Chapter 3784 — The Second Round
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 3
Thus it was that Meng Zhou had already named his target: three points to be taken from Zha Wu. After him, Xiao Che of Mountain-Low No. 15 Cave Dwelling would promptly take two more points from him. For Zha Wu, who now had only his starting score left and was destined to have a batch of points deducted in the spirit herb trial stage, a negative total across the first four assessment stages was all but certain—his prospects were bleak and dismal indeed.
Three days later, the second round of the newcomers' challenge tournament began as scheduled.
After the seven matchups of the first round, the situation of every Azure Cloud Pavilion newcomer had gradually become clear, and each of them knew in their hearts exactly what they should and should not do. So there was none of the previous deadlock where, if you did not move, I did not move either; instead, without any standoff at all, they went straight to battle.
At Mountain-Low No. 15 Cave Dwelling, Xiao Che was now busy devoting himself to building his foundation. With his steady, reserved temperament, he would certainly not come out to issue a challenge before his foundation was successfully laid—he was not the sort of fool to tear down his own defenses.
At Mountain-Low No. 14 Cave Dwelling, Meng Zhou indeed was the first to take the stage, and he named Zha Wu of Mountain-Low No. 13 Cave Dwelling as his challenge. Though this move was within reason, to the other newcomers it was more or less unexpected—after all, Meng Zhou hardly seemed like such a calm, rational sort.
To abandon for a mere three points the vow of war he had declared against Qiao Hong Cai in the previous round—such back-and-forth behavior, treating face as a passing cloud, truly did not seem like something a simple-minded, show-off-loving creature like Meng Zhou could do.
But no matter how others saw it, Meng Zhou did exactly that, and from the look of it, he did not care in the least what people were saying.
Facing such an overbearing early-stage Foundation Establishment expert, a weakling like Zha Wu had no power to resist at all. Never mind that his strength was lacking to begin with—even if he truly had the power to put up a fight, in his current state, gravely wounded and not yet healed, he could not possibly stand and fight. He could only voluntarily concede.
Zha Wu conceded outright, and Meng Zhou easily claimed three points and advanced to Mountain-Low No. 13 Cave Dwelling. This outcome was only natural, and no one found it the least bit surprising.
Though Meng Zhou had gone back on his word, such things were long since commonplace in the treacherous world of cultivation and stirred little discussion. By contrast, Zha Wu, the weak party whose situation was wretched beyond words, instead became the target of the other newcomers' mockery and condemnation.
"Serves him right! The fellow thought he could seize an opportunity and turn a profit—what delusion. He knew perfectly well how feeble his strength was, yet he still dared to pull a stunt like this and challenge Wei Zhao on his own. Ha, only a weakling like that could dream it up!"
"Exactly. He never bothered to weigh what he's made of. Plenty of nerve, all right—pity it's in all the wrong places!"
"Right. Who doesn't know how to play an angle? But even playing an angle takes some strength to back it up. That idiot weakling overreached—if you haven't got the goods, why the hell climb the mountain at all?"
"People are all cheap like that! With his piddling bit of strength, he actually dared to exploit the gap between Senior Brother Meng and that posturing king Wei Zhao. 'Reckless of his own life' describes exactly this kind of fool. Heh heh, the way I see it, the fellow can't escape a negative score now—he can forget about ever entering the Azure Cloud Pavilion again!"