Chapter 4450 — Raising Doubts
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"That part is simple. If any escort agency is challenged, it may not refuse the challenge until its two challenge rights are exhausted. And if several agencies challenge at the same time, the challenged party chooses its opponent," Hai Wuliang replied.
At those words, the last of the crowd's doubts dissolved. One by one they turned wary, eyeing the other agencies with suspicion thinly veiled by calculation, each mind already turning over its next move.
In this final round, an agency's own strength mattered, of course, but one thing mattered more: choosing one's opponent. That was the key to victory or defeat, and there was no room for the slightest negligence.
Yet just as everyone was flexing their muscles, certain the contest was about to begin, Hai Wuliang abruptly added another rule—the very rule concerning challenges by an agency's helmsman that he had laid out to Cheng Haonan and the other two the night before.
When he finished, the crowd was still busy digesting this extra rule, while the four other judges seated on the raised platform were utterly baffled, puzzlement written across their faces.
This challenge rule had never been part of their earlier discussions; they had not so much as heard of it. And now Hai Wuliang had sprung it on them in public—clearly acting first and reporting afterward!
As things stood, everyone assumed it was the joint decision of the panel. To raise objections now would be to slap him in the face openly, to offend both Hai Wuliang and the Sihai Escort Agency—and who knew what unforeseen consequences might follow. If the assembly descended into chaos on the spot, no one could bear that risk.
At that thought, Zhao Bufan and the others, though their faces had all darkened, held their tongues in the end. This extra challenge rule, after all, cost them nothing of substance. It might even prove an opportunity.
Apart from the Qingtian Escort Agency, the other major agencies—the Sihai Escort Agency included—had no Golden Core cultivators among their upper ranks at all. They were traditional houses of standing, and a Golden Core cultivator ranked at best middling within an agency, sometimes even lower; such a one could not even command respect, let alone rise to a post like chief escort.
So unless they did something foolish, this new challenge rule Hai Wuliang had suddenly appended left them no way to lose points. On the contrary, if they could pick out the soft persimmons, they might even skim off extra points. In other words, they had been placed in the position of beneficiaries from the start—why would they not welcome it?
Of all those present, only Qi Mingyuan's expression shifted the moment he heard it through. The other major agencies had no Golden Core cultivators among their upper ranks—but his Qingtian Escort Agency did!
Hai Wuliang had sprung this out of nowhere. If Qi Mingyuan could not even smell that much scheming, he would be far too dull. In fact, the first thought that leapt into his mind was this: the move was aimed at the Qingtian Escort Agency!
Had the number of challenges simply been capped, that would have been one thing. But the problem was that Hai Wuliang had just stated plainly that any contestant could issue a challenge, with no limit on the number.
The malice behind it was plain for all to see!
The Qingtian Escort Agency had only two people who could step forward and fight—Qi Wenmo and Wei Zhao. Granted, at the Golden Core level those two should have few rivals, but a good tiger cannot hold off a pack of wolves, and true qi always runs dry in the end. They might be confident of winning the first two or three bouts—but what about after that?
Unlimited challenges—if it truly came to that, all the other agencies needed to do was wear the two of them down, then challenge them ceaselessly until the assembly ended. They could keep it up all day long if they liked.