Chapter 4206 — Against Xu Lingchong
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
Although Wei Zhao was their enemy as well, by comparison their hatred for Yu Jiang ran deeper. Humiliated at Yu Jiang's hands only yesterday, they now saw him suffer the very same fate today—what a thoroughly satisfying feeling!
Wei Zhao paid no mind to Yu Jiang's cursing and turned his attention to another match, one of whose protagonists was Huang Xiaotao. Her opponent today was Meng Zhou.
If coincidence were the word, Wei Zhao's own pairing against Yu Jiang was coincidence enough already; who would have thought Huang Xiaotao would end up facing Meng Zhou directly? This could no longer be explained by coincidence—and with Xu Yuanzheng presiding over this inner sect tournament to boot, if no one had tampered with the drawing of lots, then one might as well believe in ghosts.
Huang Xiaotao and Meng Zhou were both early Golden Core experts, and both of them perfect breakthroughs at that. Purely in terms of strength, they did indeed make a well-matched pair of rivals.
And yet, Huang Xiaotao's martial skills and weapons put her at far too great a disadvantage on the arena—especially since this was a singles match, with not even one person to cover for her.
Winning the first round against Wu Bufan yesterday had been no small feat. Now, meeting an opponent as formidable as Meng Zhou, another perfect Golden Core expert, her chances of victory were naturally slim. Even Wei Zhao did not hold out much hope for her.
Meng Zhou's strength was far beyond Wu Bufan's reach, and he excelled in the Thousand Legs, making him a speed-type powerhouse. Closing the distance to Huang Xiaotao would be far easier for him than for Wu Bufan. More crucially, Huang Xiaotao's move of turning arrows into spears after being closed in on had already been exposed yesterday. Once a technique like that was guarded against, it was very hard to make it work again.
And indeed, things turned out just as Wei Zhao had expected. After holding out for the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, Huang Xiaotao finally fell to Meng Zhou's Thousand Legs. Fortunately, Wei Zhao had long since instructed her that self-preservation came first.
This time, following Xu Lingchong's wishes, Meng Zhou had meant to simply kill Huang Xiaotao outright and leave Wei Zhao utterly stranded in the upcoming doubles match. To his surprise, once Huang Xiaotao knew she was no match, she chose to concede without the slightest hesitation, leaving him no chance to act.
"Hmph, consider yourself a fast runner!" Meng Zhou shot Huang Xiaotao a cold glance, then stepped off the arena and faced Xu Lingchong, delivering his appraisal in four words, his face full of disdain: "Nothing but ordinary."
"Good. Wei Zhao picks a trashy woman like that as his partner—he'll have no one but himself to blame when the time comes." Xu Lingchong laughed heartily and nodded in relief.
Huang Xiaotao's performance the day before had been remarkably striking, and he had harbored some misgivings about her; but now that Meng Zhou had sounded out her true depths, there was nothing left to worry about.
By the end of the morning, the second round of the singles matches was completely finished, and the list of the top fifty emerged. Wei Zhao, Meng Zhou, and Xu Lingchong—these few new faces of the inner sect tournament—still remained on the list.
Compared with the top hundred, the top fifty list was clearly a notch higher in true worth. Slipping into the top hundred might still rely on luck, but the top fifty required solid, genuine strength—of that there was no doubt.
The top fifty already counted as the upper echelon among all Golden Core disciples, worlds apart from those behind them. To say nothing else, at least they had already secured points—even if the last place among them got only one.
In the afternoon, the third round of the singles matches began, and the remaining fifty launched their assault on the top twenty-five.