Chapter 3588 — A Heavy Loss

Meng Zhou, though still seething that Li Zhengming had dared to search him a moment ago, found himself in full agreement with the words. His face fell as he said, "That's right, Ninth Cousin—I still have to fight Wei Zhao next month. What am I supposed to do now?"

Meng Jueming looked at the two of them, so crestfallen, and heaved a helpless sigh. "Now that I think on it, this whole business came of my own careless planning, which let an outsider slip through the crack. Here—the two of you come back to my cave dwelling with me afterward, and each take a spirit jade as compensation. So long as you serve me well from here on, I won't let you come to any loss."

"Senior Brother Meng is brilliant! From now on we shall obey your every word!" The two were instantly overjoyed, falling over themselves to swear their loyalty, eagerly kneading his shoulders and pounding his back with fawning flattery.

Meng Jueming put on a grand and open-hearted front, but inwardly his heart was bleeding. For him, the senior steward brother who held real power in his grasp, spirit jade was not as hard to come by as it was for newcomers, yet parting with two pieces at once was still enough to sting.

He had schemed so elaborately this time only to fail to trap Wei Zhao, and instead cost himself two spirit jades into the bargain. Just thinking about it left him sick with frustration! Fortunately, judging by the tearful gratitude on Meng Zhou's and Li Zhengming's faces, those two jades had not been given for nothing—at least they had bought him some loyal hearts.

Meng Jueming gritted his teeth in secret. That loathsome Wei Zhao—sooner or later he would find another chance and do away with him for good!

Repairing a cave dwelling's restrictive spell was utterly miserable work, but since Meng Jueming had given the order, Brother Kubi had no choice but to do it. With his cultivation at the early Foundation Establishment stage, it took him a full half-hour of sheer effort to restore the restrictive spell on Wei Zhao's cave dwelling—and after that, the caves of Meng Zhou and Li Zhengming were still waiting for him.

"Thank you for your trouble, Brother Kubi," Wei Zhao said in thanks, only to see Brother Kubi wave a hand, not even sparing the time to drink a mouthful of water before rushing off to cave fifteen at the foot of Meng Zhou's mountain to set to work—so fearful was he that Meng Jueming would return later and accuse him of shirking deliberately.

To carry the duties of a steward senior brother to such a pass—Brother Kubi truly had no equal, the one and only of his kind.

Wei Zhao shook his head, speechless, then turned and entered his own cave dwelling. Once he had sealed the restrictive spell, he got down to proper business. That business now was not entering the jade pendant space to cultivate, but rather conducting an experiment on spirit jade.

To verify whether the jade pendant space could truly recharge spirit jade, the first thing to do was to drain away most of the spiritual qi inside a piece of spirit jade, so that the effect might show most clearly.

According to Wei Zhao's original plan, he had meant to spend some time draining his own piece of spirit jade dry. But now there was no need—two pieces had been delivered to his door, ready-made.

Thinking back on Meng Jueming and his lot, they were practically do-gooders who left no name behind. If a few more such windfalls came his way, he wouldn't even need to think about going down the mine for hard labor—he could simply stay in his cave dwelling, pick up the spirit jade, toss it into the jade pendant space, and everything would be taken care of.

Wei Zhao carefully sensed the amount of spiritual qi remaining in the two pieces of spirit jade. Both had been used at least half through—just right for his experiment.

What came next was simple enough: he need only leave the two pieces of spirit jade in the jade pendant space and check the results the following morning. As for Wei Zhao himself, he had only to cultivate.

To be sure, once he refined the Heavenly Dao Golden Core he could rapidly break through to the peak of the early Foundation Establishment stage, but cultivation was ever like a boat rowed against the current—no matter how many or how fine the elixirs, one still had to ply the oars of daily practice without cease.

Wei Zhao owed much of his present attainment to Wang Xinyan, but far more of it to his own years of unflagging diligence, day in and day out.

He entered the jade pendant space to cultivate while awaiting the experiment's result—and to his great surprise and delight, a conclusion emerged after only a single hour: the spiritual qi within those two pieces of spirit jade had grown remarkably full, as rich as that of his own original jade. In other words, the notion of using the jade pendant space to recharge spirit jade was entirely feasible!

Before the experiment, the spiritual qi in those two pieces had plainly been more than half spent, and now, after a mere hour, it had been replenished to the brim. By this reckoning, even a piece of spent jade with its qi all but exhausted, placed in this jade pendant space, would at most take two hours to become a brand-new, fine piece of jade!

This effect seemed even more pronounced than recharging energy stones in the mortal world. Wei Zhao surmised that this was because spirit jade was inherently better suited than energy stone as a vessel for the spiritual qi of heaven and earth. Although a spirit jade could hold far more spiritual qi than an energy stone, its speed of absorbing qi was likewise far greater—so its recharging was, if anything, faster rather than slower.

The jade pendant space was indeed a treasure of unfailing efficacy! With this, solving the problem of insufficient spirit jade would be as easy as turning over his palm.

In the days to come, he could trade his own qi-filled fine jade for more of others' half-spent pieces—say, one fine jade for three spent ones. There would surely be no shortage of takers for so blatantly advantageous a bargain. After all, to the vast majority of people, however many spent jades one clutched in hand, they remained just spent jade; it would never occur to them that in Wei Zhao's hands spent jade could become fine jade.

Thus one exchanged for three, three for nine, nine for twenty-seven... With a treasure like the jade pendant space, Wei Zhao might as well have been sitting atop a cornucopia. So long as he acted with care and avoided the notice of the ill-disposed, amassing however much spirit jade he wished would be well within his grasp!

Still, given Wei Zhao's present identity and circumstances, doing too much of this would carry a degree of risk.

For one thing, those around him were all newcomers, and newcomers had little spirit jade to begin with. Not only were qi-filled fine jades absent—even spent jades were scarce. Spirit jade was, in essence, the same as energy stone in the mortal world: drained utterly, without a trace of qi left within, it would simply shatter and could never again absorb the spiritual qi of heaven and earth. In that case, even if Wei Zhao traded for it, it would be of no use.

For another, no one who had cultivated to the Heaven rank was a true fool. Everyone lived by the creed that every man must look to himself, and heaven would strike down the selfless. Trading one's own fine jade for another's spent one—pure self-harm in the service of others—might pass once or twice; people would merely think him a momentary fool. But do it too often, and they would begin to suspect some hidden trick. Even if they could never imagine a treasure like the jade pendant space, drawing the attention of the higher-ups would still spell no small trouble for Wei Zhao. RS