Chapter 4207 — Conceding as the End

"Of course I want Little Junior Brother to win, but... but..." Shangguan Lan'er pursed her lips. She did not want to sound defeatist—she had always believed in Wei Zhao—yet the problem was that Xu Lingchong, since his return, had simply been too strong. He had crushed even a late Golden Core expert with ease, while Wei Zhao, against a peak mid-Golden Core opponent, had only won with considerable difficulty.

She had never liked cultivation, but after years steeped in Shangguan Tianxia's influence, she had still developed a keen eye. She could tell that unless Wei Zhao was holding some formidable trump card in reserve, a head-on victory over Xu Lingchong would be hard to come by.

"But you think Wei Zhao cannot beat Xu Lingchong?" Shangguan Tianxia smiled noncommittally and said mildly, "Just keep watching. In all the years of the inner sect tournament, this year's is by far the most interesting."

Up on the platform, Xu Lingchong regarded Wei Zhao opposite him, the corners of his mouth curving into a complacent arc.

That the two of them stood on this stage for the final match was no mere coincidence—one might say he had secretly arranged it. Yet he truly had not expected Wei Zhao to actually make it this far; otherwise, had Wei Zhao lacked the strength, no amount of backstage maneuvering would have kept him in the running until now.

Still, this worked out perfectly. His opening bout had been against a late Golden Core expert, a bloody statement of his forceful arrival, and now the final match was the perfect occasion to take Wei Zhao's head and celebrate his ascendancy to the throne of the inner sect tournament. This was precisely what Xu Lingchong had intended from the start.

"A show-off newbie, stumbling and staggering your way into the final—that can't have been easy. This young master, by contrast, had no such thrills; not a single challenge, really, which made it all rather dull." Xu Lingchong paused, then said with a playful look, "Given all the bad blood between us, I ought to take this chance to give you a proper torment. But this young master has decided to show some mercy for once, and leave you with a single piece of advice: if I were you, I'd concede!"

"Oh, since you've asked so earnestly, I'll grant your wish—I concede." Wei Zhao actually nodded and went along with it then and there, a hint of amusement still playing at the corner of his mouth.

Huh? He just conceded, just like that?

The whole arena erupted into an uproar. They had all been utterly convinced this would be a clash of dragons and tigers, had already steeled themselves to witness a battle for the ages—and then Wei Zhao simply conceded, just like that?

That was the exquisite frustration of throwing a punch into cotton. To put it crudely, everyone had already dropped their pants, and you bastard show us this?

Not only were the people below the stage dumbstruck—even Xu Lingchong himself, standing on it, wore a look of utter disbelief, his jaw hanging open for quite a while.

Getting Wei Zhao to concede on his own had been nothing more than a mocking jab, a joke—even he had not thought it possible. Who would have imagined Wei Zhao would actually obey so dutifully and do exactly as told!

As for Shangguan Lan'er and Huang Xiaotao in the stands just then, their expressions too had frozen. Beyond the surprise, though, they secretly breathed a sigh of relief; whatever else, at least Wei Zhao would not be hurt.

Not only that—even Shangguan Tianxia, seated beside them, was visibly taken aback at Wei Zhao's words, before he shook his head with a rueful laugh. This little fellow truly did not play by the rules!

Yet it was precisely this refusal to play by the rules that proved Wei Zhao was no hidebound fool charging blindly ahead. He had not only strength and potential, but also composure and a sense of when to advance and when to withdraw, refusing to haggle over momentary gains and losses—only thus could he go further in the long run.

And so it was. In his previous match against the peak mid-Golden Core expert, Wei Zhao had already won with great difficulty, expending no small amount of stamina and true qi, and had even taken a slight injury. The wound had been healed by the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art, and his true qi had largely recovered with the replenishment of the jade pendant's space—but the wear on his spirit was not so easily dispelled.

In such a state, facing a Xu Lingchong at the height of his powers, it was not that he had no chance of winning, but at the very least it would be bitterly hard, requiring a great price for even a slim opportunity.

To know his own condition was poor and still force himself to put on a brave front and charge in—that was the act of a brainless hothead, and Wei Zhao had not yet grown that fond of posturing.

One had to understand: even by conceding outright, Wei Zhao still placed second in the singles, and could still claim forty-nine points—only one short of Xu Lingchong's fifty. The doubles match was still to come, and that single point of difference could hardly count as a gap at all.

After all, the final ranking was decided by the sum of points from both events; as for whether one had placed first or second in the singles, hardly anyone would care.

"Conceded just like that? You show-off newbie—weren't you always so good at showing off? What, lost your nerve today?" Once Xu Lingchong recovered his wits, he seized the moment to heap on the mockery, sneering, "Seems this newbie king of yours knows his times well enough! I let you caper about before only because this young master couldn't be bothered with you. Now the perfect chance has come to put you in your place, and you don't say a word—you just tuck your head in like a turtle. 'Bully the weak, fear the strong'—you've carried out those four words to perfection..."

As Xu Lingchong took the opportunity to jeer and deride him on the platform, the crowd below began pointing and whispering as well; the looks cast at Wei Zhao now plainly held a few more measures of contempt than before. So this so-called newbie king who had burst onto the scene from nowhere was nothing more than this—a man of empty reputation after all.

Wei Zhao smiled faintly, not bothering in the least to pay heed to Xu Lingchong or the crowd below. As if nothing were the matter, he turned and walked down off the platform of his own accord, his expression serene and unruffled from first to last, without the slightest sign of caring.

With that, the first phase of the inner sect tournament—the singles—came to a complete end, leaving behind a heap of talking points. Summed up in four words, it was this: a new generation rises.

Such a result was absolutely unprecedented. People could already foresee that this generation of inner sect newcomers was destined to be remembered as a golden generation fit for the annals, one that would furnish endless after-dinner conversation and go on to command the future of the Threefold Pavilion of the Northern Isle.

After the singles concluded, there would be three days of rest, followed immediately by the doubles. Because the number of matchups was halved, the schedule would be even tighter than the singles—all of it finished within a single day, with no further chance for rest.

Those three days were therefore especially important to every Threefold Pavilion disciple taking part in the inner sect tournament. The singles results could no longer be changed, and some rejoiced while others grieved—yet this was only the halfway mark. Whether one could ultimately achieve a satisfactory placing in this tournament depended entirely on one's performance three days hence. (This book has no stockpiled chapters; resuming three updates a day from today.) (To be continued...) R527