Chapter 3822 — Waiting for Him to Make a Fool of Himself

Leaving aside how Li Zhengming was now full of ambition and setting about preparing to break through to the Foundation Establishment realm, on Wei Zhao's side, after handing over those two Foundation Establishment Pills, his rhythm remained as calm and unhurried as ever. When it was time to cultivate, he cultivated; when it was time to channel true qi into the spirit herb seeds, he channeled it into them. He even still went to the Spirit Jade Hall during the day to mine, on the grounds that he had nothing better to do anyway.

Beyond that, Wei Zhao's most important task at present was to keep watch over the eighty-five spirit herb seeds within the jade pendant's space, especially the two seeds of the Heart-Devouring Linglong Grass—after all, those bore directly on when he would be able to advance another step.

As far as Wei Zhao was concerned, powerful foes now pressed in on every side, and relying solely on the strength of the peak of the early Foundation Establishment stage was already somewhat strained. Only by advancing to the mid Foundation Establishment stage as quickly as possible could he gain greater confidence and move with true freedom to advance or withdraw.

Another three days passed, and the spirit herb seeds within the jade pendant's space still showed no movement whatsoever. Even Wei Zhao, ordinarily so composed, could not help feeling a pang of unease.

Counting the days, it had been a full twenty-two days since these spirit herb seeds had been transplanted into the jade pendant's space—long past the point when results should have appeared.

And indeed that was the case. Apart from Wei Zhao, whether the spirit herb seeds the other newcomers had planted in their first batch lived or died, matters had essentially settled. So before the sixth round of the newcomer challenge tournament began, nearly every newcomer gathered around the arena was discussing the spirit herb seeds.

Judging by the results of these Qingyun Pavilion newcomers' first attempts, the outlook was hardly encouraging.

Anyone who bothered to do a little tallying would find that, across all of Qingyun Pavilion's newcomers, apart from Wei Zhao, Xiao Che, Qiao Hongcai, and Li Zhengming, the remaining eleven had tested twenty-three spirit herb seeds in total—and in the end, only two had successfully grown to maturity and been sent to the spirit herb garden for scoring.

Those two lucky things had each drawn a spirit herb seed of exceptionally strong vitality that demanded relatively little of its surroundings, and so had scraped together a meager harvest. But the other nine, Meng Zhou included, had seen their first batch of test seeds wiped out to the last one.

Grim as this result was, it was in truth only to be expected. After all, the cave dwellings of Qingyun Pavilion's newcomers could scarcely meet the spiritual qi needs of spirit herb seeds, and because of the newcomer challenge tournament, many could not even guarantee delivering true qi on a fixed schedule and in fixed amounts. Newcomers like Meng Zhou and Zha Wu, who were routinely beaten half to death in tournament matches, were everywhere.

This also drove home one point to all of Qingyun Pavilion's newcomers: the spirit herb trial was, for them, nothing short of a raw deal.

The only use of the spirit herb seeds they collected was to have points deducted later—essentially, however many you took, that many would be docked. Even if smoke rose from their ancestral graves and a few seeds happened to be cultivated, that merely meant a few points less deducted. To think of earning points through this stage was sheer delusion.

Fortunately, the vast majority of Qingyun Pavilion's newcomers had long since known better, so they had mostly signed up for the bare minimum of ten seeds. At worst, this stage would cost them a mere ten points.

Apart from a weakling like Zha Wu, whose points were already at rock bottom and who lacked any sense, the other newcomers need only have scored something in the tournament rounds, and they would not be docked into negative points. And since everyone was docked together, it had almost no noticeable effect on the rankings.

But then someone suddenly recalled that, back when they had registered their selections at the spirit herb garden, a certain maverick newcomer had signed up for a full forty spirit herb seeds—unprecedented in the extreme!

The more you signed up for, the more you lost. This conjecture had by now been verified into an iron law, so while the other newcomers needed only to forfeit ten points, this fool who had signed up for a full forty spirit herb seeds stood to forfeit a full forty points!

Of course, some wagered that among Wei Zhao's forty spirit herb seeds, one or two would surely hit a stroke of dumb luck and be cultivated—but even that would at most spare him a few points. That was all.

Never mind that Wei Zhao's strength was already great enough to stand alone at the top; some things simply could not be solved by strength alone. Even the mighty had to pay for their own folly.

"Well now, Qingyun Pavilion's number one newcomer who signed up for forty—how are those spirit herb seeds coming along? Haven't seen you go to the spirit herb garden to report in these past couple of days!" As everyone was discussing the matter, two uninvited guests suddenly arrived: Kang Jingming and Zhong Yongliang.

The sixth round of the newcomer challenge tournament was about to begin, and though there was still a little time before that—not enough to accomplish anything of substance—it was more than enough to seek out an old rival and toss a few mocking remarks for one's own amusement.

The moment Kang Jingming and Zhong Yongliang appeared, they naturally became the focus of the whole room. Kang Jingming especially: owing to the special favor of that young master Xu Lingchong, his prominence in the Welcome Newcomers Pavilion was now in no way inferior to Wei Zhao's, and he was the undisputed number one newcomer of the Soaring Heaven Pavilion.

Kang Jingming and Wei Zhao—two creatures who had nursed a bitter feud back in the secular world—had now both come to the Heaven-Tier North Island's Welcome Newcomers Pavilion, one becoming the Soaring Heaven Pavilion's number one newcomer and the other Qingyun Pavilion's number one newcomer. To see these two clash in public was a spectacle absolutely brilliant and pleasing to the eye.

In an instant, every gaze in the hall focused on Wei Zhao, each one wearing undisguised glee at his misfortune.

Meng Jueming and Meng Zhou and the others especially—since they were not yet ready to take the Midnight Heartbreak Pill, they had no choice but to continue enduring beneath the imposing halo of Wei Zhao's faction for the time being. And now, being able to watch Wei Zhao, that posturing ringleader, get ridiculed and taunted by Kang Jingming—there was only one word for it: damn, that felt good!

Facing the sneering Kang Jingming, Wei Zhao merely raised an eyebrow slightly and answered with a question of his own: "Is it true that the legendary newcomer steward also has to stand guard at the spirit herb garden? That really is hard work—seems I should find a chance to tip you a few spirit jades."

Kang Jingming choked on his words, while beside him Zhong Yongliang could barely stifle his snickering. Kang Jingming, that pretentious fool, had schemed every which way to come watch Wei Zhao and his gang lose face, only to be silenced by a single sentence—a textbook case of rushing headlong into humiliation. The scene was truly a delight to behold.

Under the half-smiling stares of the crowd, Kang Jingming was struck speechless for a good while before he curled his lip and sneered: "Is that so? It's really too much trouble for a loser from Qingyun Pavilion to spare such idle thoughts. Forgive my curiosity—do you even have spirit jades? You're not about to pull out a pile of worthless scrap jades, are you?"