Chapter 2127 — Voluntary Surrender
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
Seeing Wei Zhao stand firm, Han Tianba and Han Xiaohu said nothing more and followed him into the council hall.
As before, the roster and the stakes were read out, and then Old Master Zhao spoke: "What comes next is one of the most important stages of the Hidden Family Summit—the single-combat arena challenge! Because of the special nature of this contest, each side may field one fighter, and only one. The Qianshan Sect excels at fighting as one man and one beast together, but has no advantage in single combat, so they forfeit!"
That leaves eight families and sects. Lots will be drawn to decide the final four, then lots again to decide the final two and the third place, and the ultimate victor shall emerge from those final two!
Of course, anyone who does not wish to take part may say so now. Otherwise, on the arena, life and death are each man's own fate—unless one side voluntarily concedes, a fighter may absolutely put his opponent to death!
In the arena matches, no magic treasures and no weapons may be used. As for the other rules—there are no rules!
Of course, once the top three are decided, for the sake of fairness, those ranked below fourth may be given a chance to challenge—but a challenger may not challenge someone who has already defeated him! For example, if you were already beaten by your opponent in the elimination round, then you may not choose to challenge him again! Does anyone object?"
The rules were fair enough, so no one raised any objection.
"Good. Since no one objects, the matches begin. Would the fighters of each house come up and draw lots!" said Old Master Zhao.
Wei Zhao drew with the rest of the fighters. For the first round, his opponent was Pi Zhitao of the hidden Pi family! That draw made Wei Zhao pause a moment, though he had more than enough to deal with Pi Zhitao.
At present Pi Zhitao was merely an external-school expert at the peak of the early Earth Rank, while Wei Zhao, though of the same level, was an internal-school expert! That an internal expert surpassed an external one was common knowledge—unless some freak of nature from the Jinzhong Sect appeared.
So with Wei Zhao's current strength, there was no suspense at all in facing Pi Zhitao! Perhaps back during the Ice Palace trial, Wei Zhao had not been a match for Pi Zhitao of the early Earth Rank, for in those days Wei Zhao was only an expert at the peak of the mid Profound Rank!
Yet times had changed. Pi Zhitao had broken through only a single grade to reach the peak of the early Earth Rank, while Wei Zhao had leapt across several grades. Such was the advantage of the internal school over the external! External experts advanced quickly at first and then stagnated later, but the internal school was different.
Wei Zhao did not care who the others faced. The four matches were held simultaneously, and he walked straight to the arena.
Seeing the pairing, the Pi family's old master heaved a silent groan of despair. How had their luck turned so foul? In this arena challenge, the Pi family had intended Pi Zhitao as their seed fighter—after all, his martial skill was formidable, one punch carrying the force to split mountains and cleave seas!
With such a heavy-fist technique unleashed, even experts at the peak of the late Earth Rank would give way. So long as he did not run into one of those Jinzhong Sect nemeses, his chances of victory were good! But Old Master Pi had not anticipated this sudden factor, Wei Zhao!
In martial skill, Wei Zhao was even stronger than Pi Zhitao—the martial skill contest that day had shown it plainly. Wei Zhao's martial power far surpassed the Pi family's! So matching martial skill against Wei Zhao was out of the question!
But if not martial skill, then what? Nothing else would do either. Wei Zhao could withstand the full-force blow of an expert at the early Heaven Rank—could Pi Zhitao?
Old Master Pi's face was frightful to behold, like a ball deflated of its air, and yet there was nothing he could do.