Chapter 3970 — Meng Zhou's Regret

"Resentment? Heh, they're hardly the petty, shallow sort, Worthy Senior Brother, so you needn't fret over it." Wei Zhao merely gave a faint, indifferent smile.

Wei Zhao understood the men under his command far better than anyone else present. There were, at bottom, two reasons for Xiao Che's conduct. First, a worthy opponent of his own caliber was a rare find, and so his huntsman's delight was only natural—even Xiao Che was not immune to that.

As for the other reason, it was a matter that intrigued even Wei Zhao himself. By now most of the Azure Cloud Pavilion's newcomers had thrown in their lot under his banner, yet those he truly valued and might one day entrust with weighty responsibilities numbered no more than three.

One was Xiao Che, one was Qiao Hongcai, and the remaining candidate was the man who had just come over to his side—Li Zhengming.

Among these three, a reckoning of superiority was unavoidable—indeed, inevitable. And now that Li Zhengming had already bested Qiao Hongcai by a notch, then whatever the outcome between him and Xiao Che, whichever side prevailed could lay claim to the title of the foremost man under Wei Zhao's command. Of that there could be no doubt.

Others might not see so far, but these three themselves must surely have grasped it clearly enough.

Wei Zhao was intensely curious as well. After all, the talent and potential of these three were hardly ordinary; in time they would grow into formidable subordinates, each capable of holding a front alone. Which of the three was stronger and which weaker would determine who could become the right hand Wei Zhao would rely upon most in the years to come.

Word spread swiftly that no sooner had Li Zhengming pledged himself to Wei Zhao than he was challenged in succession by both Qiao Hongcai and Xiao Che. Naturally, the affair became the most closely watched focus of attention in the Yingxin Pavilion of late.

An occasion so lively could hardly escape the eyes and ears of Murong Zhen, who was close at hand. Upon learning of it, she stormed off in a fury to seek out Meng Zhou.

"What is it?" Meng Zhou admitted Murong Zhen into his cave dwelling listlessly, his face a ghastly pallor, the wretched look of a man sick past all cure.

The injuries Wei Zhao had left him with last time had been held back from the brink of death by a fourth-grade Great Restoration Pill, yet because the pill's medicinal power clashed with the residual Ziwu Heart-Shattering Pill in his body, his wounds had still not healed to this day.

What was more, every day at the zi and wu hours he had to endure the inhuman agony of a shattering heart, and added to that the shock of Meng Jueming's death—that Meng Zhou was still alive at all might well be called a miracle, small or large.

"How did you come to this state?" Murong Zhen could not help frowning at the sight.

She had indeed looked down on Meng Zhou in the past, but ever since he took the Ziwu Heart-Shattering Pill and was reborn, she could plainly sense that this creature's strength now faintly surpassed her own. Her opinion of him had accordingly shifted—one might even say she had begun to harbor expectations. Even after Meng Zhou was struck down by Wei Zhao face to face, she no longer regarded him with the contempt she once had.

"Out with it, and be quick about it." Meng Zhou shot her a cold glance. At first he had rather lusted after this woman, but ever since the affair at the rear mountain, that desire had faded. Especially after he took the Ziwu Heart-Shattering Pill and his nature changed utterly, he no longer took this woman, who knew only how to flaunt her charms, the least bit seriously.

Murong Zhen was instantly struck dumb, her face flushing crimson in an instant. When had it ever happened that she, the peerless beauty Murong, was given such a look by the likes of a mere Meng Zhou?

Still, Murong Zhen forced down her anger. Now that Meng Jueming was gone, if she wished to move against Wei Zhao, she must draw in every ally she could—Kang Jingming was one, and Meng Zhou another.

If before this she and Wei Zhao had merely stood on different sides, then after the affair at the Half-Moon Lake in the rear mountain, Wei Zhao had become a thorn in her eye and a nail in her flesh that she must pluck out and be rid of at once. She meant to deal with Shangguan Lan'er, and Wei Zhao was the first roadblock standing athwart her path.

When a woman of Murong Zhen's deep scheming truly set her mind to a thing, she was utterly terrifying. However foul Meng Zhou's attitude, so long as they remained in the same camp, she would endure it.

"Li Zhengming has thrown in with Wei Zhao—you've heard of this, I take it?" Murong Zhen said, forcing down her displeasure.

"Is there such a thing?" Meng Zhou was slightly startled. These days he had been hiding away in his cave dwelling in secluded cultivation to heal his wounds, and knew very little of the outside world. Even the news of Meng Jueming's death had been brought to him by Murong Zhen in person.

"I've no idea what you're scheming, but in my view, the others throwing in with Wei Zhao hardly matters—they're all useless trash, after all. Li Zhengming is different. This man is no trifling matter," Murong Zhen said gravely.

"No trifling matter? And which of your eyes saw that?" Meng Zhou wheezed with effort as he sneered. He had long despised Li Zhengming, and that was all the more true now that he had been reborn.

Murong Zhen shook her head speechlessly and said slowly, "I'll say only one thing: Qiao Hongcai challenged him just now, and he won, clean and neat."

"What?" Meng Zhou's expression changed abruptly. Like everyone else, he had always taken Li Zhengming for a weakling at the peak of the Heaven Rank, and so had never given him a second thought. But that fellow Li Zhengming could actually beat Qiao Hongcai?

Over their three exchanges, he knew full well how strong Qiao Hongcai was. Strictly speaking, even now, reborn from the Ziwu Heart-Shattering Pill, he himself might not find it easy to finish off a Qiao Hongcai of the early Foundation Establishment stage.

That Li Zhengming could defeat Qiao Hongcai proved at the very least that the fellow had already succeeded in establishing his Foundation, and ranked among the first-rate among cultivators of his level.

"This man ought to have been a powerful piece for us to use against Wei Zhao. I assumed that after Meng Jueming's death you would at least make a show of courting him properly—yet to my surprise you paid him no mind at all and simply let him defect to Wei Zhao!" Murong Zhen said with bitter resentment.

By rights, upon learning of Meng Jueming's death, Meng Zhou, as the foremost figure among his subordinates, should have stepped forward at once and sought to take command of Meng Jueming's people.

Yet Meng Zhou had done no such thing. For one, he was busy in secluded cultivation healing his wounds and found it inconvenient to show his face; for another, he looked down on these failures who had not even succeeded in establishing their Foundation, and could not be bothered to waste the effort. Little did he expect that among his own ranks there would appear such an anomaly as Li Zhengming, who had concealed a formidable strength.

Had she known it would come to this, Murong Zhen would have stepped forward to court Li Zhengming directly at the outset. Could she have recruited the man, he would surely have been a mighty arm in the days to come.