"Then that's all we can do. If only Leader Wei Zhao were here—he might not be able to take on this many at once, but he'd find a way somehow." Qiao Hongcai sighed.

Somewhere along the way, his way of addressing Wei Zhao had shifted from the old polite "Brother Lin" to "Leader Wei Zhao"—crude to the ear, perhaps, but warmer, and touched with reverence.

Xiao Ran gave a bitter laugh. "I'd rather he weren't here, honestly. If his herbs got taken too on our account, the whole lot of us would come out of this trial with nothing at all."

"What a waste—the herbs they took from me will surely end up in Meng Tong's hands. And that means even if Leader Wei Zhao doesn't get dragged down with us, it'll be hard for him to fight for first place."

Qiao Hongcai let out a dejected sigh. His luck in this trial had actually been rather good—in barely two days he'd already neared five hundred points. If he could deliver his haul unscathed, he still had every hope of contending for a top rank.

But now it was all moot. Not only had he lost every last spirit herb, but his loss had served the enemy and become a burden on Wei Zhao.

"Even if Meng Tong takes first in the end, Leader Wei Zhao still has a shot at the top three. But if this share of mine gets split up along with the rest, he'll be lucky to stay in the top three at all. So these herbs on my back absolutely cannot fall into their hands!" Xiao Ran glanced at the basket behind him, his expression resolute.

He had been ambushed by Meng Tong and his crew later than Qiao Hongcai, so he'd had more time to gather spirit herbs, and his score now stood at five hundred twenty-three points.

In an ordinary year such a score would be middling at best, but this year was different. Meng Tong's gang had begun rallying by midday of the second day of the trial. They had succeeded in robbing Qiao Hongcai, true, but it was a highly risky gambit—their own gathering time had been cut drastically. In other words, their current scores were hardly impressive, and those who could clear the five-hundred mark were likely few and far between.

If Xiao Ran got out of this safely, his five hundred twenty-three might well land him in the top five—even the top three was not out of the question. In that case, despite Meng Tong's first place, this lot would still be denied their clean sweep by Wei Zhao and Xiao Ran. Penny wise and pound foolish.

But if Xiao Ran's share were taken as well, everything changed. With Meng Tong's first place secured, they could simply divide those five hundred-odd points however they liked, and the whole gang could monopolize the top three.

And then not only would Xiao Ran and Qiao Hongcai come away with nothing—even Wei Zhao would end up with only the three spirit jade prizes for fourth through tenth place. Set against the bumper harvest of Meng Tong's crew, it would be a truly pitiful sight.

So Xiao Ran could not, under any circumstances, let Meng Tong's gang succeed—not merely for his own sake, but for Wei Zhao's.

"By the way, did you notice? Neither Meng Tong nor Li Zhengming is carrying a basket," Xiao Ran said suddenly as they hurried along.

Qiao Hongcai blinked, thought back, then said, "Now that you mention it—I hadn't caught that at all! Could the two of them have been robbed by Leader Wei Zhao earlier, not even leaving them a basket?"

"Impossible. Those baskets are the property of the Rear Mountain Hall; nothing can go wrong with them. Even if taking each other's spirit herbs is allowed, the baskets have to be kept. Yours is still on your back, isn't it?" Xiao Ran jutted his chin at Qiao Hongcai's back.

Though every last spirit herb had been stripped from it, Qiao Hongcai still wore his basket—it simply showed a score of zero.

"That's true enough. Then there's only one explanation left—before they came out to rob spirit herbs, those two must have hidden their own baskets somewhere. Probably they were afraid of some mishap, of Leader Wei Zhao and the rest of us robbing them right back!" Qiao Hongcai reasoned.

Xiao Ran nodded. "I was thinking the same. But everyone else with them is still carrying their herbs—only those two hid theirs away first. Sneaky bastards, the pair of them!"

As they spoke, they had raced all the way to the clearing beneath the giant tree, and their hearts leapt with joy. They remembered this tree—reaching it meant the Rear Mountain Hall was not far now.

But before their relief could settle, two figures burst out from the diagonal ahead, and both of them felt their eyelids twitch. Those two figures were none other than Meng Tong and Li Zhengming, who had been chasing them all this way.

"Are you two part rabbit? Fast on your feet, I'll give you that—shame you still can't escape this lord's palm in the end!" Meng Tong blocked their way ahead with a sinister, grating laugh.

Among the newcomers of Azure Cloud Pavilion, apart from that freak Wei Zhao, he and Li Zhengming were the strongest to begin with—and unlike Xiao Ran and Qiao Hongcai, they were neither worn out nor wounded. Small wonder they had cut them off.

In truth, if Xiao Ran and Qiao Hongcai hadn't been running for their lives all this way, Meng Tong and the others would have intercepted them long before.

Xiao Ran's heart sank. He glanced back—the footsteps of the other newcomers were clearly drawing nearer and nearer. If the two of them got tangled up with Meng Tong now, the consequences didn't bear thinking about.

"Don't stop—leave these two to me!" Before Xiao Ran could react, Qiao Hongcai had already charged ahead, straight at Meng Tong and Li Zhengming.

Xiao Ran drew a deep breath. Matters had come to this; there was no other way. He would have to grit his teeth and break through head-on.

Watching the two of them hurtle toward him, Meng Tong smiled contemptuously. "Two fools with a death wish—knowing it's suicide, and still you come knocking! Li Zhengming, you take that wounded piece of trash Qiao. As for Xiao Ran—he's mine to deal with personally!"

Li Zhengming glanced at him. At this moment, both Xiao Ran and Qiao Hongcai were at the end of their rope, but there was still a difference between them—and the greatest difference was that one carried spirit herbs and the other did not.

Meng Tong had a cloth bundle strapped to his back now, holding the spirit herbs seized earlier from Qiao Hongcai. And now he had designs on Xiao Ran as well. By that reckoning, all the herbs would end up in his hands in the end—not a single one set aside for his partner?

"Fine. But the spirit herbs on Xiao Ran—I want half," Li Zhengming said.

His demand was hardly excessive. From the very start he had never meant to contest first place with Meng Tong; so long as he could secure a top-three finish and the Foundation Establishment Pill, he would be well content.

But if Meng Tong wouldn't share even a single herb with him, that goal might just slip out of reach. After all, among so many newcomers in their own gang, there was bound to be one or two with outrageous luck—and add to that the formidable Wei Zhao, and he really might not be sure of it.

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