Chapter 3614 — A Bag of Waste Jade

"Then forget it," Wei Zhao said, giving the man a probing glance before turning on his heel and walking off. If the deal fell through, he had lost nothing anyway; he would go on digging in Mining Zone Ten, stashing spirit jade as before, and life would go on as usual.

Even if Meng Jueming set Meng Zhou to watch him, it could only last so long. To keep watch for three whole months, Meng Zhou would have to give up his cultivation—and his spirit jade too. Wei Zhao might be willing, but Meng Zhou himself certainly would not be.

My heavens! Twenty whole pieces of spirit jade, and he simply walked away from them! Was this fellow truly that free and easy, that unencumbered?

Meng Jueming and Meng Zhou were both struck dumb. It was not until Wei Zhao was nearly back at his cave dwelling that Meng Jueming finally snapped to his senses and called out, his voice thick with helplessness, "Twenty-five."

Wei Zhao smiled faintly, halted, and turned back. "Done."

Seeing Meng Jueming draw five more pieces of spirit jade from his sleeve and drop them into the bag, Wei Zhao at last produced his own little spirit jade. But just as they were about to make the exchange, Meng Jueming suddenly pulled the bag of spirit jade back, set a sheet of paper on the stone table instead, and jerked his chin at Wei Zhao. "Since we have a deal, sign here first."

Wei Zhao glanced it over. It was the Spirit Jade Hall's exclusive mining-zone contract. To keep him from going back on his word, this First Senior Brother had truly prepared for every contingency—once he signed, even if he regretted it later and wanted to call off the swap, he would not be able to.

Heh. So it was just a pit dug for him to jump into—and the performance had been quite convincing, too!

Wei Zhao could not help but laugh. Without wasting words, he signed the contract on the spot. Only then did Meng Jueming loosen his grip on the black bag and take Wei Zhao's little spirit jade.

"Well then, many thanks for your kind consideration, Senior Brother Meng." Wei Zhao smiled, hefted the heavy bag of twenty-five spirit jade, and turned to go.

Only after watching Wei Zhao walk back into his cave dwelling did Meng Jueming exchange a look with Meng Zhou and let out a long, foul breath. "That kid is no oil lamp to be trifled with—fooling him once was no easy feat. Good thing I brought along all this extra waste jade just in case, or we would really have been stuck with no way down from the tiger's back!"

The bag of spirit jade he had given Wei Zhao was all waste jade he had smuggled out of the Spirit Jade Hall through his connections, all for the purpose of doing Wei Zhao a proper dirty turn. Otherwise, why would he ever have been so generous as to make such concessions?

"Heh heh, and the kid is still congratulating himself, thinking he got the better of the deal—when he's really just a thoroughgoing fool. Once he finds out they're all waste jade with nothing but a pretty shell, I'd love to see what glorious expression he wears tomorrow!" Meng Zhou chuckled from the side.

These twenty-five pieces of waste jade looked plentiful, but in truth each had only a thin skin of energy on the surface; the core inside was worthless junk jade. So it was all quantity—put together, if their combined energy came to even a tenth of that egg-sized piece of good spirit jade, they should count themselves lucky and burn incense in thanks.

So at this moment, in the eyes of Meng Jueming and Meng Zhou, Wei Zhao had been thoroughly fleeced—not only had he foolishly agreed to swap mining zones, he had also thrown in a little spirit jade of his own. Talk about losing the lady and the troops besides! And to think he had worn such a shrewd look throughout the transaction. A self-satisfied fool of his caliber was truly one of a kind under heaven!

Back in his cave dwelling, Wei Zhao took out the twenty-five pieces of spirit jade and examined them one by one. Understanding dawned at once. Just as he had suspected, all twenty-five were waste jade holding no more than a thread of spiritual energy.

In fact, this was only natural. Given the state of his relationship with Meng Jueming, even if the man's whole story about searching for little spirit jade had been true, such a windfall would never have fallen to Wei Zhao's lot. Twenty-five pieces of good jade for one low-grade spirit jade—Wei Zhao had never believed in pie falling from the sky.

And yet, though Meng Jueming had indeed swindled him out of his little spirit jade for twenty-five pieces of waste jade, and though on the face of it he had taken a heavy loss, for Wei Zhao, master of the jade pendant's space, this was exactly what he had wanted. Otherwise he would never have foolishly agreed after guessing the man's intent.

Since the jade pendant's space could rapidly recharge spirit jade, any piece of waste jade that came into Wei Zhao's hands was thoroughgoing good jade. Never mind twenty-five waste pieces for one—even two waste pieces for one would have been a sure profit with no loss.

What Wei Zhao needed now was precisely this kind of waste jade with nothing but a pretty shell. Compared with the two pieces of spirit jade he could secretly stash after a hard day's digging in the mining zone, Meng Jueming's scheme—hatched with such pains to cheat him—made the man a veritable benefactor delivering goods to his door: twenty-five pieces in one go, the fruit of nearly half a month's labor. The more such visits, the better!

Compared with that, the matter of swapping mining zones was not worth mentioning. Wei Zhao's previous good jade had never really come from luck in the first place; with the jade pendant's space, that cheat of cheats, he could dig up good jade anywhere.

What was more, judging by the daily haul of Meng Zhou and Li Zhengming, Mining Zone Seven not only produced good jade, the odds of digging up waste jade with nothing but a pretty shell were clearly higher as well. So once Wei Zhao grew familiar with the terrain and the guards' positions there, secretly stashing spirit jade would be even easier than in Zone Ten.

Early the next morning, Wei Zhao headed to the Spirit Jade Hall to report in as usual, and happened to run into Meng Jueming and Meng Zhou at the entrance. Without betraying a thing, he stepped up and greeted them. "Morning, Senior Brother Meng."

"Morning." Meng Jueming studied Wei Zhao's expression closely, yet could find not the slightest hint of anything amiss on his face. He exchanged a startled look with Meng Zhou. Could it be that this fellow still had not discovered the trick in those spirit jade?

Because Meng Jueming had long since given the word to Dai Wuchang and the others, Wei Zhao obtained his pass token for Mining Zone Seven without a hitch. Without another word he entered the mine tunnel, and from first to last said not a single extra sentence to the two of them, showing not the least sign of anything out of the ordinary.

"Judging by the kid's reaction, he can't have found out that the whole bag is waste jade—otherwise there's no way he'd be this calm!" Meng Jueming turned and muttered to Meng Zhou.

"Heh, the way he carried on before, I actually thought he was pretty sharp—so it was all just an act! A whole night gone and he still hasn't caught on to that bag of waste jade. Even a pig wouldn't be this slow—he's dumber than a pig!" Meng Zhou snickered with gleeful malice.

"Not necessarily. I wouldn't say the kid is truly stupid—perhaps he's just beside himself at coming into so much spirit jade all at once. Anyone would be giddy with joy, wouldn't they?" Meng Jueming, at least, did not underestimate Wei Zhao too much, and stood there stroking his chin in thought...