Chapter 3771 — Did Not Dare Agree

Yet no one had expected that, just as the challenge was about to begin, Wei Zhao would spring such a trick on them.

"I recall you said at the very start, Senior Brother Meng, that the Welcome Pavilion allows newcomers to swap cave dwellings among themselves—so there should be no problem with us doing this, correct?" Wei Zhao asked, one brow arched.

Meng Jueming and Xu Lingchong exchanged a glance and at once understood Wei Zhao's intent. Any sharp eye could see that under the rules of this challenge tournament, the Mountain-Low No. 1 cave dwelling was the most awkward, most hopeless position of all—and here Wei Zhao was, volunteering to trade with Xiao Che. Plainly he was putting on airs again!

This fellow truly lived up to his name as the rookie who loved to show off—every waking moment he was angling to look like a big shot in front of his underlings, as compulsive as a man with a psychiatric disorder!

"That may be so, but we are in the exceptional period of the newcomer assessment right now; allowing the two of you to swap cave dwellings at such a time seems somewhat improper," Meng Jueming said evasively.

Though he had already seen through Wei Zhao's scheme, he had not yet had time to sort out the pros and cons, so he needed to stall for a few sentences and think it over.

"Permitting newcomers to swap cave dwellings among themselves is a rule explicitly written in the Welcome Pavilion's regulations—are we to change it overnight just because of a temporary newcomer assessment? Moreover, not a single article of the assessment rules contradicts it. Where exactly lies the impropriety Senior Brother Meng speaks of? Please be so good as to spell it out!" Wei Zhao's expression remained as placid as ever as he spoke coolly, yet a note of unquestionable authority had entered his tone.

Even if Meng Jueming refused here, Wei Zhao still had other means—he need only take the initiative to challenge Xiao Che in the first round that afternoon, then have the two of them go through the motions so that Xiao Che lost, and the effect of swapping cave dwellings would be achieved all the same.

But in that case, compared with swapping beforehand, Xiao Che would naturally forfeit one round's worth of challenge opportunities—and, just as naturally, the two points that came with the Mountain-Low No. 14 cave dwelling.

For if Wei Zhao won as master of the Mountain-Low No. 14 cave dwelling, he would indeed swap dwellings with him, but the points would be seized unilaterally: Wei Zhao would gain his initial fifteen points, while he could not gain Wei Zhao's initial two points. So from Xiao Che's standpoint, this was more or less a losing bargain.

Of course, Xiao Che would have no complaint about this, since those two lost points would not fall to an outsider's benefit but to Wei Zhao's—yet Wei Zhao was not satisfied with it.

Since he had proposed swapping dwellings with Xiao Che, he had never taken those points seriously at all; to him they were not worth a fart, but to Xiao Che they might be absolutely crucial.

If a thing was not to be done, then leave it alone; but once decided upon, it must be done to perfection. Here he was fighting for Xiao Che's benefit—naturally Wei Zhao would not be careless about it.

Wei Zhao's display at once moved the other newcomers present. To willingly jump into a pit himself just to bail out his underling—a leader who cherished his followers to such a degree was truly rare!

Among them all, Li Zhengming felt it most keenly.

Thank goodness he had had the foresight to throw in his lot with Leader Wei Zhao early on! Had he ended up with a sorry excuse for a leader like Meng Zhou instead—forget jumping into a pit to bail him out; Meng Zhou would more likely force *him* to jump into a pit to save his own skin. Damn it, people really did die by comparison—and goods, by contrast, got thrown out!

His sigh was not without cause. In the month and more since he entered the Welcome Pavilion, he had met with this sort of thing aplenty; in fact, ever since he had first sidled up to Meng Jueming, that bastard Meng Zhou had not only failed to look after him as his underling, but had been fleecing him all along.

Because Meng Zhou had been defeated in a single move by Wei Zhao on the very first day, he could only skulk in the Mountain-Low No. 15 cave dwelling—the shabbiest, most broken of them all—while Li Zhengming, thanks to Meng Jueming's patronage, held the Mountain-Low No. 2 cave dwelling. So Meng Zhou kept pressing him to swap dwellings voluntarily; when he refused, there followed every manner of resentment and hostility.

Then came the mining at the Spirit Jade Hall, where Meng Zhou again pressed him, openly and covertly, to hand over the spirit jade he had dug out; when he refused, again the resentment and hostility.

And after that, at the trial in the back mountain, Meng Zhou pressed him to credit the spirit herbs to his own account—and when, just to hold on to a top-ten ranking, he shorted him by a single stalk, there again came the resentment and hostility.

When there was good to be had, he was never thought of; but the moment there was dirty work—scouting out Wei Zhao's strength, for instance—it was sure as hell going to be him!

With such a record of villainy, to set that bastard Meng Zhou beside Wei Zhao was an outright insult to Leader Wei Zhao. That Meng Zhou, of all the trash, still fancied himself a newcomers' leader—what a worthless piece of shit!

Faced with Wei Zhao's hard questioning, Meng Jueming exchanged a glance with Xu Lingchong before saying, "There is indeed such a rule, but what you are doing now is, by any account, exploiting a loophole. As the managing senior brother of the Azure Cloud Pavilion, it is not for me to rule on this rashly. It happens that Young Master Xu is here; as the saying goes, the bystander sees clearest, and I trust Young Master Xu can give a more reasonable and fair answer. I will explain the situation to Young Master Xu in detail—please wait here a moment."

That said, Meng Jueming paid Wei Zhao and the others no further heed and went aside with Xu Lingchong and his companions to discuss the matter.

"Heh heh, these fellows are slippery as eels—working out the pros and cons before deigning to answer over such a trifle. Truly petty," Qiao Hongcai muttered with a sneer, seeing them arrayed as though facing a formidable enemy.

Xiao Che laughed from the side: "Leader Wei Zhao has got them scared stiff—they're probably terrified there's some scheme hidden in this. 'Judging a gentleman by the measure of a petty man'—that describes this lot exactly!"

Wei Zhao merely chuckled: "It doesn't matter. Anyone with even a slightly normal measure of intelligence could work out that this is in fact something they should be only too glad to have fall into their laps. If they lack even that much wit, then there's no need to give them another thought hereafter—clowns capering on a stage are not worth mentioning."

The long-suffering senior brother watched this scene and could not help but sigh with feeling.

Meng Jueming, as managing senior brother, had once been a man of formidable authority; and he, long-suffering as he was, being a managing senior brother himself, had counted for nothing at all before Meng Jueming these past years—not a shred of resistance could he muster.

Yet now, faced with Wei Zhao, a newcomer who had risen out of nowhere from the mundane world, he was so wary—and not only Meng Jueming himself, but even Young Master Xu Lingchong, whose backing was so deep it was beyond reckoning, had to share in the worry and the dread. Such a sight—in the old days, one would never have dared even to imagine it! (To be continued...)