Chapter 4448 — A Named Challenge

Cheng Haonan and Long Kuiba were stunned for a moment, and only then did it belatedly dawn on them what had nearly happened. Privately, they gave Wu Baoliang a covert thumbs-up; had his answer not hit the mark, the lot of them would by now be lying dead on the spot.

It was plain enough that in those brief moments Hai Wuliang had toyed with the thought of killing them. After all, cutting down a few devil cultivators would win prestige and renown for the Four Seas Escort Agency—a windfall dropped into his lap, and no man turns down such a gift.

On the other hand, though, Hai Wuliang was in no mind to let slip the chance to deal with Ling Yi; that was why he had suddenly put the question.

If Ling Yi were easy to handle—if his own men could settle the fellow—then there would be no need for Wu Baoliang and his companions, and he could slaughter the devil cultivators without a moment's hesitation to make his name. But if Ling Yi proved hard to handle, and his own men could not settle him alone, then the matter called for careful weighing.

Fortunately, Wu Baoliang's wits had been quick and his answer clever enough, and so they had narrowly escaped disaster, sparing them whatever decision Hai Wuliang might otherwise have made to their detriment.

The reasoning was simple. Since Ling Yi could cripple a master at the peak of the early Nascent Soul stage, an ordinary Golden Core expert clearly could not deal with him—at least not with absolute certainty. So if Hai Wuliang still wished to move against Ling Yi, he could only borrow Wu Baoliang's hand; and that being so, he naturally would not act against them.

In the end, the hatred of Ling Yi outweighed the benefits of slaying devil cultivators, and the decision Hai Wuliang reached let Wu Baoliang and the others scrape through by the narrowest of margins.

"Might I ask, Chief Escort Hai, how you plan to arrange things?" The moment the crisis passed, Cheng Haonan could not wait to press the question.

"Tomorrow is the final round. Its content differs little from past conferences—a full day of challenge matches," Hai Wuliang disclosed.

"Oh? Then may I ask, Chief Escort Hai, what are the rules of these challenge matches?" Long Kuiba followed up at once. It was not only for the sake of dealing with Ling Yi; knowing the rules in advance—even by a single night—would let him prepare all the more thoroughly, and that in turn would affect the final standings.

"The fifth round is called the Escort Agencies' Free Challenge," Hai Wuliang said, glancing at the three of them. He made no particular effort to conceal it; it made no difference to him whether they knew early or not. "When the time comes, every agency will have two chances to challenge another agency, and two chances to answer a challenge. Each bout is staked at one hundred points—the winner takes a hundred, the loser forfeits a hundred."

"Such high stakes?" Long Kuiba's eyes lit up at once. Win all four bouts and a man could take a full four hundred—especially if the points were plundered from the opponent's tally, the swing in one exchange making the gap all the wider.

Never mind that Qingtian Escort Agency now stood alone at the top, four hundred points ahead of the runner-up; if this final fifth round were played well, even Longzhou Escort Agency, with only a hundred and ten points to its name, might yet overtake them!

"Just so. Everything before was mere skirmishing; the last round is the true main event. That has always been the rule of the Southern Continent Escort Gathering. So you may seize the chance to challenge Qingtian Escort Agency," Hai Wuliang said with a nod.

"Challenging Qingtian is no problem—but what if that Ling Yi refuses to take the field?" Cheng Haonan and the others exchanged glances, uneasy.

Such a thing was entirely likely. In the first round, the escort-robbery response match, Ling Yi had not gone up in person. If tomorrow proved the same, then even if they could wrest points from Qingtian Escort Agency, they would have no chance to kill Ling Yi—and that would be a great pity indeed.

"Don't be hasty. What I described was the rules as originally agreed upon by the conference. But to deal with this Ling Yi, I can contrive to add one special rule besides," Hai Wuliang said with a cryptic smile.

"Oh? Might we hear Chief Escort Hai's esteemed proposal?" Cheng Haonan and the others asked, playing their part.

"I had inquiries made beforehand. That Ling Yi holds the rank of honorary escort in Qingtian Escort Agency. So beyond the regular matches, I can add an additional challenge—the Agency Head Challenge," Hai Wuliang said, squinting with a cold smile.

"The Agency Head Challenge?" Cheng Haonan and the others were all taken aback, at a loss.

"It's simple. The rule for this extra challenge is that any competitor may directly name and challenge the Golden Core senior members of any agency—escort chiefs, deputy chiefs, and honorary escorts included. And the challenges may be made without limit; the challenged agency may not refuse!" With that, Hai Wuliang could not hide his satisfaction as he sipped his fine spirit tea.

Cheng Haonan, Wu Baoliang, and Long Kuiba took a moment to digest it before they finally grasped the immense convenience this special rule offered them.

"Excellent! Chief Escort Hai, this special rule you've added is tailor-made for us—utterly practical!" Long Kuiba said, overjoyed.

"So by what Chief Escort Hai says, when the time comes, so long as we challenge Qingtian's senior members, Ling Yi will be forced to fight?" Cheng Haonan and Wu Baoliang were likewise beside themselves with delight.

"Naturally. Otherwise, would I have set this special rule for nothing?" Hai Wuliang gave a cold laugh. "Unless Qingtian Escort Agency forfeits and willingly accepts expulsion from the Southern Continent Escort Alliance—otherwise, they must play by the rules."

"Ha ha, quite so, quite so! Chief Escort Hai is mighty indeed!" Cheng Haonan and the others laughed and chimed in.

This trip to the Four Seas Escort Agency had truly been worth it. They had borne a little risk, perhaps—but had they not come, how would they ever have found so fine a chance to deal with Ling Yi?

Left to their own devices, Cheng Haonan and his two companions might have lingered until the conference's end without ever getting a chance at Ling Yi. But once the matter fell into Hai Wuliang's hands, it was another thing altogether.

He was the chief escort of the Four Seas Escort Agency, the foremost of the conference's five judges and arbiters—the maker of the rules of the game! If he wished to work some trick against a man, it was all too easy; and every word from his mouth came cloaked in high-sounding principle, so that even those who chafed could find no ground to object. Position decides everything—that saying was truly not one bit false.

"But what if, when the time comes, we name a challenge against Qingtian's Golden Core senior members, and Ling Yi still stubbornly refuses to go up, sending someone else out instead?" Long Kuiba was still somewhat uneasy.

Even if the special rule Hai Wuliang proposed were passed, this Southern Continent Escort Gathering was, after all, a contest among thirty-two escort agencies, not a showcase of any single man's prowess. Whatever the match, the premise was that one competed in the name of an agency.

In other words, if Wu Baoliang truly meant to issue a challenge, he could at most name a challenge against Qingtian Escort Agency's senior members; it was hardly possible to come straight at Ling Yi from the outset, for that would make it a purely private vendetta—and where then would be the fairness and dignity of the Southern Continent Escort Gathering? (To be continued...)

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