Chapter 3794 — Who Wins, Who Loses?
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
Although Meng Jue Ming was currently only the senior brother in charge of affairs, Hu Yun Feng had his own channels of information and already knew that Xu Ling Chong intended to support Meng Jue Ming's rise to power. Since the two of them would both belong to Xu Ling Chong's faction and become comrades in the same camp, they naturally had to show each other a little more courtesy from now on.
"A draw?" Meng Jue Ming was taken aback. He deliberately lowered his voice, ensuring that no one nearby could hear him.
For Hu Yun Feng, the Pavilion Master, declaring this confrontation a draw would better preserve his image as an objective and impartial arbiter. After all, everyone could see what a state Qiao Hongcai and Meng Zhou had fought themselves into; calling it a draw was perfectly reasonable, and no one could find fault with it.
Yet he had made this proposal to Meng Jue Ming in private. That meant if Meng Jue Ming had any objections, there was still room to maneuver.
A seasoned schemer like Meng Jue Ming naturally saw through the implications. Hu Yun Feng was leaving himself an escape route, preparing to use the opportunity to do Meng Jue Ming a favor at little cost.
In the past, something like this would have been utterly unthinkable. After all, the other man was the dignified Pavilion Master of the Welcoming New Pavilion, while Meng Jue Ming was merely a lowly senior brother in charge of affairs. Their statuses were worlds apart, and theirs was an unmistakable superior-subordinate relationship. Whenever anything came up, all Hu Yun Feng had to do was issue an order. How could he ever have imagined the man treating him with such courtesy and discussing matters with him like this?
Truly, when beating a dog, one had to look at its master's face. With Young Master Xu Ling Chong as his powerful backer, the treatment one received was simply different!
At this rate, if he eventually took the position of Third Pavilion Master, then even the exalted Pavilion Master Hu Yun Feng would have to call him brother and clasp arms with him as an equal, would he not?
Meng Jue Ming reveled inwardly for a moment before thinking it over and saying, "Pavilion Master, there has never been any mention of a draw in the rules for our newcomer assessment. After all, these rules were approved by the Council of Elders. If we rashly alter them on our own, we may be accused of showing disrespect to our superiors and invite all manner of gossip. We martial practitioners have always said that there can be no first place in literature and no second place in martial arts. That is precisely the principle at work here!"
"What you say is true, but this matter must be dealt with promptly. If we keep dragging it out and the two newcomers onstage suffer some lasting injury, then neither you, Jueguang, nor I will have an easy time explaining ourselves to our superiors." Hu Yun Feng hesitated.
It was true that adding the unprecedented term "draw" without first obtaining approval from above carried a certain amount of risk. But if they continued to delay and allowed Qiao Hongcai and Meng Zhou, two promising newcomers only in the early Foundation Establishment stage, to exhaust themselves to death, the consequences would be far more serious than the former risk.
Once someone with ulterior motives seized upon the matter and stirred up public sentiment, Hu Yun Feng, as Pavilion Master of the Welcoming New Pavilion, would undoubtedly be saddled with the accusation of incompetence and occupying his post without doing his duty.
This was no idle threat. Being dismissed on the spot would be the least of it. The Law Enforcement Hall might even be alerted, and if the unsavory things he had kept hidden from the light were dug up, Hu Yun Feng might truly find it difficult to escape death.
Therefore, even if it meant enduring a few whispers and taking on a little risk, Hu Yun Feng had to bring this mutually destructive confrontation to an end as quickly as possible.