Chapter 4221 — A Disciple's Mission

This was a post universally acknowledged as a gilded stepping stone—only the most outstanding prodigy disciples had ever had a chance to lay their hands on it!

"This came straight from Vice Pavilion Master Yu's own mouth. Senior Brother Ku, would you say it's true or not? Otherwise, why do you think I suddenly raised your strength a few days ago? Wasn't it all preparation for exactly this?" Wei Zhao said with a chuckle.

"Junior Brother Lin... Lin... what am I supposed to say to that... I..." Senior Brother Ku was so overcome with excitement that his words tumbled out in utter incoherence. He clutched tightly at Wei Zhao's arm, stammering, unable to string together a single complete sentence for the longest time.

If he had never met Wei Zhao, and with Vice Pavilion Master Yao and Lu Bianren, his two backers, vanishing one after the other, Ku Zhongle's present circumstances would most likely have never seen the light of day—would have been too wretched even to look upon. How could a windfall of such magnitude ever have fallen into his lap?

Every bit of this was owed to Wei Zhao!

"What's there to say? When it comes to something like this, if I don't look after my own people, am I supposed to hand it over to outsiders?" Wei Zhao patted Senior Brother Ku on the shoulder and gave a faint, indifferent smile.

"That may be so, but..." Senior Brother Ku was still so choked with gratitude that he could not speak.

"No buts. Senior Brother Ku, just make a good job of it. In the days to come I doubt I'll be spending much time in the North Island Pavilion. When that happens, Xiao Che and the others will all be counting on your care—don't let them be bullied," Wei Zhao cut in directly.

"Mm, I know that. Even if you hadn't said it, Junior Brother Lin, I would have done the same," Senior Brother Ku said with a heavy nod.

"Then it's settled. Make your preparations well tonight, and get ready to take up your post in glory tomorrow." Wei Zhao laughed heartily, and after that did not linger long in the Welcome Pavilion; he turned and left.

The next day, the news that Ku Zhongle had become the new Third Pavilion Master of the Welcome Pavilion spread swiftly through the Triple-Tiered Pavilion. The Azure Cloud Pavilion in particular buzzed with discussion from top to bottom.

The post of Third Pavilion Master of the Welcome Pavilion had stood vacant for so long—a succulent piece of meat that many a capable man had eyed with tiger-like greed. Who would have thought it would fall into the hands of an obscure nobody like Ku Zhongle? It was enough to make jaws drop.

Yet once everyone learned that this Ku Zhongle was an ironclad loyalist of Wei Zhao's faction, they stopped finding it strange. With the standing Wei Zhao now enjoyed in the Triple-Tiered Pavilion, he was truly at the blazing noonday sun of his power; there was nothing surprising about his pulling strings to land Ku Zhongle such a post.

At the same time, Xiao Che took over Ku Zhongle's former position and became the Azure Cloud Pavilion's managing senior brother for new disciples. This did not draw much attention—a minor matter after all, far less glorious than the post of Third Pavilion Master.

Yet on that very same day, another piece of news in the Triple-Tiered Pavilion drew enormous attention: Xu Lingchong, the great young master Xu, who had been defeated by a single move from Wei Zhao and then vanished with his life or death unknown, had finally returned!

Perhaps because his earlier defeat in the tournament had been too humiliating, this time Young Master Xu's return—though his injuries had fully healed—was nothing like the high-profile affair of last time. He slipped back into the Soaring Heavens Pavilion almost without a sound, and afterward stirred up no commotion at all.

He had once been dead set on the post of managing second senior brother of the Soaring Heavens Pavilion's inner court; now he set his sights on it no longer. After all, even if his strength was decent, he had already become the stepping stone beneath Wei Zhao's feet—that was plain for all to see.

Even with his own grandfather Xu Yuanzheng pulling strings on his behalf, there was no way he could seize a vital post like managing second senior brother of the inner court; and even if he could, he would never be able to command respect.

Xu Lingchong was rarely so low-key. When Wei Zhao learned of it, he could not even be bothered to go looking for trouble, and went on living his plain, leisurely days in the Number One Mansion of the Azure Cloud Pavilion's inner court.

Two days later, as the crowd of new outer-court formal disciples who had joined the Triple-Tiered Pavilion gradually grew accustomed to their fresh surroundings and rhythm, the Triple-Tiered Pavilion finally issued the formal disciples' missions for the new year.

There were chiefly two kinds. The first was the weapon mission: every newly admitted formal disciple—including one who had risen in a single step to inner-court core disciple, like Wei Zhao—had to find a way to forge a weapon suited to his hand. By the Triple-Tiered Pavilion's long-standing tradition, a grand weapon contest would be held at midyear, and all disciples could sign up to take part; naturally, those without a weapon would have no such qualification.

Beyond the weapon mission, the other was the trial mission. Every formal disciple of the Triple-Tiered Pavilion could take on missions here, and upon completing one would earn the corresponding guild points. Accumulated, these points could be exchanged for appropriate rewards at the North Island Cultivators' Guild.

In principle these missions were undertaken voluntarily, but the Triple-Tiered Pavilion had set a floor: every formal disciple, inner-court core disciples included, had to complete at least two trial missions each year. This was the barest requirement of training and experience; no slacking was tolerated.

Even a young master of such deep background as Xu Lingchong—now an inner-court core disciple—had to do missions if he wanted to get along well, and no one else could do them in his stead.

To be sure, with a grandfather like Xu Yuanzheng standing behind him, he would never lack cultivation resources no matter what. But a man of such ambition—how could he be content to drift along and remain a mere ordinary disciple?

Even if this time, because of his disastrous showing in the inner-court tournament, he could not compete for the post of managing second senior brother of the inner court, that was only a temporary setback. In days to come he would surely rise. To avoid giving people grounds for gossip then, he had to start from these foundational steps and perform as brilliantly as possible.

Of course, if it were a second-generation cultivator with not a shred of ambition, that would be another matter. Take Shangguan Lan'er: the girl had no mind at all for serious cultivation, and as for trial missions and the like, it was purely a matter of her own whim—no one would come scolding her even if she never went.

Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao, naturally, had to go do missions. The two of them came to the mission board specially set up by the Triple-Tiered Pavilion and scanned it up and down.

There were fully a hundred-odd trial missions large and small, ranging from solo missions of lower difficulty to quite demanding group missions that required several people working in concert before completion was even possible.

One thing was certain, however: whether solo or group, all of these had been transferred over from the North Island Cultivators' Guild, and so some of the long-term missions had a rather familiar ring to them.

By now the area before the mission board was a sea of people, crowded with no small number of Triple-Tiered Pavilion disciples! R1152