Chapter 3636 — Schemes in the Dark

As the saying goes, even the lowest steward in a prime minister's household outranks a magistrate. The meanest menial attached to these elders was still a personage that Meng Jueming could only gaze up at and strain to reach—and even had he wished to curry favor, he might never have found the opportunity!

As for speaking with these elders directly, that was sheer fantasy. And if he ever truly dreamed such a dream, Meng Jueming would likely tremble with fear even in his sleep!

Just then, a stir ran through the crowd. The sharp-eyed newcomers had already spotted that in the distance, amid a great host of attendants headed by Hu Yunfeng, master of the Newcomer's Hall, the elders of the Threefold Pavilion had finally arrived!

There! Meng Jueming's eyes suddenly lit up. Among the three elders he spotted an acquaintance: Xu Lingchong, the great young master Xu. Judging by how effortlessly he moved among the three elders, getting him to deal with Wei Zhao would be a matter of a single word.

Xu Lingchong's presence there was no surprise. The elder representing the Soaring Heaven Pavilion this time was one of the supreme members of the Elder Council of Cloud Terrace Island's North Isle, and the Third Elder of the Soaring Heaven Pavilion—none other than Xu Lingchong's own grandfather, Xu Yuanzheng.

As for the other two elders who appeared alongside him, they were Xie Xin, Fifth Elder of the Mystic Mechanism Pavilion, and Zhao Hongbo, Fourth Elder of the Azure Cloud Pavilion.

Of the three, Xie Xin of the Mystic Mechanism Pavilion and Zhao Hongbo of the Azure Cloud Pavilion were figures countless people looked up to, yet beside Xu Yuanzheng their standing still fell a notch short. The reason was simple: neither sat on the Elder Council, while Xu Yuanzheng did.

To be denied a seat on the Elder Council meant having no say in many of the Threefold Pavilion's weightiest affairs, meant falling one step short of the very summit of the North Isle. So although Xie Xin and Zhao Hongbo were lofty elders in their own right, before a giant of Xu Yuanzheng's stature on the Elder Council, they could not help but stand a head lower.

Naturally enough, Xu Yuanzheng became the undisputed leading figure of this Newcomer's Hall's open instruction day, and his grandson Xu Lingchong, kept at his side, became the focus of all eyes, chatting and laughing before the three elders with perfect ease and assurance.

For Xu Yuanzheng's sake, even the two elders Xie Xin and Zhao Hongbo showed not the slightest air of superiority when speaking with Xu Lingchong; in both manner and word they were all warmth and affability, to the envy of everyone watching.

The others in attendance—Hu Yunfeng and the rest—enjoyed no such treatment. Beyond endless fawning smiles, they scarcely dared draw a deep breath before the three elders, for fear that some careless move might displease one of them and bring down ruin upon their heads.

Yet for all his quaking, Hall Master Hu Yunfeng was at that moment deeply stirred, for by the custom of past years, the elder the Threefold Pavilion sent to the open instruction day was generally the lowest-ranked elder of whichever pavilion hosted it—not even men of Xie Xin's and Zhao Hongbo's caliber might have been expected to attend. But this year, not only had those two come; even Xu Yuanzheng had appeared in person!

A member of the Elder Council—a giant of the whole North Isle!

Xu Yuanzheng's presence was an unprecedented honor for the humble Newcomer's Hall. It lent the whole hall a rare luster and put its master, Hu Yunfeng, in a most flattering light. So long as he won Xu Yuanzheng's approval, his future rise to glory would surely follow as a matter of course.

Hu Yunfeng gave Xu Lingchong a grateful nod. He knew all of this was Xu Lingchong's doing; without the young master's good word, a giant of the Elder Council like Xu Yuanzheng would never have come to the Newcomer's Hall, and the other two pavilions' elders, Xie Xin and Zhao Hongbo, would naturally not have stirred at the news either.

The two of them had come this time precisely to seize the chance to draw closer to Xu Yuanzheng. In the end, then, this nearly absurdly lavish lineup for the Newcomer's Hall's open instruction day was owed entirely to Xu Lingchong.

Xu Lingchong, however, plainly cared nothing for that. The reason he had racked his brains to persuade his grandfather Xu Yuanzheng to come to the Newcomer's Hall was only incidentally to do Hu Yunfeng a favor; his true aim was to borrow the tiger's skin and swagger, to let certain blind, insignificant ants feel for themselves what it meant to gaze up at a towering mountain—Wei Zhao, for instance.

At the sight of the three elders appearing with Xu Yuanzheng at their head, the gathered newcomers of the Newcomer's Hall held their breath at once, parting to either side, every one of them reverent and deferential, waiting in silence for the three elders.

Taking in this respectful display from the newcomers, Xu Yuanzheng nodded slightly and said, "Well done, little Yun."

Those four airy words fell on his ears, and Hu Yunfeng felt at once as though he had swallowed some wondrous elixir; his whole body was suffused with ease, and it seemed even that premature gray at his temples—the thing he dreaded most—had turned black and glossy and vital again.

"Little Yun" was, to be sure, a rather feminine form of address; had anyone else used it, it would have been an insult. But spoken by Xu Yuanzheng it was another matter entirely—Hu Yunfeng was overwhelmed with favor!

"The Third Elder overpraises me. This is no more than my duty," Hu Yunfeng hastened to say, bowing and scraping.

In a public setting like this, Hu Yunfeng, as master of the Newcomer's Hall, ought properly to have addressed him as Elder Xu; after all, "Third Elder" was the Soaring Heaven Pavilion disciples' internal name for Xu Yuanzheng. Yet Hu Yunfeng had used it anyway, meaning to cozy up to him—he was, when all was said, a disciple of the Soaring Heaven Pavilion by origin, so the form of address was not wrong either.

At that, Xu Yuanzheng gave him a look that was half smile and half something else, seeing through his design but not calling it out.

Beside them, Xie Xin and Zhao Hongbo frowned slightly. For Xu Yuanzheng's sake they said nothing more. The independent halls and departments were now being brazenly swallowed up by the Soaring Heaven Pavilion; the trend was already set, and the Newcomer's Hall was merely a microcosm of it. There was no point in the two of them making a fuss.

The three elders took the platform; Xu Yuanzheng delivered a brief admonition to the gathered newcomers, and then they dispersed, each elder taking charge of the newcomers of his own pavilion, and the open instruction day entered its formal phase.

In the course of it, however, Wei Zhao noticed a small interlude. While Xu Yuanzheng was occupied with his admonition to the newcomers, Meng Jueming—who by rights should have been standing among the Azure Cloud Pavilion's new disciples—slipped stealthily up behind Xu Lingchong and whispered something at his ear, and at one point the two of them cast a glance in his direction that boded no good.

After that, when Wei Zhao and the other Azure Cloud newcomers were gathered by Meng Jueming into waiting inside No. 3 Side Hall of the Newcomer's Hall, Zhao Hongbo, Fourth Elder of the Azure Cloud Pavilion, exchanged a few low words with Xu Lingchong and lingered a moment before coming in.

Clearly something was amiss.