Chapter 3616 — You People Really Are Something

All this for digging ore—was there any need to be so dramatic? This fellow could not possibly be mentally ill, could he?

Wei Zhao could not help rolling his eyes. Though Li Zhengming's approach did look impressive—after all, this was the full-force strike of a peak late Heaven Rank expert, and its power was no joke—the problem was that spirit jade was a hard existence that even Foundation Establishment experts could not shatter, and the surrounding ore was just as hard. Li Zhengming looked like he was risking his life, but in truth he was simply wasting his strength; it was nowhere near as efficient as proper mining technique!

In Wei Zhao's eyes, Li Zhengming was absolutely no fool. After one or two tries at something like this, anyone would easily reach a conclusion. Yet to his surprise, after Li Zhengming calmed down briefly and circulated his true qi to recover, he immediately launched into the same performance again—as if he harbored some deep grudge against the ore node, throwing himself into frantic assault the moment he caught his breath!

Could this fellow really be sick? The thought had scarcely appeared before Wei Zhao dismissed it himself. No one who could claw their way to the Heaven Rank could be a true fool; if Li Zhengming did this deliberately, there had to be some special purpose behind it.

Could he be using the mining work to cultivate some peculiar martial skill? Wei Zhao studied him thoughtfully from head to toe, yet it did not quite seem so. This deliberate quality felt more like he was constantly showing off his peak late Heaven Rank strength.

But it was only peak late Heaven Rank—a strength that, among everyone present including the guards and miners, was likely near the bottom. What was there to show off?

"Unless..." Thinking of his own situation, Wei Zhao's heart suddenly stirred. He observed Li Zhengming with unprecedented care, and only then did the truth dawn on him: this fellow's continual flaunting of his peak late Heaven Rank strength was, in fact, a way of concealing his real strength!

Had this deliberate display not aroused Wei Zhao's curiosity, then even with his ability to see through the strength of any expert below Heaven Rank great perfection, he might never have noticed that Li Zhengming—who appeared on the surface to be merely peak late Heaven Rank—was in fact a Heaven Rank great perfection expert!

In truth, had Wei Zhao not himself been in the habit of deliberately concealing his strength, anyone else would never have thought along these lines. Who would imagine that a fellow constantly parading peak late Heaven Rank strength was actually a Heaven Rank great perfection expert?

Only—why would this Li Zhengming deliberately hide his strength?

Wei Zhao was somewhat puzzled. The reason he himself concealed his early Foundation Establishment strength was that he was a stranger on Cloud Rank Island, and he had enemies old and new like Xu Lingchong, Meng Jueming, and Kang Zhaoming. Hiding his strength let him keep the initiative at all times and avoid being schemed to death by those rivals.

But from days of observation, this Li Zhengming not only failed to show off like himself—he could even be called a low-key, transparent marginal figure. He had no rivals eyeing him covetously, and Heaven Rank great perfection was hardly outstanding among so many newcomers at the Welcome Pavilion. Was there any need to hide one's strength in a cultivation world where the strong ruled?

Yet puzzled as he was, it was none of his concern, and Wei Zhao had no interest in meddling. His task now was to familiarize himself with the mining zone and then find a way to secretly stash spirit jade. As for Li Zhengming, whatever his reason for hiding his strength, so long as he posed no threat to Wei Zhao, it did not matter.

Besides Li Zhengming, one other thing weighed on Wei Zhao's mind: a full hour had passed since work began, and yet he had not caught a glimpse of Meng Jueming or Meng Tong. But on second thought, a knowing curve crept onto the corner of his mouth.

These two had schemed every which way to get him sent to Mining Zone Seven, yet they themselves had yet to appear. At this rate, they must have gone to Mining Zone Ten. Perhaps they were even hoping to uncover the secret of how he had dug out so much fine jade two days running!

Wei Zhao could only say to that: search away, slowly. If you two can dig out fine jade, then you really are something! Not just something—truly something!

And indeed, just as Wei Zhao expected, Meng Jueming and Meng Tong had gone to Mining Zone Ten, the dead mining zone.

Just as Wei Zhao had told Lu Bianren and his miserable senior brother, the two of them had concluded from the past two days' events that Wei Zhao had found a high-quality ore node in the dead mining zone with an extremely high yield of jade—especially fine jade. In quality alone, this node could completely outclass Mining Zone Seven.

In truth, for a steward senior brother like Meng Jueming, digging up seven or eight pieces of fine jade a day was nothing to be astonished at, let alone something to excite him. But the problem was that this was Mining Zone Ten, the dead mining zone with its sparse guards!

Mining Zone Seven's jade yield was decent enough, but it was tightly guarded. Under so many watchful eyes, no matter how clever Meng Jueming was, it was hard to pull any tricks there. But this dead mining zone was different—with his connections in the Spirit Jade Hall, rigging things here would be utterly effortless!

The reason he had never set his sights on this place before was purely that it produced no fine jade. But if a node no inferior to Mining Zone Seven could be found here, the significance would be entirely different! With proper handling, Meng Jueming was fully confident he could turn this place into his own private spirit jade mine. And once he had jade in abundance, his future rise to glory would be just a matter of time!

Of course, the pressing matter was to confirm that a high-quality node truly existed here. So after arriving at Mining Zone Ten, Meng Jueming and Meng Tong questioned the guards carefully, then headed straight for the node where Wei Zhao had mined before.

"What's going on here? Why has Meng Jueming, the Welcome Pavilion steward, come to our dead mining zone? Could it be that this newcomer Meng Tong offended him so badly that he came in person to supervise? Doesn't look like it, though..."

The two guards were utterly baffled. Their only job was to provide the weighing ledger as a reference during weighing; what quality inspection later found—how many fine jade, how many worthless stones—was none of their concern. Moreover, the notion that Mining Zone Ten produced no fine jade had long been ingrained in them, so these two had no idea that Wei Zhao had already handed in a full eighteen pieces of fine jade over the past two days!

"Mm, looks like this is the spot. Start digging!" Following the two guards' directions, Meng Jueming observed carefully and confirmed the node where Wei Zhao had mined jade these past two days. Then, unable to contain his impatience, he set Meng Tong to work.

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