Chapter 3773 — Dismissed with Contempt

Of course, now that this was all to deal with Wei Zhao, that was another matter entirely. For Xu Lingchong, seeing Wei Zhao humiliated and trampled into the dirt would be a thoroughly gratifying spectacle.

Yet even with the backing and resources of Young Master Xu, he could occasionally help Meng Zhou once or twice. But if every round of the challenge tournament required him to pay out, that would be not only unrealistic but wholly unnecessary.

After all, Meng Zhou's only mission was to sound out the depth of Wei Zhao's strength. To expect him to kill Wei Zhao outright was nothing less than wishful thinking on their part, even with Young Master Xu lending him a hand.

Once they had reached a consensus, Meng Jueming immediately turned back to Wei Zhao. "Since you have made up your mind to exchange cave dwellings with Xiao Che, and since such a rule does indeed exist, there is no reason for me, as the senior in charge, to stop you. Very well. I approve it."

"Good. Then thank you for your understanding, Senior Brother Meng." Wei Zhao smiled faintly. He had expected this answer from the start and saw nothing surprising in it.

"You are too polite, Junior Brother Wei." Seeing Wei Zhao's composed, self-satisfied air, Meng Jueming, Xu Lingchong, and the others could not help laughing inwardly. What did it mean to have a simple mind and well-developed limbs? Wei Zhao was the perfect example. His strength was not weak, but his intelligence was painfully lacking.

Go on, keep putting on that grand act. Since you are foolish enough to leap into the pit of your own accord, stay there and do not dream of climbing back out. Once everything was settled, Meng Zhou would weigh you and see just how much you were really worth.

Now that Meng Jueming had nodded, all that remained was to report the matter to the Welcoming Pavilion. Wei Zhao could then exchange cave dwellings with Xiao Che, and in the first round of the afternoon challenge tournament, Xiao Che could challenge others in his own right as the owner of Mountain-Low No. 14, competing for challenge points.

Time slipped by in a blink. Once noon had passed, the newcomers of the Three-Tiered Pavilions gathered once again in the main hall of the Welcoming Pavilion, ready to begin the first round of the challenge tournament.

Faced with this stage, so reminiscent of the assessment system of years past, every newcomer's face carried, consciously or otherwise, a trace of nervousness and excitement.

This was already the fourth assessment stage, and the newcomers ought by now to have grown thoroughly accustomed to the pace of the examinations. Yet this one was, after all, different from the three stages before it.

The first three, though none could be called easy, were ultimately one-sided assessments. Those with the requisite strength earned points; those without it did not. There was little room for variables or surprises.

This time, however, things were different. The defining feature of the challenge tournament was competition: the ruthless competition between newcomers. The variables and surprises here were vastly greater. Strength alone was not enough.

Planning and luck were both crucial elements.

Without a strategy prepared in advance, even overwhelming strength might prove useless. Once someone targeted you, you might not even know what had killed you.

Whether to issue a challenge, when to issue it, and how to respond when challenged: should one go all out and fight for every possible point, or deliberately show weakness to preserve one's strength, perhaps even retreat in order to advance and leave oneself room to maneuver? These were all crucial questions every newcomer present had to consider.

If one could not find the answer best suited to oneself, then even if one's strength surpassed that of the others by a full tier, one might still end up drinking the cup of defeat.

After Hu Yunfeng announced the rules from the platform, the first round of the challenge tournament officially began.

The newcomers of the Three-Tiered Pavilions split into three separate areas, and the challenge tournament began simultaneously in all of them. Yet for a time, the scene fell strangely silent. Not a single newcomer from the Three-Tiered Pavilions took the initiative to challenge anyone else.

This was hardly unexpected. In fact, anyone with even a moderately nimble mind could see the trick in it.

Under the rules of the challenge tournament, every newcomer had one opportunity each round to issue a challenge. It was optional. But one must not forget that each person also had one opportunity to be challenged, and that one was mandatory and could not be refused. Once someone chose you, there was nowhere to run.

And so the problem arose.

The moment one took the initiative to challenge someone else, one would inevitably expend a great deal of true qi, win or lose. Even if one had originally been stronger than one's opponent, being ambushed while one's strength was depleted and forced to accept another challenge would leave one in an extremely perilous position.

After all, they were all newcomers. Though there were differences between them, those differences were not so vast as this. Wei Zhao, of course, was the exception: he was a freak of nature.

Thus, what every newcomer feared most was to challenge someone, only to be exploited immediately afterward by another challenger while he was at his weakest. That would be a tremendous loss.

It was therefore inevitable that the deadlock now before them had arisen.

In truth, when this rule had first been devised, the higher-ups had already considered that such a situation might occur. Some had even proposed adding a few corresponding provisions.

For instance, all challenges could be registered in writing before the tournament began. Or each newcomer could be granted immunity from a second battle: once he had challenged someone of his own accord, he would not have to accept any challenge for the rest of that round. That would prevent the awkward spectacle of everyone hesitating to commit in public.

There had been no shortage of proposals like these. At least on paper, they would make the rules fairer and more reasonable, while also serving to protect the newcomers.

Fists and feet had no eyes, and casualties in the course of a fight were nothing unusual. In fact, every year had seen several deaths. If someone were forced into battle while not in peak condition, the odds of injury or death would only rise, never fall.

Yet at the Council of Elders, Shangguan Tianxia, Pavilion Master of the Soaring Heavens Pavilion, suddenly spoke a single sentence, and it silenced everyone outright.

"What is the purpose of the newcomer assessment? Is it not to let the newcomers with the greatest potential rise above the rest? If they cannot even deal with a minor inconvenience like this, and we still have to establish protective rules for them, then what use is there in letting such newcomers stand out? Can they truly shoulder the burden of the Three-Tiered Pavilions?"

At those words, all the other elders fell silent. Given Shangguan Tianxia's overwhelming authority, even the other powerhouses of the Council of Elders did not dare lightly defy his wishes.

In fact, when the Welcoming Pavilion had submitted these assessment rules in the first place, Shangguan Tianxia had scoffed at them.

In his view, only the most brutal and primitive competition could bring the strongest newcomers to the fore. Once the assessment rules were made overly complicated, they might appear more comprehensive and fair on the surface, but in reality they would become no different from the examination system of the secular world. The newcomers selected in the end might look powerful and impressive, yet the moment they were sent out into the wider world, they would turn into useless weaklings with no competitive strength whatsoever.