Chapter 3687 — Furious Beyond Endurance
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
But Wei Zhao had no mind now for the young lady's delicate moods. From Meng Jueming's odd behavior a moment ago he had already caught the whiff of a plot—and now Hu Yunfeng was finally ready to announce the final rankings.
"Before I announce the final trial results of the Azure Cloud Pavilion's new disciples—during the trial, a portion of Meng Zhou's spirit herbs was temporarily deposited in Li Zhengming's back-basket, so the points for those herbs must be recalculated. We can only trouble the Rear Mountain Hall's examiner to put in a little more effort," Hu Yunfeng declared without so much as a change of expression, utterly self-assured.
The new disciples ahead had all had their scores called and could no longer be altered, but Li Zhengming's score had not yet been announced—and in Meng Jueming's estimation, Li Zhengming was the closer of the two and thus easier to work with!
A clamor broke out among the gathered new disciples of the Threefold Pavilion. For all that Hu Yunfeng's explanation was high-sounding, anyone with eyes could see it was cheating—only even the three elders were turning a blind eye, so naturally none of these lowly new disciples would step forward to challenge it at the risk of offending Xu Lingchong and Hu Yunfeng. After all, it was no concern of theirs; let it hang high and out of the way.
"Good heavens, this is beyond shameless!" Xiao Che, Qiao Hongcai and the others were seething with indignation. This shameless trick was plainly aimed at Wei Zhao!
Long-Suffering Senior Brother could not hold back the urge to protest, but Wei Zhao stopped him. Despicable and underhanded as the other side's maneuver was, the three elders' silence spoke volumes.
They were few and isolated. If they protested rashly in a setting like this and made these great personages lose face, matters would only become far more difficult afterward!
Still, Wei Zhao had no intention of surrendering the trial's first place he had already won so easily. He wanted to see just what other tricks the other side could still pull!
The examiner soon gave his verdict: "Meng Zhou's final score—eighteen hundred points."
At those words the whole hall was struck dumb once more. Eighteen hundred points—not one more, not one less—exactly level with Wei Zhao's score!
That turn stunned not only the crowd but Meng Jueming and his companions as well. He had specifically instructed Li Zhengming beforehand to bring out two hundred-odd points' worth of spirit herbs—who would have thought the fellow would be so miserly as to measure it to the exact point, bringing out precisely two hundred and not a single point more!
"Are you out of your mind, you little wretch! Would it kill you to give me one point more? Now I've got to tie with that bastard Wei Zhao—you did this on purpose, didn't you!" Meng Zhou cursed and railed in a fury.
This chance to snatch victory from defeat had been won for him by Meng Jueming at no small effort; if it all went down the drain because of Li Zhengming's momentary stinginess, the joke would be far too cruel.
Hearing Meng Zhou's words, Li Zhengming's face turned as black as thunder. Damn you, I already handed over a full two hundred points to you for nothing—not only did you not say a single word of thanks, you curse me out instead! How low can a man sink!
Yet for all that he was roaring inside, Li Zhengming's face betrayed nothing; he let Meng Zhou grumble and revile as he pleased at his ear, unmoved.