Chapter 3776 — Retreating to Advance?
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
Knowing full well how unevenly matched they were, meeting Meng Zhou head-on was plainly unwise—but to openly concede in front of everyone took tremendous nerve. Hesitate for even a moment, and one might well be left bleeding on the spot.
The instant Xiao Che finished speaking, the entire hall fell silent for a long while. Even the referees from the Profound Mechanism Pavilion were stunned for several breaths before they recovered and announced, "Xiao Che of Mountain-Low Cave Dwelling No. 14 forfeits. This match goes to Meng Zhou of Mountain-Low Cave Dwelling No. 15!"
"Hmph, at least you know your place. Otherwise, this lord would have kicked you into minced meat long ago!" Meng Zhou shot Xiao Che a vicious glare and sneered.
Xiao Che looked back at him expressionlessly, said nothing, and turned to walk off the platform. What greeted him was a chorus of boos from the other newcomers below.
Yet in that instant, the fighting spirit hidden within him only burned all the fiercer.
"Once you have established your foundation, come back and deal with this thing properly," Wei Zhao said with a smile, patting him on the shoulder.
"Yeah." Xiao Che nodded firmly. When he looked up at Meng Zhou again, the fighting spirit had been drawn back in, once more plain and unremarkable.
But Wei Zhao, who knew him well, understood that this fool Meng Zhou had already drawn the attention of something formidable. There would be no need for Wei Zhao to lift a finger himself—before long, a wholly new Xiao Che would rise to challenge this creature.
Given Xiao Che's depth, even if Meng Zhou had established his foundation first by a few days, when the time came, the outcome was anyone's guess.
Up on the platform, however, Meng Zhou did not step down at once. By the rules of the challenge, in his current position as master of Mountain-Low Cave Dwelling No. 14, no newcomer ranked below him—except Xiao Che—could issue a challenge. Yet he did not leave the stage. Instead, he extended a single finger and pointed across the distance at Qiao Hongcai, who stood beside Wei Zhao.
"The next round will be your turn. We shall see whether you, Qiao the Good-for-Nothing, will also learn to play the shrinking turtle. This lord waits with keen interest!" Meng Zhou laughed scornfully, then finally turned and stepped down.
"My god, what the hell is this idiot so smug about? Does he really think early-stage Foundation Establishment makes him invincible? Just wait and see!" Qiao Hongcai clenched his fists.
He was not Xiao Che. Even knowing that retreating to advance was the wiser course, he could not swallow this insult. Knowing full well he would lose, he would still rather clash head-on with Meng Zhou to the bitter end. He would never concede of his own accord.
Wei Zhao and the long-suffering senior brother exchanged a glance and shook their heads helplessly. Given Qiao Hongcai's upright, unyielding temperament, even if they wanted to talk him out of it, they could not.
Still, perhaps it was just as well. Letting him pit himself against a skilled early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator like Meng Zhou would do him enormous good for breaking through to Foundation Establishment afterward. By then, he need only be careful not to let Meng Zhou seize the chance to kill him.
In the first match of the first round of the Azure Cloud Pavilion newcomers' challenge tournament, though it ended with Meng Zhou winning without a fight, one thing at least was beyond doubt: he had broken the awkward deadlock, ensuring that the other newcomers would not be so wary of one another that they dared not initiate a challenge.
Sure enough, mere moments after Meng Zhou stepped down, a newcomer immediately issued a challenge—the master of Cave Dwelling No. 12.