Chapter 3818 — Reporting Intelligence

Three sets of Foundation Establishment Pill ingredients were, in theory, indeed enough to refine three Foundation Establishment Pills, and genuinely enough for him, Li Zhengming, to make a push toward the Foundation Establishment stage. The problem was that he was nothing but a newcomer to Qingyun Pavilion—where would he find the financial means to hire an alchemist to do the refining?

At the Alchemy Hall, no matter what pill one wished to refine, beyond providing one's own ingredients, there was an absolute baseline requirement of handing over two hundred spirit jades. This was a threshold that even Senior Brother Kubi, a managing senior brother with years of savings, could not meet—let alone Li Zhengming, a mere newcomer at the peak of the Heaven Rank.

The greatest value of a pill lay not in the ingredients, but in the refining process! Never mind three sets of ingredients—even five or eight sets, and no alchemist would dare guarantee that a single Foundation Establishment Pill could be produced!

And setting the Alchemy Hall aside, if one wanted to buy one outright in the market, a single Foundation Establishment Pill would cost at least two hundred and fifty spirit jades. There was simply no way Li Zhengming could afford such a price!

In other words, these three sets of Foundation Establishment Pill ingredients that Meng Jueming had given him were utterly useless—not worth a fart. Meng Jueming himself must surely have foreseen this outcome, yet he still insisted on putting on this hypocritical show of being the good man!

Looking at the two faces of Meng Jueming and Meng Zhou, and thinking back on how he had once been blind enough to risk his life for people like this, Li Zhengming felt disgust welling up from the very bottom of his heart!

"Then I thank Senior Brother Meng for your concern," Li Zhengming could only force down his stifled resentment and play along with the other man.

Meng Jueming chuckled. "I am glad you can appreciate my painstaking efforts, Zhengming. This senior brother is most gratified. Work hard in the days to come, and I will certainly not treat you unfairly."

"Of course. I will certainly not let Senior Brother Meng's high expectations down." Li Zhengming's mouth twitched involuntarily. Just how brainless would I have to be to believe Meng Jueming's nonsense about not treating me unfairly?

Things having come to this, he had utterly given up hope on Meng Jueming. Were it not for the need to keep serving as Wei Zhao's mole, he would even have been tempted to fall out with the man publicly. Fortunately, his capacity for forbearance far exceeded that of ordinary men. No matter how disgusted he felt inside, he could still keep enduring it.

And apart from the consideration of continuing as Wei Zhao's mole, there was one thing Meng Zhou had just said that also weighed heavily on his mind: Meng Zhou had actually claimed he was about to advance another step!

Earlier, when Xu Lingchong and Meng Jueming had spoken, they had deliberately sought out a remote corner, one that even Li Zhengming could not approach too closely. So he did not know exactly what these people had plotted. But he could now be certain that whatever they had discussed was definitely connected to that sentence Meng Zhou had let slip just now!

And if one carefully pondered that casual sentence of Meng Zhou's, the hidden implications within were enormous!

Meng Zhou had only recently reached Foundation Establishment, and even then he had barely succeeded by relying on a Foundation Establishment Pill combined with Foundation Establishment Liquid. By any reasonable measure, with a foundation like his, he should not even dream of advancing another step for several years. Yet the man was already making such a claim now!

Moreover, judging from the tone, this was likely not Meng Zhou's own pipe dream, but something with solid, practical feasibility. The most likely explanation, then, was that Xu Lingchong and Meng Jueming had privately reached some new agreement, and since it could let Meng Zhou advance a step in the short term, it was clear that Young Master Xu was once again preparing to pay a bloody price!

Though Li Zhengming's limited perspective made it hard for him to imagine what could possibly let a specimen with such a frail foundation as Meng Zhou advance a step in the short term, this intelligence was beyond doubt, and he had to pass it on to leader Wei Zhao as soon as possible so they could prepare.

Li Zhengming well knew that given Wei Zhao's concealed strength at the peak of the initial Foundation Establishment stage, even if Meng Zhou advanced a step, he could not pose any real threat to him.

But Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai were a different matter. Though the two of them were already capable hands at the initial Foundation Establishment stage, if they were to face a Meng Zhou at the peak of the initial Foundation Establishment stage without any preparation, that would be very bad indeed.

After receiving the three sets of Foundation Establishment Pill ingredients from Meng Jueming, late that same night, Li Zhengming took advantage of the emptiness around him and came to Wei Zhao's Cave Mansion No. 1 at the foot of the mountain.

"Zhengming, why have you come in person?" Seeing Li Zhengming appear at the entrance of his cave mansion, Wei Zhao could not help but be taken aback, and then quickly led him inside.

As Wei Zhao's mole, to preserve concealment and safety, Li Zhengming was normally supposed to avoid any contact with Wei Zhao whatsoever. Even intelligence was passed through secret signals and slips of paper—never face-to-face.

After all, Meng Jueming was, by any measure, a cunning old fox, and so many Qingyun Pavilion newcomers had already pledged themselves under his banner, giving him eyes and ears everywhere. No matter how careful Li Zhengming was, once he had too much contact with Wei Zhao, it would be easy to give himself away—and the consequences would be impossible to predict.

Since ancient times, traitors had always been more abhorrent than enemies. Meng Jueming might not do anything to the likes of Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai, mere underlings of Wei Zhao, but if he discovered that Li Zhengming had defected to become Wei Zhao's mole, then he might well resort to desperate measures and truly harbor murderous intent.

However, the reason Li Zhengming had risked appearing personally at Wei Zhao's cave mansion this time was that he had another purpose in mind.

"Leader Wei Zhao, today I picked up a piece of intelligence from an offhand remark of Meng Zhou's. I felt it necessary to report it to you." Li Zhengming's face was grave, and he then recounted to Wei Zhao everything Meng Zhou had said earlier, along with his own analysis and speculation.

"So there is such a matter. It seems this Young Master Xu really is willing to pay such a bloody price for Meng Zhou—I am truly flattered!" After hearing it all, Wei Zhao could not help but fall into a dazed silence.

His analysis matched Li Zhengming's exactly. Though he did not know what bloody price Xu Lingchong and Meng Jueming were preparing to pay, one thing was certain: just as Wei Zhao had previously guessed, the other side could no longer hold back and was about to get serious.

From that one sentence of Meng Zhou's, it was already possible to rule out the possibility that Senior Brother Kubi had previously conjectured. This surely did not mean simply using a Limit Golden Pill to temporarily boost his strength—it meant a genuine, substantial advance, leaping from the initial Foundation Establishment stage straight to its peak!