Chapter 3563 — Allocation of Cultivation Caves

The Miserable Senior Brother sighed and went on: "For you newcomers, spirit jade is a hard thing to come by—apart from the single piece handed out each month, there's precious little chance of getting more. So what really decides the pace of your cultivation is your cave dwelling. With a good cave, your progress will race ahead a thousand li a day; with a poor one, it may be a little better than the outside world, but only just."

Though the Miserable Senior Brother addressed these words to Wei Zhao and Xiao Che, the others nearby could hear them as well, and for a moment every one of them fell silent without quite knowing why.

It was true that the ranking tournament would come after a month, but the starting line for this first month had already left them hopelessly strung out from one another. And the grass-roots rogue cultivators of Qingyun Pavilion were in any case far weaker than those of Chongtian Pavilion and Xuanji Pavilion. Seen this way, there might still seem to be a chance to flop over and turn one's fortunes around at the monthly ranking matches—but the difficulty of it was as steep as scaling the heavens.

Weak to begin with, then allotted the worst cultivation resources—when the tournament came they would win no better record, and so would remain ranked at the very bottom, and go on enjoying the worst resources. Thus the vicious cycle turned, the gap between them widening ever further; likely they would never turn things around in this lifetime. Clearly the debility of Qingyun Pavilion had been foreordained from the very start.

Just then Meng Zhou, up ahead, gave a sneering laugh. "Hey, even if we can't beat the lot from Chongtian Pavilion and Xuanji Pavilion, so long as I can make myself the strongest in Qingyun Pavilion, I'll still be able to rise higher in days to come. But as for you country bumpkins from the mundane world—I'd advise you to give up such impractical hopes, settle down, and get ready to spend a year doing hard labor. Hahaha!"

That was right—Qingyun Pavilion could never match Chongtian Pavilion and Xuanji Pavilion. But so long as one could trample one's own people underfoot, glory and fortune would still follow in days to come!

At Meng Zhou's words, the eyes of the Qingyun Pavilion newcomers all lit up, and they fixed their gazes on Wei Zhao and Xiao Che like hunters eyeing prey. One always picks the soft persimmons first—and these two country bumpkins from the mundane world were, needless to say, the softest of all.

Wei Zhao and Xiao Che exchanged a helpless glance. They had done nothing at all, yet for no reason had become the common target; such had been their lot ever since they arrived on Cloud Terrace Island. All told, it was a truly rotten piece of luck. But it did not matter—meet force with force, water with earth. Wei Zhao was a man who had fought his way up from the mundane world, so would he be afraid of this pack of local grass-roots cultivators who bullied the weak and feared the strong?

As they spoke, Meng Jueming at the very front had already come to a halt. There at the foot of the mountain lay a dense cluster of cultivation caves—fifteen in all, counted up, each one a small space no more than a man's height and generally about ten square zhang in area.

Sweeping his gloomy gaze across every face, Meng Jueming spoke at last: "Three stretches of cultivation caves have been set aside for you here in this mountain. The stretch on the summit holds the richest spiritual qi—but it is now allotted to Chongtian Pavilion. The stretch halfway up the slope holds the next richest—that now belongs to Xuanji Pavilion. And what is given to you worthless lot is this stretch right before us at the foot of the mountain. The very worst cultivation caves in the whole mountain! So give me some face, buckle down and cultivate hard, and produce me a few more Foundation Establishment hands as quick as you can—otherwise I won't be able to hold my head up before the stewards of the other two pavilions, and don't blame me if I come back to deal with you!"

The crowd exchanged looks and dared not speak. They had already accepted reality by now; having entered Qingyun Pavilion, that notorious dumping ground for good-for-nothings, they had long expected the worst treatment.

As for producing Foundation Establishment hands—only Meng Zhou and a scant few others had any qualification for that; the rest did not dare even to dream of it.

"Still, even the worst cultivation caves have better and worse among them," Meng Jueming said, pointing at the entrances of the caves behind him. "See those number markers at the cave mouths? I'll tell you now: from number one to number fifteen, the larger the number, the thinner the spiritual qi inside. Number one's qi density can just barely reach a hundred times that of the outside, but past number ten, it's generally only about ten times the outside."

Here Meng Jueming counted the newcomers present—fifteen exactly, no more, no less—and a look of relish came over his face. "Oh, that's right, what I just said is out of date. For the past few years no newcomers were transmitted up from the mundane world, and Qingyun Pavilion generally takes in only twelve or thirteen newcomers, fourteen at the most. So cave fifteen has been abandoned for a long time, and the Pavilion Master sealed off its spiritual qi with a formation; only today has it been reopened. As for the qi density inside—well, that's hard to say. With luck it might be a bit higher than the outside. If your luck's bad, I'd suggest that unlucky junior brother just move out and cultivate in the open air. Hahaha!"

At this the crowd's faces changed at once, every one of them on tenterhooks for fear of becoming that unlucky wretch. To be assigned to cave fifteen—then one could weep without even finding a grave to weep at.

"All right, the cave allocation begins now. When your name is called, step out." With that Meng Jueming produced a register and began allocating the caves on his own, showing not the slightest intention of consulting the Miserable Senior Brother.

After all, the Pavilion Master Hu Yunfeng had made it plain earlier that the matter of cave allocation was to be settled by discussion between the two steward senior brothers of each pavilion—which was to say that in this matter the Miserable Senior Brother ought to have a voice as well.

Seeing the newcomers' knowing gazes fall upon him, the Miserable Senior Brother's face paled a little. If he kept silent and endured at such a critical juncture, then never again would he have even the slightest authority before these newcomers.

"Er, Senior Brother Meng, might I also have a look at the cave allocation?" Under all those watching eyes, the Miserable Senior Brother mustered his courage and, bracing himself, spoke up.

"What's there to look at? These caves aren't being allotted to you!" Meng Jueming shot him an impatient glance.

Meng Jueming's words were true enough—the cultivation caves of the three pavilion masters and six stewards of the Welcome Pavilion were all set apart on a neighboring mountain—but that was not at all what the Miserable Senior Brother had asked about; he could only mutter awkwardly, "Er, but..."

Before the Miserable Senior Brother could finish, Meng Jueming had already waved his great hand and begun calling names to allocate the caves: "Qiao Hongcai!"

"Here!" One of the newcomers answered at once and stepped forward, while the Miserable Senior Brother, seeing how matters stood, could only slink back abashed. However many objections he might have, Meng Jueming simply ignored him root and branch—what more could he do? (To be continued...)