Chapter 4472 — Who Will Take the Field
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"Then let me go. The strategist's martial skill is unfathomable—there's no hiding it. The moment he makes his move, he'll likely frighten that Ling Yi stiff. And afterward, when we challenge the Qingtian Escort Agency, if Ling Yi simply refuses to fight, we'll have to go to a great deal of trouble. Better the strategist conserve his true qi and save it for Ling Yi later."
"Very well, so be it," Wu Baoliang nodded, casting Cheng Haonan a faintly surprised glance.
He had assumed that since this fellow had been nursing his grudge and longing to avenge Cheng Qitian, he would naturally take the field himself against Ling Yi. After all, nothing is sweeter than killing one's enemy with one's own hand. To have the chance pushed onto him instead was genuinely unexpected.
What he did not realize was that this was precisely where Cheng Haonan's cunning lay. He did want Ling Yi dead, but he had no wish to strike the blow himself. Ling Yi's various identities and connections were all on public display; even in a ring match where each man takes his own fate in hand, Cheng Haonan wanted no part of such a feud. Borrowing Wu Baoliang's blade to kill was the safest and least troublesome course.
Such petty calculations never so much as crossed Wu Baoliang's mind, nor would he ever have bothered to dwell on them.
He was not like Cheng Haonan, a jianghu grandee with schemes packed into every fiber of his being. He was simply a devil cultivator, pure and simple: whoever crossed his path and roused his desire to kill, he killed, never once weighing the consequences. At worst, as before, he would find another place to lie low.
Once the three had settled on the plan, Cheng Haonan at once stepped forward on behalf of the Dragon Boat Escort Agency and walked slowly up onto the platform to accept the challenge.
"They're actually sending this one out? That's giving the Blackwater Escort Agency far too much credit, isn't it?" Qi Wenmo could not help but stare at the sight.
The Qingtian Escort Agency and the Poison Eye Mercenary Corps were sworn enemies. Even if he had never crossed blades with Cheng Haonan in person, he at least had a fair idea of the man's strength. On the surface he was a late-stage Gold Core cultivator, but in truth, even compared with Qi Wenmo's own father, he probably gave away little.
To pit a figure like Cheng Haonan against a mere Gold Core expert—was that not outright bullying?
Wei Zhao was likewise somewhat taken aback, though he said nothing. Instead he settled himself and watched Cheng Haonan's every move.
Because of Cheng Qitian, this man was bound to be his enemy as well. But the fellow had never once made a move, so there had never been a chance to see through to his true strength. This was an opportunity.
Neither Qi Wenmo nor Wei Zhao doubted this would be a rout. After all, the man led the Poison Eye Mercenary Corps; if Cheng Haonan lacked even this much strength, it would be sheer nonsense.
Yet the duel took a full half-incense stick's worth of time. The Blackwater Escort Agency's challenger was finally kicked off the platform by Cheng Haonan by the narrowest of margins, and the fight was over.
The men of the Blackwater Escort Agency—Chief Escort Fang Heng above all—went ashen at the sight. There was no need to step closer to look; the escort who had been kicked off the platform was plainly a dead man, for his chest had been pierced clean through by a single kick, leaving only a great bloody hole where his heart had been.
Fang Heng's vision went black, and he collapsed on the spot. The crowd around him erupted into a flurry of confusion, and the whole Blackwater Escort Agency fell into chaos.
They had not merely lost a hundred points in this match—the crucial thing was that the escort sent up was the last of the Blackwater Escort Agency's elite. Their entire elite force had been wiped out, and every one of them had died at the hands of the Dragon Boat Escort Agency. How were they supposed to survive now?