Chapter 4489 — The Biggest Loser

Cheng Haonan was still at it. From the moment he had defeated Wei Zhao that afternoon, the entire Southern Continent Escort Gathering had become his one-man show. There was nothing anyone else could do about it but sit below and watch the spectacle. What choice did they have? The right to challenge had been held firmly in Cheng Haonan's grip the whole time.

"Oh? The man actually resorts to this trick?" Watching Cheng Haonan's movements on the platform, Wei Zhao's lips curved into a faint, amused smile.

"Stalling for time? That's just shameless..." Qi Wenmo had caught on to Cheng Haonan's intent as well, and clicked his tongue in disbelief.

Nor was it only the two of them—the whole crowd was buzzing with discussion. Cheng Haonan had clearly and deliberately slowed the rhythm of his attack and defense. To conserve as much strength as possible while dragging out the time, he had adopted a passive strategy of pure defense, never attacking. For a formidable figure who had been so overbearingly domineering before to be forced into such a despicable tactic—it truly left one sighing and speechless.

Never mind that Cheng Haonan now seemed short on true qi, his strength ebbing; his formidable power still stood there plain as day. If he truly set his mind on a purely passive, evasive fight, then to say nothing of ordinary Golden Core experts, even something like Qi Wenmo—hailed as the "Little Invincible of the Golden Core"—would hardly be sure to gain any advantage going up against him.

Unless the opponent were swapped for Wei Zhao, that might just do it—only that was impossible. Cheng Haonan had kept the right to challenge clamped in his fist all along, and his greatest worry was surely that the Skysupport Escort Agency would obtain that right. To him, that would be a true disaster.

Fight passively, and then, just as the stick of incense was nearly burned out, suddenly erupt and knock the opponent off the platform—Cheng Haonan's use of true qi was now stingy to the point of outrage, every thread measured and calculated, absolutely none wasted.

After all, for him, whether he could withdraw safely today depended entirely on whether this delaying tactic succeeded. Should it fail, the consequences were unthinkable.

Such a duel was utterly devoid of spectacle. The spectators below yawned one after another; had the assembly not strictly forbidden interfering with the course of the matches, they would surely have been throwing things at the platform by now. What the hell was this supposed to be!

Time trickled away drop by drop, and Cheng Haonan's stalling tactic finally dragged on to the very end. The hour of Hai had arrived, and every eye turned of its own accord to the panel of judges. They truly could not endure this soporific, pointless match a moment longer.

As chief judge of this year's assembly, Hai Wuliang's face had gone utterly dark, as if water could be wrung from it. He ground his teeth, longing to slap Cheng Haonan on that platform into a paste of minced meat!

By his original plan, he had intended to pull some strings at the second drawing of lots, seize the right to challenge for his own Four Seas Escort Agency, and step forward to challenge others for a few points. That way, even if things did not go according to the ideal plan, at least his agency could save a little face.

But now—thanks to Cheng Haonan's despicable stalling tactic, the man had single-handedly dragged things all the way to the hour of Hai. Where was there any time left now?

Looking at Cheng Haonan, exhausted and on the verge of burning out entirely, Hai Wuliang was half inclined to stretch the time a little further. After all, the assembly had only said it would end at the hour of Hai—it had not said whether that meant the beginning or the end of the hour.

But faced with the urgent gazes of so many people below, if he really did that, Hai Wuliang had no doubt he would become the target of universal wrath. Pointed at by a thousand fingers, he would be drowned alive in spit...

With no way out, Hai Wuliang could only stiffen his neck and rise, stepping to the center, while Qi Mingyuan and the others beside him all wore expressions of mockery.

The Four Seas Escort Agency under this chief judge had grown used to throwing its weight around, always carrying itself like the undisputed overlord of escort agencies. And yet now its point ranking was a mere sixth!

An overlord of escort agencies fighting on its home ground, and in the blink of an eye it could not even make the top five—such a thing was utterly unprecedented. This time, the Four Seas Escort Agency would truly be nailed to the pillar of historical shame.

"Owing to the constraints of time, this year's Southern Continent Escort Gathering ends here." Hai Wuliang's very first sentence let the whole crowd breathe a sigh of relief; every face was one of unburdened release. Damn it, this wretched match was finally over...

The hall immediately erupted in discussion. On the point leaderboard, first place still belonged to the Skysupport Escort Agency with one thousand and seventy points; the Dragon Boat Escort Agency, striking late, ranked second with nine hundred and sixty; third, fourth, and fifth went in order to the Divine Wind Escort Agency, the Tianhong Escort Agency, and the Black Eagle Escort Agency; while the Four Seas Escort Agency had been shoved clean out of the top five, reduced to sixth.

Of it all, the most gripping was the contest for first place between the Skysupport and Dragon Boat agencies. Both hailed from the Weihu Sea Region, and their point totals left every other agency far behind. The crux was that in the end the two were separated by only one hundred and ten points. The Dragon Boat Escort Agency had chased for a whole afternoon and still fallen short at the last—one could only say that Heaven's will was at work in the unseen.

Having weathered the danger and held first place after all, Qi Mingyuan, Qi Wenmo, Wei Zhao, and the rest of the company unconsciously let out a long, turbid breath, their faces alight with uncontainable excitement. Even now they could scarcely believe it—their own Skysupport Escort Agency had truly led the field all the way to the end and become the overlord of escort agencies in name and in fact!

In the Southern Continent Sea Region, that status was all but equivalent to leader of the orthodox path; one might even call them the foremost power of the Southern Continent Sea Region without exaggeration. Who would not be thrilled by such an honor?

As for the Dragon Boat Escort Agency, though it was a pity they had ultimately failed to overtake Skysupport, rising from an obscure little agency to sudden prominence as the lofty second agency—if Long Kuiba were still dissatisfied even with such heaven-defying results, then he truly deserved to be drowned alive in the crowd's spit...

It was just like exams in the mortal world: a top student moans and sighs all day about doing poorly, and then the results come out and—ta-da—he's placed second in the whole school. Just how are the rest of us bottom-feeders supposed to live?!

Counting up the great winners of this Southern Continent Escort Gathering, after the Skysupport and Dragon Boat agencies came the Black Eagle Escort Agency. Though it had the Far Reach Escort Agency as its predecessor, it was in the end still a newly formed agency, and to break into the ranks of the top five agencies on its very first participation in the assembly was absolutely cause for celebration, with no room for regret.

And as for the greatest loser, that was beyond all doubt the Four Seas Escort Agency. The overlord of escort agencies, fighting on home ground, had plunged to sixth in a single stroke. From now on the Four Seas Escort Agency would be the butt of everyone's laughter and talk; the era that belonged to the Four Seas Escort Agency was gone, never to return.