Chapter 4471 — Unable to Hold Back

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.

"Heh heh. Who'd have thought this old Chief Escort Fang, no youngster in years, would have such a temper on him too—looks like he means to seize the chance for revenge!" someone in the crowd laughed.

"No mystery there. Anyone in his shoes would choke on that grievance. In the first round of the escort-defense battles, the Dragon Boat Escort Agency cut down all five of his elite escorts—for the Blackwater Escort Agency, that's a wound to the bone!" a knowledgeable onlooker explained.

"The competition has always been this brutal. What's there to blame anyone for? If you can't take losing, then don't come at all!" someone said with a sneer.

"Exactly. With the little strength the Blackwater Escort Agency has, to step up to the Dragon Boat Escort Agency now is plainly asking to be trampled again, isn't it? Is the old man a fool?" another chimed in with a cold laugh.

"Tsk tsk, the Blackwater Escort Agency is really in a tight spot this time..." The bystanders nodded along one after another.

The murmuring below the stage rose and fell without cease—some mocking, some sympathetic, some gloating, some looking on with cold indifference. In short, no one minded a spectacle as long as it was lively, and nine out of ten people present did not favor the Blackwater Escort Agency's chances.

Fang Heng listened to all this talk, his expression cold as water.

This time he had resolved to stake everything. Points no longer mattered; such a chance was rare, and the only thing on his mind now was revenge.

Fang Heng might be a little hot-headed, but he was an old hand of the Southern Continent and no fool. This challenge by an agency's helmsman was, in truth, a rare chance for revenge.

In a five-on-five agency championship bout like the one just past, what was tested was an agency's overall strength, and his Blackwater Escort Agency could never have been a match for the Dragon Boat Escort Agency. But this was one-on-one, and that was a different matter entirely.

Fang Heng drew aside the Blackwater Escort Agency's last remaining elite escort—a fine hand at the peak of the Gold Core stage—and earnestly and tensely exhorted him at length, then finally watched him mount the platform. Whether he could wipe out his former shame, success or failure, hung on this single move.

Watching the Blackwater challenger take the stage, Cheng Haonan, Long Kuiba, and Wu Baoliang exchanged a glance, and a mocking smile spread across their faces.

From first to last, they had never taken the Blackwater Escort Agency seriously at all—killing them had been easy as could be. So it had been in the first round, and so it would be now, naturally, no exception.

Only moments ago the three of them had been fretting over how to seize the challenge right, and now, before they knew it, the Blackwater Escort Agency had delivered the chance right to their door. Heaven was on their side indeed!

"You two, who do you think we should send out?" Long Kuiba asked at once.

He himself was a Nascent Soul-stage expert, so naturally he was not among those who could be challenged; but Cheng Haonan and Wu Baoliang were both at the peak of the Gold Core stage, and both were on the roster of higher-ups the Dragon Boat Escort Agency had submitted—Cheng Haonan as second escort, Wu Baoliang as strategist.

Of course, the challenger the Blackwater Escort Agency had sent up, though a fine hand at the peak of the Gold Core stage, was not taken seriously by the three at all. Sending either Cheng Haonan or Wu Baoliang to fight would be like using an ox-cleaver to kill a chicken—far too much fuss over a trifle.

Any elite escort of the Dragon Boat Escort Agency picked at random could have settled the matter, but the rules would not allow it.

"Trash like this isn't worth mentioning, but this time we must secure the challenge right—there can be no slip-up. Neither of us can afford to underestimate him!" Wu Baoliang said, exchanging a glance with Cheng Haonan. (To be continued...)