Chapter 4052 — Sabotage

It was only a pity that he was stationed at the Mystic Mechanism Pavilion, where he had no dealings whatsoever with Wei Zhao of the Azure Cloud Pavilion and could hardly pose any threat to him; this feeling of having strength but nowhere to spend it was enough to drive a man mad.

As for Kang Jingming and his lot, because the Mystic Mechanism Pavilion had stood them up during the new deacon election, they could not even be bothered to give him the time of day; had he not lost backing figures like Xu Lingchong, they likely would not have remembered that a person by his name even existed.

Faced with Kang Jingming's visit, Dongfang Badao showed tremendous enthusiasm—especially once he heard they intended to join forces against Wei Zhao. He grew all the more eager and zealous, agreeing on the spot without a second thought.

At first, Dongfang Badao had rather fancied himself the elder statesman, assuming that once he joined he would at least be the one giving the orders. But once he witnessed the strength of Meng Zhou and Murong Zhen—Meng Zhou in particular, a fine hand at the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment—he wilted at once.

Not daring to throw his weight around any longer, Dongfang Badao offered the company his counsel: "Those old codgers at the Mystic Mechanism Pavilion keep to their own circle, and they have rather wide connections. A few days ago I caught wind of some news concerning Wei Zhao—I wonder if any of you have heard it?"

"What news?" the others asked in unison.

"That thing Wei Zhao, it seems he's recently been preparing to forge a treasure," Dongfang Badao said, stroking his chin. "I heard the old codgers at the Mystic Mechanism Pavilion mention that at the auction on the Far North Island, Wei Zhao went along with Hong Zhong of the Hong Merchant Guild—seemingly to bid on forging materials. Where he gets so many spirit jades, and the confidence to throw them around, I've no idea."

"Forging?" Kang Jingming's eyes lit up at once, and he said excitedly, "Isn't that perfect? We'll go and sabotage him—even if we can't do him in, we'll make him sick to his stomach!"

Hearing this, Meng Zhou and Murong Zhen both nodded in turn. Petty as the scheme sounded, they had no better options at present; besides, if Wei Zhao were left unchecked to forge some divine weapon and thereby swell his strength, that would be no good thing for them either.

"So that's it—no wonder Wei Zhao has been so elusive of late!" Murong Zhen said in sudden understanding, then frowned with some vexation. "But if we're to sabotage him, we must first find where he forges. With only the few of us, it's a needle in a haystack—how are we to find it?"

Meng Zhou thought for a moment, then said suddenly, "Kang Jingming, when you carried out that kidnapping, didn't you use a flying spirit beast?"

"That's right. I borrowed it from an acquaintance at the Pill Hall. The Welcome Pavilion has a few flying spirit beasts of its own, but only a handful in all, and they draw attention easily," Kang Jingming nodded.

"Good. Then find a way to borrow another flying spirit beast. The next time Wei Zhao shows himself, we'll track him from the sky—however sharp his senses, he won't notice. Then we need only follow the trail to root out his hiding place!" Meng Zhou said with full confidence.

"Right! That's a brilliant plan!" Kang Jingming and the others nodded repeatedly. Tracking Wei Zhao on the ground with their own strength would be far too difficult, but from the sky it was another matter—not only would they be unlikely to lose him, but under ordinary circumstances they would be hard to spot.

Having settled on the scheme, they set to work at once. Kang Jingming was sent to borrow a flying spirit beast, while Murong Zhen stayed behind to keep watch at the wooden hut—the moment Wei Zhao appeared, she was to notify Meng Zhou and the others to move out.

Of all this, Wei Zhao was utterly unaware. His mind was now wholly bent on the forging that was about to begin. After one delay after another from the Ragamuffin King, everything was at last in readiness; success or failure would be decided in this one attempt.

Before starting, Wei Zhao made a point of returning to the Welcome Pavilion to have a word with his miserable senior brother and the others. Forging, once begun, could not be halted midway, and no one could say how long it would last.

So he had to give them advance notice, lest they think he had vanished and stir up a commotion.

This gave the scheming Kang Jingming and his comrades their opening. After Wei Zhao left, they began their pursuit through the sky—and careful as Wei Zhao was along the way, he overlooked the flying spirit beast above his head!

Even if he chanced to look up, he would not think much of it; flying spirit beasts were common mounts on Cloud Terrace Island, and one could often be seen passing overhead.

And while Kang Jingming and the others were aloft, they harbored no ill intent toward Wei Zhao, so the jade pendant gave no warning either.

"Hm? What's the boy going into the woods for? Surely he doesn't mean to forge in there—he can't be that stupid, can he?" Seeing Wei Zhao leave the Welcome Pavilion and promptly dart into the little grove, Kang Jingming was bewildered.

They were no forgers, but they knew that forging demanded a stable environment no less than pill refinement did; who knew whether forging in a grove would set the place ablaze.

"Let's wait and see," said Meng Zhou. He and the others were equally baffled; after some hesitation, they decided to hold position for the time being, having the flying spirit beast circle above as if busy with its own affairs.

A moment later, their eyes lit up as one: "He's out!"

But then Murong Zhen paused in puzzlement: "Wait—that's not Wei Zhao. Look at his face; it's completely different from Wei Zhao's."

Women were always more attentive. Though they were not very high above the ground, to keep from being detected by Wei Zhao they still flew at a considerable altitude; gazing down from above, a person was no more than a grain of rice, and identity was judged at most by build and position—seldom would anyone, like Murong Zhen, study a person's actual features.

Still, once she said it, Meng Zhou, Kang Jingming, and the rest all noticed something off as well. It was not obvious, but on close inspection the difference could be made out.

"It really isn't Wei Zhao. Damn it all—this grove is so dense there's not even a place to set foot; ordinarily no one should be here at all. Where did this fellow come from? We were nearly misled by him—one careless moment following the wrong man and all our efforts would have gone to waste!" Meng Zhou said, inwardly counting his blessings.

At that moment, Kang Jingming suddenly slapped his thigh. "Wrong, wrong! This fellow is Wei Zhao—you've all been fooled by his blinding trick!"

"What do you mean?" Meng Zhou and Murong Zhen were both taken aback.

"Have you all forgotten? Earlier, Yu Jiang and Nantian Guan and those people came to our Welcome Pavilion time and again looking for someone named Lin Er, several times suspecting it was Wei Zhao, only to let him go because the face didn't match. Now that I think back on it, this Wei Zhao fellow was their Lin Er all along—he'd merely changed his face!" Kang Jingming analyzed with smug excitement. R1152