Chapter 2097 — What Terrible Luck!

Through the turns, drift! Another turn, another drift!

The gap between Wei Zhao's car and Zhao Qibing's kept shrinking. Wei Zhao gave a cold smile and flicked out a true-qi bomb, which struck Zhao Qibing's right rear wheel dead-on!

With a resounding "bang," Zhao Qibing's right rear tire exploded, and in that instant his car lost all control! At such tremendous speed, the car spun several times on the curve before rolling over and over down the slope beneath the mountain road!

This mountain road had been built specifically for racing and was not especially steep, so even as Zhao Qibing's car tumbled down, it would not be a total wreck with a dead driver—and surely plenty of safety measures had been fitted into the car, so there was no fear of him being killed outright in the fall!

Zhao Qibing had been gloating with all his heart, never imagining his car would flip like that. He let out a terrified scream, but by then no one could hear him...

After Zhao Qibing's car went rolling down, Wei Zhao's car brushed right past it...

Using a true-qi bomb to blow out Zhao Qibing's tire—Wei Zhao had done this with utmost secrecy, so not a single person standing at the foot of the mountain had seen him tamper with anything. They had only seen Zhao Qibing's car suddenly lose control and go tumbling off the mountain road...

"Qibing!" Seeing Zhao Qibing's car roll down, Old Master Zhao could hold back no longer. With a great shout, he leaped up and rushed swiftly toward the scene of the accident...

The old masters of the other families and the sect leaders likewise ran after Old Master Zhao toward the accident site...

Zhao Qibing's car had been modified, and naturally its safety features had been modified as well. Though this rollover was rather severe, it had not cost Zhao Qibing his life—but when Old Master Zhao pulled him out of the car, both of Zhao Qibing's legs had been crushed and broken by the deformed wreckage...

"Qibing, how are you?" Old Master Zhao asked as he helped set and reconnect the bones in Zhao Qibing's legs...

"Grandfather, it hurts so much!" Zhao Qibing was filled with bitter unwillingness. Victory had been so close at hand, and yet who would have thought his tire would blow out!

"Qibing, what on earth happened? Did Wei Zhao do this to you?" Old Master Zhao's thoughts went instinctively to Wei Zhao. He alone had motive to harm Zhao Qibing, and at the time Wei Zhao's car had been closest to Zhao Qibing's—he was the one most likely to have tampered with it.

"I don't know!" Zhao Qibing said, enduring the pain. "I don't know what happened either—the tire just suddenly blew..."

"Blew out..." Old Master Zhao's gaze fell on the right rear tire of Zhao Qibing's car, hoping to discern some clue from it, but he could see nothing unusual. So he turned to Old Master Tang and asked, "Old Tang, your Hidden Tang Family has deep knowledge of hidden weapons. Please take a look—could this tire have been punctured by a hidden weapon?"

After all, with Wei Zhao's strength, bursting a tire with a hidden weapon or a stone would have been an easy matter—but Old Master Zhao could not be certain.

"Very well!" Old Master Tang nodded and examined the burst tire carefully. After looking for a while, he shook his head and said, "It does not look like the work of a hidden weapon. There is no regular hard impact damage—it really does look like a tire blowout..."

"Oh? So you're saying the tire really did just blow out?" Old Master Zhao had deep faith in Old Master Tang's judgment. After all, the Hidden Tang Family was a clan devoted to the study of hidden weapons—if Old Master Tang said it was not a hidden weapon, then it truly was not...

"Indeed..." Old Master Tang nodded. Strange as the matter was, by his judgment it really had been caused by a tire blowout...

"How could I be so unlucky?" Zhao Qibing was furious to hear that his tire had inexplicably blown out. He could clearly have beaten Wei Zhao, and now victory had slipped through his fingers!

"This car—which disciple was in charge of its maintenance before?" Old Master Zhao was furious as well. This race was as good as lost; the stakes the Hidden Zhao Family had put up could not be won back, and now they did not even have a chance at second or third place!

Old Master Zhao had wanted the championship—how could he be content to let it go? Yet there was nothing to be done. A blown tire was an act of heaven, an accident; they could only blame Zhao Qibing's terrible luck!

"Ha, I was wondering how that car was going so fast—so it really was a defective vehicle!" Han Xiaopo curled his lip with gleeful schadenfreude. Though he did not know whether Wei Zhao had been up to tricks, in any case Zhao Qibing's crash was a tremendous stroke of good fortune for Wei Zhao!

Old Master Zhao's face darkened. How could he fail to hear the gloating and deliberate mockery in Han Xiaopo's words? He gave a cold snort and said, "A man may stumble, a horse may slip—it's only natural for a car to have problems. What's so surprising about that?"

"That's not it, though—didn't you say yourself earlier, Old Master Zhao, that Elder Yu and Elder You had inspected the car and found no problems?" Han Tianba said with a smile as well.

"They are not professional auto engineers—how could they spot a hidden defect in the car?" Old Master Zhao said with a frown.

"Heh heh, I'd guess the workers who did the modifications just weren't up to standard?" Han Tianba said with a pointed implication.

But no matter what was said, however unhappy Old Master Zhao might be, he had to hurry and summon the family's disciples to take Zhao Qibing back for treatment. There was no way this race could continue—the Hidden Zhao Family withdrew early because of the crash!

This event had been designed for the Hidden Zhao Family's benefit, and yet the Hidden Zhao Family had lost everything!

Meanwhile, up at the mountaintop, Wei Zhao had smoothly crossed the finish line. This result brought joy to some houses and sorrow to others. Han Tianba was naturally overjoyed, and Han Xiaopo was thrilled along with him—but the other hidden families were not so happy!

They had agreed that each family would take a turn as host, one round apiece—and yet they had lost the very first round. What was most infuriating was that the winner was the Hidden Han Family, the very family they had all united against! If they had known the Hidden Han Family would win, why set up a racing competition at all?

But the rules of the competition had already been set—surely they could not go back on them at the last moment? And besides, if they reneged after the first round, how would any of the later rounds ever be contested?

So, according to the rules of the competition, Wei Zhao was the victor and took all the stakes except those for second and third place!

Second and third place in the race were swept by the Hidden You Family and the Hidden Pi Family respectively. The wager the Hidden You Family put up was a small Qi-Gathering Pill, while the Hidden Pi Family put up a kind of body-tempering elixir for external-style experts!

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