"Right, this time someone shamelessly claimed to be Master Qing Danzi's master, but his master passed away many years ago. Naturally, Master Qing Danzi would be the most furious of all—it makes sense that he would write this letter." Zheng Dongsheng was still rationalizing, still not having learned his lesson, and read it aloud for all to hear: "Zheng Dongsheng, you dare to slander my master. I hereby expel you. From this day forth, Morning Star Academy has no place for you. No need to come crawling back!"

Silence. Hall One instantly fell into a strange sort of silence. Zheng Dongsheng was dumbstruck, and Wu Miao and his companions were dumbstruck as well, while Oda Zhou was struggling hard to hold back his laughter. As acting island lord, if he were to burst out laughing in public at a time like this, it would seem a bit undignified.

Pfft! Wei Zhao had no such scruples. He sprayed out a mouthful of wine on the spot, glanced at the petrified Zheng Dongsheng, and said to Oda Zhou, "This fellow's day job wouldn't happen to be a comedian, would it? Don't tell me you hired him to liven up the drinking?"

"I didn't spend a single spirit jade on him," Oda Zhou said, straining to keep a straight face.

"Free of charge? So this one is a veteran artist of both virtue and art—truly, my admiration knows no bounds!" Wei Zhao said with the utmost gravity, full of admiration.

Pfft! This time even Oda Zhou finally burst out laughing. He hadn't expected this Wei Zhao to be such a joker too—of both virtue and art, where did he come up with that?

Zheng Dongsheng's face had turned completely black as a pot bottom. He had no mind at all now to refute Wei Zhao's sarcasm; his head was full of that one line from Qing Danzi. What on earth was this? Wei Zhao was actually Qing Danzi's master?!

If Zheng Dongsheng still couldn't put two and two together at this point, still couldn't tell he had kicked an iron plate, then he truly would have been a fool beyond saving. They were both high-grade alchemists—he himself was merely a seventh-grade alchemist, while Wei Zhao was Qing Danzi's master. He couldn't even match the man's disciple. What the hell was the point anymore?

With Qing Danzi's words laid out like that, it meant he could never go back to Morning Star Academy. Everyone knew the chief alchemist held absolute authority over the other alchemists of the academy. Since Qing Danzi had told him to get lost, Ling Yuanqing would certainly not say a word against it.

Even if Zheng Dongsheng was a seventh-grade alchemist and could make his way anywhere in any Yellow-Rank academy of the Eastern Continent, since Qing Danzi had taken a dislike to him, Morning Star Academy had no other choice. If they went against Qing Danzi's wishes and forcibly kept him on, the two would affect each other, and neither would be able to refine pills in peace.

So in any academy of the Eastern Continent, the chief alchemist's word was final—whoever he told to leave had to leave, with no room for negotiation. The academy could only keep this one, the strongest of them all.

Zheng Dongsheng felt as though he had been struck by five thunders at once. There was no thunder tribulation, true, but he looked no different from a man struck by lightning. Not a trace of his former smug arrogance remained in his spirit; instead, there was only a gray desolation.

To be sure, as a seventh-grade alchemist of standing, Zheng Dongsheng would never lack for a meal wherever he went. But the problem was that he had built up Morning Star Academy over so many years, with all his connections and foundations rooted there. Now a single sentence from Qing Danzi had sent all his years of painstaking effort down the drain, and going elsewhere meant starting from scratch. No one could accept that.

Not only that—now, recalling Zhuang Yifan's crude outburst, it had not been his self-deceiving pretense of finding it troublesome at all, but clearly an expression of the very same attitude as Qing Danzi's!

This amounted to being not only swept out of Morning Star Academy, but also offending the Alliance Lord, who was then at the height of his power. Whether other Yellow-Rank academies would even be willing to take him in was now an open question. His future was pitch-black.

"Master Zheng..." Wu Miao rubbed his hands together, wanting to offer a few words of comfort but not knowing how to begin. Nan Tian Jiguang and Tong Yangxi exchanged a glance, then simply said nothing—this was no place for the likes of them to speak.

Zheng Dongsheng ignored him. With a sullen glance at Oda Zhou and Wei Zhao, he felt he had no place to show his face; he didn't even know what polite pleasantries to say. With a face full of gray desolation, he turned and walked away.

Wu Miao and the others hurried after him. Once they were out of Island Lord Hall One, Wu Miao quickened his pace and caught up to ask, "Master Zheng, what do we do now?"

"What do you mean, what do we do? We eat it cold!" Zheng Dongsheng snapped.

"Huh?" Wu Miao and the others looked at one another in dismay.

"The game is lost. The few of us alone can do nothing about Wei Zhao and the Heavenly Pill Pavilion, and now I can barely save myself. I can't stay on the Central Island any longer. I must hurry back to the Eastern Continent to clean up the mess—salvage whatever I can." Zheng Dongsheng sighed.

He had come to the Central Island this time full of smug ambition, with Wu Miao and the rest singing his praises to the skies—and then in the blink of an eye it had come to this, his face covered in dust, scurrying about like a stray dog. Truly, the fortunes of life were capricious.

"What? You're going back to the Eastern Continent?" Wu Miao's expression changed drastically on the spot. He had been counting on Zheng Dongsheng to refine pills for him. If Zheng Dongsheng just went back to the Eastern Continent like this, whom would he turn to in the future? He couldn't very well go ask Wei Zhao for help, could he?

"Your business can wait for another time. In my present state I can't refine pills anyway." Zheng Dongsheng gave a bitter laugh and hurried off without further explanation. However one looked at it, he really had no face left to stay on the Central Island.

Wu Miao and the others looked at one another, speechless. This time it was not only Zheng Dongsheng who had suffered heavy losses; none of them were much better off. The Famous Medicine Sect had failed to eliminate the Heavenly Pill Pavilion, and once the Pavilion grew further in the days to come, their business would inevitably suffer greatly. And Wu Miao had offended Oda Zhou over this affair as well; his days ahead would certainly not be easy.

As for Nan Tian Jiguang, who had set his heart on currying favor with Wu Miao to climb the ladder, the acting vice island lord post Wu Miao had promised him in advance was now far beyond reach. After all, Wu Miao could barely save himself. For an ordinary vice island lord to try to push someone into office under such circumstances—the difficulty was only too easy to imagine. Once Oda Zhou stepped forward to veto it, the whole thing would be done for.

The whole party slunk away, and none of it affected the drinking spirits of Oda Zhou and Wei Zhao in the slightest. The two had been somewhat distant at first, but after this storm of shared enmity, and with a few cups of wine in their bellies, their relationship quickly grew familiar.

Of course, this was mainly because Oda Zhou was deliberately cultivating good relations. After all, he was a man from a top-tier clan, and with Oda Ba's reminder as well, he had seen Wei Zhao's value clearly. Otherwise, he would never have brought out even his own prized vintage.

"This Zheng Dongsheng may be a seventh-grade alchemist, but his brain is beyond saving. To think he believed that invoking Zhuang Yifan's name could cow the entire Central Island—truly, his frog-in-a-well outlook has reached a certain level." Oda Zhou sneered.