Chapter 3556 — Xu Lingchong, the Backer

"The ones who came before were here to pick people—they took the best and carried them off. Me? I'm here to collect what's left. Whoever's left over, I have to haul them back... and when I get home and the senior steward finds out I brought back two more loose cultivators, I'll get another earful. It's a thankless job—who'd want to do it!" The miserable senior brother shook his head. "All they can do is bully me. Tough at home, that's all. If they had the guts, they'd go fight the Chongtian Pavilion and the Xuanji Pavilion for their people!"

"So it seems the two of us are the weakest of the lot." Wei Zhao was a little speechless when he heard this. "Senior Brother Ku, we're not that bad, are we? We're not especially weak."

"Ah, no need to say all that. I understand. But I'm used to being scolded—it's no trouble." The miserable senior brother shook his head.

Still, Wei Zhao could tell: this Senior Brother Ku was a genuinely good man, and he truly answered every question he was asked! By now Xiao Chen had already learned that the Heaven-Tier North Island was only a part of Ascending Cloud Terrace Island, that on Ascending Cloud Terrace Island there were other teleportation platforms with others charged with receiving arrivals, and that even Senior Brother Ku did not know where they were received. With his abilities, he really did not know that much!

"Senior Brother Ku, have you ever heard of a man called Zhang Naipao?" Wei Zhao finally asked the question he most wanted answered. Now that he knew Tianchan and the others had gone somewhere else, he was relieved—they were all on Ascending Cloud Terrace Island, so sooner or later they would meet.

"Zhang Naipao? The alchemy god Zhang Naipao?" Senior Brother Ku was taken aback. "Of course I know of him. He's a famous figure who came out of our Heaven-Tier North Island. As for where he is now, I couldn't say. I'm a grassroots disciple selected from a village near here, and I only recently joined the Azure Cloud Pavilion—there's a great deal I don't know! Frankly, we're all newcomers. I'm just luckier—I've already broken through to the heavenly dao and count as a decent hand at the early Foundation Establishment stage."

"Thank you, Senior Brother Ku." Wei Zhao nodded. Though there was no definite answer, at least he knew Zhang Naipao should be here! Back at the ancient tomb, Wei Zhao had suspected Zhang Naipao was not dead; and since something had been missing from the tomb, he was all the more certain that Zhang Naipao had gone back for it. If Zhang Naipao had indeed broken through to the heavenly dao, then Ascending Cloud Terrace Island should be where he was—and sure enough, he had been right!

Meanwhile, as Wei Zhao and Xiao Chen were sounding out this miserable senior brother, Kang Jingming and Zhong Yongliang, who had set out earlier, were already thick as thieves with their own guide. Unlike Senior Brother Ku, their guide was a man of no small standing—his name was Xu Lingchong, and he was the direct grandson of the Third Elder of the Chongtian Pavilion, a cultivation second-generation heir of impeccable pedigree.

In every pavilion, the one with the most power was the pavilion master, and beneath him were the several elders! But the pavilion master seldom concerned himself with such trifles; for welcoming newcomers, having a single elder put in an appearance was already good enough.

"My heavens—to succeed at Foundation Establishment by thirty! Those so-called cultivation prodigies look like a heap of dung next to Senior Brother Xu!" Kang Jingming, having gotten a clear picture of the man's background, immediately began to fawn and flatter with loud exclamations.

He knew very well that to gain a foothold on Ascending Cloud Terrace Island, his own strength alone would never be enough; the most important thing was to latch onto a strong thigh—and this Xu Lingchong before him was plainly a very thick thigh indeed. As long as he could win the man's favor, then never mind gaining a foothold on Ascending Cloud Terrace Island—even taking revenge on Wei Zhao in the future would be a simple matter.

Back in the day, it was only by toadying to Xiaotaohong that he had managed to make contact with Ancestor Xuanchen. If he could get close to the pavilion master, then this Xu Lingchong too would become a stepping stone for Kang Jingming—in Kang Jingming's eyes, he had already become a heap of dung, just like Xiaotaohong before him.

Xu Lingchong was secretly delighted, thinking this kid wasn't bad! Yet on the surface he still smiled with studied indifference. Kang Jingming's flattery had struck right at his heart: across the whole of the Heaven-Tier North Island, there were not many who could set foot on the heavenly dao and succeed at Foundation Establishment before thirty—only a handful out of each batch of disciples. And though Xu Lingchong's strength owed a great deal to the priceless resources piled into him, the fact remained that he possessed early Foundation Establishment power, more than enough to crush many a prodigy of his generation.

Kang Jingming's skill at reading faces was formidable. One look at Xu Lingchong's expression and he knew he had flattered the man correctly. Seizing the moment, he pressed on: "Before I came to Ascending Cloud Terrace Island, I thought something like Wei Zhao—nineteen years old and already at the peak of the late Heaven-Tier, at great consummation—was already a top-tier prodigy such as appears once in ten thousand years. But now that I've met Senior Brother Xu, I realize how laughable that notion was. To judge cultivation by the standards of the secular world—that's nothing but viewing the sky from the bottom of a well!"

To win someone over, one had not only to flatter but also to set up a common enemy for both parties—only then could their relationship be brought closer quickly. This was the wisdom Kang Jingming had distilled from experience, just as it had been with him and Ancestor Xuanchen back then.

From Senior Brother Xu's behavior just now, it seemed he held those so-called cultivation prodigies in very low regard. Prodigies were generally proud and arrogant, bursting with a sense of superiority, and what such people could least tolerate was a rival of their own kind.

Sure enough, Xu Lingchong took the bait quickly: "A Heaven-Tier great consummation at nineteen? Is this Wei Zhao some core disciple of a major sect in the secular world?"

"No—just an ordinary grassroots loose cultivator. But he's insufferably full of himself, and he puts on the grandest airs!" Kang Jingming hastened to say.

"A grassroots loose cultivator? Putting on airs?" Xu Lingchong's face filled with scorn. "Then perhaps he picked up some heretical cultivation method somewhere. His rank may have shot up quickly, but his foundation must be unsteady and his real strength surely nothing much. Even if such a man reaches the peak of the late Heaven-Tier, at great consummation—wanting to succeed at Foundation Establishment? Heh heh, that's about as hard as ascending to heaven. Which is only natural. You know what a frog at the bottom of a well is? He's had no one to measure himself against. If he had... heh heh."

"Senior Brother Xu truly has eyes like a torch! If he had known of Senior Brother Xu sooner, he'd probably have been shattered into a split personality long ago! But that Wei Zhao relies on a few petty tricks to run roughshod over the secular world, and everyone can only swallow their anger and say nothing. Senior Brother Xu, you must uphold justice for us." Kang Jingming put on a pitiful look.

"There's such a thing? Just a grassroots loose cultivator, and he dares to bully you? Have the sects behind you grown so weak as that?" Xu Lingchong frowned.