Chapter 4468 — Some Glad, Some Sorrowful
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
By contrast, the Sihai Escort Agency—host of this year's gathering—had already been languishing in third place after the first four rounds. Now, after taking that blow to the head from the Xuanying Escort Agency, even winning two straight afterward could not salvage their slide. With three hundred forty points they sat in fifth, ground firmly beneath Xuanying's heel.
Faced with this galling outcome, Hai Wuliang was fit to breathe fire from all seven orifices. Had there not still been the agency-heads' challenge for last place ahead—which he convinced himself was a chance to turn the tables, still believing he could command the whole board—he would likely have exploded on the spot, dignity be damned.
In truth, in the fifth round of the championship, the Sihai Escort Agency, like the other members of the Big Five, had fought only three bouts, spending two active challenge rights and one right to be challenged. As for that one remaining right to be challenged, it could only sit there as mere decoration.
After all, not every agency came on with the ferocity of the Xuanying Escort Agency, and not every agency head had Zhao Shanying's nerve. To make them actively challenge the Sihai Escort Agency—such a blatantly foolish act of handing over free points—they would sooner die.
By comparison, the Qingtian and Xuanying agencies, both of the Big Five tier, were far luckier. Precisely because they were more or less underestimated, neither of their two challenge opportunities went to waste—a full two hundred points delivered right to their door. The other members of the Big Five were so green with envy their eyes nearly bled.
Hai Wuliang especially. He had long since counted first place at this gathering as already in his pocket, and now, with the fifth round nearly over, he had not only failed to close the gap with the Qingtian Escort Agency—it had only widened. And now he had been ground underfoot by the dark-horse Xuanying Escort Agency. How was a man supposed to bear such humiliation?
Before this, public opinion had always been mixed on both the Qingtian and Xuanying agencies. Unlike the traditional giants such as the Sihai Escort Agency, which were held in the highest esteem, the talk that had long circulated in the streets was that these two were mere upstarts with no real foundation, enjoying nothing but a fleeting run of luck. But now, no one would cling to such foolish notions any longer.
The Xuanying Escort Agency had not merely surpassed the Sihai Escort Agency in points—more crucially, they had beaten Sihai face to face, directly, in the thoroughly weighty Escort Agency Championship, and done so after first fighting a hard bout against the Qingtian Escort Agency. If that still counted as having no foundation, then what did that make the Sihai Escort Agency?
So it was that the Xuanying Escort Agency's strength had now sunk deep into people's minds, enough to become the consensus of public opinion. Everyone now knew that this newly reorganized outfit of rough-and-ready fighters was a force absolutely not to be taken lightly.
And at the same time, it proved something else as well: that the Qingtian Escort Agency was even stronger!
The Sihai Escort Agency had become the stepping stone for the Xuanying Escort Agency, and the Xuanying Escort Agency in turn had become the touchstone for the Qingtian Escort Agency. The stronger Xuanying proved to be, the more it demonstrated that the Qingtian Escort Agency, at the blazing height of its power, was truly invincible against all comers.
After all, of all thirty-two escort agencies in the entire field, from beginning to end, the Xuanying Escort Agency had suffered exactly one defeat—and that was at the hands of the Qingtian Escort Agency. (To be continued..) R527