Chapter 3654 — A Catastrophe of His Own Making

"Uh… Ninth Cousin, let's talk this through—don't, don't hit me!" Meng Zhou was utterly bewildered, chased around the room by Meng Jiuming and beaten nearly into a pulp.

A short while later, looking at the sorry sight of Meng Zhou, swollen up like a pig's head, Meng Jiuming's anger finally subsided a little. He glared at the Curl-Curl Bear cub sprawled on the floor and cursed sourly, "Lucky I got back in time. Otherwise this little thing would've been dead at your hands, and the two of us would've been left rotting in the wild—neither of us would've come to a decent end!"

"This… isn't that an exaggeration? It's just a Curl-Curl Bear cub, isn't it?" Meng Zhou said, looking at Meng Jiuming with a pitiful expression.

"Just a Curl-Curl Bear cub?" Meng Jiuming nearly exploded with rage. "Sooner or later that idiot brain of yours is going to drag me down with you! Do you have any idea whose it is? Its owner is Shangguan Lan'er!"

"Shangguan Lan'er? Who's that?" Meng Zhou was still completely in the dark.

Meng Jiuming looked at him as though at an idiot, then heaved a sigh of lingering dread. "You don't know Shangguan Lan'er, but her grandfather, Shangguan Tianxia—surely you've heard of him!"

"Shangguan Tianxia, the Pavilion Master of the Heaven-Soaring Pavilion!" Meng Zhou nearly wet himself with fright.

Unlike Wei Zhao and the other ordinary newcomers from the bottom rungs, Meng Zhou, being close to Meng Jiuming, had heard plenty of the names of the upper echelon from him—and Shangguan Tianxia, Pavilion Master of the Heaven-Soaring Pavilion, was a top-tier figure ranked among the top three on the entire North Island.

"So this—this thing is actually the spirit pet of Shangguan Tianxia's granddaughter?!"

Once the pieces clicked into place, Meng Zhou felt at once that his life had turned bleak beyond hope, that he was already standing at death's door. To even think of eating the spirit pet of the Heaven-Soaring Pavilion Master's own granddaughter—if a man wanted to die, there were easier ways than this!

"What did you think? You idiot, don't you ever use that brain of yours? If this thing didn't have that kind of backing, if the guards hadn't been turning a blind eye, do you really think a creature with its meager strength could slip into the Spirit Jade Hall? Do you take everyone for an idiot like yourself?" Meng Jiuming rolled his eyes in exasperation.

But for the fact that this fool was his own kin, Meng Jiuming would have half a mind to seize Meng Zhou and turn him in. If word of this ever reached Shangguan Lan'er, the apple of the Heaven-Soaring Pavilion Master's eye, they wouldn't even know how they died!

"Th-then what do we do now?" Meng Zhou stammered, his face ashen.

"Thank heavens the thing isn't dead. You said just now it knocked itself out—so it shouldn't have taken any real injury. We'll just toss it out and pretend nothing ever happened!" Meng Jiuming drew a deep breath.

At that, Meng Zhou buried his head even lower and muttered weakly, "It wasn't hurt at first, but partway through it woke up and tried to run, so I kicked it…"

"Oh, for—!" Meng Jiuming was speechless. After checking the little creature's faint, shallow breathing, he was ready to butcher Meng Zhou on the spot!

What kind of godforsaken teammate was this!

Refusing to give up, Meng Jiuming pressed on the Curl-Curl Bear cub's chest—and the little thing immediately began to foam at the mouth. Startled, his fury blazed hotter still. "Are you out of your mind?! It's a tiny little thing—was there any need to hit it that hard?!"

"Th-this isn't my fault! I didn't use much strength—just a little kick, how was I supposed to know a spirit beast would be this pathetic…" Meng Zhou scratched his head, the picture of innocence.

In truth, that kick of his had been quite heavy. He'd been afraid the little thing would keep yowling and draw someone in from outside, which would have spelled real trouble. And now look—that one kick had landed them in even bigger trouble!

Staring at the vivid footprint on the cub's chest, even Meng Zhou felt a chill of dread. His eyes darted about, and he hurriedly said, "Why don't we just throw it out? Nobody will know it was me who kicked it anyway!"

"You're an idiot yourself, so you assume everyone else is an idiot too, is that it?!"

Meng Jiuming tore into him without mercy, his voice dripping with contempt. "Once they find that footprint, won't they look for someone to match it against? I'll tell you this—knowing the temperament of Miss Shangguan, she'll turn the whole Spirit Jade Hall upside down if she has to, but she will find whoever killed her spirit pet. And then you may as well start waiting to die!"

"Then what are we supposed to do?" Frightened to the point of tears, Meng Zhou was at a complete loss. "Maybe we sneak it out and dump it somewhere? Out in the wilds, nobody should be able to find it, right?"

Originally, simply eating the little thing as planned would actually have been the more reliable option—no bear seen alive, no corpse seen dead, so even if they investigated, they might not trace it back to Meng Zhou.

But now that he knew the terrifying background behind this little creature, how would Meng Zhou dare entertain such a treasonous thought? Forget eating it—even one more glance at it made his heart pound with terror. His only thought now was to throw it as far away as possible, ten thousand leagues away if he could, and never set eyes on it again in this lifetime!

Meng Jiuming gave him a look of utter hopelessness. "Dump it in the wilds? You think that'll let you off the hook? Miss Shangguan could summon hundreds or thousands of capable hands with a single word. Searching the entire North Island of Cloud Terrace Island would be child's play for her—and how do you know she doesn't have some special means of tracking her spirit pet?"

"Then what do we do? That footprint on its chest won't fade anytime soon, and we can't pin it on someone else either. Ninth Cousin, you can't just stand by and watch me die!" Meng Zhou said, his face a mask of misery.

This time he was truly scared out of his wits. If he managed to survive this ordeal, he'd probably carry the trauma for the rest of his life and never dare eat a spirit beast again.

"Pin it on someone else?" At those words, Meng Jiuming's eyes lit up. He slapped his thigh. "Now that's an idea!"

"W-will that work?" Meng Zhou asked, half believing, half doubting. "Ninth Cousin, these shoes on my feet were issued by the Welcome Pavilion. They just need to match the print and they'll know it was a newcomer from the Welcome Pavilion. Then they'll call out every newcomer to compare, and I still won't escape!"

"Calling you an idiot really doesn't do you justice!" Meng Jiuming rapped him on the skull in exasperation, then laid it out. "Even if Miss Shangguan figures out from the footprint that it was a newcomer from the Welcome Pavilion, there are so many newcomers—plenty of them with a shoe size close to yours. All we have to do is plant a preconceived notion in her mind, and by then who's going to suspect you? Honestly, what an idiot!"RS