Chapter 3980 — When Will the Cave Dwelling Be Handed Over

Wei Zhao burst out laughing. "Whether I'm worthy or not doesn't much matter to me—I've never had a taste for licking anyone's toes. But you, Grand Steward Kang, you must surely be worthy, mustn't you? Otherwise how would you ever have become another man's lackey?"

Kang Jingming choked on the spot, struck dumb for a good long while. True, licking Young Master Xu's toes was a dream every one of them secretly nursed, but cultivators did, after all, have their pride; to say such a thing aloud—how would he ever show his face in the Welcome Pavilion again?

"Judging by how lively the Grand Steward looks, your injuries must be more or less healed by now. Splendid—the ten-day deadline Pavilion Master Hu spoke of is nearly upon us. Perhaps you might hurry up and vacate that Peak No. 1 cave dwelling for me? I'm still waiting to trade it to the other newcomers of the Soaring Heaven Pavilion," Wei Zhao said, arching an eyebrow.

Kang Jingming's face went stiff all over again. Damn it, he thought, something's gone badly wrong here. I came out with Young Master Xu to throw my weight around, so how is it that after a few short words from this brat Wei Zhao, the man has turned the tables and made himself the host?

In truth, Hu Yunfeng had fed him a fourth-grade Great Restoration Pill at the time of his injury, and under the force of its potent medicine, Kang Jingming's wounds had all but healed days ago. Had it been otherwise, he could never have kept up those endless nights of romping with that shameless vixen Murong Zhen.

All these days, Kang Jingming had deliberately put the matter out of his mind, and he had not breathed a single word of it even to Xu Lingchong, the patron at his back. Who would have thought Wei Zhao would now drag it out into the open right in front of Xu Lingchong? How was he supposed to salvage this?

Sure enough, Xu Lingchong caught the odd turn in the conversation and shot Kang Jingming a suspicious glance. "Zhaoming, you're handing Peak No. 1 over to him? What is the meaning of this?"

Lately Xu Lingchong had been wholly occupied with contesting the post of chief senior brother of the Soaring Heaven Pavilion against Nantian Pass. He had only just managed to see some light at the end of that tunnel when the Meng Jueming affair blew up in his face, and on top of that he had the birthday banquet for Shangguan Lan'er to host and arrange. The trifling business of the Welcome Pavilion was the last thing on his mind.

What was more, Kang Jingming had never volunteered the truth to him, and Hu Yunfeng, unwilling to embarrass Kang Jingming, had likewise refrained from raising the matter. Of this whole cross-pavilion challenge, Xu Lingchong was utterly ignorant.

Kang Jingming hemmed and hawed, unable to produce a word. Seeing this, Wei Zhao chuckled and spoke for him. "So the Young Master Xu was kept in the dark after all! Grand Steward Kang deliberately suppressed the report—that's rather a poor showing for a subordinate, wouldn't you say? Very well then. Since the Grand Steward is too embarrassed to speak, allow me to say it for him. Young Master Xu, in that cross-pavilion challenge he lost Peak No. 1 cave dwelling to me. By Pavilion Master Hu's own words at the time, the ten-day deadline has now arrived, so naturally he must hand the dwelling over to me—we can hardly let Pavilion Master Hu be made a liar, can we?"

"Such a thing actually happened? Hmph. Useless creature—I'll settle accounts with you when we're back!" Xu Lingchong's face darkened further still.

That Kang Jingming could not beat Wei Zhao was something he could well understand. But what galled him most was that Kang Jingming had dared to conceal it from him. That he could not tolerate.

As a man in a position of authority, the thing Xu Lingchong detested and dreaded most was a subordinate acting on his own and suppressing the truth, for it tore matters beyond his control—and all too easily left him, as now, inexplicably on the back foot while Wei Zhao seized the initiative.

"Yes, yes, Young Master Xu, calm yourself. I know I was wrong." Kang Jingming bobbed and scraped in a flurry of nods, then put on a tragic air and explained, "You are a man of great affairs, Young Master Xu, and I simply did not wish to trouble you over so small a thing. As your loyal follower I should have borne your burdens, yet instead I brought you trouble—I truly had not the face to bring it up. So no matter how great my grievance, I could only swallow it down and leave it for another day."

Kang Jingming was in truth a consummate actor. He had concealed the matter out of a private wish not to lose standing in his master's eyes, yet he twisted it into the tale of a tragic figure who shouldered every grievance alone—so movingly that even a shrewd man like Xu Lingchong was left blinking in a daze.

"So by that account, I have wronged you after all. For the sake of this rare devotion of yours, Zhaoming, I shall not hold it against you." Xu Lingchong clapped him on the shoulder and said consolingly, "You are, after all, a true alchemist born and bred; there is no shame in losing to another in a fight. So long as you handle that matter I entrusted to you, that too shall count as a great merit!"

In truth, did Xu Lingchong really not know what had happened? Not necessarily—it was simply that he was even better than Meng Jueming at winning men's hearts.

"Yes—thank you for your understanding, Young Master Xu. How could I not give my life in your service?" Kang Jingming wore the deeply moved look of a man shedding tears of gratitude, a true knight ready to die for the one who understood him.

Watching this little scene, Wei Zhao was silently speechless. This fellow Kang Jingming was indeed a past master at riding flattery to high office; his flattery was watertight, and even a man like Xu Lingchong swallowed it whole. That the fellow had risen to his present station was not down to luck alone.

Still, in Wei Zhao's view, a creature as shrewd as Xu Lingchong ought not, by any normal reckoning, to be so easily taken in by Kang Jingming. Perhaps he had all along been minded to fashion for himself the image of a magnanimous master, so that his subordinates would serve him the more willingly—and had simply seized the occasion to play his part.

"Enough. You two great actors need not rush to strut the stage. Grand Steward Kang, might I have a definite answer to my question?" Wei Zhao cut in, a mocking smile on his face.

Kang Jingming, who had been quietly preening a moment before, wilted at once. When the ten-day deadline came, Peak No. 1 cave dwelling would have to go to Wei Zhao—a problem he could not dodge no matter which way he turned.

Yet to Kang Jingming that Peak No. 1 cave dwelling meant not only superior spiritual qi but, more crucially, a badge of status.

Had Wei Zhao simply taken the dwelling for his own use, that would have been one thing—Kang Jingming would have lost face and no more. But if, as Wei Zhao had said before, the dwelling were passed on to some other newcomer of the Soaring Heaven Pavilion, then it was not merely a loss of face; his standing as the pavilion's foremost newcomer would be imperiled, and even Xu Lingchong behind him would be dragged into it.

As one of the two or three greatest young lords of the Soaring Heaven Pavilion, with Hu Yunfeng, master of the Welcome Pavilion, a man of his own faction, if the newcomer who rose highest in the Soaring Heaven Pavilion turned out not to be his follower, then quite apart from any question of face, it proved at the very least one thing: Xu Lingchong's grip on his people was weak—and put plainly, that Xu Lingchong's own ability fell short. R1152