Chapter 3782 — A Bold Move

What was more, though his position now was hardly as favored as Xiao Che's, there was still Zha Wu sitting between him and Meng Zhou. Barring the unexpected, Meng Zhou, eager to plunder as many points as possible to overtake Wei Zhao, would likely finish trampling Zha Wu before coming for him—so his time was still fairly ample, enough to mount a proper push toward Foundation Establishment.

"Xiao Che, Hongcai—from here on out, I'll be waiting for good news from the two of you."

Wei Zhao encouraged them with a smile, then added a few more words: "No need to carry any mental baggage into this—throw it all away for me. The worst that happens if you fail is wasting a single Foundation Establishment Pill. What's so terrible about that? Just say the word and I'll have one for you in a heartbeat. Don't forget, I'm an alchemist!"

Qiao Hongcai chuckled at that. "With our leader Wei Zhao saying that, I'll go back and stake everything on one throw. And if I really do fail, you'd better take responsibility for me, leader!"

"Good heavens! Responsibility my ass—I don't go for men! You, get away from me!" Wei Zhao cried, comically leaping two zhang back and watching Qiao Hongcai with a face full of wary alertness.

The long-suffering senior brother and Xiao Che exchanged a glance and burst out laughing, while Qiao Hongcai alone wore a woebegone look. "Leader, you can't be like that—how can words you just said not count? You heartless scoundrel, stirring me up and then casting me aside!"

"Get out of here!" Wei Zhao said, half laughing, half crying.

In contrast to the jubilation in Wei Zhao's camp, at this very moment another Azure Cloud Pavilion newcomer was sunk in gloom and misery, so wretched he even wished he were dead. That man was, of course, Zha Wu.

He had already been dead last in points, and after pulling that farcical, overreaching stunt of his, not only had he lost points, he had even been gravely injured because of it. Zha Wu's present situation was far more than a single word like "miserable" could encompass.

Earlier on the arena, Wei Zhao had not dealt him a killing blow, but be that as it may, Wei Zhao was a genuine expert at the peak of early-stage Foundation Establishment. Even if it was merely the twenty-stance Frenzied Fire Fist, delivered from his hands it was absolutely not something an ordinary Heaven-Rank perfection expert could withstand. The fact that Zha Wu was still alive at all was proof enough that Wei Zhao had pulled his punches—cause for considerable rejoicing.

It was not fatal, but with injuries of this severity, given his abilities he would need at least seven or eight days to recover. And for those seven or eight days, beyond healing his wounds, he could forget about doing anything else.

Not only would he be unable to fight in the next round of the challenge tournament, he would even be forced to abandon the spirit-herb seeds he was cultivating. After all, when he himself was already reduced to this sorry state, how could he have the strength and true qi left to tend to those delicate little masters?

Still, he had at least been prudent earlier: he had not gone straight for all ten spirit-herb seeds from the outset, but had picked only three to experiment with. Even if he gave them up, he was giving up three, not all ten.

Otherwise, had all ten spirit-herb seeds withered and died, the trial of spirit herbs alone would have docked him ten points, and Zha Wu would have been finished on the spot—with no hope of ever turning things around for all eternity.

Understand that after being successively stripped of four points each by Wei Zhao and Qiao Hongcai, Zha Wu now had only seven points left to his name—and that was without reckoning the perilous prospect of facing the likes of Meng Zhou and Xiao Che next.

If the spirit herb trial then docked him ten points, that would put him straight into negative three. And after Meng Zhou and Xiao Che were done with him, the deficit would only grow larger and larger. Clawing it back afterward would be sheer fantasy—with Zha Wu's meager strength that was utterly impossible. Otherwise he would never have sunk to today's predicament in the first place.

If he were to finish the newcomer assessment carrying negative points, then Zha Wu's whole life would be as good as ruined. In the current state of the cultivation world on Cloud Terrace Island, the vast majority of cultivation resources were in the hands of the great sects; rootless wandering cultivators had no future at all.

Barring some heaven-defying stroke of fortune, for a cultivator of Zha Wu's ordinary talent, failing to enter the Three-Tier Pavilion meant that, at the very best, he would muddle through to Foundation Establishment and that would be the end of it—nothing better was possible. Those without such fortune might not even manage early-stage Foundation Establishment, and would die as nothing more than a Heaven-Rank perfection expert.

In the mortal world, a Heaven-Rank perfection expert would already be a formidable figure, able to strut across the land unopposed—that would be fine and well. But the problem was, this was Cloud Terrace Island!

Here Heaven-Rank experts were worth less than dogs; even early-stage Foundation Establishment was merely the starting threshold. A piddling Heaven-Rank perfection expert would be too ashamed even to greet anyone in public. To die with only that much strength, trampled by whoever he met—what the hell kind of life was that?

Yet if the final assessment score came out negative, and he bore such a stain on his record, then Zha Wu could forget forever about ever getting into Azure Cloud Pavilion. And if he could not get into Azure Cloud Pavilion, the other sects were even more out of the question. That would be all his life amounted to.

"To die with nothing but Heaven-Rank perfection to show for it—how could such a pitiful, laughable, shameful piece of business ever happen to me, Zha Wu!" Zha Wu ground his teeth and muttered to himself, veins bulging on his clenched fists.

Then, heedless of his grave injuries, he struggled to his feet and staggered toward the cave dwelling's entrance. Everything that had happened before could no longer be changed, and he was keenly aware that if things went on this way, ending up with a negative score and no place in Azure Cloud Pavilion was all but inevitable.

So, to save his own fate, he had to do something—at the very least, make some change, and seek out a sliver of a chance at survival.

As for the spirit herb trial, because his true qi supply had been cut off, the three spirit-herb seeds were already doomed to wither and die. As for the remaining seven, even setting aside the drag of the challenge tournament, given the spiritual qi density of his cave dwelling and his capacity to supply true qi, the odds of successfully cultivating them were essentially close to zero—negligible. If one or two of them ultimately succeeded, that alone would mean his ancestral graves were smoking with good fortune.

But while there was no good solution on the spirit-herb-seed front, that did not mean there was no turn for the better to be found elsewhere.

True enough, for Zha Wu to go into the brutal challenge tournament with strength near the very bottom, hoping to plunder any great number of points, was basically unrealistic—he at least had that much self-awareness.

Still, if he could not actively seize points from the other newcomers, he could at least think of ways to lose fewer points. So long as his points did not drop too far, and he did not end up docked into negative figures in this stage, that alone would count as a victory.

So what he had to do now was go beg mercy from a certain person.

Seeing no one about, Zha Wu crept quietly to the entrance of Cave Dwelling No. 14 at the foot of the neighboring mountain, then triggered the ward. This dwelling had originally belonged to Wei Zhao, then to Xiao Che—but now it had changed hands to Meng Zhou.