Chapter 3557 — Drawing Resentment
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
And besides, Wei Zhao had surely sent him here to go undercover, which meant he could not act rashly—all he had to do was get word back to Wei Zhao in time. So he merely put on an air of innocence and asked, "Senior Brother Xu, if the two of us go off with you, does that mean nobody's left to look after all the others?"
"Not at all. By convention, once our Chongtian Pavilion has finished picking its people, the rest get taken in by the other two pavilions." Xu Lingchong said this and glanced at Kang Jingming. "The Xuanji Pavilion only ever takes old men. That Wei Zhao you mentioned—since he's so young, he must have been claimed by the weakest of them, the Azure Cloud Pavilion. Heh heh, that place is famous as a shelter for worthless trash."
Grassroots loose cultivators never had much of a foundation to begin with, and since every batch of newcomers was what the other two pavilions had already picked over, the Azure Cloud Pavilion's recruits were the weakest of the weak in both strength and potential. Calling it a shelter for worthless trash was no exaggeration at all.
"A shelter for worthless trash? Then from now on we can push them around however we like?" Kang Jingming's eyes lit up at once.
"You don't have to wait for later—you'll get to push those good-for-nothings around in a little while. I'm rather curious to see just how proud that Wei Zhao of yours can be!" Xu Lingchong smiled a smile thick with meaning.
"Proud? He's about as proud as they come!" Kang Jingming put on a show of indignation. "Just earlier, when Senior Brother Xu came to collect us, that young fellow beside my brother Zhong Yongliang here wouldn't even spare Senior Brother Xu a glance—wouldn't deign to come up at all. Good thing brother Zhong Yongliang saw the light and came over to our side—otherwise he'd be headed for the trash shelter too!"
"Oh? So it's that boy. He doesn't look like much! When a man with real strength puts on airs, that's swagger; when a man without it does, that's just idiocy. In a moment I'll show you what a real idiot looks like!" Xu Lingchong nodded faintly, then turned to Zhong Yongliang. "But how did you come to see the light? You used to run with this Wei Zhao fellow?"
"It's a long story. He stole my woman, and he stole my underlings. I had nothing left—he even cut one of my kidneys out. If I wanted to survive, I had no choice but to play along with him. But it's all right now—with a backer as solid as Senior Brother Xu, what do I have to fear from a kidney?" Zhong Yongliang said, his face a picture of misery.
"Good heavens, you really are an unlucky one! Lucky you threw in with me—otherwise they'd have bullied you to death!" Xu Lingchong was a little contemptuous of Zhong Yongliang, but the man was one of his now, and he did have a way with words, so Xu Lingchong supposed he had accepted him.
As they spoke, the flying spirit beast had already come down on an open plot of ground. Before them stood a grand and imposing pavilion, and above its main doors, on a black background, three great golden characters proclaimed: Welcoming Pavilion.
People were already waiting before the gate. The instant the flying spirit beast touched down, a ring of them surged forward. At their head was a man with the white hair and youthful face of a sage, of imposing bearing—toward others he always carried himself with the air of an enlightened master, yet toward Xu Lingchong alone he was all bowing and scraping, fawning and flattering to the extreme.
"This is Hu Yunfeng, the pavilion master of the Welcoming Pavilion. The two of you may have been chosen by my Chongtian Pavilion, but until you succeed in establishing your foundation, you'll still be cultivating here at the Welcoming Pavilion. He'll be looking after you from now on." Xu Lingchong nodded at the approaching Hu Yunfeng as he made the introductions.