Chapter 3600 — The Third Pavilion Master of the Welcome Pavilion

Once the spectacle was over, the crowd dispersed, each carrying his own thoughts, and Wei Zhao went straight back to his cave dwelling.

True, Meng Jueming had pulled a trick on him when the mines were allotted that morning, but all things considered, the day had gone fairly smoothly. Two spirit jades in hand—that alone met his expectations well enough, and it proved that the method he had worked out for secretly pocketing spirit jades was sound. He could keep at it for a long time to come.

He now had five spirit jades. At this rate, in a couple more days he could make a trip to the market and buy those five medicinal herbs; then he need only wait for the trial and find some way to get his hands on the Devouring-Heart Linglong Grass, after which he could begin preparing to refine the Heaven's Way Golden Core. The peak of the early Foundation Establishment stage would be within reach.

The night passed without a word.

What Wei Zhao did not know was that while he himself thought everything was going smoothly and was quite satisfied with how things stood, someone outside was running himself ragged on his behalf, scheming every which way to win him justice. That person was, needless to say, none other than miserable Senior Brother Kusheng.

Toward Wei Zhao, this junior brother who had thrown in his lot with him, Kusheng Le was often of no real help, yet he could hardly have been more devoted. This bore out Wei Zhao's first impression of him: Kusheng Le might have no great ability and a character soft as mud, but his integrity was sound, and compared with many others he was far more dependable.

Yet for all his running about on Wei Zhao's behalf, Kusheng Le was, first, less senior than Meng Jueming, and second, without a vast web of connections like Meng Jueming's. In the Spirit Jade Hall, scarcely a handful of people even knew him, let alone would speak a word for him.

As for the Welcome Pavilion itself, the other steward brothers handled only the affairs of the other two pavilions and would not deign to bother with the petty business of Qingyun Pavilion. And among those of higher rank, First Pavilion Master Hu Yunfeng, courted so deliberately by Meng Jueming, had always leaned toward him; Vice Pavilion Master Feng Song, though locked in open and covert rivalry with Hu Yunfeng, had the Mystic Mechanism Pavilion at his back and looked down on obscure fringe figures like Kusheng—to say nothing of speaking up for him.

After turning it over and over, Kusheng Le could fix his aim on only one last person: the Third Pavilion Master, Lu Bianren, who was nominally Feng Song's equal as vice pavilion master yet in practice ignored by everyone.

As for this Third Pavilion Master Lu Bianren—in both his manner of conducting himself and his present awkward predicament, he bore a certain resemblance to Kusheng Le himself.

Nominally he was a lofty vice pavilion master, in theory indisputably one of the Welcome Pavilion's three towering figures. In fact, however, ground down by the combined pressure of Hu Yunfeng and Feng Song and with no backing worth the name from Qingyun Pavilion, Lu Bianren's real authority as Third Pavilion Master was to a great extent less even than that of the steward brothers of the three pavilions.

As for prestige, needless to say, he had not even a chance to show his face at the welcome assembly. Many new disciples did not so much as know his name, knowing at most that there existed such a transparent Third Pavilion Master—a fair measure of how feeble his influence was.

Of course, however weak Third Pavilion Master Lu Bianren might be, he was still a figure of vice-pavilion-master rank, his standing a notch above the steward brothers; and crucially, he had risen from within Qingyun Pavilion itself. If he chose to speak, then however arrogant and overbearing Meng Jueming might be, he would have to show him some deference. Otherwise, if Lu Bianren's temper flared and he stripped Meng Jueming of his post, acting first and reporting afterward, there would be nothing Meng Jueming could do—though he might later work his connections to claw back some position in Qingyun Pavilion, his face would be lost beyond recovery.

Because their temperaments were so alike, Lu Bianren was the only one among all the Welcome Pavilion's high-ranking figures to regard Kusheng Le with special favor, and the only one with whom Kusheng Le could get a word in. Kusheng Le knew well that with the Third Pavilion Master's present awkward position, any grand gesture was out of the question, but a word spoken for a newcomer within Qingyun Pavilion's own affairs should still be no problem at all.

Lu Bianren was not in his No. 3 cave dwelling. Kusheng Le traipsed through several places before he finally learned his whereabouts: the dignified Third Pavilion Master of the Welcome Pavilion did not ordinarily stay in the pavilion at all, but had been packed off to the Rear Cliff, thirty li from the Welcome Pavilion's main hall.

The Rear Cliff—known in the Welcome Pavilion as the Cliff of Reflection—was where disciples who had committed offenses were ordinarily banished to sit facing the wall in penitence. Remote of situation, thin in spiritual energy, and devoid of any cultivation resources, it was a place no one would willingly go, not even green newcomers.

Lu Bianren, of course, had not been banished there for any offense. In truth, if a Third Pavilion Master did commit an offense, even First Pavilion Master Hu Yunfeng would have no authority to deal with him; the matter would have to be handed to the Enforcement Hall.

The reason he was here now was that some days earlier, First Pavilion Master Hu Yunfeng and Vice Pavilion Master Feng Song had jointly proposed that he be sent to take charge of the Cliff of Reflection, to show the Welcome Pavilion's regard for discipline among newcomers. Few indeed ever came to the Cliff of Reflection in the course of a year, but the two had put the proposal so plausibly that Lu Bianren, in his weak position as Third Pavilion Master, had no means of resistance and in the end could only agree.

Now he was stationed here permanently, nominally in charge of the Cliff of Reflection but in truth jointly exiled by Hu Yunfeng and Feng Song. Feeble as his voice in the Welcome Pavilion had been, a Third Pavilion Master had at least possessed some power; but now, to say nothing of power, he could scarcely learn what went on in the pavilion—he had been thoroughly hollowed out.

Anyone else in Lu Bianren's place would likely have been stamping with fury, yet Lu Bianren showed not the slightest displeasure. Instead he had his old hoard of cultivation classics and scriptures carted over, and spent his days reading the ancients and contemplating the Way of Heaven, content in poverty and at peace with his lot.

When Kusheng Le came calling, Lu Bianren happened to be sitting before the Cliff of Reflection with a book. At the sight of Kusheng Le he could not help laughing. "What joy, to have a friend come from afar! I thought someone had been exiled here—so it is you, Kusheng Le!"