Chapter 4484 — Fighting Machine
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"Heh. Then it seems you've come to the wrong man." Wei Zhao's gaze narrowed slightly. He had not expected this creature to pin Cheng Qitian's death on him, without a single word about East Sea Divine Nun, who had actually struck the fatal blow. Such self-deluding ostrich thinking was enough to make one laugh and cry at once.
"Hmph! If you hadn't stirred up trouble, you miserable wretch, would my son have come to harm? One way or another, you die today!" As he spoke, the savage aura around Cheng Haonan suddenly—for some inexplicable reason—went calm. Apart from the ferocious, murderous cast of his face, at first glance he might have seemed no different from an ordinary man.
"Then try it." Wei Zhao remained as light and unruffled as drifting clouds, yet inwardly he tensed, and could not help but reassess this opponent before him with fresh wariness. He did not fear a man in a fit of rage; let him fly into a fury, it mattered not. But this state—like a bloodthirsty beast suddenly holding its entire breath—was the sign of a hunter taking aim at its prey. Utterly dangerous.
He did not yet know the man's true strength, but this alone was enough to show that Cheng Haonan, head of the Poison Eye Mercenary Corps, was far more difficult to deal with than Wu Baoliang had been.
Stirred by Cheng Haonan, the domineering aura Wei Zhao had let blaze forth after blasting Wu Baoliang to death likewise drew back, turning restrained and deep. What is rigid snaps easily; his ever-vigilant instincts told him that this opponent was not the sort to be crushed in a single move. He must tread carefully.
"The agency head's fifth challenge match: Ling Yi of Qingtian Escort Agency versus Cheng Haonan of Longzhou Escort Agency—begin!" Having whetted the whole crowd's appetite to the full, the presiding referee lost no time in declaring the contest open.
The words fell. The two figures on the platform vanished from where they stood at the same instant, and the onlookers all perked up—it seemed both men had adopted the same strategy: strike first to seize the advantage.
Both moved with extraordinary speed, and the platform was soon awash in blurred afterimages, so that for a time many could not even locate their true bodies.
The crowd could not help but be stunned and shaken. Such speed had long since broken past the limit achievable by a fine Gold Core-stage expert. That Wei Zhao possessed such strength surprised no one—his heaven-defying showing just now had seared itself into their minds. What no one had expected was that this Cheng Haonan of Longzhou Escort Agency was a master of the same caliber!
In his earlier bout, Cheng Haonan had deliberately concealed his strength, leading everyone to think him no more than that. Yet this creature, who appeared outwardly to be merely at Gold Core perfection, was in truth a madman on par with a Nascent Soul-stage expert.
First Wu Baoliang, now Cheng Haonan. The crowd buzzed with discussion—this little-known Longzhou Escort Agency really did seem to harbor hidden dragons and crouching tigers.
Bang! Amid the speculation, the two on the platform had already exchanged their first blow. Neither opened with a trump card; both were probing the other's strength with the utmost care and caution.
This one is truly strong! Wei Zhao's heart sank. True, it had been only a probing attack, but the twenty-nine forms of his Frenzied Fire Eight Trigrams Palm could by no means be called weak. Yet his opponent had taken it easily, head-on—apparently effortlessness itself, all at his fingertips. More to the point, the man had used no powerful martial technique, only ordinary fists and feet.
From this alone one could judge that Cheng Haonan's absolute strength must far exceed Wu Baoliang's—at the very least, the depth of his foundation was beyond any comparison with Wu Baoliang.