Chapter 3782 — A Bold Move
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 3
If the spirit herb trial then docked him ten points, that would put him straight into negative three. And after Meng Zhou and Xiao Che were done with him, the deficit would only grow larger and larger. Clawing it back afterward would be sheer fantasy—with Zha Wu's meager strength that was utterly impossible. Otherwise he would never have sunk to today's predicament in the first place.
If he were to finish the newcomer assessment carrying negative points, then Zha Wu's whole life would be as good as ruined. In the current state of the cultivation world on Cloud Terrace Island, the vast majority of cultivation resources were in the hands of the great sects; rootless wandering cultivators had no future at all.
Barring some heaven-defying stroke of fortune, for a cultivator of Zha Wu's ordinary talent, failing to enter the Three-Tier Pavilion meant that, at the very best, he would muddle through to Foundation Establishment and that would be the end of it—nothing better was possible. Those without such fortune might not even manage early-stage Foundation Establishment, and would die as nothing more than a Heaven-Rank perfection expert.
In the mortal world, a Heaven-Rank perfection expert would already be a formidable figure, able to strut across the land unopposed—that would be fine and well. But the problem was, this was Cloud Terrace Island!
Here Heaven-Rank experts were worth less than dogs; even early-stage Foundation Establishment was merely the starting threshold. A piddling Heaven-Rank perfection expert would be too ashamed even to greet anyone in public. To die with only that much strength, trampled by whoever he met—what the hell kind of life was that?
Yet if the final assessment score came out negative, and he bore such a stain on his record, then Zha Wu could forget forever about ever getting into Azure Cloud Pavilion. And if he could not get into Azure Cloud Pavilion, the other sects were even more out of the question. That would be all his life amounted to.
"To die with nothing but Heaven-Rank perfection to show for it—how could such a pitiful, laughable, shameful piece of business ever happen to me, Zha Wu!" Zha Wu ground his teeth and muttered to himself, veins bulging on his clenched fists.
Then, heedless of his grave injuries, he struggled to his feet and staggered toward the cave dwelling's entrance. Everything that had happened before could no longer be changed, and he was keenly aware that if things went on this way, ending up with a negative score and no place in Azure Cloud Pavilion was all but inevitable.
So, to save his own fate, he had to do something—at the very least, make some change, and seek out a sliver of a chance at survival.
As for the spirit herb trial, because his true qi supply had been cut off, the three spirit-herb seeds were already doomed to wither and die. As for the remaining seven, even setting aside the drag of the challenge tournament, given the spiritual qi density of his cave dwelling and his capacity to supply true qi, the odds of successfully cultivating them were essentially close to zero—negligible. If one or two of them ultimately succeeded, that alone would mean his ancestral graves were smoking with good fortune.
But while there was no good solution on the spirit-herb-seed front, that did not mean there was no turn for the better to be found elsewhere.
True enough, for Zha Wu to go into the brutal challenge tournament with strength near the very bottom, hoping to plunder any great number of points, was basically unrealistic—he at least had that much self-awareness.
Still, if he could not actively seize points from the other newcomers, he could at least think of ways to lose fewer points. So long as his points did not drop too far, and he did not end up docked into negative figures in this stage, that alone would count as a victory.
So what he had to do now was go beg mercy from a certain person.