Chapter 1057 — Wei Zhao's Strength

"Oh — so are you being careful?" Feng Xiaoxiao asked.

"I'd say he's the one who needs to be careful of you," Wei Zhao said with a smile.

"Haha!" Feng Xiaoxiao brightened at once. "I think so too!"

"But that Xie Yufeng — you'd still better be careful. When I'm not around, it's best if you and Xiaoshu don't provoke him on your own," Wei Zhao cautioned.

"Oh? What about Xie Yufeng? What's so special about him? What could he possibly do to us?" Feng Xiaoxiao asked, puzzled.

"Xie Yufeng is a cultivator — a formidable one at the peak of the early Mystic Rank." Wei Zhao saw no reason to hide this from Feng Xiaoxiao; given her family background, she would certainly understand what the ranks of a cultivator's strength meant.

"Ah!" Feng Xiaoxiao was startled by his words. "A formidable one at the peak of the early Mystic Rank? Really?"

"Really." Wei Zhao nodded.

"No way. A formidable one at the peak of the early Mystic Rank, and that pathetic? Beaten black and blue by a few small-time thugs? Sitting down on a nail-studded shoe? And today he got a savage beating from Wu Tieshou too?" Feng Xiaoxiao could hardly believe it; it struck her as absurd.

"He is indeed a formidable one at the peak of the early Mystic Rank." Wei Zhao nodded gravely. "It's just that, for some reason, he deliberately concealed his strength in front of me."

"Oh?" Hearing this, Feng Xiaoxiao frowned and fell into thought.

If what Wei Zhao said was true, then Xie Yufeng really did seem to have been hiding his strength. Whether that day at the karaoke club or this morning when they ran into Wu Tieshou, Xie Yufeng had at first seemed utterly confident about teaching the other party a lesson — and then suddenly backed down.

Feng Xiaoxiao had been puzzled before, but the thought had never occurred to her. Now, on reflection, it really was rather strange, and only Wei Zhao's explanation could account for it: in Wei Zhao's presence, Xie Yufeng deliberately pretended to be powerless.

"Then what does he mean by that... Is he targeting you?" Feng Xiaoxiao was no fool; in an instant she grasped the stakes involved. Xie Yufeng must be after something, and nine times out of ten it was aimed at Wei Zhao. At the thought, her heart tightened. She did not know when it had begun, but Feng Xiaoxiao had truly come to regard Wei Zhao as her boyfriend, as someone she cared about — no longer a mere experiment in love, or a tool for revenge. The change had been imperceptible, so much so that even she herself was not quite aware of it.

A person's thoughts are the hardest thing to fathom; love and hate often turn on a single instant. Hatred may give birth to love, and love to hatred. Feng Xiaoxiao's present case was one of hatred giving birth to love.

"Perhaps. But he's only a formidable one at the peak of the early Mystic Rank..." Wei Zhao shrugged and spoke as if it were nothing.

"Oh?" At his words, Feng Xiaoxiao's eyes lit up at once. If Wei Zhao could appear at the auction, then he must know something of the great clans; it was only natural that he would understand the ranking of martial artists. So she found nothing amiss in that. But the fact that Wei Zhao now regarded Xie Yufeng with utter contempt — that told her something.

Since Wei Zhao knew what a formidable one at the peak of the early Mystic Rank meant, and yet held him in such disdain, what then was Wei Zhao's own strength? Could Wei Zhao be a cultivator too? A martial artist as well?

Feng Xiaoxiao found it hard to believe. Because of her father's work, she naturally knew more of these inside matters than others — but she also knew all the better how rare martial artists were in the mundane world. Formidable ones of the Yellow Rank were one thing; after all, there were such men at the side of many a wealthy man.

Many cultivators, upon reaching the Yellow Rank, stalled and went no further. Having no higher pursuit on the path of cultivation, they naturally sought the money and pleasures of the dazzling world, and it was no rarity for them to sink into becoming the running dogs and hired fists of the rich. But the Mystic Rank was not so common. As a rule, a formidable one who could cultivate to the Mystic Rank, and who had even the faintest hope of advancing further, would not stoop to becoming a rich man's bodyguard. Yet nothing in this world is absolute; rare as the Mystic Rank was, such men did exist.

But Wei Zhao — a high school student — actually held a formidable one at the peak of the early Mystic Rank in such contempt. Then what of himself...? Feng Xiaoxiao had known before only that Wei Zhao was formidable, but she had never imagined he was this formidable. By that reckoning, Wei Zhao really might be stronger than Xie Yufeng!

"Wei Zhao, darling... you..." Feng Xiaoxiao stared at him wide-eyed in disbelief. "Don't tell me you're stronger than Xie Yufeng?"

Wei Zhao nodded. Since he had already accepted Feng Xiaoxiao, there were matters he would no longer hide from her. As for his strength, Tang Yun, Gu Mengyao, and Shen Yushu all knew of it — and besides, Feng Xiaoxiao's father, Feng Tianlong, had once been his comrade-in-arms. Concealing anything from her was all the more impossible.

"Just a little stronger than Xie Yufeng," Wei Zhao said with a smile.

"Wow!" Hearing his confirmation, Feng Xiaoxiao was beside herself with excitement and could not help crying out, "Xiaoxiao, you're amazing! You picked a boyfriend at random and he turns out to be a Mystic Rank expert — wahaha, what a steal!"

"..." Wei Zhao looked at her jubilant expression and was somewhat speechless. He could not fathom what she was so happy about. What use was a Mystic Rank expert? It could not cure her illness...

"Hahaha, doesn't that mean you're stronger than most of the experts of the great clans?" Feng Xiaoxiao circled around Wei Zhao, her eyes roving over him as if trying to spot something out of the ordinary. "No wonder you could attend the auction — so you're an expert too!"

"I wasn't then. I was only late Yellow Rank..." Wei Zhao said. "Though I can generally punch above my weight and handle experts a bit stronger than myself..."

He thought of his last breakthrough and rank-up — that had been Feng Xiaoxiao's doing. He had already touched the barrier of the Mystic Rank, but without Feng Xiaoxiao pushing him to break down before building up, he would never have become a Mystic Rank expert so easily.

"Oh?" Feng Xiaoxiao was slightly taken aback by his words.

But Wei Zhao said this clearly to set her mind at ease. After all, she had little time left, and he did not want her living in fear every day.

"Heh. So don't overthink it. Whether it's Wu Chengtian or Xie Yufeng, neither is a problem. Wu Chengtian — never mind him; even if his grandfather came, I wouldn't fear him in the least," Wei Zhao said with a smile.

"Wu Chengtian's grandfather..." Something suddenly occurred to Feng Xiaoxiao: at the end of the Yanjing auction, she had provoked Wu Chengtian's grandfather, Wu Gonggao. Wu Gonggao had flown into a rage and looked ready to beat her to death — and at that moment, hadn't Wei Zhao seemed to step in front of her?