Chapter 3582 — Mission Registration

After Meng Jueming finished laying out the rules, he turned deliberately toward Wei Zhao and said coldly, "As for you penniless bastards from the secular world, you had best be even more careful. Don't imagine this is some backwater village. Keep your hands clean. Otherwise, if you really do swipe someone's things and get beaten to death for it, you'll have only yourself to blame!"

Of course, there was a deeper meaning behind Meng Jueming's words, because...

Wei Zhao showed no change on the surface, but inwardly he gave a start!

Wei Zhao possessed the jade pendant space, which allowed him to draw things he fancied into it with his thought-sense, silent and undetected—just as he had once done in the secular world, when he had made off with the red conch and a great sum of money from the Overseas Cultivators' Association!

Earlier, Wei Zhao had actually been considering doing exactly that—only he was not a rash man and had planned to observe a while first. Now, hearing Meng Jueming's words, he silently counted himself lucky! From here on, unless his brain had gone to water, he would not lightly attempt such a way of reaping without sowing!

If he truly did steal something, once he was locked onto, not only would the matter of his wearing the Thousand-Silk Mask be easily exposed, but even the jade pendant space might well be discovered!

That no one in the secular world had noticed did not mean no one on Cloud-Tier Island—where experts clustered like trees—could notice. If he were found out, Wei Zhao would truly weep without tears. Such a folly of losing much for a little was something he was absolutely resolved never to commit.

The crowd of newcomers followed Meng Jueming through the market, stopping and starting, and every so often they would come upon things that caught their fancy. Though they had only a single spirit jade to their names, that did not dampen their enthusiasm for asking prices. Even if they could not afford it now, once their purses grew fuller in days to come, they could still come back and buy, could they not? And knowing the prices would at least give them a direction to strive toward.

The other newcomers did this, and Wei Zhao, mingling among them, could naturally do the same. He took the chance to ask the price of each of the five medicinal herbs he needed, but lest anyone with sharp eyes catch a clue, he asked after the prices of many other goods as well, putting on quite an eager and attentive show.

Meng Jueming and Meng Zhou took in this scene and could not help sneering. To their minds, given Wei Zhao's present circumstances, he could forget about ever obtaining more spirit jade—even the single routine jade each month would be the smallest and shoddiest grade. What use was all this eager price-asking? Even if he saved for a year, he might not afford a single item. He was nothing but a clown capering on a stage!

Wei Zhao, however, plainly paid these two men's expressions no mind. He calculated carefully: to buy the five medicinal herbs he needed would require at least eight spirit jades, while what he had on hand amounted to barely more than half a one. He was short seven and a half—a long and heavy road ahead.

The party made their way through the outer street and the middle street. As for the most mysterious inner street, with their strength they plainly could not enter. In truth, even the strongest among them, Meng Jueming, the steward senior brother, was not qualified to set foot in the inner street; he could only cast a disgruntled glance from afar before withdrawing.

For entry to the inner street depended not on strength but on status! One had to be an outstanding inner-door disciple of the Three Pavilions and present one's identity token to gain entry.

Meng Jueming did hold the qualification of an inner-door disciple, but he was an inner-door disciple of Azure Cloud Pavilion, the most wretched of the Three Pavilions. Even among all the inner-door disciples of Azure Cloud Pavilion, few were qualified to enter the inner street!

Only disciples ranked high in the Three Pavilions' contests were entitled to enter.

After a circuit of the market, Meng Jueming led them straight back to the Welcome Pavilion, yet did not dismiss them at once.

This outing to the market seemed to have kindled the newcomers' ambitions. Compared with their stiff nervousness upon first arriving, they now appeared markedly more lively and at ease, as though gradually recovering the confidence of experts of the Heaven Tier. Even facing a domineering steward senior brother like Meng Jueming, they dared to voice their questions, no longer keeping silent as they had at the start.

After all, no one who could cultivate to the late Heaven Tier or beyond was truly weak. The likes of Brother Kubi, forever meek and submissive year in and year out, were exceedingly rare. The great majority of the newcomers present, though assigned to Azure Cloud Pavilion—that dumping ground for the useless—still harbored ambitions of their own.

And this outing to the market, while opening their eyes, had also at last made clear the most basic prerequisite for fulfilling those ambitions: spirit jade.

On Cloud-Tier Island, without spirit jade, all was empty talk. One could buy no martial techniques, no pills or elixirs, no rare treasures of heaven and earth. And without such external aids, relying solely on one's own solitary cultivation, the great majority present could cultivate unto death and still never reach the Foundation Establishment stage, let alone the higher realms beyond.

A single coin can bring a hero low; a single spirit jade can likewise bring these Heaven Tier experts low. Without spirit jade, one could not take a single step in the days to come.

"Senior Brother Meng, how can we obtain more spirit jade?" someone asked, voicing what was in everyone's heart, and in an instant a host of burning gazes fixed upon Meng Jueming.

"A good question," Meng Jueming said with a smile, a flicker of smugness passing through his eyes.

As steward senior brother, his foremost power was the distribution of spirit jade, and this was precisely the root of why all respected him, courted him, and even feared him. He did not fear that the crowd harbored ambitions—rather, he feared that they did not!

With ambition, they would crave spirit jade, and so they would obediently heed him. But without ambition, they would stand firm through having no desires, and then he would find them hard to discipline.

So in taking these newcomers on a trip to the market, beyond familiarizing them with their surroundings, Meng Jueming had another, more important aim: to stir their desires. So long as they had desires and ambitions, he need never worry that they would defy him in days to come!

Taking in the eager looks of all the newcomers, Meng Jueming drawled in a lofty tone, "No reward without effort. Aside from the one spirit jade the Welcome Pavilion issues you by regular monthly allotment, there is only one way to obtain more—come to me and take on missions. Do the missions, and only then is there pay!"

"May I ask, Senior Brother Meng, what sort of missions?" someone asked urgently.

"Very simple—mining in the low-grade spirit jade lode. Mine a full hundred pieces, and you earn one spirit jade as your reward! Anyone who wants to go can come to me and sign up right now!" Meng Jueming announced in a loud voice.

The moment the words were out, the newcomers' breathing grew heavy, and only after a moment did they come to their senses one after another. RS