Chapter 3610 — Not That Foolish?

"So... Ninth Cousin, what do we do next? Go straight to Dai Wuchang and get Wei Zhao moved to a different mining zone?" Meng Zhou scratched his head and asked.

"No. We go to Wei Zhao," Meng Jueming said, shaking his head. "Changing mining zones is no small matter. With Young Master Xu holding things up on our behalf, there won't be any trouble from the Spirit Jade Hall. But if Wei Zhao himself refuses, if he digs in his heels and won't sign the contract, then it's all for nothing!"

"He still won't agree even if we move him to Number Seven? Wei Zhao can't be that foolish, can he?" Meng Zhou looked utterly astonished. For any normal person, being moved from Number Ten, the dead mining zone, to Number Seven was a stroke of fortune one could not cultivate in several lifetimes—so why on earth would anyone refuse?

But Meng Jueming only looked at him as though he were an idiot. "Not that foolish? If he agreed just like that, that's when he'd be a fool! Put yourself in his shoes: in Number Ten, the dead mining zone, he pulls out ten or eight pieces of fine jade every day. Now suppose someone wants to move you to Number Seven, where you can only dig out six or seven pieces a day—would you go for it?"

"Uh..." Meng Zhou was struck dumb. Put that way, getting Wei Zhao to agree to a transfer really did seem no easy task. So he said weakly, "Then if he won't agree, what do we do?"

"Of course we tempt him with profit. I'll explain the details to you later!" Meng Jueming said, casting a glance at Li Zhengming, who stood nearby.

Though Li Zhengming was, after Meng Zhou, the first newcomer to throw in his lot with Meng Jueming, the trust he enjoyed fell far short of Meng Zhou's. For one thing, Li Zhengming did not share Meng Zhou's naturally reliable kinship with Meng Jueming. For another, Li Zhengming was a man of somewhat deep and calculating mind. Meng Zhou, that brainless simpleton, usually botched whatever he set his hand to, yet from Meng Jueming's standpoint he preferred exactly this sort of guileless fool—because such a man would never hatch thoughts he ought not to have. With Li Zhengming, there was no telling.

Meanwhile, on Wei Zhao's side, when he returned to his cave dwelling, he unexpectedly found two people sitting by the stone table in front of the newcomers' caves. One was Miserable Senior Brother. As for the other, though his features made him look not yet middle-aged, his whole bearing carried a deep, world-weary clarity that spoke of long years and rich experience—only he had never been seen before here in the Welcome Pavilion.

The man sat upright on the stone bench like an old monk deep in meditation, while Miserable Senior Brother kept rising to his feet and looking into the distance. From the look of things, the two had been waiting quite a while.

Catching sight of Wei Zhao, Miserable Senior Brother hurriedly stood up and waved from afar. "Junior Brother Lin, over here!"

"Senior Brother Ku, you came looking for me?" Wei Zhao answered and walked over, a look of surprise on his face, while covertly sizing up the man seated on the stone bench.

"That's right. Come, Junior Brother Lin, let me introduce you—this is Lord Lu, master of our Welcome Pavilion, and a senior brother who came up from our own Azure Cloud Pavilion," Miserable Senior Brother said, rushing to make the introduction.

So this was the legendary third pavilion master? Wei Zhao's heart stirred, and he cupped his hands in salute. "Greetings, Lord Lu."

"Never mind 'Lord'—just call me Senior Brother!" Lu Bianren waved a hand, looked Wei Zhao up and down carefully, and then suddenly smiled. "Just as Junior Brother Ku said—Junior Brother Lin is no creature to be kept in a pond. To have a newcomer like you is a blessing for our Azure Cloud Pavilion."

"Not at all... Senior Brother Lu flatters me!" Wei Zhao waved his hand hastily. Confident as he was in his own abilities, being praised to his face like this still left him a little embarrassed. After all, however he might have bestrode the mortal world, here he was merely a newcomer, and men stronger than he could be found everywhere.

"Ha, these are not empty words to curry favor," Lu Bianren said with an easy laugh. "Junior Brother Lin, you must have heard of my present situation here at the Welcome Pavilion—idle all day with nothing to do but leaf through old texts and scriptures for consolation. Yet from them I have gleaned a little art of reading men. In both countenance and bearing, Junior Brother Lin, you are no ordinary sort."

Hearing this, Wei Zhao found his opinion of this thwarted third pavilion master rising a notch—not because the man had praised him, but out of admiration for his calm and open-minded acceptance of his present awkward circumstances.

Anyone else in Lu Bianren's position would surely have made some effort to preserve the lofty image of a pavilion master before a newcomer like Wei Zhao—at the very least, would have found some way to gloss things over. But to face it all so squarely, and even make light of it and joke at his own expense as Lu Bianren did—such breadth of mind was truly rare and commendable.

After a few polite exchanges, they came to the point. The reason the two had sat waiting for Wei Zhao here was in fact Lu Bianren's idea. For one thing, he wanted to see this newcomer from the mortal world whom Miserable Senior Brother had described as nothing short of stunning; for another, their outing that day having gone badly, the two felt it necessary to find a chance to comfort Wei Zhao—otherwise, if Wei Zhao really did lose heart over being stuck in Number Ten, the dead mining zone, for three months, that would be a matter for deep regret.

After hearing Miserable Senior Brother recount their encounter with Xu Lingchong that day, Wei Zhao was surprised, and at the same time rather moved.

To run about trying to get his mining zone changed, even to the point of risking his own face to beg favors of others—this Miserable Senior Brother was a truly earnest man who gave his whole heart. And Lu Bianren, the third pavilion master, was a good sort as well. In his present circumstances, to leave Reflection Cliff without permission and go running about on Wei Zhao's behalf was to take no small risk. If the grand pavilion master, Hu Yunfeng, got wind of it, he would surely pin on him the charge of dereliction of duty for abandoning his post—and for Lu Bianren, that would be adding frost to snow.

"Junior Brother Lin, Xu Lingchong's threats may not come to anything, but for the sake of our Azure Cloud Pavilion, I cannot take that risk on your account alone. As your senior brother, I am ashamed of this, but I hope you can understand," Lu Bianren explained earnestly. Beside him, Miserable Senior Brother too wore a look of shame, bitterly resenting his own helplessness.

"Senior Brother Lu, you make too much of it. Going to Number Ten was my own choice in the first place. If you were to bring disaster down on the Azure Cloud Pavilion just to change my mining zone, then it is I who would be uneasy in my heart," Wei Zhao said, waving his hand hastily.

"That Junior Brother Lin can be so sensible is a blessing for our Azure Cloud Pavilion!" Lu Bianren's admiration for Wei Zhao grew at once. He paused, then said, "With my abilities, I fear it will be very hard to get your mining zone changed. But your main task during this year at the Welcome Pavilion is to build your foundation. Even if these three months are wasted, so long as you cultivate diligently afterward, with your strength and aptitude you should still have good prospects. When the time comes, Junior Brother Ku and I will find a way to gather some cultivation resources for you and lend you a hand!"