Chapter 3165 — An Unfathomable Trio

And so, with hearts weighed down by indescribable unease, they pressed the doorbell at the entrance to Wei Zhao's villa.

With guests at the door, Wei Zhao halted the circulation of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art, rose, and left his room for the villa's front gate. Yet when he reached it and laid eyes on the three figures beyond, his gaze went taut at once, and a stormy sea surged in his heart.

Of the three outside his gate, two were consummate masters at the peak of the late Heaven Rank, and one was a master at the peak of the late Heaven Rank.

What sort of combination was this? In the ancient strata, such beings ran roughshod wherever they pleased, and yet here they stood at his own door. What in the world did these people want?

"You three—might I ask whom you have come to see?" Wei Zhao inquired, betraying nothing. Since they had not forced their way in but had courteously rung the bell, he remained privately on guard while keeping his outward manner polite.

"Pray tell, is this the residence of Wei Zhao, Young Hero Lin?" Ancestor Blood-Robe asked cautiously.

At that question, Wei Zhao's eyelid twitched of its own accord. Young Hero Lin? A consummate master at the peak of the late Heaven Rank, addressing him as Young Hero Lin? Was there no mistake here? For that instant, Wei Zhao was truly dumbfounded. Just where had these three come from?

Seeing Wei Zhao's astonished expression, Ancestor Huangquan could not help shooting Ancestor Blood-Robe a glare. He understood well enough that Blood-Robe had been far too ingratiating and roused Wei Zhao's suspicions. He cleared his throat and, jabbing a finger at Wei Zhao, demanded sharply, "Boy, you're Wei Zhao, aren't you?"

"That would be me..." This time Wei Zhao was even more bewildered. What exactly had these three come to do? Why was one of them unfailingly courteous and another utterly overbearing?

Having spoken, Ancestor Huangquan glanced at Ancestor Gloom, who understood at once that his role as peacemaker was required. He coughed twice and said to Wei Zhao, "Wei Zhao, is it? These two are the two Ancestors of our Blood-Robe Huangquan Sect—one of exceedingly mild temper, and one rather hot-tempered..."

"Blood-Robe Huangquan Sect?" At that, Wei Zhao's expression changed on the spot, and he stared at the three before him in astonishment. As for the mild temper and the hot temper, he had already had a taste of both. But by any reasonable account, these three were his mortal enemies—they ought to have attacked the moment they arrived. Why were they standing here saying so much to him?

Could it be that masters of such stature all had peculiar temperaments?

"Just so!" Ancestor Gloom nodded. "Our Blood-Robe Huangquan Sect may previously have had certain misunderstandings with Mr. Wei Zhao. We have come today precisely to clear them up!"

"Clear up misunderstandings?" Wei Zhao simply could not fathom what these three were after. Had his golden finger not allowed him to discern the grade of their strength, he might even have taken them for a trio of swindlers.

And yet, what consummate master at the peak of the late Heaven Rank had the idle time to pose as a swindler? And two of them at once? Even the remaining master at the peak of the late Heaven Rank would have no stomach for playing the fraud.

"Just so. Will Mr. Wei Zhao not invite us in?" Ancestor Gloom's tone was neither warm nor cold—merely composed.

"Very well. Please come in, all three of you!" Wei Zhao drew a deep breath. Fortune or calamity, it was not for him to choose; what could not be avoided would not be avoided. With the strength these three commanded, flight was impossible and resistance futile, so he might as well see what they meant to do.

As matters stood, though their manner left much to be desired, they had done nothing untoward, and so Wei Zhao steadied himself.

Seeing that Wei Zhao remained so composed even after learning their identities, Ancestor Huangquan could not help feeling profound admiration, thinking to himself that this was indeed a descendant of the Vajra Twin Fiends, with a mental fortitude of such caliber! Little did he know that Wei Zhao had merely adopted the attitude that fortune could not be forced and calamity could not be fled.

Ancestor Huangquan, Ancestor Blood-Robe, and Ancestor Gloom entered Wei Zhao's villa. Shen Yushu had not yet returned from school, and Xu Shilan and Cheng Yiyi were upstairs practicing their singing—they seldom came down during the day—so only Wei Zhao and the three from the Blood-Robe Huangquan Sect remained in the living room.

"Mr. Wei Zhao, there were certain misunderstandings between us previously. You took action and killed several of our men—is that not so?" Ancestor Gloom inquired once they were seated.

Ancestor Huangquan and Ancestor Blood-Robe were both rather poor at dissembling, whereas Ancestor Gloom had some skill in the matter, and so of the three it was he who began speaking on behalf of the rest.

"That is so. But it was your men who sought to kill me first, and I was forced to strike back," said Wei Zhao. Unable to gauge the purpose of their visit, he saw no reason to conceal anything and spoke the plain truth—after all, even unspoken, such matters could be investigated readily enough, so he might as well be forthright.

"Oh, we know. There is no enmity between us and Mr. Wei Zhao. The reason we sought to assassinate Mr. Wei Zhao was simply that we had taken on a commission—that is why we came to kill you," said Ancestor Gloom. "As the saying goes, take a man's money and spare him his calamity. That was our purpose from the outset!"

"I understand, and I do not blame you," Wei Zhao said with a nod. He had trained among assassin guilds in the secular world and understood the code of that trade well enough. In such matters there was no right or wrong, and he could hardly lay the blame at the feet of the assassins themselves: "A wrong has its source and a debt its debtor. Whoever wants me dead is the one I will settle accounts with!"

"Exactly!" Ancestor Gloom slapped his thigh. "Mr. Wei Zhao is a man of true understanding—how refreshing and easy it is to speak with him! He grasped our meaning in an instant!"

"You came all this way just to say such things?" Wei Zhao regarded Ancestor Gloom with a rather peculiar look.

"Of course not merely that. We have already sent Heaven Rank masters, and none proved a match for Mr. Wei Zhao. Therefore we have decided to abandon this scheme!" said Ancestor Gloom. "True, the fault for the assassination attempt lies with us first, but afterward Mr. Wei Zhao killed no small number of our people. Shall we let the matter rest here and say no more of it?"

"Let it rest here?" Wei Zhao could scarcely believe his ears. Could such a good thing really be? An assassin guild that could not kill its target had come to make peace? Moreover, if any one of these three lifted a hand, he had no confidence of escaping—so how had it come to letting the matter rest?

"Yes. What does Mr. Wei Zhao think?" Ancestor Gloom nodded and asked.

"I... certainly have no objection. Only—are you in earnest?" However Wei Zhao looked at it, the whole affair seemed rather uncanny.

After all, three masters at the peak of the late Heaven Rank, two of them consummate—for a combination of such strength to come in person to make peace, Wei Zhao could scarcely bring himself to believe it.

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