Chapter 3690 — After-the-Fact Analysis

Xu Lingchong had nothing to say to that now. Were he in the bald elder's position, he supposed he would have done the same.

In fact, thinking back on it now, he was rather glad the bald elder had not awarded first place to Meng Zhou. If that had cost him a poor impression in Shangguan Lan'er's eyes, he would have been the one truly taking a loss.

By comparison, letting Wei Zhao luck into a trial first place cost him nothing but a little face. No real harm done—a trivial matter.

Since even Xu Lingchong held his tongue, the lesser figures like Meng Jueming naturally dared not speak up either. They could only watch as Wei Zhao collected the reward for first place in the trial.

"Gentlemen, I thank you for your generosity," Wei Zhao said with a faint smile, deliberately swaying the pouch holding the ten spirit jades of the bonus reward back and forth in front of them.

"Hmph. The petty man in his hour of glory." Meng Zhou curled his lip, his face uglier than ever. The feeling was like having swallowed hundreds of flies—utterly revolting, and yet he had to pinch his nose and gulp it down.

Beside him, Meng Jueming's face was just as dark, but when he caught sight of Wei Zhao's pouch of spirit jades, his eyes lit up. In a low voice he said, "Never mind. Let him gloat for now. Once we get back and work a few worthless jades into the mix, that pouch of good ones will be ours sooner or later."

"Brilliant as ever, Ninth Cousin!" Meng Zhou's heart instantly came back into balance, and he ground his teeth. "One day, when that brat finds out all the spirit jades he's scraped together are worthless, I want to see the look on his face!"

"Need you ask? He'll cry himself to death, surely." Meng Jueming gave a cold smile. "Who knows—the shock might even stop his heart for good!"

An ordinary person would ache over losing even a single good jade to a worthless swap. For someone like Wei Zhao, who had been fleeced of a dozen or several dozen in a row, once the truth dawned on him, his heart would likely bleed.

And so the new disciples' trial drew to a close amid this dramatic turn of events.

Wei Zhao took first, Xiao Che third, Qiao Hongcai fourth. Though they had not swept the top three after all, compared with the dismal showing of the new disciples under Meng Jueming's wing, this was nothing short of a bumper harvest.

Meng Jueming had twelve new disciples in all. Apart from Meng Zhou, who had secured second place and could at least salvage a Foundation Establishment Pill for his troubles, the rest had been nothing but extras on the stage. Next to a key prize like a Foundation Establishment Pill, the three spirit jades doled out to them could hardly be called even a consolation prize.

Worse still, five of those twelve had not even gotten so much as the three-jade consolation. They reaped no benefit at all, and on their very first trial they had fallen outside the top ten and onto the blacklist. They were left with tears but no outlet.

For a time, all the new disciples turned eyes of bottomless grievance upon Meng Jueming. They had thrown in their lot with him for the sake of a few extra benefits. And now? Not a single benefit gained, and their bright futures squandered besides. What a swindle of an uncle!

"Are you lot all worthless? Wei Zhao's side has three people, just three, and the twelve of you together couldn't take them down? And you still have the nerve to complain to me? Complain, is it?" Back from the rear-mountain hall, Meng Jueming gathered his new disciples and let his fury fly.

By his reckoning, crushing Wei Zhao and his two companions should have been a settled matter. They were all cultivators of the same tier, after all. Twelve against three, and they still fumbled it—there was simply no explaining it away.

The new disciples all looked at Meng Zhou, and Meng Zhou had no choice but to step forward. "Ninth Cousin, the plan really was going smoothly at first, but then something happened that threw the whole thing into disarray. You can't blame us for not trying."

"Can't blame you for not trying? Fine, then tell me—what exactly went wrong in the middle that let them turn such a hopeless disadvantage around?" Meng Jueming snapped.

"Ninth Cousin, you probably didn't notice before, but Wei Zhao is already an early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator." Meng Zhou gave him a bitter, rueful look.

"What? An early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator?" Meng Jueming had expected some far-fetched excuse from Meng Zhou. At these words he was startled, and he swept a look of disbelief over everyone present. "Impossible. Did all of you see it?"

Every head nodded in unison. Meng Zhou said grimly, "Saw it with our own eyes. We had him completely surrounded, and one more push would have finished it. But he wasn't afraid of us at all. He let loose the aura of an early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, and it scared the lot of us stiff on the spot."

The new disciples shot Meng Zhou odd looks. It was true enough that they had all been frightened stiff—but if Meng Zhou had not been the first to run and set off the panic, things would never have sunk to the point where Wei Zhao alone held the entire field.

After all, there had been twelve of them, while Wei Zhao still had Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai at his side—two dead weights, utterly spent. Had it actually come to blows, the outcome might well have hung in the balance.

Of course, Meng Zhou was plainly not about to admit anything so humiliating. And since he would not say it, no one else present dared speak up either—to do so would be to offend him, and they would surely be made to pay for it later.

Seeing them all speak with one voice, Meng Jueming had no choice but to believe it. "So Wei Zhao really has broken through to early-stage Foundation Establishment? But from the aura he showed just now, it didn't look that way—no different from any of you at the peak of the Heaven tier! Did you actually trade blows with him to confirm?"

"Uh, that we didn't. When we saw things turning bad, we just scattered on the spot," Meng Zhou answered awkwardly.

"You never exchanged a single blow?" Meng Jueming was taken aback, then fell into thoughtful calculation. "So what you're saying is, you were merely frightened off by his aura?"

The disciples exchanged glances, then nodded one after another. Humiliating as it was to admit, they had indeed been broken by the sheer force of Wei Zhao's aura.

"That settles it. You must have misread the situation!"

Meng Jueming slapped his palm. "Do you know of a pill called the Limit Golden Core? Take one, and you can instantly unleash power far beyond your normal level. Even a peak Heaven-tier cultivator can put on the majesty of an early-stage Foundation Establishment expert—only the effect lasts a very short while. My guess is that wretch Ku Bi slipped him a Limit Golden Core beforehand, and that's what had you all cowed!" RS