Chapter 3803 — Li Zhengming the Mole; Even a Decent Man Has a Temper, and Now That the Strong and Weak Have Changed Places, How Could Xiao Che Let Meng Zhou Off So Easily?

So even if it meant waiting one more round, he would not begrudge the delay.

Wei Zhao chuckled. "Fine by me. I was rather hoping to see whether our Senior Brother Meng can scrape together another fourth-grade Great Return Pill for Meng Zhou—and then you, Xiao Che, go and beat him into a cripple. That would be a sight worth seeing."

With Li Zhengming planted as their mole, there was no hiding Meng Zhou's use of the fourth-grade Great Return Pill from Wei Zhao's eyes and ears.

Meng Zhou had already burned through one fourth-grade Great Return Pill during the endurance test last time, and now he had spent another to make his move on Qiao Hongcai. If a third were to follow—and still fail to produce results—Meng Jueming would likely be shedding tears.

After all, a fourth-grade Great Return Pill was a lifesaving elixir of the rarest kind, and every last one of them cost spirit jade! Given Meng Jueming's own resources, securing a single pill had already been the limit of his means; even that first one had been subsidized by that great young master, Xu Lingchong.

Two pills in a row sunk into Meng Zhou, with not a shred of result to show for either—that alone had already left Meng Jueming weeping without tears. If a third were sunk in as well, and still yielded nothing, he would probably be angered to death outright.

Three fourth-grade Great Return Pills—many cultivators would never see so many miracle healing elixirs in their entire lives. Of course, whether Meng Jueming could even procure a third for Meng Zhou remained an open question; with two such lessons already behind him, the odds were hardly high.

After the headline clash between Qiao Hongcai and Meng Zhou, those two formidable early-stage Foundation Establishment experts, the challenge tournament returned to its normal course. And this round differed slightly from the last: at long last it was the turn of another of the Greeting Pavilion's new top five to take the stage—Li Zhengming.

After three full rounds of standing around like a spare part, he had finally earned a chance to be challenged, and Li Zhengming could not help but sigh with a thousand emotions.

What truly set him sighing, however, was not that his cave dwelling rank was too high, nor that he had lacked the chance to step into the ring and harvest challenge points from other newcomers—it was watching Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai both break through to Foundation Establishment before his eyes.

Look across the so-called top five of the Greeting Pavilion: the other four had all succeeded in breaking through to Foundation Establishment, and Wei Zhao was even a hidden peak early-stage Foundation Establishment expert. Only he, Li Zhengming, was left still struggling bitterly at the peak of the Heaven Rank, Foundation Establishment a distant prospect—an awkward predicament that made a man's guts ache.

Reckoning up how the other four had broken through: Wei Zhao needed no explanation; Meng Zhou had taken a Foundation Establishment Pill plus Foundation Establishment Liquid; and Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai had each taken a Foundation Establishment Pill. But he, Li Zhengming, had not even managed to get his hands on the most basic Foundation Establishment Pill.

Otherwise, had he but obtained a single Foundation Establishment Pill, with his talent and foundation he would have been confident enough to break through just as Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai had. Unfortunately, he had nothing.

At bottom, the root of the problem was that he had latched onto the wrong patron in Meng Jueming. Though he had changed his allegiance partway through and secretly gone over to Wei Zhao's side as a mole, he still had to pay for his earlier mistake.

Back then he had thought that throwing in his lot with Meng Jueming, the steward senior brother, would win him more cultivation resources—if not a great slab of meat, then at least a few mouthfuls of broth. Looking back now, he had been utterly blind: from first to last he had gained scarcely any decent benefit, and on top of that had been repeatedly squeezed and trampled by that worthless wretch Meng Zhou!

Had he only opened his eyes a little wider back then and gone over to Wei Zhao from the start, he might well have broken through to Foundation Establishment long ago!

Alas, there are no ifs in this world; the bitter fruit he had brewed he could only eat himself. Even if it cost him blood and tears, for now Li Zhengming could only endure in silence. He believed that so long as he served well as Wei Zhao's mole, in days to come Wei Zhao, as their leader, would surely not treat him shabbily.

That said, though Li Zhengming had yet to break through to Foundation Establishment and paled beside the other four of the top five, against the rest of the Greeting Pavilion's newcomers his strength still gave him ample advantage.

The newcomer who challenged him now ranked in Cave Dwelling Three at the foot of the mountain. After two victories in as many outings over the previous rounds, he had fought his way up all the way from Cave Dwelling Five below the mountain—his strength was, by any measure, quite respectable. Yet in this match against Li Zhengming, the gap was laid bare at once.

From first to last he was pressed and pounded at every turn, and in a mere three illumination periods he was blasted off the platform—a clean, crisp defeat at Li Zhengming's hands, one he accepted wholeheartedly.

Watching Li Zhengming perform so, Wei Zhao, observing from below the platform, felt his eyes light up at once, and inwardly he began to turn matters over: it seemed the time had come to find an opportunity and secure a little benefit for Li Zhengming.

Come to think of it, Li Zhengming had not been on his side for long, but in this stretch as a mole he had been absolutely diligent and earnest, secretly supplying no small amount of valuable intelligence.

Even though Wei Zhao had long since planted Zhong Yongliang as a mole, Zhong Yongliang was, after all, situated in the Soaring Heaven Pavilion and could at best keep watch on Kang Jingming; he could not possibly shadow Meng Jueming at all hours. And as things stood, the most threatening and most immediate enemy to Wei Zhao was none other than Meng Jueming.

That Wei Zhao had repeatedly seen through Meng Jueming's plots and schemes in advance these past days, and calmly countered them so that the other side lost a chicken only to lose the rice as well—in all this, Li Zhengming's merit was paramount.

Reward where earned, punish where due—kindness and severity applied together: that is the one unfailing recipe for commanding subordinates.

So by both sentiment and reason, Wei Zhao had to secure some modest benefit for Li Zhengming; otherwise, if time dragged on and this little brother mole tasted no sweetness, he might at some point turn disaffected and disloyal—and that would be a truly grievous loss.

In Wei Zhao's eyes, Li Zhengming's potential for growth far outstripped Qiao Hongcai's, and compared with Xiao Che he was if anything the more promising. Nurtured properly, he was absolutely a seedling who could one day stand on his own and bear the heaviest beams.

Such talent—so long as his loyalty could be assured—Wei Zhao would naturally not let go to waste.

At the end of the day, the cultivation world has always honored the strong—and "strong" here does not mean strength alone; more important still is power and following.

However great one's personal strength, solitary and unaided one can accomplish nothing of consequence. Only when one's subordinates grow strong together is it possible to gain a foothold on this fiercely competitive Cloud Rank Island, to win enough say, and to pave the way for what one means to do hereafter.

Otherwise, Wei Zhao alone—even if he entered the middle island as he wished—might not necessarily get to see Zhang Lifeng; and even if he did see Zhang Lifeng, the man might not necessarily be willing to lift a hand to help. RS