Chapter 3655 — Framed Once More
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
And out of regard for its owner, Shangguan Lan'er, everyone at the Spirit Jade Hall turned a blind eye to it; even if they caught it in the act, they would just laugh it off. No one could have guessed that this year it would have the rotten luck to run into Meng Zhou, that glutton—it was simply fated to meet this calamity.
Yet perhaps because she had long since grown used to her spirit pet's antics, Shangguan Lan'er, who in past years had always been so anxious about the Curl-Curl Bear's whereabouts, did not show up this time. Meng Jueming and Meng Zhou waited in eager anticipation until the mining area shut down for the day, and still there was no sign of the young lady.
Instead of Shangguan Lan'er, the first to arrive was Wei Zhao—though he clearly had no interest in speaking with them, and walked straight past.
Once Wei Zhao was out of sight, Meng Jueming jerked his chin at Meng Zhou and instructed in a low voice, "I'll keep waiting here. You follow him and keep an eye on what he does when he gets back and finds the little thing. If he tries to quietly toss it out under cover of darkness, round up the others and catch him in the act—make as much of a commotion as you can!"
"Got it—Ninth Cousin, you think of everything!" Meng Zhou answered and hurried after him.
By any normal person's logic, the first reaction upon sensing something wrong would be to quietly dispose of it before anyone was the wiser, to keep trouble from landing on one's own head.
Meng Jueming's concern was well founded. If Wei Zhao really did quietly throw the Curl-Curl Bear cub out, all their earlier effort would be wasted—and worse, the trouble might end up rebounding onto Meng Zhou himself. If they couldn't get the young lady to form the preconception that Wei Zhao was the culprit as planned, things would get messy.
Given Meng Zhou's strength and skill, tailing Wei Zhao closely would ordinarily have been impossible, but fortunately his cave dwelling was right next to Wei Zhao's, so even though he deliberately trailed him the whole way, Wei Zhao suspected nothing.
It was only after entering his own cave dwelling and seeing the little black-and-white creature on the ground that Wei Zhao froze for a moment. "What kind of spirit beast is this?"
The Curl-Curl Bear was a spirit beast native to Cloud Terrace Island, and with their numbers so few, even local cultivators might not recognize one—so it was only natural that Wei Zhao, a cultivator who had come up from the mortal world, did not.
Still, though he didn't know what kind of spirit beast it was, instinct told him the little thing posed no threat to him—especially since it was now barely breathing, looking for all the world like it was about to expire.
Never mind wondering how the little thing had mysteriously appeared in his cave dwelling; Wei Zhao didn't stop to think. He walked over, propped it upright, pressed his palm to the pulse point at its chest, and began circulating the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art, attempting to channel true qi into it. It was, after all, a wondrous creature of this world—he couldn't just watch it die before his eyes.
Feeling the true qi Wei Zhao channeled into it, the barely-alive Curl-Curl Bear cub suddenly opened its eyes and gave two weak cries: "Woo… woo…"