Chapter 3687 — Furious Beyond Endurance
Xu Lingchong broke into a smile at once. To make the three elders present brazenly call black white before everyone's eyes—that, perhaps, lay beyond his power. But to get them to turn a blind eye to a trifling matter like this was no trouble at all.
After all, his grandfather Xu Yuanzheng was a heavyweight who held a seat on the Elder Council itself; even these three elders of the Rear Mountain Hall would have to show him some face.
As for whether the three elders would play along, the answer was plain enough. However quietly Xu Lingchong and the others spoke, there was no hope of slipping anything past the senses of three elders—and yet from first to last they had neither spoken up to stop it, nor said so much as a single word. That silence was itself consent.
Having secured the nod from Xu Lingchong and Hu Yunfeng, Meng Jueming turned at once and went back among the new disciples. By chance he cast a glance in Wei Zhao's direction—and what he saw nearly made him jump out of his skin.
In the time he and Xu Lingchong had been hatching their scheme, that great young miss Shangguan Lan'er had actually stooped to seek out Wei Zhao of her own accord—and this was no mere peerless beauty, mind you. The crux of it was that she was the granddaughter of Shangguan Tianxia, master of the Rushing Heavens Pavilion!
To have a young miss as lofty as a princess descend to strike up a conversation with him—just how many lifetimes of good fortune must that country bumpkin from the mortal world, Wei Zhao, have accumulated?
It was not Meng Jueming alone; every other new disciple in the hall now fixed Wei Zhao with looks of envy, jealousy and hate, some plainly wishing they could kill him with their eyes and take his place.
Even young Master Xu Lingchong, standing up above, changed color at the sight—after all, he was one of Shangguan Lan'er's many suitors!
His grandfather Xu Yuanzheng had warned him time and again that if he hoped to rise in the Rushing Heavens Pavilion in the years to come, he must cling fast to Shangguan Tianxia's coattails, and that courting Shangguan Lan'er was the surest way to do it. The future fortunes of the Xu family hung on this; there was no room for failure.
So for the past few years young Master Xu had poured countless effort into winning the girl's heart, only for Shangguan Lan'er to treat him with cold indifference throughout. And now, of all things, she had taken the initiative to chat up Wei Zhao, that bumpkin from the mortal world—how was a man supposed to stomach that!
The feeling was nothing less than a young lord of noble birth utterly routed by a penniless nobody!
What no one realized was that Shangguan Lan'er had never meant to approach Wei Zhao at all—she had been forced into it! The one truly eager to get close to Wei Zhao was the little curly-furred cub perched on her back, straining with all its might to burrow into his arms!
"You ungrateful little wretch!" Shangguan Lan'er cursed inwardly. Yet under the cub's relentless assault of coaxing and cuddling, she could not bring herself to ignore it, and so had no choice but to grit her teeth and endure all those strange looks from the crowd.
Fortunately, Wei Zhao was not so insufferable as she had imagined. Anyone else, handed such a heaven-sent opportunity, would have pestered her with endless questions like Xu Lingchong and his sort, angling to ingratiate themselves. Wei Zhao, however, showed no inclination to push his luck—he merely greeted her as calmly as ever and said nothing more.
And yet, oddly enough, it was Shangguan Lan'er—so used to being the center of every eye—who found herself nettled. What was this Wei Zhao playing at? Was she really so unappealing in his eyes?
Catching that flicker of strange resentment in her gaze, Wei Zhao was utterly baffled. From first to last, he had given this young miss no offense whatsoever.
But Wei Zhao had no mind now for the young lady's delicate moods. From Meng Jueming's odd behavior a moment ago he had already caught the whiff of a plot—and now Hu Yunfeng was finally ready to announce the final rankings.
"Before I announce the final trial results of the Azure Cloud Pavilion's new disciples—during the trial, a portion of Meng Zhou's spirit herbs was temporarily deposited in Li Zhengming's back-basket, so the points for those herbs must be recalculated. We can only trouble the Rear Mountain Hall's examiner to put in a little more effort," Hu Yunfeng declared without so much as a change of expression, utterly self-assured.
The new disciples ahead had all had their scores called and could no longer be altered, but Li Zhengming's score had not yet been announced—and in Meng Jueming's estimation, Li Zhengming was the closer of the two and thus easier to work with!
A clamor broke out among the gathered new disciples of the Threefold Pavilion. For all that Hu Yunfeng's explanation was high-sounding, anyone with eyes could see it was cheating—only even the three elders were turning a blind eye, so naturally none of these lowly new disciples would step forward to challenge it at the risk of offending Xu Lingchong and Hu Yunfeng. After all, it was no concern of theirs; let it hang high and out of the way.
"Good heavens, this is beyond shameless!" Xiao Che, Qiao Hongcai and the others were seething with indignation. This shameless trick was plainly aimed at Wei Zhao!
Long-Suffering Senior Brother could not hold back the urge to protest, but Wei Zhao stopped him. Despicable and underhanded as the other side's maneuver was, the three elders' silence spoke volumes.
They were few and isolated. If they protested rashly in a setting like this and made these great personages lose face, matters would only become far more difficult afterward!
Still, Wei Zhao had no intention of surrendering the trial's first place he had already won so easily. He wanted to see just what other tricks the other side could still pull!
The examiner soon gave his verdict: "Meng Zhou's final score—eighteen hundred points."
At those words the whole hall was struck dumb once more. Eighteen hundred points—not one more, not one less—exactly level with Wei Zhao's score!
That turn stunned not only the crowd but Meng Jueming and his companions as well. He had specifically instructed Li Zhengming beforehand to bring out two hundred-odd points' worth of spirit herbs—who would have thought the fellow would be so miserly as to measure it to the exact point, bringing out precisely two hundred and not a single point more!
"Are you out of your mind, you little wretch! Would it kill you to give me one point more? Now I've got to tie with that bastard Wei Zhao—you did this on purpose, didn't you!" Meng Zhou cursed and railed in a fury.
This chance to snatch victory from defeat had been won for him by Meng Jueming at no small effort; if it all went down the drain because of Li Zhengming's momentary stinginess, the joke would be far too cruel.
Hearing Meng Zhou's words, Li Zhengming's face turned as black as thunder. Damn you, I already handed over a full two hundred points to you for nothing—not only did you not say a single word of thanks, you curse me out instead! How low can a man sink!
Yet for all that he was roaring inside, Li Zhengming's face betrayed nothing; he let Meng Zhou grumble and revile as he pleased at his ear, unmoved.