Chapter 2128 — Won't You Concede?

The Fire Wolf Gang disciple, by contrast, had been one to watch for a while—yet in a match of this caliber he could gain no advantage at all! The Fire Wolf Gang disciples were not afraid of a beating, but Tang Yuyi hammered him until he could not even fight back. A puppet like him, with no real thought in his head, knew only to flail away wildly, utterly without method, so Tang Yuyi easily found his opening and kicked him clean off the platform!

Tang Yuyi had won!

Over on the other side, Yu Ba of the hidden Yu family fought a disciple of the hidden You family and won by a narrow margin.

Elsewhere, the Golden Bell Sect disciple Ma Dashen was locked in a hard-fought, inseparable battle with a disciple of the hidden Zhuang family! Ma Dashen did not fear blows—the Zhuang disciple's strikes landed on him as good as tickling—while he himself picked his moments to launch one sneak attack after another!

This was the difference between a thinking fighter and one without thought. Ma Dashen and the Fire Wolf Gang disciple were much the same in nature, yet their circumstances could not have been more different. In the end, while the Zhuang disciple was off guard, Ma Dashen drove his brute frame into him and knocked him off the platform, claiming the victory!

After a brief rest, the lots were drawn again—and this time Wei Zhao's opponent was Tang Yuyi!

"Grandfather, I have no chance of winning!" Tang Yuyi had once stood at the peak of the mid Mystic Rank; later, after the Tang family threw in with the You family and the Mystic Pill Sect, he had obtained no small number of wondrous elixirs, and his strength had climbed steadily, until now he stood at the peak of the mid Earth Rank!

Yet even at that strength, Tang Yuyi had no wish to fight Wei Zhao. For one thing, he did not think himself Wei Zhao's match; for another, if he clung on and fought dirty, it would surely sour the goodwill between them—and if Wei Zhao, out of regard for Tang Yun or Aunt Xiaoming, chose to let him off, then even a win would be a hollow one.

Tang Yuyi was an upright man. A victory like that, he would rather do without!

Old Master Tang, of course, did not know what his grandson was thinking. Knowing only one side of things and not the other, he nodded and said, "That choice of Pi Zhihai of the hidden Pi family was a very wise one. We of the hidden Tang family cannot be the ones to stick our necks out either!"

"Right, so I was thinking of conceding too," Tang Yuyi said.

"Conserve your strength, and when the time comes, strive for second and hold third. Put the first place out of your mind. As I see it, only the Golden Bell Sect fellow and Wei Zhao are fit to trade blows!" said Old Master Tang. "And I doubt even he is Wei Zhao's match!"

"Fine, I understand!" Tang Yuyi nodded.

So in this match, Tang Yuyi did not even step onto the platform. He simply cupped his hands toward Wei Zhao and said, "Brother Lin, I freely admit I am no match for you. My little sister truly is blessed!"

"?" Wei Zhao was baffled by Tang Yuyi's words. Tang Yuyi's familiar manner of calling him brother had puzzled him already—were the two of them so well acquainted? Then the man went on, more and more outlandishly, until he brought up his little sister. And who on earth was Tang Yuyi's little sister?

First today there had been a Yu Dake, with a little sister named Yu Xiaoke. Surely Tang Yuyi was not about to produce yet another little sister whom Wei Zhao was supposed to know?

But before Wei Zhao could think it over, Old Master Zhao wearily announced the result: "The hidden Tang family concedes. The hidden Han family wins, and advances smoothly into the final two to contend for the championship!"

Tang Yuyi said no more. Though the hidden Tang family had fallen out with Tang Yun and Aunt Xiaoming, he, Tang Yuyi, still counted that sister and that aunt as his own! Afraid that saying more would displease his grandfather, he turned and went back to Old Master Tang's side.

What sort of cunning old hand was Old Master Tang? A Heaven Rank expert—how could he fail to hear Tang Yuyi's words? Yet he did not stop him. He had his own calculations. Wei Zhao grew stronger by the day; by now the hidden You family, the hidden Yu family, the hidden Zhao family, the Golden Bell Sect, and the hidden Pi family had all had good men come off the worse against him. By comparison, the hidden Tang family had the shallowest grievance with Wei Zhao of them all!

True, the hidden Tang family had now cast its lot with the hidden You family and the Mystic Pill Sect, and there could be no mending of relations with Wei Zhao—but what if the hidden You family, or even the Mystic Pill Sect, were to fall? He had to leave the hidden Tang family a way out, did he not?

And that way out was Tang Yuyi! Let Tang Yuyi forge a bond of goodwill with Wei Zhao and Tang Yun, so that if the You family or the Mystic Pill Sect—their backing—should fail, Old Master Tang could forcefully raise Tang Yuyi to prominence, following the example of the hidden Han family, and beg if he must to have Wei Zhao and Tang Yun acknowledged as kin once more...

Of course, he did not yet know that Wei Zhao had forgotten him—had forgotten Tang Yun... Anything that had happened on occasions when Tang Yun was present, Wei Zhao had no memory of at all...

"You're joking? Another surrender without a fight?" Han Xiaopo stared in astonishment at Wei Zhao, who had gone over to the platform, taken a turn about it, and come straight back. For a moment she was speechless. Everyone else was out there fighting for dear life, while Wei Zhao had not even lifted a hand and had won two matches in a row. If the third went the same way, he would surely be the most remarkable contestant in the history of the Hidden World Summit!

Never fighting on the platform—and winning the championship on his opponents' surrenders!

Old Master Zhao was helpless and loath to see such an outcome, but he knew the minds of the other families well. Who would willingly run into a terror like Wei Zhao? To meet him meant injury or death—there was no third possibility. Better than that to conserve one's strength and contend for second and third place!

And at this moment, Wei Zhao had without question fought his way into the top three. Even if he lost the final championship bout, his place in the top two was set in stone—second place at the very worst.

Over there, the Golden Bell Sect disciple Ma Dashen had won by a narrow margin, and the Yu family disciple Yu Ba had lost!

This result was not much of a surprise. After all, Ma Dashen had his own specialty: a body tough beyond measure, and a principle of defending in place of attacking, seizing his chances to strike by stealth. It had always been the same—you hit me, and I channel my qi and hold; the moment you pause for breath, I hit you.

Formidable as Yu Ba was, he still fell into the trap. Ma Dashen relentlessly pressed him to the very edge of the platform and shoved him off!

Yu Ba was unconvinced, but there was nothing he could do. Were he to keep trading blows with Ma Dashen, he had no confidence of victory whatsoever, so he meant to save his strength to challenge the others in the top three!

The final championship bout: Wei Zhao of the hidden Han family against Ma Dashen of the Golden Bell Sect!

This match, now, promised to be a spectacle—on one side Wei Zhao, who had met no opponent at all along the way, every foe surrendering without a fight; on the other Ma Dashen, the weakest in strength, who nonetheless forced his opponents off the platform every time with his brute body!

"You won't concede?" Wei Zhao glanced at Ma Dashen and asked mildly.

"Why should I concede? Others may fear you—I do not!" Ma Dashen said coldly.

"There was a man named Ma Zhu before, wasn't there? How is he now?" Wei Zhao asked.

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