Chapter 3773 — Dismissed with Contempt
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 3
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.