Chapter 3944 — Meng Jueming's Suspicion

Meng Jueming knew that the Lingyu Hall possessed a specialized method for infusing waste jade with spiritual energy, turning trash into treasure. The process, however, was extraordinarily drawn out—at the quickest, it would take several hundred years before there was any hope of success.

The world is vast and full of wonders, and cultivators are ingenious, resourceful people of formidable ability. Since the Lingyu Hall had set such a precedent, the notion of charging spirit jade within a short span of time—implausible as it seemed—was not necessarily devoid of all possibility.

If that were truly the case, then the implications behind this piece of spirit jade warranted some serious thought.

"Boss, where did you get this piece of spirit jade?" Meng Jueming asked, struck by a sudden notion.

The stall owner gave him an odd look and pursed his lips. "The customer who was just here gave it to me."

It really was him! The answer sent a tremor through Meng Jueming's heart, and only now did it finally dawn on him—the reason that man had looked so familiar at first glance was that he had seen that face before!

Back when Yu Jiang had come out searching for Lin Er, he had been carrying a portrait of the man. Though it differed somewhat from the real person, the general outline was accurate enough—and Meng Jueming had, as it happened, studied that portrait closely.

In other words, the thing he had just mistaken for Wei Zhao was, barring the unexpected, none other than Lin Er—the very man Nantian Pass and Yu Jiang had been hunting all along!

What made Meng Jueming even more suspicious was that this Lin Er actually carried his own peculiar piece of spirit jade—the spirit jade that ought to have been in Wei Zhao's possession. What did that signify?

Add to that the fact that Yu Jiang had repeatedly come sniffing around the Diying Pavilion in his search for Lin Er, and the truth behind it all was already on the verge of revealing itself.

Meng Jueming was now at least seventy percent certain that Wei Zhao and Lin Er were fundamentally one and the same person—simply disguised by some means or other!

In the world of cultivation, altering one's appearance is hardly uncommon. Beyond props like human-skin masks, even certain unorthodox martial techniques can achieve the same effect.

This speculation was so audacious that even Meng Jueming himself found it hard to believe at first—but a closer, deeper consideration revealed that it dovetailed perfectly with all the signs that had come before, each corroborating the other.

The mere fact that spirit-depleted waste jade had suddenly become fine, spirit-rich jade was enough to explain the perplexity that had dogged Meng Jueming all this time.

To be sure, it was Meng Jueming himself who had first incited Meng Zhou and the others to swindle Wei Zhao with that despicable trick of trading waste jade for good jade. And because the same scheme had succeeded time and again, it had secretly delighted him—while also leading him to conclude that Wei Zhao was a fool who could not even tell waste jade from good.

But afterward, as he stumbled again and again at Wei Zhao's hands—as he watched Wei Zhao step by step grow into a formidable figure who made even him break out in a cold sweat—Meng Jueming could not help but begin to wonder: could a newcomer of such legendary caliber really be a genuine idiot?

If Wei Zhao truly were an idiot, how could he possibly have risen to such heights? And what would that make Meng Jueming—a piece of scum beneath even an idiot's feet, to be trampled and pissed upon at will?

Anyone with half a brain could see there had to be more to this than met the eye.

Only a brainless fool like Meng Zhou could wishfully believe that Wei Zhao was nothing but a lucky idiot. Meng Jueming, however, was a clever man; even if he had been carried away by triumph for a time, given enough time he would naturally come back to his senses.

Looking back now, that trick of trading waste jade for good jade had likely been precisely what Wei Zhao wanted—the man had been playing them all along, reeling them in to bring him waste jade, which was how the scheme had kept succeeding.

Otherwise, even if Wei Zhao really had been foolish, once Ku Bi and the others around him noticed something was off, they would long since have stepped in to stop it—they could not possibly have stood idly by, turning a blind eye all this time.

To any normal person, trading one's own good jade for another's waste jade—even at a favorable exchange rate—was nothing short of squandering one's fortune.

But Wei Zhao was plainly different. If the conjecture held, he must have some means of rapidly charging waste jade!

Only that could explain why the spirit jade in Meng Jueming's hand had inexplicably turned from waste to good; only that could explain why such a crude, transparent trick—one anyone could see through at a glance—had succeeded again and again.

All of it was plainly a trap Wei Zhao had set himself, waiting for them to deliver waste jade right to his door.

And to think they had once gloated, believing they had finally gotten the better of Wei Zhao—looking back now, they had been played in the palm of his hand from start to finish!

With all the pieces thus linked together, the truth was already crying out to be seen. Even if a few doubts remained, they needed only further confirmation—and in Meng Jueming's eyes, the matter of Wei Zhao being Lin Er was all but settled!

"Heh heh, this trip to the market district really wasn't wasted after all!" Having worked it all out, Meng Jueming could not help but sneer in smug satisfaction.

Originally, given Wei Zhao's domineering displays of late, he had already resolved to find some way to make peace with the man—after all, the wise man adapts to circumstances, and there was no helping it. Wei Zhao's strength had grown so formidable that even Meng Jueming felt his heart quail. What was he supposed to do?

Matters having come this far, it was no longer realistic to count on his subordinates to finish Wei Zhao off. Neither Meng Zhou nor Murong Zhen could possibly be a match for him.

Meng Jueming was, after all, a clever man, and he had come to recognize with painful clarity that if he and Wei Zhao continued to oppose each other openly, blade against blade, he would be the one to suffer in the end.

Meng Zhou had already made one trip through the gates of hell; a next time would likely mean death outright. If things truly reached that point, Meng Jueming would be entirely on the back foot. Even if he were promoted to Third Pavilion Master, without men under his command he could never suppress the aggressive Wei Zhao—his situation might well prove even more awkward and tragic than Lu Bianren's!

Thus, with no other choice, Meng Jueming resolved to feign compliance with Wei Zhao for the time being. So long as he could stabilize the situation for now, a small loss of face did not matter; once he had secured the position of Third Pavilion Master in the days to come, it would not be too late to settle accounts afterward.

It was precisely because of these misgivings and calculations that, when he happened upon Wei Zhao in the market, he had begun by behaving so courteously—even trotting out a lofty address like "Young Hero Lin." It showed just how hollow Meng Jueming, the senior managing disciple, now felt inside. R1152