Chapter 3574 — Defeated in the Election

"That... that is true enough." Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai exchanged a glance, and could not help but feel somewhat helpless. Wei Zhao had already offended Meng Jueming before this; indeed, even without Xu Lingchong's orders, Wei Zhao's days ahead would not be easy.

"Junior Brother Lin, you need not worry too much. Rest assured, since matters have come to this, I will not stand by and do nothing when the time comes—after all, I am the second senior brother in charge..." said the long-suffering senior brother, though when he came to the words 'second senior brother in charge,' his voice still lacked a certain confidence.

"Quite right. With Senior Brother Ku watching over us, and if the two of us come by any cultivation resources, we could never keep them to ourselves—we would surely bring them out for Brother Lin," Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai hastened to add. "With all of us working as one, we count as a little circle of our own..."

Were such words to get out, others would likely curl their lips in scorn—after all, under the leadership of Ku Bi, what could they possibly accomplish?

But they had already been branded as members of Wei Zhao's faction. To shrink back now would only invite greater mockery. Better to steel themselves and stand firm alongside Wei Zhao to the very end—who knew, perhaps there might yet be a turn for the better.

"Then I thank you all for your support." Wei Zhao was somewhat moved.

As the saying goes, true feeling shows itself in adversity. In terms of friendship, he had not been especially close to these three, yet at such a moment none of them had abandoned him—clear proof that all three were of good character, and that he had not misjudged them.

After a few more words, each returned to his cave dwelling to cultivate, and the night passed without incident.

When the next morning came, the restrictions on their respective cave dwellings trembled once more. After all the newcomers had assembled, Meng Jueming led them to the main hall of the Welcome Pavilion—for, as had been announced the day before, this morning was the day of the vote to elect the newcomers' steward.

Wei Zhao saw Kang Jingming and Zhong Yongliang again, but Xu Lingchong was nowhere to be seen. A moment's thought made it clear: Xu Lingchong was an inner disciple of the Soaring Heaven Pavilion, not a steward of the Welcome Pavilion. He had appeared the day before in the capacity of guiding envoy; ordinarily he would be residing in the Soaring Heaven Pavilion.

Yet though Xu Lingchong had gone, that did not mean his threat had vanished—for Wei Zhao had plainly noticed that a moment ago, Pavilion Master Hu Yunfeng had deliberately sized him up, and there was no goodwill in that gaze. It seemed that after yesterday's affair, he had already been marked by Hu Yunfeng. Well, whose fault was it that this master of the Welcome Pavilion was a loyal running dog of the Soaring Heaven Pavilion?

Wei Zhao kept his guard up in secret. Still, though Hu Yunfeng was the master of the Welcome Pavilion and the number one figure here, without some special cause it would not be easy for him to move against Wei Zhao openly. So long as he was careful in the days to come, the worst he would face was having small obstacles placed in his path. Backed by a cultivation artifact like the jade pendant's space, Wei Zhao was truly not afraid of such petty tricks.

Seeing that all the newcomers of the three pavilions had arrived, Hu Yunfeng gave a brief introduction to the post of newcomers' steward, then went straight into the voting.

This was an open, signed vote—meaning that no matter who cast a vote for whom, everyone present could see it. There was no room for backroom manipulation. Of course, the sort of canvassing Kang Jingming had done the day before was also within permitted bounds and did not count as a violation.

To make voting convenient, the steward senior brothers of the three pavilions each announced their nominees in advance. For the Soaring Heaven Pavilion it was Kang Jingming; for the Mystic Mechanism Pavilion it was Zhang Lixing, a Heaven-Tier Great Perfection newcomer native to Cloud-Tier Island; and as for the Azure Cloud Pavilion, since it had no hope of winning at all, it did not even put forward a nominee. So barring the unexpected, the newcomers' steward would emerge from between Kang Jingming and Zhang Lixing.

Under the organization of the six steward senior brothers, the voting proceeded in orderly fashion. The final result was: Kang Jingming, twenty-seven votes; Zhang Lixing, eighteen votes.

Kang Jingming's face turned unspeakably ugly at once. Though by the vote count he had far outstripped Zhang Lixing, the problem was that it was still not enough.

The three pavilions had forty-five newcomers in all. To be elected newcomers' steward, one needed at least two-thirds of the votes—meaning that, counting his own ballot, at least thirty votes were required. He was three short.

At this point even the casual observer could see it: all fifteen votes of the Soaring Heaven Pavilion had gone to Kang Jingming; all fifteen of the Mystic Mechanism Pavilion had gone to Zhang Lixing; and the Azure Cloud Pavilion had given Kang Jingming twelve votes. The remaining three crucial votes had gone to Zhang Lixing—and the ones who cast those three crucial votes were none other than Wei Zhao, Xiao Che, and Qiao Hongcai.

Damn it all! Kang Jingming burned with fury yet could not vent it. After yesterday's affair, it had been only to be expected that Wei Zhao's three votes would not come to him; so afterward he had deliberately dragged Xu Lingchong along on another round through the Mystic Mechanism Pavilion, hoping to drum up a few scattered votes to fill the gap. Yesterday those people had all agreed readily enough—yet to his surprise, today every last one of them had voted for the Mystic Mechanism Pavilion's own Zhang Lixing, and his success had crumbled at the final step.

"Hmm... since both men received fewer than two-thirds of the votes, this round of voting is invalid, and the post of newcomers' steward shall remain vacant for the time being. After next month's ranking tournament, we pavilion masters shall confer and select one of these two candidates as steward based on their strength. After all, both candidates were jointly recommended by all of you; it is only that no new steward has emerged due to the vote count. So when the time comes, whichever of the two proves stronger shall take the post."

Though Hu Yunfeng had been instructed by Xu Lingchong to see Kang Jingming elevated, in the full light of day he could hardly, as pavilion master, spout barefaced lies—so this was all he could announce. Yet afterward Hu Yunfeng cleverly added that once the ranking tournament was over, the pavilion masters would select one of the two candidates as steward—which was to say, these people would get no further chance to vote. Who was chosen would be for the pavilion masters to decide.

His words were lofty and impeccable; no one could find fault with them. Truly a hypocrite through and through.

"Thank goodness—at least we did not let this one have his way!" Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai breathed a sigh of relief. They were both of Wei Zhao's faction; had Kang Jingming truly risen to the post, their days would surely have been hard. As it stood, at least for the coming month they need not worry about the matter.

Wei Zhao, by contrast, showed little expression at this. For one thing, he had long anticipated today's outcome; for another, even if Kang Jingming truly became newcomers' steward, he could pose no real threat to Wei Zhao—it would merely mean a little less needless trouble. RS