The fact that Leng Leng had escaped him once before had already cost Xue Jianming all his face. This time, he naturally meant to seize the chance and crush Ying Ziyu outright. Unfortunately for him, Ying Ziyu was no longer the man he had once been—a close-quarters, instant-strike sequence, clean and efficient, carried the man straight out of the ring. His opponent had not even the slightest chance to hit back. As for Xue Jianming's instructions, they were nothing but a fool's dream.

And so Wei Zhao and his companions all passed through unscathed and secured their qualifications for the Primordial Trial. Xue Jianming, who had sworn beforehand that he would make Wei Zhao taste the bitterness of loss, ended up thoroughly disgraced. Not only did he gain nothing at all, he had nearly capsized in the gutter during his bout with Leng Leng—a cultivator of early Golden Core, almost dragged under by an expert at the peak of Foundation Establishment. It was a humiliation beyond measure.

"Hmph. I'll let you live a while longer. Once the Primordial Trial begins, not a single one of you will leave alive!" Watching Wei Zhao and the others cheer and celebrate, Xue Jianming ground his teeth. Without waiting for the rest of the trial tournament to finish, he turned and stalked off, face dark as a storm cloud.

In truth, Xue Jianming was not rushing back to sulk. He was rushing to the Center to beg forgiveness!

The trial tournament had by now run its course and the dust had settled. He had boasted boldly before Dr. Glasses, and now he had not a single achievement to show for it. This was not merely a matter of losing face—if Dr. Glasses decided he was useless and revoked his status as a key candidate for cultivation, he would truly spit blood.

"So you've finally come," Dr. Glasses said grimly the moment they met, his tone carrying a note of displeasure.

"Ah—well, the trial tournament has been the centerpiece of these past days, and my every move draws attention. To avoid arousing suspicion, it was inconvenient for me to leave at will. I beg the two superiors to forgive me," Xue Jianming hurriedly said in his own defense.

"Is that so? But how is it we heard that not only did you leave midway, you were gone for several days?" Brother Dafeng said with a curl of his lip.

"That... that..." Xue Jianming was struck dumb. Only then did it occur to him that someone must have come to report on him. After all, so many people had secretly thrown in their lot with the Center—if Dr. Glasses and Brother Dafeng wished to keep track of the trial tournament, it was as easy as turning over their palms.

"What? You still want to keep the matter of Leng Leng beating you black and blue under wraps, hiding it from the two of us?" Brother Dafeng demanded with a cold snort. He knew nothing of Wei Zhao's counter-plot; he simply found Xue Jianming, that turncoat, thoroughly distasteful.

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"And more than that—the trial tournament was a golden opportunity, yet you accomplished nothing. Instead, Wei Zhao and his lot all advanced smoothly, one after another. How do you explain that?" Dr. Glasses was equally displeased. He had gone to the trouble of listing Xue Jianming as a key candidate for cultivation, never expecting the man to prove so useless. Now even he felt his own face burning.

"The two superiors must not be angry. Your subordinate has indeed failed in his duties and disappointed the two superiors. Your subordinate deserves death!" Xue Jianming did not dare quibble. Without hesitation he admitted his fault on the spot, and his manner was utterly sincere.

That attitude actually took Brother Dafeng aback. Dr. Glasses, in order to keep him confused and make him believe he was still trusted, had already leaked the matter of the key cultivation to Xue Jianming. Brother Dafeng had been looking forward to using this chance to trample Xue Jianming thoroughly—if someone was to be a key candidate, it ought at least to be someone more agreeable. But with Xue Jianming showing such an attitude, he found himself at a loss for how to kick a man already down.

"Very well. I will give you one chance to explain yourself," Dr. Glasses said with a nod. Disappointed as he was by Xue Jianming's incompetence, the name list had long since been submitted. Unless it was absolutely unavoidable, he did not wish to go back on his word.

Besides, setting everything else aside, Xue Jianming's background in the Snow Sword Sect was genuinely useful to the Center. That was precisely why he had been singled out for special treatment in the first place.

"Yes—thank you, Superior!" Xue Jianming felt as though he had been granted a great pardon. Dr. Glasses's words meant that so long as he could offer a plausible reason, the matter would pass. His mind raced, and he hurried on: "In this trial tournament, your subordinate was not in fact negligent. I did everything that ought to be done—coercion, bribery, every method at my disposal was employed. The Primordial Alliance disciples matched against Wei Zhao's group had all sworn beforehand that they would strike to kill. But in the end every last one of them was suppressed from first to last. There was truly no way."

"Go on," said Dr. Glasses, betraying no emotion. Brother Dafeng, naturally, said nothing either.

"Yes. This suppression was not merely a matter of surface-level restraint—it was highly targeted, striking directly at the vital junctures of their techniques. I do not know how Wei Zhao managed it, but when one is countered so thoroughly in a match between equals, defeat is all but inevitable," Xue Jianming said respectfully.

"In that case, it really cannot be blamed on you," Dr. Glasses said with a nod. When dealing with the likes of Qiu Lingshan, Xue Jianming could not take the field himself, after all. The most he could do was arrange for others to seize the chance to strike to kill. Failure had been unavoidable.

"But you—an expert of early Golden Core—not only failed to kill Leng Leng, you nearly fell at her hands. That much cannot be excused, surely?" Brother Dafeng said with a frown.

"That..." Xue Jianming's old face flushed red, and he had no choice but to say: "Your subordinate was indeed careless and underestimated the enemy. I did not anticipate that the prison of drawn boundaries she created using her shattered-ice constitution would be so formidable, and so I suffered a hidden loss. But I swear to you, next time there will be no failure."

"Next time?" Brother Dafeng snorted. An expert of early Golden Core who could not even handle someone at the peak of Foundation Establishment, and he still had the nerve to speak of next time?

"Enough. This matter ends here. What's past is past. Since you failed this time, you had best think hard about how to redeem yourself. You understand my meaning, I trust?" Dr. Glasses cut in.

"Thank you for your trust, Superior. Your subordinate is endlessly grateful!" Xue Jianming was overjoyed, and hurried on: "After the trial tournament ends, there is a unified rest period of just under two months. Everyone will go into seclusion to conserve their strength, and I imagine Wei Zhao's group will be no exception. So before the Primordial Trial, it should be very difficult to find a suitable opportunity. We can only wait for the Primordial Trial."

"In that case, we wait for the Primordial Trial," Dr. Glasses decided on the spot. This whole affair had been his and Xue Jianming's own initiative, not orders from above. If a suitable opportunity had come along, well and good; since none had, there was no need to force it.

"Yes." Xue Jianming nodded, then could not resist probing: "Then the matter of the key cultivation—might I ask when it begins? If we wait until the Primordial Trial, I'm afraid it would be rather inconvenient..."