Chapter 3575 — The Distribution of Spirit Jade

"Hmph, just you wait and see!" Kang Jingming cursed sullenly, while Zhong Yongliang secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He had been forced to vote for Kang Jingming, or else his undercover work would have been ruined—and he had truly feared that Kang Jingming might win the election smoothly!

After the vote, the newcomers of the three pavilions returned to their respective cave dwellings, yet they did not disperse. Instead, each one waited with barely suppressed excitement for the steward senior brother to distribute the most important benefit of the Welcome Pavilion—one spirit jade per month!

"One spirit jade per month—that is the rule of our Welcome Pavilion. When I call your name, come up one by one to collect it!" Meng Jueming's gaze swept across everyone, and when it reached Wei Zhao and the other two, it paused deliberately, a trace of mocking, sinister amusement flickering across his face.

Fifteen spirit jades were laid out one by one upon a red cloth, crystalline and pure white. Even from several zhang away, everyone could feel the heaven-and-earth spiritual energy swirling around them—so refined and dense that even these heaven-rank experts, who had cultivated for many years, could not help but show greed on their faces.

Even Wei Zhao was slightly dazed upon seeing these jades brimming with spiritual essence. His earlier guess had been correct: their nature was indeed similar to that of energy stones in the secular world, but simply in terms of appearance the two were worlds apart, to say nothing of the concentration of spiritual energy within.

Once one's strength reached the late heaven rank or above, energy stones from the secular world could at most assist in cultivation, but these spirit jades were sufficient to aid one in assailing the Foundation Establishment realm of the heavenly path—the difference between the two was plain for all to see!

Yet even among these spirit jades there were differences in size: the largest was as big as an adult's fist, while the smallest was only comparable to a chicken's egg—a gap of at least more than twofold between them!

Of course, most of the spirit jades were roughly similar in size.

"Meng Zhou!" Meng Jueming directly picked out the largest spirit jade and handed it to Meng Zhou, who, as if to show off, deliberately waved it in front of Wei Zhao before walking off to the side, beaming with delight.

After that, watching helplessly as Meng Jueming handed out the larger spirit jades one by one to the other newcomers, Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai's expressions immediately changed. Needless to say, the three smallest spirit jades were certainly meant for the three of them!

Sure enough, the spirit jades that Wei Zhao and the other two ended up with were none of them particularly large—Wei Zhao's was the smallest of all! Even the three combined would likely not match the single one Meng Zhou had received.

"Heh heh, you three are lucky this time—the smallest jade is at least as big as a chicken's egg. Next time I'll take some time to pick out a few even smaller ones from the storehouse, so you'll know just who is really in charge here!" Meng Jueming looked at the three of them smugly, then laughed heartily without the slightest scruple and swaggered off.

Before this, without Xu Lingchong's backing, he would not have dared to go this far. After all, though he feared no one in the Welcome Pavilion, if someone were to impeach him over this matter with the three pavilions, he would still be reprimanded.

But now things were different. Xu Lingchong had hinted to him in front of many people that if trouble arose, Xu Lingchong would cover for him. And who was Xu Lingchong? He was the grandson of the Third Elder of the Soaring Heaven Pavilion, the mightiest of the three pavilions. Apart from a handful of cultivation second- and third-generation scions, he was someone who could walk about with impunity—no one would dare offend him on account of some grassroots newcomer.

"Settling personal scores under the guise of public duty! This... this is simply too much!" Qiao Hongcai's face flushed red with rage as he spoke indignantly.

"Indeed. If we let him go on like this, we'll suffer terribly in the days to come. Senior Brother Ku, you must think of something for us," Xiao Che said in wholehearted agreement.

"This... I truly want to help you, but as for the distribution of spirit jades, Senior Brother Meng has never let me interfere. I don't know what to do either..." the long-suffering senior brother said helplessly, his face twisted into a bitter expression. He genuinely wanted to help, but simply could not! When going to the storehouse to fetch the spirit jades, Senior Brother Meng never brought him along—what more could he do?

At this, Wei Zhao spoke up: "Enough, don't make things difficult for Senior Brother Ku. Our cultivation cave dwellings are already quite good. The spirit jades may be a bit small, but so long as we cultivate diligently, we'll still have a chance in next month's ranking contest."

Hearing Wei Zhao say this, Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai finally felt a little comforted. If the spirit jades were insufficient, the cave dwellings could make up for it—in the end, cultivation still depended on oneself, and complaining about heaven and blaming others was of no use.

Such was the world of cultivation. Xiao Che had experienced it in the secular world as well: the Xiao family was inferior to those ancient clans, and so had fewer resources—but did that mean they could stop cultivating? What use was there in envying others?

Qiao Hongcai's situation on the Northern Island of the Heaven Rank was even more so. Compared with those children of the three pavilions born as cultivation second- and third-generation scions, he had no basis for comparison at all.

Since the cave dwellings could still make up for it, the two of them said a word to Wei Zhao and then hurried back to their own cave dwellings to cultivate. Heaven rewards the diligent—so long as they cultivated hard, they refused to believe they would lose to anyone. As for Wei Zhao, he did not immediately return to his cave dwelling, but instead called out to stop the long-suffering senior brother.

"Junior Brother Lin, I know you must feel uncomfortable about this..." The long-suffering senior brother wore a bitter expression. "In truth, I feel deeply guilty as well. I... as the steward senior brother, I can do nothing for you. I am truly too miserable..."

"Pff..." Wei Zhao had not expected the long-suffering senior brother to say such a thing, and could not help but laugh. "Senior Brother Ku, that's not why I'm looking for you. If I cared about such things, I would not have traded my cave dwelling to Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai. I'm looking for you about something else."

"Ah... is that so!" The long-suffering senior brother thought about it—it made sense. If Wei Zhao cared about these cultivation resources, why would he have traded them away to others? It seemed Wei Zhao truly was a generous man; it was he himself who had been overthinking. "Junior Brother Lin, then what did you want to see me about...?"

"It's like this, Senior Brother Ku. You are, after all, the steward senior brother of the Welcome Pavilion, and you've been here quite some time. You must have heard something about the opening of the Cloud Rank Island in the secular world and the matter of the inheritors?" Wei Zhao paused in thought for a moment, then asked.

He had wanted to ask someone about these questions ever since he arrived on Cloud Rank Island, but Cloud Rank Island was completely different from what he had imagined!

To think that experts were as numerous as clouds here, and the competition so fierce! Wei Zhao and the others had been favored children of heaven, the top experts of the secular world, yet upon arriving here they had truly become newcomers—outer sect disciples, no less. The contrast was enough to leave anyone unable to adapt.