Chapter 3758 — A Sense of Propriety

But if one chose to exploit that low intelligence of his, Wei Zhao truly would not be difficult to deal with!

Kang Jingming, however, was somewhat surprised. By any reasonable account, Wei Zhao had never been this much of a fool back in the mortal world—so why had he turned so reckless since arriving on the Cloud-Tier Island? Could the sheer abundance of heaven-and-earth spiritual energy have gone to his head?

"Showboat Newcomer, we're all looking forward to your god-tier performance of three perfect scores in a row—don't you dare disappoint us! Of course, if you happen to wipe out completely and get forty points docked, well, that'd be a fine tale to tell too, wouldn't it? You've got points to spare anyway—just think of it as a display of generosity!" Meng Zhou could not resist needling him with a snickering laugh.

In his eyes, Wei Zhao had this time volunteered to dig his own grave. No matter how skilled a pill refiner he might be, after signing up for all forty spirit-herb seeds, there was no longer any chance he would escape a fall—the only question was how many points he would lose.

To be sure, it was hardly realistic to expect all forty of Wei Zhao's spirit-herb seeds to perish, but if heaven smiled upon them and let twenty or thirty of them die off, that was entirely plausible.

"Brother Meng Zhou, now you're overthinking it. Wei Zhao is a pill refiner, after all—how could he possibly wipe out completely?"

Kang Jingming put on a solemn, righteous air and said, "With his ability, cultivating three or four is absolutely no problem at all. But any more than that would be somewhat difficult—after all, the fourth round of assessment is coming right up, and as the one sticking his neck out, he's under tremendous pressure. Human strength has its limits; we should be understanding."

Meng Jueming nodded and picked up the thread. "Junior Brother Kang makes a great deal of sense. Junior Brother Wei Zhao has taken two perfect scores in a row and is our Azure Cloud Pavilion's top newcomer—everyone else ought to learn from him properly. The fourth assessment round coming up is the perfect, rare opportunity for a friendly contest of skills. Chances to challenge a formidable opponent are hard to come by—no one should let this one slip!"

The Azure Cloud newcomers who had thrown in their lot with him all answered in a great roar of assent. Though Wei Zhao was, in their eyes, an existence on an entirely different plane, everyone is prone to envy—they were all Azure Cloud newcomers alike. What made Wei Zhao so special that he could strut and shine like that, while ordinary newcomers like themselves could not?

A chance to openly make trouble for Wei Zhao was exactly the kind of good fortune they had been craving!

Seeing the newcomers react this way, Meng Jueming, Kang Jingming, and the others promptly smiled in smug satisfaction.

In their view, Wei Zhao had already brought enormous pressure on himself by taking forty spirit-herb seeds at once. If he was then focus-fired during the coming assessment round, even if they could not finish him off outright, they could wear him down until he was flat on his face. If he could recover even a little true qi each day to cope with the assessment challenges, that would already be something—and still cultivate forty spirit-herb seeds? In his dreams.

Meng Jueming and the others were beside themselves with glee, but Zhong Yongliang and Li Zhengming, mingling among them, exchanged a knowing, private sneer. Under Wei Zhao's leadership, their way of doing things had always been to never fight a battle they were unprepared for. What the hell were these idiots laughing at? When the assessment results came out, who the fool was still remained to be seen!

Carrying all forty spirit-herb seeds in his hands, Wei Zhao paid not the slightest attention to the jeers and mockery of Meng Jueming and the rest, and walked straight back to the side of the long-suffering senior brother and the others.

"Junior Brother Lin, this... what am I even supposed to say to you?" The long-suffering senior brother looked at Wei Zhao's utterly unruffled expression and for a moment did not know what to say.

From where he stood, Wei Zhao's conduct today really was far too rash and brainless—no different from digging his own grave. But then, one had only to remember Wei Zhao's performance in the previous two rounds, each time far exceeding anything they had expected.

Especially the endurance assessment last time. Ignoring all advice, Wei Zhao had chosen the peak early Foundation Establishment level, and at the time the senior brother had even thought Wei Zhao might well drop dead on the spot.

But the facts had proven that Wei Zhao never did anything he was not sure of. Even the long-suffering senior brother himself had not been confident he could withstand a full-force blow from a peak early Foundation Establishment expert—yet Wei Zhao had taken it without a word, come away unscathed, and even earned a god-tier perfect score!

So although Wei Zhao's choice of all forty seeds today left him incredulous, on reflection there was no need to say much about it. After all, just because he himself lacked the ability did not mean Wei Zhao did—what if Wei Zhao really could cultivate that many spirit-herb seeds?

It was just that even if Wei Zhao truly was confident of cultivating so many spirit-herb seeds, the fourth assessment round about to begin would plainly see him targeted by Meng Jueming and his crowd again. Whether he could weather it smoothly—the long-suffering senior brother was truly on tenterhooks for Wei Zhao.

"Heh heh, Senior Brother Ku, you and the others really don't need to worry about me. I know my own limits."

Wei Zhao smiled as though nothing were the matter, then looked at Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai, both of whom were also holding back words, and suddenly lowered his voice. "When we get back, you two hand your spirit-herb seeds over to me as well—I'll cultivate them for you."

"Huh?" The three of them, the long-suffering senior brother included, were stunned speechless at once. Not content with having taken all forty spirit-herb seeds himself, he actually wanted Xiao Che and the other's seeds too—that would make sixty in all!

"Leader Wei Zhao, are you sure this is all right?" Even Xiao Che, normally so steady and reserved, could not help but ask in a low, startled voice this time.

It was not that he feared the matter would leak out and be branded cheating once Hu Yunfeng and the others learned of it. In fact, if Meng Jueming's crowd got wind of it, they would not try to stop it at all—they would happily go along with it and wish for nothing more than to work Wei Zhao to death. No, Xiao Che was worried on Wei Zhao's behalf.

After all, to any normal person, forty spirit-herb seeds already meant that a great deal of true qi would have to be expended on them for some time to come. Even without any other distractions, that alone would be quite a strain.

What was more, the fourth round of newcomer assessment was about to begin at the same time. The slightest hitch along the way would very likely cause the true-qi supply to lapse for several days, and then, as that sissy steward of the spirit-herb garden had said, the seeds that had already begun receiving true-qi ripening would soon wither and die—ruining all their previous efforts and quite possibly costing them points as well.

(.)RU