Chapter 3952 — Meng Jueming's Summons

In the aftermath, Wei Zhao's conduct and Kang Jingming's wretched fate—above all, the question of who would ultimately lay claim to the Mountain Summit No. 1 Cave Dwelling—inevitably became the focus of every new disciple's gossip.

Wei Zhao himself paid it no mind at all, cultivating as usual day after day; yet in private he had still issued Li Zhengming an order: do whatever it took to keep watch over Meng Jueming's every move in the days to come.

Given who they each were, there was virtually no chance Wei Zhao could face Meng Jueming in open combat. If he meant to strangle the threat in the cradle, the only path left to him was to risk everything and assassinate the man.

The risks involved in such a course were only too easy to imagine. He would have to find a perfect opportunity before striking, and the blow would have to land without fail; a single mishap at any stage could very well bring down utter ruin upon his head.

After all, this was not the same as when he had dealt with Nan Tianyong. That time he had been Lin Er, a lone cultivator whose background no one could trace. But now the target was Meng Jueming; drag the Law Enforcement Hall into it, and when the trail led back to him, that was as good as carved in stone.

Once suspicion fell on him, it would be simplicity itself for the Law Enforcement Hall to dig up something with their methods—and the fate awaiting Wei Zhao was only too easy to picture.

So Wei Zhao had to hold his nerve. Knowing full well that time was against him, he had to summon a killer's patience and wait for his chance.

What left him rather disappointed was that after the cross-pavilion challenge, Li Zhengming had schemed and scoured, openly and covertly, watching Meng Jueming for five full days on end—and had simply failed to turn up a single opportunity to strike.

As a rule, Meng Jueming was never alone when out and about, and when he was alone, he was usually on his own turf in the Welcome Pavilion. None of it made for a good opportunity.

Just as Wei Zhao had resigned himself to a long, drawn-out wait and was steeling himself for a war of attrition, a slip of paper suddenly appeared at the entrance to his cave dwelling: Lin Er, noon today, Mine No. 10—be there without fail!

There was no signature, but the author of that note was beyond all doubt Meng Jueming.

"So he's finally ready to lay his cards on the table with me?" Wei Zhao rubbed his chin thoughtfully. The other man had not said what would happen if he failed to show, but even a fool could work it out: his identity exposed, and then a death with no place to be buried.

After weighing it carefully for a moment, Wei Zhao decided in the end to go. It was a choice forced upon him—the initiative still lay in the other man's hands, and being led around by the nose left him no alternative. Besides, if he played this right, it might well prove a rare opportunity. How could Wei Zhao let it slip by?

Gathering his wits and settling his state of mind, Wei Zhao set off for the Spirit Jade Hall the moment his decision was made. There was still a good deal of time before noon, but arriving early never hurt in matters like this—who knew, it might even win him a bit of the initiative.

Reaching the Spirit Jade Hall, Wei Zhao made his way to Mine No. 10 by familiar paths. By his reckoning, it had been some time since he last came here.

The three-month term of the Welcome Pavilion newcomers' first contracts had already passed, but that did not mean one could no longer come to the Spirit Jade Hall to mine once it expired. The three months amounted to a probationary period: so long as a newcomer performed adequately during it, he could thereafter freely arrange his own time to come and mine; as for the slackers, they were politely shown the door.

Walking the familiar passages of Mine No. 10, Wei Zhao could not help privately speculating: what exactly did Meng Jueming intend by summoning him to this particular place?

If Mine No. 10 had any distinguishing feature, it was simply that there were few people about. Apart from the usual two guards, one could not sight another soul in that vast mining zone—but so what?

The two guards were, after all, a real nuisance. Pulling anything shady under their noses was simply unrealistic, and to go after the guards themselves would blow the matter wide open—then no one involved would escape the consequences.

Or was that precisely Meng Jueming's intent—to pick a place with few people in order to threaten him, while not daring to choose somewhere utterly deserted, lest Wei Zhao spring up and cut him down on the spot?

Wei Zhao clenched his fist in secret. Whatever scheme Meng Jueming was hatching, today this matter had to be settled once and for all; otherwise, if the man truly got to pushing him around, there would never be a day of peace again. Success or failure turned on this single stroke.

Entering Mine No. 10 after so long, Wei Zhao felt a strange sense of a world turned over. Under the watchful eyes of the two guards, he made a brief survey around the mining zone and found nothing out of the ordinary.

That came as no surprise. This was mining ground, after all, watched by guards at every hour; even with all his connections, pulling something off here would not be so easy for Meng Jueming.

Yet even so, the man had summoned him to this place—did he truly think that having a grip on his identity meant he had Wei Zhao wholly in his pocket?

Suppressing his misgivings, Wei Zhao immediately fell into the part of a man with nothing on his mind and, by familiar paths, set about mining.

Meng Jueming might be the great threat at his heart, one that must be rooted out this very time, but the more so, the more he had to steady himself. If only to keep the enemy guessing, he could not afford to show too much out of the ordinary.

And so it went until the noon hour, when Meng Jueming's figure at last emerged from the depths of the mine shaft.

The instant he stepped into Mine No. 10 and caught sight of Wei Zhao's back from afar, Meng Jueming's heart leapt with delight. If this fellow had shown up here, it meant that his being Lin Er was settled beyond doubt—otherwise there would have been no reason at all for him to come.

Yet on a second look, a shade of doubt crept into Meng Jueming's expression. Wei Zhao was at that moment mining away with fiery zeal; from the look of it, he hardly seemed a man who had come to keep an appointment.

Any normal person, with a fatal grip on his identity held by another, would be at the very least uneasy, if not thrown into panic. At such a critical, life-or-death moment, who the hell would be in the mood to mine?

Was this fellow putting on an act? Meng Jueming could not keep from muttering inwardly. Still, if the man thought such a petty trick could fool him, that was far too low an opinion of him.

With a glance at the two guards nearby, Meng Jueming strode up behind the busy Wei Zhao and, clapping his hands, said with a mocking lilt, "Young Hero Lin, no wonder you're the mining ace who keeps making miracles. The moves, the efficiency—tsk, tsk, you could practically be held up as a model."

Wei Zhao paid him no heed, not even pausing for an instant, and simply went on mining with single-minded focus, showing not the slightest inclination to open his mouth and respond. (To be continued..) R1071