Chapter 3799 — Challenging Meng Zhou
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
Three days passed in the blink of an eye, and the fourth round of the newcomers' challenge tournament commenced right on schedule.
After the warm-up of the previous three rounds—especially the fierce, drag-out battle between Qiao Hongcai and Meng Zhou, two fine hands at the early Foundation stage—the newcomers' challenge tournament had clearly entered its white-hot phase.
No newcomer was holding anything back any longer. At the slightest opening, they would pounce like starving wolves to snatch points, blow for blow and counter for counter, a magnificent spectacle.
On Azure Cloud Pavilion's side, however, the chief attraction was plainly still the top five—or more precisely, Meng Zhou and Qiao Hongcai, the two early-Foundation-stage experts who had just ground each other down in the previous round.
In the last round Meng Zhou and Qiao Hongcai had left each other battered half to death. Had any other ordinary newcomer taken wounds that vicious, even if they were lucky enough to survive, they likely would not have been able to rise from their beds within ten days to half a month.
Yet to the astonishment of the other newcomers, after a mere three short days of recuperation, both Meng Zhou and Qiao Hongcai could already move about as freely as ordinary men—though both still looked visibly wan, each wearing the air of one whose grave injuries had not yet healed.
Given the frail state the two now displayed on the surface, had their cave-dwelling rankings not still been so low, some of the other newcomers might well have entertained thoughts of striking while they were weak. After all, what did it matter that both were early-Foundation-stage experts? At a time like this it was plainly a case of a tiger fallen to the flatlands being bullied by dogs—a sick tiger was no match for a cat!
As the newcomers waited, each nursing his own schemes, the referee finally arrived at his leisure, and the fourth round of the newcomers' challenge tournament officially began.
Qiao Hongcai challenging Meng Zhou—this scene surprised no one. After all, anyone who had suffered the kind of injustice Qiao Hongcai had would find it hard to hold his temper, and that foul grievance was naturally best vented early; otherwise the mind could never be at ease!
Under the gaze of the multitude, hearing Qiao Hongcai's declaration of challenge, Meng Jueming and Meng Zhou exchanged a glance and could not help but smirk darkly.
Come challenge us if you dare—what we fear is that you won't dare!
What none of the newcomers present had anticipated was that Meng Zhou's current appearance—strong on the outside, hollow within—was entirely a sham put on for Qiao Hongcai's benefit, calculated to lure him into issuing the challenge!
In fact, two days earlier, thanks to a fourth-grade Great Return Pill that Meng Jueming had given him, Meng Zhou's injuries had long since healed completely, and after two days of quiet recuperation, his condition was now at its very peak.
And the reason Meng Jueming was willing to stake such a huge sum on Meng Zhou was precisely to deal with Qiao Hongcai. Having come to realize that Wei Zhao and his crew were gradually growing too powerful to control, Meng Jueming, their sworn enemy, could hardly sit by and let them keep growing unchecked.
Now Qiao Hongcai's grave injuries were still unhealed, and he was the weakest link. Strike while your enemy is sick and take his life—Meng Jueming was not about to show the slightest mercy at such a moment.
Still, even if he could procure a fourth-grade Great Return Pill and restore Meng Zhou to health within a single day, there was one point that remained an unchangeable fact.
That was that Qiao Hongcai now held Cave Dwelling No. 13 below the mountain, while Meng Zhou held No. 12. Being ranked below Qiao Hongcai meant he had no right to initiate a challenge; it meant whether to challenge, and when to challenge, was for Qiao Hongcai alone to decide, and Meng Zhou had no say whatsoever.