Chapter 3824 — The End of the Challenge Tournament
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 3
For one who had always been invincible, this blow was severe indeed. And with Kang Jingming having come by earlier to mock and jeer, the long-suffering senior brother and the others had feared Wei Zhao was stewing in gloom, which was precisely why they had deliberately raised the subject to console him—never expecting that the fellow seemed not the least bit like a man who had taken a hit.
"Rest easy. Since this business was handed to me, there's nothing to worry about. Just wait and see the results," Wei Zhao said with a smile to the group.
The long-suffering senior brother and the others exchanged glances. They still could not work out where Wei Zhao's confidence came from, but they nodded in unison nonetheless, convinced—after all, ever since they had come to know him, not once had this fellow failed to deliver on something he said he would do.
So this time, surely, would be no exception!
The sixth round of the Qingyun Pavilion newcomer challenge tournament, apart from that opening stir, proceeded entirely in the rhythm everyone had anticipated. Qiao Hongcai and Xiao Che—the two great mountains beneath Wei Zhao—challenged upward one after another and reaped points.
As for Meng Zhou, the only one among the remaining newcomers capable of posing any threat to them: although quite a few people, Wei Zhao included, had assumed after seeing Young Master Xu appear at the last match that he would make some big move next, judging by at least this round, Meng Zhou was still biding his time.
In truth, he had no choice but to bide his time now. His injuries from that mutual ruin with Qiao Hongcai last time had not yet healed. And even once they did, at his early Foundation Establishment strength he was not necessarily a match for Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai.
So the only thing Meng Zhou could do now was to follow behind Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai after they had challenged upward, picking off the soft targets.
Though this course of action left one who fancied himself the leader of Qingyun Pavilion's newcomers utterly stifled, for the moment it was the only way. Otherwise, in his present condition, to face either Xiao Che or Qiao Hongcai was to invite a beating.
And apart from these three, of the other two among Qingyun Pavilion's top five, Wei Zhao—the number one newcomer—was as ever idly coasting along, while Li Zhengming likewise had no chance to take the stage.
Yet even without taking the stage to display his strength, Wei Zhao's golden finger had already shown him that the fellow's whole aura had been utterly transformed compared to before. Without question, thanks to those two Foundation Establishment Pills, Li Zhengming had finally succeeded in breaking through to Foundation Establishment and become the fifth early Foundation Establishment expert among Qingyun Pavilion's newcomers!
However—whether because no one else present had paid it any mind, or because Li Zhengming had concealed it too well—people like Meng Jueming had simply not noticed the change in Li Zhengming at all. In their understanding, Li Zhengming was still merely at the peak of the Heaven rank, not an early Foundation Establishment expert who could stand shoulder to shoulder with Meng Zhou and put up a fight against Wei Zhao's faction.
This outcome was precisely the situation Li Zhengming, deliberately keeping a low profile, most wished to see. Otherwise, that fellow Meng Jueming might well have demanded that he go deal with Wei Zhao, and that would have been rather awkward to handle.
Thus the sixth round of the newcomer challenge tournament passed without wind or wave. But when Wei Zhao returned to his cave dwelling and, as was his habit, entered the jade pendant's space, a casual glance around at the scene before him gave him a great shock.