Chapter 3785 — The Closed-Door Breakthrough
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
Hearing all this mockery and jeering, Zha Wu's heart sank straight to the bottom of a pit. Kicking a man when he was down—stepping on him even harder when he was already low—was the common way of the cultivation world, true enough, but the present scene was far more than being stepped on; he had stirred up the fury of the entire crowd!
If he, Zha Wu, were powerful, with the confidence to stand toe to toe with Meng Jue Ming, the senior fellow disciple and steward, the way Wei Zhao did, that would be one thing. The trouble was that he was not merely not powerful—he was the very bottom of the heap, and his position was already desperate. To stir up public wrath at a time like this was practically to cut himself off from the Threefold Pavilion for good.
Ai! Cleverness turned against its owner—this time I really let my hot head dig my own grave!
Zha Wu wished he could slap himself twice across the face. If he had only kept his head down and guarded his few meager points, instead of dreaming up some wild scheme to challenge Wei Zhao and grab himself an eyeful of attention, he would not have brought this on himself and sunk to such a sorry state.
Now it was done. Being on the verge of tears was putting it lightly. Once he was locked into negative points and barred from the Azure Cloud Pavilion, all his past efforts would be swept down the drain, and that would be the end of him in this life. There was only one fate left for him—being tossed into the mines to dig ore...
But enough of Zha Wu and his self-pity. Looking at the other newcomers of the Azure Cloud Pavilion, they had been trading blow for blow in this round of the challenge tournament, every one of them straining with all their might to seize points; the spectacle was, one had to admit, a dazzling one.
Only, none of this splendor had anything to do with Wei Zhao and his two companions.
Xiao Che, needless to say, was buried beneath the mountain in Cave Dwelling No. 15, calmly preparing for his Foundation Establishment, while Wei Zhao was trapped in Cave Dwelling No. 1 beneath the mountain, unable to challenge others of his own initiative, and with Zha Wu standing there as a living cautionary example, the other newcomers—even those who had harbored the same opportunistic hopes—did not dare challenge him now.
Are you kidding? That poseur Wei Zhao had no sense of the times whatsoever, and yet his strength was so monstrous that no one could make sense of it. To go up and provoke him would not only fail to win anyone glory—it would get you pounded into the next Zha Wu, and you might well lose your little life in the bargain. Who would dare try such a thing now?
Among the three of them, the one with the best chance of kicking up a commotion this round was Qiao Hongcai, stationed in Cave Dwelling No. 12 beneath the mountain.
First, his cave dwelling's ranking was decent, giving him the right to challenge the dozen or so newcomers above him—an advantage bestowed by heaven itself.
Second, right behind him in Cave Dwelling No. 13 beneath the mountain was Meng Zhou, a cultivator in the early Foundation Establishment stage. Looking across the whole Azure Cloud Pavilion, the only one with the nerve to claim he was not nervous was probably Wei Zhao alone; everyone else, Qiao Hongcai included, was absolutely under crushing pressure.
At a time like this, given the chance, any normal person would find some way to put as much distance between himself and Meng Zhou as possible.
So no matter how one looked at it, Qiao Hongcai could well repeat his old trick—just as he had challenged Zha Wu in the previous round, challenge one rank higher again. That way he could both gain points and temporarily escape the threat of Meng Zhou behind him, buying himself a rare bit of breathing room.