Chapter 4471 — Unable to Hold Back
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"Heh heh. Who'd have thought this old Chief Escort Fang, no youngster in years, would have such a temper on him too—looks like he means to seize the chance for revenge!" someone in the crowd laughed.
"No mystery there. Anyone in his shoes would choke on that grievance. In the first round of the escort-defense battles, the Dragon Boat Escort Agency cut down all five of his elite escorts—for the Blackwater Escort Agency, that's a wound to the bone!" a knowledgeable onlooker explained.
"The competition has always been this brutal. What's there to blame anyone for? If you can't take losing, then don't come at all!" someone said with a sneer.
"Exactly. With the little strength the Blackwater Escort Agency has, to step up to the Dragon Boat Escort Agency now is plainly asking to be trampled again, isn't it? Is the old man a fool?" another chimed in with a cold laugh.
"Tsk tsk, the Blackwater Escort Agency is really in a tight spot this time..." The bystanders nodded along one after another.
The murmuring below the stage rose and fell without cease—some mocking, some sympathetic, some gloating, some looking on with cold indifference. In short, no one minded a spectacle as long as it was lively, and nine out of ten people present did not favor the Blackwater Escort Agency's chances.
Fang Heng listened to all this talk, his expression cold as water.
This time he had resolved to stake everything. Points no longer mattered; such a chance was rare, and the only thing on his mind now was revenge.
Fang Heng might be a little hot-headed, but he was an old hand of the Southern Continent and no fool. This challenge by an agency's helmsman was, in truth, a rare chance for revenge.
In a five-on-five agency championship bout like the one just past, what was tested was an agency's overall strength, and his Blackwater Escort Agency could never have been a match for the Dragon Boat Escort Agency. But this was one-on-one, and that was a different matter entirely.
Fang Heng drew aside the Blackwater Escort Agency's last remaining elite escort—a fine hand at the peak of the Gold Core stage—and earnestly and tensely exhorted him at length, then finally watched him mount the platform. Whether he could wipe out his former shame, success or failure, hung on this single move.
Watching the Blackwater challenger take the stage, Cheng Haonan, Long Kuiba, and Wu Baoliang exchanged a glance, and a mocking smile spread across their faces.
From first to last, they had never taken the Blackwater Escort Agency seriously at all—killing them had been easy as could be. So it had been in the first round, and so it would be now, naturally, no exception.
Only moments ago the three of them had been fretting over how to seize the challenge right, and now, before they knew it, the Blackwater Escort Agency had delivered the chance right to their door. Heaven was on their side indeed!
"You two, who do you think we should send out?" Long Kuiba asked at once.
He himself was a Nascent Soul-stage expert, so naturally he was not among those who could be challenged; but Cheng Haonan and Wu Baoliang were both at the peak of the Gold Core stage, and both were on the roster of higher-ups the Dragon Boat Escort Agency had submitted—Cheng Haonan as second escort, Wu Baoliang as strategist.
Of course, the challenger the Blackwater Escort Agency had sent up, though a fine hand at the peak of the Gold Core stage, was not taken seriously by the three at all. Sending either Cheng Haonan or Wu Baoliang to fight would be like using an ox-cleaver to kill a chicken—far too much fuss over a trifle.
Any elite escort of the Dragon Boat Escort Agency picked at random could have settled the matter, but the rules would not allow it.
"Trash like this isn't worth mentioning, but this time we must secure the challenge right—there can be no slip-up. Neither of us can afford to underestimate him!" Wu Baoliang said, exchanging a glance with Cheng Haonan. (To be continued...)