Chapter 4490 — Disqualified!

Unfortunately, there was no such crack in the ground. Even if Hai Wuliang had wanted to burrow into one, there was nowhere for him to burrow—though, given his nature, there was of course no chance he would give up so easily.

By the assembly's schedule, the next order of business should have been the chief judge's closing address. But now that the Four Seas Escort Agency could not even place among the Five Great Escort Agencies, the title of chief judge naturally could not remain in Hai Wuliang's hands. It was Qi Mingyuan, the new overlord, who should take the stage and speak—that was what the crowd expected.

Hai Wuliang, however, plainly had no intention of yielding the floor so easily. His face grave, he shifted tack and continued: "The assembly's contests are all concluded, but there remains one matter of the utmost importance that I must announce to you all!"

"Through my observations as chief judge, it has come to my attention that certain parties cheated in this assembly, competing by dishonorable means and bringing shame upon its fairness and justice. They must therefore be severely punished!" Hai Wuliang spoke each word with righteous solemnity, working up the crowd's emotions before announcing with ringing finality: "I now declare, in the name of the chief judge, that the contest scores of the Skypiercer Escort Agency and the Dragonboat Escort Agency are revoked, that both are expelled from the Southern Continent Escort Alliance, and that from this day forth they shall never again take part in this grand gathering!"

"What? The first- and second-place agencies, both disqualified?" Uproar swept the hall. The whole of the Demonic Frost Plaza erupted in an instant; those who had been nodding off over the contests were suddenly wide awake, all clamoring the same question. What in the world was going on?!

If even the spectators were in such an uproar, how much more so Qi Mingyuan and the others, the parties at the very center of it? The looks they fixed on Hai Wuliang all said the same thing: had this creature gone mad? A sore loser playing such a trick?

Who did he think he was? A beaten dog who had lost his place as overlord and could not even hold his ground among the Five Great Agencies—yet he had the gall to call himself the assembly's chief judge, and to threaten to strip the top two agencies of their right to compete, and expel them from the Southern Continent Escort Alliance for good?

Qi Mingyuan and the rest were merely shocked, but Long Kuiba and Cheng Haonan, though their faces were no less grim, felt their hearts lurch. Neither of them was a fool; from the tone of Hai Wuliang's words they had already begun to sense what the creature was about.

The hall was on the verge of spiraling out of control, yet Hai Wuliang was in no hurry at all—in fact, he was secretly delighted.

The more agitated these people became, the better, as far as he was concerned, for the more agitated they were, the easier they were to steer. And once the crowd was roused to fury, everyone present would become a spear in his hand, to be aimed wherever he wished—and neither the Skypiercer nor the Dragonboat would escape.

In his original plan, this trump card had been aimed solely at the Dragonboat Escort Agency. But as he reviewed the contests just past, an inspiration struck him, and he decided to go all the way and crush both agencies at once.

It was a move born of necessity. True, if he brought down the Dragonboat alone, his Four Seas Agency could rejoin the ranks of the Five Great Agencies, and he would at least not lose too much face. But that alone would not change the larger picture: the Skypiercer was still bound to become the overlord agency.

And given all the bad blood between him, Hai Wuliang, and the Skypiercer in this contest, once Qi Mingyuan stood in a position of dominance, his fate was easy to imagine. Life would be anything but easy. So by whatever means, he had to bring the Skypiercer down. Now that a rare chance had come to kill two birds with one stone, it would have been a wonder if he had not seized it with a vengeance.

"Hai Wuliang, just how did my Skypiercer cheat, just how did we compete by improper means—you had best explain it clearly before everyone here, or else today our two houses shall know no peace until one of us is dead." Qi Mingyuan walked slowly to stand facing Hai Wuliang, his tone calm but his killing intent razor-sharp.

With Hai Wuliang having spoken in such terms, all pretense of civility was already torn to shreds. Since the other man had drawn the line, Qi Mingyuan would not play the weakling or the coward. If Hai Wuliang could not give a satisfactory account, then even if it meant a bloody, desperate battle with the Four Seas Escort Agency here and now, he would not shrink from it.

Qi Mingyuan had built himself up from nothing; here in the treacherous waters of the Southern Continent, he had single-handedly raised the Skypiercer to glory. A man of such caliber was hardly one to be trifled with. Even if his strength and foundation fell short of the Four Seas Agency's, when it came to mettle and courage, the Skypiercer would yield to no agency present.

"Chief Escort Qi speaks true. Hai Wuliang, why does your speech come out like so much farting? You were the overlord of the escort agencies not so long ago—can you truly be such a sore loser? Falling out of the top five and showing this shameless, petty face—it is ridiculous!" Long Kuiba chimed in with every appearance of shared indignation.

Between him and Qi Mingyuan lay a hatred that could never be dissolved, and only as a last resort would he so willingly play the echo. He would have liked to show a little spine, but the trouble was his guilty conscience. With the Skypiercer standing before him as a shield, there was still a chance he might muddle through; once he was singled out, though, his death was all but certain...

With Qi Mingyuan and Long Kuiba both opening fire, the crowd's eyes on Hai Wuliang turned most intriguing. Given his present plight—to pull such a stunt at this juncture, and to sling mud so as to drag the first- and second-place agencies down—anyone at all would suspect his motives were impure.

After all, to fall from the seat of overlord clean out of the top five was a humiliation of that order visited upon the Four Seas Agency; a deathbed struggle was only to be expected. At such a time, anything Hai Wuliang did was hardly surprising. It was merely that his determination to bite both the Skypiercer and the Dragonboat to death in a single snap showed an appetite so vast that it was self-deluding.

At least in the eyes of nine out of ten present, Hai Wuliang's move was sheer folly—far from saving the Four Seas Agency, it would only push it into a deeper abyss. After all, since the founding of the Southern Continent Escort Gathering, there had never once been a case of the first- and second-place agencies being packed off together. There was simply no rhyme or reason to it.

Everyone watched the drama with keen relish. In their eyes, the scene before them was far more entertaining than the arena duels—a contest like Cheng Haonan's could put one to sleep, but this certainly would not. If only for Hai Wuliang's words just now, what came next was destined to become the talk of the entire Southern Continent. This was rich fare for gossip.

Under the eyes of all present, Hai Wuliang stood calm and composed, not the slightest bit inclined to retreat! (To be continued) R655