Chapter 3811 — A Fitting Comeuppance
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
He was terrified that Xu Lingchong, in a fit of pique, would shake out his sleeves and stalk off, and then turn around and put him on the blacklist—and after that there really would be no hope for him at all. Even the post of third Pavilion Master of Yingxin Pavilion, which was all but in his grasp, would end up like water drawn in a bamboo basket, gone to nothing.
Xu Lingchong stood there with a dark face and said nothing for a good while. He glanced at Meng Zhou, who was trembling beside him, scared nearly out of his wits, and only then turned back and said in a low voice, "Go on. I'm listening."
"Yes, yes. Young Master Xu, you may not have heard—lately, those two underlings of Wei Zhao's, Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai, have both broken through to the Foundation Establishment stage, for reasons nobody seems to know!" Meng Jueming explained cautiously.
"Hm? Is that so?" Xu Lingchong had expected Meng Jueming to come up with some excuse to fob him off, and had not anticipated being hit with such astonishing news right off the bat.
For a newcomer, establishing a foundation in such a short time was no easy feat. Everyone knew that the reason Kang Jingming and the others had managed to break through to Foundation Establishment so early was entirely thanks to Xu Lingchong's patronage—otherwise, without foundation-establishment liquid to go with their foundation-establishment pills, they would never have even dared to make the attempt.
And look at Wei Zhao and his lot by comparison: never mind the foundation-establishment liquid, which could not be bought for love or money—they could not even manage one foundation-establishment pill apiece. The greatest backer behind them was a pauper like Lu Bianren, who had no means of procuring any pills for them at all.
That being the case, how could they possibly have succeeded in establishing a foundation?
If this had happened to Wei Zhao alone, it might have been put down as a fluke. But now even Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai, two of his rank-and-file lackeys, had established foundations—and that was truly baffling.
Xu Lingchong was utterly at a loss. He could only grit his teeth and listen as Meng Jueming went on—and Meng Jueming clearly had no reasonable explanation to offer either, so he could only recount, point by point, everything that had happened over the past few rounds to Young Master Xu.
As for these matters, Shangguan Lan'er and the little Curly Bear at his side were listening with great relish. Although Wei Zhao had not taken the field in person for any of it, hearing how his underlings had matched wits and courage against Meng Zhou was really rather entertaining!
Strictly speaking, Wei Zhao was Shangguan Lan'er's junior fellow disciple, which meant that Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai could likewise count as the underlings of an underling of her, the eldest young lady Shangguan. And Meng Zhou was the underling of an underling of that odious Xu Lingchong. So were not the things Meng Jueming was describing tantamount to a hidden clash of arms between her and Xu Lingchong?
Everyone knew that Shangguan Lan'er's loathing for that hypocritical young master Xu Lingchong was far from slight. Over the years, that pest had pestered her no end, and yet, out of consideration for the relationship between their elders, she could not simply ignore him altogether. Over time, this had built up a considerable store of resentment, so that hearing all this now, she could not have been more secretly delighted—it was a thoroughly satisfying release of her grievances!
While Meng Jueming was racking his brains to explain matters to Young Master Xu, Wei Zhao's group, by contrast, were all relaxed and cheerful, chatting and laughing among themselves.
Meng Zhou had surrendered of his own accord the moment he stepped up. That outcome was somewhat beyond their expectations, though not unreasonable—after all, a fourth-grade Great Restoration Pill was no ordinary pill to be found on any street corner.