Chapter 3779 — Tears Without Tears
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
At these words, the whole hall erupted in an uproar again, and Zha Wu, who had just swallowed a silent, bitter loss, was struck utterly dumb.
When he came back to his senses, Zha Wu felt the world go dark before his eyes and nearly dashed his head to the ground in despair.
My heavens! Do you have no shame at all? Can you not see your leader just beat me into this sorry state? And at a time like this you still jump out to kick a man when he's down—have you not a shred of human decency?
But no matter how wretched and helpless he felt, the challenge match followed its rules: so long as you had not been challenged before, you could not refuse the first time you were.
So even though he was sick with despair, grief-stricken as one mourning a parent, faced with Qiao Hongcai's challenge to his face, Zha Wu could only grit his teeth and take the stage. There was no escape.
The other newcomers now looked at him with gloating in their eyes, mixed with a touch of sympathy. Everyone had harbored improper designs, true, but who had told the fool Zha Wu to rush out first to put on a show?
Now look—his show had failed, he was covered in grave wounds, and on top of that he had to face Qiao Hongcai's merciless follow-up strike. He had brought it all on himself; he deserved his misfortune!
When Zha Wu finally dragged his crippled steps up onto the stage and came to a stop, the Mystic Mechanism Pavilion referee promptly announced, "Azure Cloud Pavilion Newcomer Challenge, first round, third match—Qiao Hongcai of Cave Residence No. 13 challenges Zha Wu of Cave Residence No. 12. Begin!"
Qiao Hongcai did not strike at once. Instead, he looked at Zha Wu and sneered, "Weakling, since you dared jump out to challenge our leader Wei Zhao, you must surely understand the principle of retreating in order to advance, no? Of course, if you don't, then I'll just have to grudgingly help you along."
Because of his grave injuries, Zha Wu's face had already been deathly pale and bloodless. After hearing Qiao Hongcai's words, it flushed crimson—not because his wounds were improving, but because he was purely and simply furious!
What did it mean to reap what one sowed? This was reaping what one sowed—and striking a man while he was down, hounding him to the bitter end!
Never mind that his strength was inferior to Qiao Hongcai's to begin with; in Zha Wu's current wretched state, if he were to fight, he would likely collapse before the first exchange even landed. This was no way to risk one's life.
Yet to simply concede outright made his flesh ache.
After all, he had earned only eleven points across the previous two stages, and because he had challenged Wei Zhao earlier, he had already forfeited the four initial points tied to Cave Residence No. 14. If he conceded now, those points would be deducted from his eleven—and four at that.
If that were all, so be it; he was dead last anyway, and his final score hardly mattered. But the problem was that Meng Zhou, Xiao Che, and that whole pack of ferocious fighters were still queued up behind him, and in the coming rounds he would doubtless keep getting deducted further.
Three points here, two points there—that much was absolutely unavoidable. At this rate his pitiful handful of points would be wiped clean, and if the spirit medicine trial stage then deducted a few more, he might well end up in the negative. That would be no laughing matter!