Chapter 3562 — Spirit Jade
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"Favoring these cultivation second-generations right from the start—so much for treating everyone as equals!" The crowd of grassroots rogue cultivators below the platform erupted in fury.
If favoring the cultivation second-generations had always been the Welcoming Pavilion's rule, then so be it—the others might resent it, but they would have no choice but to accept it. Yet Hu Yunfeng had put on a show of fairness and impartiality, dangling beautiful hopes before these grassroots rogue cultivators, only for reality to prove so cruel. No wonder they were so incensed!
Hearing that voice, Hu Yunfeng's expression flickered slightly, but he quickly recovered and looked out at the crowd. "You all come from the mortal cultivation world or from the cultivation tribes on this island," he said calmly. "Tell me—in the cultivation world, what do you call fairness? Skyward Pavilion and Mystic Mechanism Pavilion are simply stronger than Azure Cloud Pavilion. This arrangement is made according to overall strength. If you think you have what it takes, then one day, when you enter Azure Cloud Pavilion and turn it into the greatest pavilion on our Heaven-Tier North Island, surely the finest caves will go to Azure Cloud Pavilion first. So tell me, where is the favoritism? What I do, I do for fairness and justice, with no selfish motive. Even when I assign you the finest cave, I gain nothing myself—is that not so?"
Fine and high-sounding as these words were, they conveyed one simple truth: might makes right. And though the Azure Cloud Pavilion people chafed to hear it, there was nothing they could do.
With those few sentences, Hu Yunfeng had laid the cruelty of cultivation bare before everyone. For the weaker grassroots rogue cultivators of Azure Cloud Pavilion especially, it came down to eight words: if you've got a way, think of it; if you haven't, drop dead.
Fairness? When in the history of the world had there ever been true fairness? That the strong are honored—that is the most fundamental truth of this world, and it holds everywhere.
With Hu Yunfeng's speech concluded, the Welcoming Assembly came to a hasty end. For all the newcomers, however, what came next was what they cared about most: the allocation of caves.
By the Pavilion Master Hu Yunfeng's account, the finest cultivation caves must naturally be reserved for the cultivation second-generations of Skyward Pavilion, the slightly inferior ones for the old men of Mystic Mechanism Pavilion, and only the worst of the lot for the grassroots rogue cultivator newcomers of Azure Cloud Pavilion.
The tide had turned this way, and with the newcomers' meager strength, it certainly could not be reversed. For the grassroots newcomers of Azure Cloud Pavilion, the most practical concern now was how to pick the relatively better ones among these worst caves. After all, one must pick the tallest among the dwarves—even this worst batch of cultivation caves had good and bad among them.
The cultivation second-generations of Skyward Pavilion were not to be provoked; the old men of Mystic Mechanism Pavilion were not to be provoked. That left only their own Azure Cloud Pavilion people—all of them rootless grassroots rogue cultivators alike, so surely they could contend among themselves.
Led by Meng Jueming and the Miserable Senior Brother, everyone set off toward the Azure Cloud Pavilion cultivation caves, each nursing their own thoughts. The caves were not far from the main pavilion of the Welcoming Pavilion—they lay in the mountain range just behind it.
"Brother Lin, the spiritual qi on this mountain is incredibly dense," Xiao Che said with feeling to Wei Zhao. "By comparison, the spiritual qi in the mortal world is so thin it might as well not exist—a difference of a hundredfold at least. No wonder everyone dreams of coming to this Cloud-Tier Island."