Chapter 3607 — You Need a Backer on Cloud Step Island
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"Tch. Every time, he tosses in worthless jade like some ragpicker, as if he'd dug up a heap of fine stones. Mud that won't hold up a wall, honestly. He's a disgrace to Azure Cloud Pavilion!" Meng Jueming caught Xu Lingchong's puzzlement and slipped in the explanation right on cue.
So that was it! Xu Lingchong's expression eased a little, and with a faint sneer he turned to Kang Jingming. "Tell me, Junior Brother Kang—are all you people from the mortal realm as dirt-poor as this? Can't even bear to part with a few chunks of worthless rubbish jade?"
"Young Master Xu, we mortal-realm folk may not have seen much of the world, but we aren't all born ragpickers. Still, Senior Brother Wei Zhao and I are not the same sort. We may come from the mortal realm, but we hail from proper top-tier sects—I'm from the Five Luminaries Sect, this Junior Brother Zhong is from the Tomorrow Upon Tomorrow Sect, and as for that Wei Zhao, he's an out-and-out lone cultivator! He only got to Cloud Step Island by the dumb luck of a dog sniffing out a dung heap. People like him, we all look down on and turn our noses up at!" Kang Jingming grinned with a heh-heh, and in every word and every pause he ground Wei Zhao into the dirt—despised here on Cloud Step Island, despised still back in the mortal realm, a man abhorred by gods and men alike!
"Oh? So you're from the Five Luminaries Sect, are you? Now that's a sect of standing. Grandmaster Zhang Lifeng, the Pill God who came out of our own Sky Tier North Island, was a fine hand from your mortal realm's Five Luminaries Sect! And the Tomorrow Upon Tomorrow Sect—I've heard of it too. That was once a sect of the Middle Island. You're all heirs of renowned houses; no wonder you joined my Soaring Heavens Pavilion. It fits nicely!" Xu Lingchong's face cleared in understanding. Proud as he was, he plainly held the Five Luminaries Sect's Zhang Lifeng in high esteem and admiration. At the mention of Wei Zhao, though, he could not help roaring with laughter. "Well, that figures. If you were the same as this creature, I'd never have taken a liking to you in the first place, young master that I am. Wretches who can do nothing but pick through rubbish belong to Azure Cloud Pavilion and nowhere else."
Xu Lingchong said this before everyone present, and the faces of the Azure Cloud Pavilion newcomers changed on the spot. Did his words not amount to calling them all wretches as well? Azure Cloud Pavilion might be the weakest of the three stacked pavilions and might bear the name of a dumping ground for castoffs—that much was true—but to say such a thing in front of so many of its newcomers was to point at a monk and curse the bald. This Young Master Xu was going too far in his bullying!
Yet Meng Jueming, the steward senior brother who was the best representative Azure Cloud Pavilion had on hand, turned a deaf ear to Xu Lingchong's words and went on fawning over him, his face positively dripping with servile flattery.
For a moment, the newcomers felt their hearts go cold! Rootless lone cultivators they might be, and they could accept Azure Cloud Pavilion's weak and lowly state—but that did not mean they were willing to swallow such unbridled insults to their faces!
And thanks to yesterday's upheaval, though they had gathered here today partly to watch Wei Zhao make a fool of himself, they were for the most part still in a wait-and-see frame of mind, not fully on the same side as Meng Jueming and his lot. Now, stung by Xu Lingchong's words—and especially after witnessing that ugly display from Meng Jueming—they suddenly found themselves sharing Wei Zhao's enmity!