Chapter 3623 — What a Great Guy

"Waste jade? What use could anyone possibly have for waste jade? And trading good jade full of spirit energy for waste jade—what, is he going to eat the stuff? Someone must have kicked him in the head!" Kang Jingming was baffled, and even Zhong Yongliang looked a little dazed.

The spirit energy inside waste jade was far too thin—nothing compared to the cultivation caves Yingxin Pavilion allotted to newcomers. Even the worthless newcomers of Qingyun Pavilion would never stoop to the little bit of spirit energy in waste jade!

Meng Jueming smirked with satisfaction. "Heh heh, don't look so shocked, you two. When I handed over that spirit jade, he had no idea it was waste jade—he thought all twenty-five pieces were good jade. One small spirit jade for twenty-five pieces of good jade? A pie falling out of the sky like that knocked him senseless on the spot, so I talked him into signing the contract right then and there. Even if he discovers afterward that it's all waste jade, there's no backing out!"

"So that's how it is! Turns out Senior Brother Meng pulled one over on Wei Zhao!" Kang Jingming finally understood, chuckling gleefully. Anything that made Wei Zhao eat dirt was a spectacle he delighted in.

But Zhong Yongliang did not see it that way. Of everyone present, he had known Wei Zhao the longest and understood him best. In his view, the miracles led by Wei Zhao had been proven time and again back in the mortal world—this was absolutely not someone who could be easily conned. If Wei Zhao wasn't conning others, that was already a mercy; how could anyone con him? Zhong Yongliang himself had suffered bitterly from that particular brand of self-inflicted foot-shooting! He'd been conned so hard he lost a kidney!

So someone tricking him into trading good jade for waste jade—an act of such spectacular stupidity—was the last thing that would ever happen to Wei Zhao. Unless he actually wanted that waste jade and was willing to be cheated!

Though he had no idea what Wei Zhao could possibly want with waste jade, Zhong Yongliang already had a faint feeling that once those pieces reached Leader Wei Zhao's hands, they would be put to great use. Meng Jueming and the others thought they had pulled one over on Leader Wei Zhao—but they might well be playing right into his hands.

The group gloated for a moment, then Kang Jingming pressed on. "So how do we kick Wei Zhao back to Mining Zone Ten? Has Senior Brother Meng thought of any good plan? We can't just let him loaf around in Zone Seven forever, can we?"

"That's exactly what's giving me a headache. Just now Meng Zhou said we should trick Wei Zhao into coming back with another twenty-five pieces of waste jade, and I said Wei Zhao isn't an idiot—how could he fall for the same trick twice? You two are sharp men. What do you think?" Meng Jueming looked hopefully at Kang Jingming and Zhong Yongliang.

"Exactly. Barely two days have passed, and you want Wei Zhao to fall for the same stupid trick again? Does that make Wei Zhao the fool, or you?" Kang Jingming shot Meng Zhou a scoffing glance, his contempt plain for all to see, and Meng Zhou's face flushed crimson at the remark.

At that moment, Zhong Yongliang suddenly chimed in. "Actually, I rather think Junior Brother Meng Zhou's suggestion isn't necessarily doomed to fail!"

"Oh? What makes you say that, Junior Brother Zhong?" Meng Jueming and Kang Jingming asked in surprise at the same time, while Meng Zhou cast Zhong Yongliang a grateful look for bailing him out.

What a great guy. Senior Brother Zhong is such a good man—I should get closer to him in the future, and consult him whenever something comes up!

Zhong Yongliang was not like Meng Zhou. He, like Kang Jingming, was one of the subordinates Xu Lingchong had personally recruited into Chongtian Pavilion—and no fool. The same words coming from Meng Zhou's mouth would only earn ridicule, but spoken by Zhong Yongliang, they made Meng Jueming and Kang Jingming think long and hard.

"What you two senior brothers just said is quite right—given Wei Zhao's usual shrewdness, he certainly wouldn't fall for the same trick only two days later," Zhong Yongliang reasoned with conviction. "But that requires one precondition: that he has already realized he was cheated. What if, even now, he still hasn't discovered that the twenty-five pieces of spirit jade Senior Brother Meng gave him are waste jade?"

"That... is that possible?" Meng Jueming and Kang Jingming exchanged glances. Zhong Yongliang's point did have some merit. If Wei Zhao still hadn't discovered the jade was waste, then repeating the same trick might genuinely succeed a second time!

Seeing the two still wavering, Zhong Yongliang continued, "According to what Senior Brother Meng just said, only two short days have passed since Wei Zhao accepted those twenty-five pieces of waste jade, and he spent both of them mining in the zone. So the time he's actually spent using spirit jade is very little. Since he hasn't used it, naturally he wouldn't have discovered it's all waste jade. So in my view, there's a very good chance he hasn't found out!"

"But even if he has to mine all day, when he goes back at night to cultivate, wouldn't he still use spirit jade?" Meng Jueming, though he found Zhong Yongliang's reasoning somewhat sound, was still doubtful.

But Zhong Yongliang shook his head again and again. "I won't speak for anyone else, but when it comes to understanding this Wei Zhao, I dare say none of you senior brothers knows him as deeply as I do! On the surface the man looks utterly ordinary, but inside he's enormously arrogant—he fancies himself a cultivation genius the likes of which appears once in ten thousand years. So back in the mortal world he was already in the habit of cutting corners, never cultivating as diligently as the rest of us. I'd bet anything that these past two days he hasn't cultivated seriously at all—so naturally he'd have no need for spirit jade!"

Kang Jingming nodded along. "On that point, I agree with Junior Brother Zhong. Senior Brother Meng may not know this, but that Wei Zhao was actually an alchemist back in the mortal world. His current strength was basically all raised through pills. Someone accustomed to popping pills like him would never deign to cultivate day to day. I think there's a good chance he's saving up the spirit jade to buy more pills! As for cultivation—a pill addict like him probably doesn't even know how to cultivate with spirit jade. Hahaha!"

The group burst into laughter. Seeing Meng Jueming's convinced expression, Zhong Yongliang rejoiced inwardly. He had already concluded that Leader Wei Zhao had a use for the waste jade, and that was precisely why he had deliberately steered these people into delivering more waste jade to him. If he had been the only one speaking, Meng Jueming would still have been half doubtful—but to his surprise, even Kang Jingming had chimed in on his side. Now Meng Jueming had no choice but to believe.

Just then, Meng Zhou, as if struck by a sudden thought, slapped his thigh and cried out, "I remember now! Ninth Cousin, that little spirit jade we traded to Wei Zhao—it doesn't look like it's been used at all! That perfectly confirms what Senior Brother Zhong and Senior Brother Kang said. Wei Zhao almost certainly isn't someone who cultivates with spirit jade!"