Chapter 3707 — The Newcomer Steward
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
A single sentence left every one of the newcomers speechless on the spot.
The Council of Elders stood at the very pinnacle of the entire North Island. Were a pack of newcomers who had not even succeeded in Foundation Establishment supposed to march up and protest to them? If a man had a death wish, surely there were less absurd ways to go about it!
Wei Zhao shook his head helplessly. With the Council of Elders at his back, Hu Yunfeng had nothing whatsoever to fear. And indeed, it seemed true enough that the Tri-Layer Pavilion had gradually fallen under the Skyward Pavilion's grip—otherwise, an assessment rule so blatantly biased toward the Skyward Pavilion's newcomers should never have passed the Council at all.
After a brief pause, seeing that the newcomers had all fallen silent, Hu Yunfeng nodded in satisfaction and continued, "However, lest you harbor resentment and claim the rules are deliberately skewed in favor of the Skyward Pavilion's newcomers, after this round of newcomer assessment, the newcomers of the Mystic Mechanism Pavilion and the Azure Cloud Pavilion will each be granted one final cross-pavilion challenge. Win, and you take your opponent's cultivation cave dwelling as your own. That should leave you with nothing further to say, I trust."
The newcomers exchanged glances, and only then did they nod one after another and let the matter drop.
To be sure, there were still tricks buried in it—the newcomer assessment ran a full five months, and counting the month already past, by the time it ended the Skyward Pavilion's newcomers would by default have held the finest mountaintop caves for half a year. Half a year was more than enough time to leave the newcomers of the other two pavilions far behind.
Still, a chance to challenge was better than none at all. At least they could hold out some hope for the second half of the year; without it, they would not even have that much.
Watching the newcomers settle down, Wei Zhao sighed inwardly. Beat them with a stick, then toss them a date to sweeten the sting—and a situation that had been on the verge of boiling over with public fury was defused just like that. This Pavilion Master Hu Yunfeng truly had a seasoned, ruthless touch.
This outcome was entirely within Hu Yunfeng's expectations. After a pause, he spoke again, "Before this round of newcomer assessment officially begins, I have one related matter to announce. Since the newcomer assessment has many stages, in addition to the two supervising senior brothers from each of the three pavilions, one additional newcomer steward must be appointed, tasked specifically with tallying and publishing the scores. This duty is taxing in both mind and effort, and is rendered to everyone without compensation. It will inevitably cut into the steward's own assessment results; therefore, beyond the monthly stipend due a newcomer steward, this individual shall receive fifty assessment points as compensation."
The moment his words fell, the hall erupted in discussion once more.
The matter of the newcomer steward had already been put to a public vote early last month. In the end, under Xu Lingchong's patronage, Kang Jingming's vote count had far surpassed Zhang Lixing of the Mystic Mechanism Pavilion—but because he had failed to clear two-thirds, the position had been left vacant for the time being.
Yet although it was likewise a newcomer steward, the previous duties had covered only the assignment of low-level tasks, and the pickings had not been especially rich. This time, however, the newcomer steward in charge of tallying scores could, on top of the regular stipend, collect fifty assessment points as compensation right from the outset—and that set every newcomer present drooling with envy!