Chapter 2136 — Going Back on One's Word, Part 2

When he was at the Mystic Rank, he had crippled the strongest man below the Earth Rank; now that he was at the Earth Rank, could he not cripple the invincible existence below the Heaven Rank? And beyond that, Wei Zhao might still be concealing his true strength—he could well be a Heaven Rank expert!

At this thought, Zhuang Niaopao and Zhuang Niaoqiang exchanged a glance, and each saw in the other's eyes a deep, profound fear. All their earlier bluster collapsed in an instant, like drums falling silent.

It was one thing for a single man to be afraid—the other could still bolster his courage. But now both of them had lost their nerve, their spirit broken before the fight had even begun. That was the most fatal weakness one could bring to an arena.

"You two—so eager to die? The Ice Palace trial forbade killing, but this is a life-and-death arena!" Wei Zhao said, looking at the Zhuang brothers. "Since you've stepped up, don't step back down!"

"Lord Ling, don't strike yet!" Zhuang Niaopao cried, and as though his tail had been trodden on, he leapt down from the platform in a single bound. "I'm off the platform now—you can't touch me..."

"That's right, Lord Ling!" Zhuang Niaoqiang jumped down after him. "We concede! By the rules of the contest, once we've conceded, you can't hit us anymore!"

This turn of events left everyone present dumbfounded. No one had expected the Zhuang brothers to be so utterly brainless—boasting and swaggering on the platform moments before, and now that Wei Zhao had arrived, leaping straight off and conceding, as if terrified that Wei Zhao would kill them the instant he set foot on the stage!

Yet the Zhuang brothers showed not the slightest shame; on the contrary, they acted as though they had done something eminently sensible.

"Oh—so you concede. Then let it be," Wei Zhao said. "Old Master Zhao, you may announce the result!"

"In the contest between the two strong contenders, the hidden Han family wins and becomes one of the final two..." Old Master Zhao announced. What left him utterly speechless was that Wei Zhao had not fought a single match since yesterday—his opponents had done nothing but concede, concede, and concede again!

"Boss, you really are a terror! Those Zhuang brothers were shouting and posturing before, but the moment you showed up, they conceded outright. It's almost comical!" Han Xiaopo said.

"I crossed blades with their leader once before," Wei Zhao said mildly.

"Huh? They had a leader too? No wonder they were so arrogant. What happened to their leader afterward?" Han Xiaopo asked at once.

"Crippled," Wei Zhao said.

"Crippled? Boss, don't tell me you did it?" Han Xiaopo said in astonishment.

"If it wasn't me, why would they have begged for mercy?" Wei Zhao said with a smile.

"So that's it! I was wondering why those two loudmouths suddenly wilted!" Han Xiaopo nodded.

When the old master of the hidden Zhuang family learned that Wei Zhao was none other than Ling Yi from the trial, he had no objection whatsoever to Zhuang Niaopao and Zhuang Niaoqiang's concession—he wholly approved of their decision. Since this Wei Zhao was so powerful, there was truly no need to meet him head-on.

Meanwhile, the match between the hidden Yu family and the Qianshan Sect had also produced a result. The hidden Yu family had received Old Master Yu's instructions that preserving their strength came first. So after circling for a few rounds and finding no chance of victory, they too gave up and conceded, unwilling to fight to the death—they meant to save their strength for the contest with the Zhuang brothers!

Originally, the hidden Yu family's plan had been for the Zhuang brothers to expend a great deal of strength in their challenge against Wei Zhao—and ideally suffer some injuries—so that they could then seize an easy advantage and defeat the Zhuang brothers to take third place.

But now that plan no longer looked workable. Those Zhuang brothers had strutted and blustered, and the moment the bluster was over, they started playing the meek. What sort of logic was that?

The disciples of the hidden Yu family did not know the inside story; they assumed the Zhuang brothers were playing some kind of trick. So they dared not be negligent—after a few exchanges with the Qianshan Sect, they conceded and prepared to fight the hidden Zhuang family's disciples for third place.

"The final match, the championship duel: the hidden Han family against the Qianshan Sect. I hope this will be the finest spectacle of the entire tournament. Both sides are elite talents, so I hope it does not end in a concession—after all, everyone has placed high hopes on you!" Old Master Zhao truly did not want the Qianshan Sect to concede again; that would make Wei Zhao's championship come far too easily. So he did not mind needling the Qianshan Sect a little.

"Ha—conceding is the act of a coward! The Qianshan Sect will absolutely never concede!" The speaker was the Qianshan Sect Master's direct disciple, named Wojin Dao, one of the outstanding figures of the Qianshan Sect's younger generation who had established a pact with a spirit beast. He could already communicate with his beast to a certain degree, and their coordination was quite close.

Of course, such spirit-beast pacts were in truth built through long days and nights spent together, not forced into being. To earn a spirit beast's recognition was genuinely difficult—it required ample patience, and one had to win the beast's goodwill, and only then could a pact be built step by step, so that they fought as one.

Wojin Dao was one of the more formidable ones; he could command a mid-Yellow-Rank spirit wolf. This spirit wolf was ferocious beyond measure, and even experts at the peak of the late Earth Rank generally dared not meet it head-on!

This was Wojin Dao's pride as well. Last time he had brought the spirit wolf to the Ice Palace trial, hoping to shine brilliantly—but to his surprise, his own strength exceeded the contest's requirements, and he was eliminated in advance. It was a humiliation to him.

So at this summit of the hidden clans, he had mustered all his vigor, determined to make a name for himself! The Qianshan Sect had agreed among themselves that they would win this final added match. But now the whole order had been thrown into chaos—it was no longer the originally arranged one-man-one-bout scenario!

With Wei Zhao in the mix, victory would depend on each side's own ability. So in this two-man arena challenge, the Qianshan Sect meant to take a championship home as well.

When Wojin Dao finished speaking, the spirit wolf at his side howled twice in agreement: "Awoo, awoo..."

"Boss, this thing doesn't look like it's going to concede?" Han Xiaopo asked, a little worried.

"We'll see. If it comes to it, we concede," Wei Zhao said. He did not place much weight on winning or losing; entering the contest was, at bottom, just a way to carry some fine treasures home.

"No—we've come this far, we can't concede. Even if I have to grit my teeth, I'll see it through!" Han Xiaopo clenched his jaw and made his decision.

"Heh, but don't force it if it doesn't work," Wei Zhao said. He had already seen that this man-and-beast style would not be easy to handle, and he could not fathom what the hidden Zhao family had been thinking to approve such rules. Had he known the rules would be like this, Wei Zhao would have brought General Weiwu along—first to cow that spirit wolf utterly, then to deal with Wojin Dao of the Qianshan Sect!

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