Chapter 4471 — Unable to Hold Back
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
To keep things as fair as possible, the draw was not made with open lots this time, but with hidden lots that seemed at first glance to follow no order at all. Even the agency heads who came up to draw would not know what their lot meant once they held it in hand; only after every lot had been drawn and the panel of judges and referees announced the labels could the results be known.
So even the one who drew last would have no grounds for complaint—after all, drawing first and drawing last came to exactly the same thing.
What surprised Wei Zhao and Qi Wenmo considerably was that throughout the whole drawing process, Hai Wuliang seemed genuinely to have no intention of tampering with anything.
True, pulling off a rigged draw under the eyes of so many people would be no small feat, but surely it should not actually stump a man who styled himself the overlord of the Southern Continent's escort agencies?
Whether in the process or in the outcome, everything looked perfectly normal—nothing but a very ordinary draw, reasonably fair.
In the end, the heads of all thirty-two agencies raised their lots high for all to see, and Hai Wuliang, on behalf of the panel of judges and referees, announced the results. Every eye in the crowd turned to fix on an old man in blue robes.
This man was named Fang Heng, chief escort of the Blackwater Escort Agency.
In terms of seniority alone, he counted as an old hand of the Southern Continent Escort Alliance—a founding figure from the days when the alliance was first established. Yet for all that weighty seniority, the Blackwater Escort Agency's strength was truly beneath notice; if not the very bottom tier, it was at best below the middle ranks, having basically never cracked the top fifteen, with no connection whatsoever to the word "strong."
No one had expected that the first challenge right, watched with such keen attention, would fall to the Blackwater Escort Agency. Who knew how this Chief Escort Fang would choose?
Though winning the first challenge right meant winning the first chance to feast on meat, in the eyes of the great majority the Blackwater Escort Agency simply lacked the strength to feast. To challenge someone else might well be to hand over points for nothing and drag themselves down in the bargain.
The safest choice was to challenge no one at all. After all, their agency had no Gold Core-stage higher-ups, so they could rest easy; they now ranked eighteenth in points, no bad result for the Blackwater Escort Agency, and so long as they played it safe and held that place, it would be a victory.
Conversely, if the Blackwater Escort Agency could not contain its ambition and chose to challenge someone, then much could be said—and a wretched end, eliminated from the competition altogether, was entirely possible.
With the whole hall watching, Fang Heng cleared his throat, stepped forward, and said in a loud, clear voice: "The Blackwater Escort Agency hereby challenges the Dragon Boat Escort Agency!"
As he spoke, Fang Heng swept his gaze over Cheng Haonan and the others, a flash of deep-seated hatred passing through his eyes.
The crowd erupted in an uproar. Challenge the Dragon Boat Escort Agency? Had this Chief Escort Fang lost his mind?
The Dragon Boat Escort Agency was no great agency either, and had shown nothing remarkable before, but judging at least by their performance in this tournament, they were decidedly no weaklings. Ranked eighth in points now, they could well be called commendable.
Had the Qingtian Escort Agency and the Xuanying Escort Agency not been there ahead of them—top-tier dark horses rising with such force as to seize every eye—this Dragon Boat Escort Agency might well have cut a considerable figure itself. They were by no means a force the paltry Blackwater Escort Agency could contend with.