Chapter 3569 — Old Jiao Has a Problem

Unfortunately, the words had already been spoken—private cave-dwelling exchanges were permitted, and that was the rule of the Welcome Pavilion. Even if Meng Jueming wanted to stop it now, he had no way to; he could only wish he could slap himself twice across the face. If he had not let his mouth run and announced that rule just now, how would that newcomer Wei Zhao have found such a gaping loophole to slip through?

"Hmph, what are you all still gathered here for? Break it up, all of you, get back to your own cave dwellings! And you two from the mortal realm—go find Kubi for the incantation and mnemonics for your subsequent cultivation!" Meng Jueming was furious at the sight of these newcomers, Wei Zhao most of all. If not for the sect rule that inner disciples may not raise a hand against outer disciples, he would have struck Wei Zhao down this very moment. A country bumpkin from the mortal realm—what did he amount to!

What a pity that an inner disciple could not even issue a formal challenge to an outer disciple—unless that outer disciple had already advanced to the Foundation Establishment stage! He would have to wait and take his revenge through other means.

Since the senior managing brother had spoken, the newcomers exchanged glances and could only disperse, each impatient to try out his own cultivation cave dwelling.

"Cousin Jiu, you have to help me! Surely you are not really going to make me live in that Cave Dwelling Number Fifteen down the mountain? If I do, how am I supposed to beat that loathsome Wei Zhao a month from now?" Seeing that most of the others had gone, Meng Zhou hurried over to Meng Jueming's side to complain.

"Hmph, whose fault is it that you cannot measure up? You could not even beat a counterfeit from the mortal realm—you have thrown every last shred of my face in the dirt!" Meng Jueming scolded him irritably. He had once placed great hopes on Meng Zhou and had intended to groom him into his own right hand; now, before the boy had accomplished a single thing, he had brought a whole mess of trouble down on Meng Jueming's head instead.

Meng Zhou's face flushed scarlet, and he rushed to defend himself: "Cousin Jiu, you know my strength better than anyone. Just now I really was caught off guard for a moment and let Wei Zhao find an opening. I was going to give him a bit of face, but who knew he would go straight for a dirty trick the moment he stepped up!"

Meng Jueming mused, "That is true enough. The brat is cunning. If it had been a fair and open fight, there is no reason a local cultivator at Great Perfection like you should have lost to a counterfeit from the mortal realm."

"Exactly! So in next month's ranking tournament, I will definitely pound him until he is spitting teeth—but Cousin Jiu, if you really make me live in Cave Dwelling Number Fifteen down the mountain, then it will be a different story." Meng Zhou quickly made himself agreeable. What he feared most was that Meng Jueming would wash his hands of him from here on. If he lost such a powerful backer for nothing, he would have nowhere in the world to go and weep.

"Hmph, how could words I declared in public be taken back? You listen to me, boy: whether you want to or not, you will go hole up in that Cave Dwelling Number Fifteen down the mountain!" Meng Jueming swept him with a stern glare that made Meng Zhou jump in fright.

After a pause, Meng Jueming softened his tone. "But you need not worry. Yes, you will be living in the worst one, Cave Dwelling Number Fifteen down the mountain, but Wei Zhao insisted on putting on airs and chose Cave Dwelling Number Fourteen down there himself—it is not much better than yours. I will find a way to allot you a few more spirit jades on my end; that will be more than enough for you to pull ahead of him. To live in the worst cave dwelling and still trample him underfoot—would that not make revenge all the sweeter! It also proves indirectly that you were stronger than Wei Zhao all along. Otherwise, if you had not been stronger from the very start, how could you ever have beaten him while cultivating in an environment inferior to his?"

"Of course! Cousin Jiu is brilliant!" Meng Zhou's eyes lit up with excitement.

For newcomers, the two primary cultivation resources were simple: one was the cultivation cave dwelling, the other was spirit jade. Compared with each other, the effect of spirit jade far surpassed that of the cave dwelling—especially compared with those inferior cave dwellings at the foot of the mountain, its effect was a full hundred or a thousand times better. Otherwise, spirit jade would never have become the resource of choice for the vast majority of cultivators seeking to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage.

Even so, spirit jade had two drawbacks compared with cave dwellings. First, it was precious and scarce, hard to come by—especially for newcomers. Second, it was a single-use consumable: if one absorbed it with full force, the heaven-and-earth spiritual energy within would be exhausted in as little as two or three days, or at most four or five, unlike a cave dwelling, which could be used for the long term.

By the rules, the Welcome Pavilion distributed one piece of spirit jade to each newcomer every month. The process looked perfectly fair on the surface, but everyone knew that spirit jades came in all sizes, and the ones in charge of distribution were managing brothers like Meng Jueming. When the time came, who got a large piece and who got a small one—at the Azure Cloud Pavilion, that was settled by a single word from Meng Jueming! As for Kubi, the managing brother in name only, they simply ignored him outright.

Leaving aside how Meng Jueming and Meng Zhou schemed and calculated, Wei Zhao, after a word with Senior Brother Kubi, Xiao Che, and Qiao Hongcai, entered his own Cave Dwelling Number Fourteen down the mountain.

He had no need for any incantation or mnemonics. He did not know whether Xiao Che needed them, but if he did, Senior Brother Kubi would not make things difficult for him.

After looking around, Wei Zhao found that the spiritual energy inside the cave dwelling all welled up from the ground. Its concentration was perhaps eight to ten times that of the outside world. In the mortal realm, this alone would have been enough to call it a holy land of cultivation; unfortunately, Wei Zhao had long since grown accustomed to the extraordinary density of the jade pendant's space, and so he paid it no mind at all.

By this reasoning, not to mention Cave Dwelling Number One at the foot of the mountain, even the finest Cave Dwelling Number One at the summit was still far inferior to the jade pendant's space. That was precisely why Wei Zhao had just given his cave dwelling away to Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai. Sitting atop a treasure mountain like the jade pendant's space, if Wei Zhao still lacked confidence, then he would truly be sick.

After sealing the cave dwelling, Wei Zhao sat cross-legged and entered the jade pendant's space.

Above every cultivation cave dwelling was a restrictive spell. Once a newcomer entered, the spell would activate, and outsiders could not enter without permission. This was to prevent the dishonest from secretly seizing another's cave dwelling while he was away—after all, the heaven-and-earth spiritual energy produced within each cave dwelling was limited over a given span of time.

When changing cave dwellings, one had to ask a capable Foundation Establishment cultivator to lift the restrictive spell and then reactivate it.

This was the first time Wei Zhao had entered the jade pendant's space since being transported to Cloud Terrace Island, and the sight before his eyes gave him a great shock.

"Old Jiao!" Seeing Jiao Yaozi's strange state at that moment, Wei Zhao could not help but stare blankly.