Caught off guard, Little Curly Bear choked on the grip, and the moment Shangguan Lan'er released it, it promptly sprayed everything in its mouth back out, splattering the whole table—then finished with a satisfied burp.

"Uh..." Wei Zhao and the other two exchanged glances, all three with black lines of exasperation on their faces. They stared wordlessly at Little Curly Bear for a long while before sighing helplessly, "Let's just order another table. We haven't eaten our fill yet..."

Seeing Little Curly Bear's innocent, on-the-verge-of-tears expression, Ning Xuefei found it both funny and pitiful. She hurried to its rescue and changed the subject: "Since you, Wei Zhao, are so familiar with me and little Lan'er, why don't you be our guide? Take us around properly for the next few days. I've long heard there are so many scenic spots on the North Island. I've been here plenty of times before, but always in a rush—I've never actually taken the time to enjoy it!"

"I'd be glad to, but I'm a new disciple of the Welcoming Pavilion. According to the rules, I can't simply go out as I please..." Wei Zhao smiled bitterly.

True, he had Kublai—now the senior disciple in charge—to cover for him, so slipping away for a while to find Old Junk King to forge artifacts was no big deal; people would at most assume he was holed up in his cave dwelling in seclusion. But openly parading around with two young ladies? That would draw far too many eyes.

"Then what do we do? Little Lan'er, do you have any good ideas?" Ning Xuefei asked instead. Though she was the exalted princess of the West Island, every place had its own rules, and she was not the kind of ignorant little girl who thought everything revolved around her with no regard for others' lives.

"Hmm... let me think..." Shangguan Lan'er rolled her eyes, then smacked her own head. "No problem, I've got it! All we need is for my grandpa to arrange a position for you—then they can't say a word against you, right?"

"A position? What position?" Wei Zhao couldn't help but look bemused.

"I don't know either, but I'll definitely make Grandpa come up with something. We'll leave that headache to him. Hehe!" Shangguan Lan'er said carelessly.

"All right then..." Wei Zhao could only nod and agree, speechless. As for the artifact forging, he would have to set it aside for a couple of days. Old Junk King had said that letting this lukewarm period drag on a little longer might not be a bad thing, so it should do no great harm.

Having been frightened once already by Si Haixiao, the two girls had little appetite for further sightseeing today. After this one meal with Wei Zhao, they quickly returned under the protection of the five core disciples of the Soaring Heavens Pavilion.

Early the next morning, a transfer order suddenly arrived at the Welcoming Pavilion, stunning everyone from top to bottom!

All the new disciples of the Third-Tier Pavilion were summoned into the hall to hear the appointment order. The whole process was conducted with full formality: a transmission steward responsible for conveying the Council of Elders' commands appeared in person, accompanied by a livid Hu Yunfeng.

"Following deliberation by the North Island Council of Elders, Wei Zhao of the Welcoming Pavilion is hereby appointed as Reception Steward for the West Island, tasked specifically with receiving the West Island's Miss Ning and overseeing all matters pertaining to her travels on the North Island. In any situation that arises, he may act at his own discretion without further consultation," the transmission steward read the order aloud before the assembly.

The moment the words left his mouth, the whole hall erupted in an uproar. Even Hu Yunfeng wore a look of inexplicable shock.

Reception Steward for the West Island? What kind of position was that? He'd never even heard of it before. And the key point was that it had been appointed personally by the Council of Elders, with discretionary authority to act on his own judgment—that did not sound simple at all!

Wei Zhao accepted the order under the envious gazes of the crowd, while inwardly he was speechless. Shangguan Tianhua, that top-tier big shot, truly had time on his hands—to actually dream up such a peculiar title for him. One had to admire the effort.

Yet just as Wei Zhao took the order and turned to leave, the transmission steward suddenly called out, "Hold on, young brother Wei Zhao. I also have a private letter from Pavilion Master Shangguan. Please take it as well."

Boom! The hall boiled over even more. Shangguan Tianhua, the Pavilion Master of the Soaring Heavens Pavilion, would actually write a private letter to a mere new disciple of the Azure Cloud Pavilion? The weight of that single letter made it far more enviable than that bizarre transfer order. Damn it—just how many lifetimes of good fortune had this brat Wei Zhao accumulated?

The many new disciples were merely enjoying the spectacle, but Hu Yunfeng, the Welcoming Pavilion Master, already wore the pitiful expression of a man who had eaten shit and was now chewing it slowly to savor the flavor.

Shangguan Tianhua was a top-tier existence perched so high above that even someone of Hu Yunfeng's status as Welcoming Pavilion Master found it hard to exchange a single word with him face to face, let alone claim any kind of friendship. What virtue or ability did this Wei Zhao possess to earn such special regard from a big shot like that?

If even Hu Yunfeng was like this, then Kang Zhaoming, Murong Zhen, and the others who regarded Wei Zhao as a thorn in their eyes and a spike in their flesh were struck so dumb they couldn't speak for a long while. Though the sun still blazed high overhead, their hearts had already plunged straight into an ice cellar, frozen into solid lumps.

Wei Zhao paid no attention to these people, sick with envy to the point of spitting blood. After taking Shangguan Tianhua's private letter, he turned, walked to an empty spot, opened it, and read it carefully.

"Wei Zhao, this old man finds you quick-witted and reliable—a man of promise. This training opportunity is exceedingly rare. I hope you will fulfill your duties faithfully and protect the West Island's princess well... Be a worthy close-range guard for the Island Flower."

The Island Flower's close-range guard? That last line of the letter made Wei Zhao spit on the spot. He felt as though he was born for this line of work—wherever he went, this was the job. So it had been in the mortal world, and now on Cloud-Tier Island he still couldn't escape this fate?

He had just finished reading the letter in his hand when the gathered new disciples erupted into another uproar. Wei Zhao looked up to see Shangguan Lan'er and Ning Xuefei—those two little beauties with impossibly deep backgrounds—smiling sweetly and waving at him from not far away.

A West Island princess in one hand, a Soaring Heavens Pavilion princess in the other. Watching Wei Zhao's departing figure flanked by the two, everyone in the Welcoming Pavilion was utterly petrified. The same lament rose in every heart: to be a new disciple, one must learn from Wei Zhao—this, damn it, was what a true winner in life looked like!

"If we can't find a powerful backer, I say we might as well give up on Wei Zhao," Meng Tong remarked faintly from behind the crowd.

Though Kang Zhaoming and Murong Zhen and the others were absolutely unwilling to let it go, after their crushing defeat last time, after witnessing how Nantian Ba's group tried to steal the chicken only to lose the rice and end up with Yu Zhe, and now seeing this spectacle with their own eyes today—if they were to step forward and move against Wei Zhao again, they might not truly have the guts. R1152

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