherwise, a single careless moment could truly cost them their lives.

Though the final clash had not yet come, both sides' killing moves were already fully revealed: on one side, the Twenty-Four Forms of the Soul-Reaving Chain Sword; on the other, the Twenty-Two Forms of the Frenzied Fire Eight Trigrams Palm. The mighty momentum the two raised in an instant set the surrounding display racks trembling—a sinister posture, as though a storm were about to break.

The customers around them could not help but start in alarm. Yu Zhe and Wei Zhao—one at the mid Foundation Establishment stage, the other at the peak of the early Foundation Establishment stage—were, by the standards of a place like the inner street, hardly deserving of the word "powerful." Yet none of them showed any inclination to interfere.

Those able to enter the inner street were invariably rich or noble. Who knew whether these two might be grandsons of some great figure? To meddle rashly might bring disaster down on one's own head; better to stand by and watch the show.

But the next moment, the display cabinets that had been trembling so violently suddenly fell still, and the strongest killing moves that Yu Zhe and Wei Zhao had been holding ready both dissolved into nothing, as though none of it had ever happened.

This was no voluntary withdrawal—they had been forced to stop. For a momentum unfathomably deep, far above their own, had enveloped them both in that instant. Faced with such an insurmountable gulf in rank, neither Wei Zhao nor Yu Zhe could ignore the warning.

Had they paid it no heed and pressed on, they might well have become two corpses before their killing moves ever left their hands, never to step out of the Hong Merchant Guild again.

"Settle private grudges outside. The Hong Merchant Guild forbids fighting—otherwise do not blame this old man for being ungracious. I ask you both to conduct yourselves with restraint." A guest-retainer's cold voice reached everyone's ears. Though the man himself did not appear, that single unfathomable momentum alone was enough to overawe all present.

Wei Zhao was secretly startled. In the two months and more since coming to Cloud Terrace Island, he had seen no small number of skilled hands, yet judging by momentum alone, this guest-retainer of the Hong Merchant Guild could certainly rank among the top ten.

Reckoning it over, the only others who could steadily stand above him were likely those few elders who had shown themselves at the Three-Tiered Pavilion, and Gongyang Jie, the once-in-a-century hall master of the Law Enforcement Hall. Apart from them, this guest-retainer of the Hong Merchant Guild had the highest strength.

If a mere guest-retainer possessed such terrifying power, then the Hong Merchant Guild, a top-tier guild among the five great island tiers of the heaven rank, truly had unfathomable depths.

Wei Zhao was merely startled—but Yu Zhe was now genuinely trembling with fear.

His master Nan Tianyong had suffered a real and heavy loss not long ago. Ever since being thrown down from a second-floor window, even with his一贯 arrogant and domineering temper and a background in no way inferior to those second-generation young masters of the Soaring Sky Pavilion, Nan Tianyong had not dared to set foot in the Hong Merchant Guild again.

Of late, even when bringing Yu Zhe into the inner street, he was somewhat apprehensive, keeping as far away as possible for fear of drawing the displeasure of these guest-retainers of the Hong Merchant Guild.

Faced with such unfathomable guest-retainers, even Nan Tianyong could only swallow his pride. Yu Zhe naturally dared not make a scene. He did not know whether that Lin Er across from him had felt the same just now, but in that instant he himself had sensed a killing intent that was utterly real!RS

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