Chapter 3659 — The Newcomer's Trial

"Forgive us, Miss Xie!" Meng Jueming and his companion nodded and agreed in a frantic hurry.

"All right, you two can go back. This young miss is off." Shangguan Lan'er immediately gathered up the little Curly Bear and hurried away. The Shangguan family's household rules were strict indeed, and the sky had already gone fully dark; if she lingered outside much longer and her family found out, she would surely catch another scolding.

Meng Jueming and the other watched Shangguan Lan'er's figure dwindle into the distance, then exchanged a glance and collapsed onto the ground like deflated balloons. That scene just now had frightened them both half to death!

If Meng Jueming had not reacted quickly enough to smooth things over, and if this young miss Shangguan Lan'er had not been so easy to fool, the business from today might well have been dug up, and then they would not even know how they had died!

"Cousin Jiu, that Curly Bear was clearly half-dead from my kicking, so how is it that the moment it got into that Wei Zhao fellow's cave, it was bouncing around as lively as could be, without a scratch on it?" Meng Tong asked, still shaken and utterly baffled.

"I've been wondering about that myself. Could that Wei Zhao fellow heal it? That makes no sense. Even if he had top-grade healing medicine, it couldn't possibly work on a spirit beast like that, could it?" Meng Jueming was equally at a loss.

"Maybe this Curly Bear has some special constitution of its own, some self-healing ability?" Meng Tong slapped his head.

"That's possible, I suppose. Curly Bears are exceedingly rare spirit beasts after all, and we don't know what innate talents they might have," Meng Jueming said with a thoughtful nod.

Compared with the absurd notion that Wei Zhao could heal a spirit beast, the guess that the Curly Bear possessed a self-healing talent was clearly the more plausible. After all, no ordinary person would ever imagine that the cultivation method Wei Zhao practiced was so peculiar that he could use true qi to heal others—even spirit beasts were no exception.

Meng Jueming heaved a sigh of regret. "That Wei Zhao fellow got off easy this time. Otherwise, if that Curly Bear had died in his cave, he'd have been unable to talk his way out of it, and Miss Shangguan would have slaughtered him for certain! What a pity—all that effort, undone at the last moment!"

"Even if he escaped disaster this time, with Cousin Jiu's scheming, finishing him off will be a simple matter!"

Meng Tong fawned out this flattery, then said, "Tomorrow's the twenty-fifth—the day of the newcomer trial we talked about before. I don't know a thing about it, and I've got no confidence at all. I'm just afraid that when the time comes I'll slip up and lose to that Wei Zhao fellow, and then I'd be shaming you, Cousin Jiu. So you've got to give me some pointers in advance!"

On the twenty-fifth day of their first month after entering the sect, all newcomers took part in the newcomer trial. The purpose was to let promising newcomers seek a chance at a breakthrough in real combat before the first newcomer ranking tournament, so they could enter the Foundation Establishment tier as quickly as possible, stand out from the crowd, and become key figures for the Threefold Pavilion to cultivate in the future.

Yet although everyone knew the newcomer trial would begin the next day, no one knew the specific events, the rules, or where the loopholes might be. All anyone knew was that everything would be announced all at once before the trial began the next morning.

Meng Jueming chuckled. "You're an impatient one. Don't worry—it's not announced in advance, but the content of these newcomer trials is much the same every time. I've already prepared a cheat for you that's guaranteed to put you safely above everyone else. Taking first place will be the work of a moment."

"A cheat? Cousin Jiu, you're practically my second parent!" Meng Tong's eyes lit up at once.

"Hmph. You can't do anything else properly, but you're not bad at flattery!" Meng Jueming snorted, though the delight on his face was impossible to hide. He paused, then said, "Also, before the trial tomorrow morning, gather the other newcomers and bring them to me. I have orders for them. With such a fine chance to make trouble, how could we let off Wei Zhao and those other fools who can't see what's good for them?"

"Right away!" Meng Tong nodded again and again. Teaming up to deal with Wei Zhao—this was the sort of thing he delighted in.

Early the next morning, under the organization of their respective supervising senior brothers, the newcomers of the Threefold Pavilion gathered in the main hall of the Welcome Pavilion. But the trial rules were not announced there. Instead, led by the Pavilion Master, Hu Yunfeng, all the newcomers set out together for the trial grounds in the back mountain.

The so-called back mountain was not the back mountain of the Welcome Pavilion, but the back mountain of the entire Threefold Pavilion. Before that vast primeval forest, stretching for tens of thousands of mu, the Welcome Pavilion—occupying a mere patch of less than a hundred mu—seemed utterly insignificant, not worth mentioning.

In the eyes of every cultivator on the North Island, the back mountain was synonymous with rare treasures. If all the rare treasures of the North Island were divided into ten parts, the back mountain accounted for eight of them. So even knowing full well that dangers lurked on every side, cultivators still flocked to the back mountain—only the back mountain was not open to just anyone.

The Threefold Pavilion had an explicit rule: the back mountain was forbidden ground on the North Island, and without the Elders' Council's permission, no one was permitted to set foot there. Violators would be killed without mercy.

Out of regard for the newcomers, the Elders' Council permitted the Welcome Pavilion to hold the newcomer trial in the back mountain. Of course, the access was restricted: the newcomers could only move about the outer perimeter of the back mountain. As for the inner perimeter, or the still more central core region, they could not enter.

There was no need to worry about anyone exploiting a loophole here, for there was no loophole that any newcomer could exploit.

Over the generations, the top experts of the Threefold Pavilion had laid down layer upon layer of restrictions in the back mountain: one layer at the outer perimeter, one at the inner perimeter, and several more in the core region. The newcomer trial opened only the outer restriction; the layers within could not possibly be breached.

And in truth, even if a one-in-ten-thousand miracle occurred and someone broke through the inner perimeter restriction, there was no great cause for concern—not only would the elder in charge of guarding the back mountain detect it at once, but even if it were left unchecked, there would be no loss whatsoever.

To be sure, the deeper one went into the back mountain, the greater the chance of coming across rare treasures seldom seen. But do not forget: reward is always proportional to risk. Without sufficient strength, even if someone did slip through a loophole and sneak in, in the end they would only become food for the bellies of those powerful spirit beasts—which, for the back mountain, was naturally no loss at all.

Led by Pavilion Master Hu Yunfeng, the supervising senior brothers of the Threefold Pavilion brought their respective newcomers to the Back Mountain Hall.

The back mountain was shrouded in restrictions. Unless one possessed matchless strength enough to force a breach, under normal circumstances the only way in or out was by fixed paths, and the throat that controlled those paths was the Back Mountain Hall.

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