Seeing Wei Zhao stand firm, Han Tianba and Han Xiaopo said nothing more and followed him into the council hall.

As before, the roster and the stakes were read out, and then Old Master Zhao spoke: "What comes next is one of the most important stages of the Hidden Family Summit—the single-combat arena challenge! Because of the special nature of this contest, each side may field one fighter, and only one. The Qianshan Sect excels at fighting as one man and one beast together, but has no advantage in single combat, so they forfeit!"

That leaves eight families and sects. Lots will be drawn to decide the final four, then lots again to decide the final two and the third place, and the ultimate victor shall emerge from those final two!

Of course, anyone who does not wish to take part may say so now. Otherwise, on the arena, life and death are each man's own fate—unless one side voluntarily concedes, a fighter may absolutely put his opponent to death!

In the arena matches, no magic treasures and no weapons may be used. As for the other rules—there are no rules!

Of course, once the top three are decided, for the sake of fairness, those ranked below fourth may be given a chance to challenge—but a challenger may not challenge someone who has already defeated him! For example, if you were already beaten by your opponent in the elimination round, then you may not choose to challenge him again! Does anyone object?"

The rules were fair enough, so no one raised any objection.

"Good. Since no one objects, the matches begin. Would the fighters of each house come up and draw lots!" said Old Master Zhao.

Wei Zhao drew with the rest of the fighters. For the first round, his opponent was Pi Zhihai of the hidden Pi family! That draw made Wei Zhao pause a moment, though he had more than enough to deal with Pi Zhihai.

At present Pi Zhihai was merely an external-school expert at the peak of the early Earth Rank, while Wei Zhao, though of the same level, was an internal-school expert! That an internal expert surpassed an external one was common knowledge—unless some freak of nature from the Jinzhong Sect appeared.

So with Wei Zhao's current strength, there was no suspense at all in facing Pi Zhihai! Perhaps back during the Ice Palace trial, Wei Zhao had not been a match for Pi Zhihai of the early Earth Rank, for in those days Wei Zhao was only an expert at the peak of the mid Profound Rank!

Yet times had changed. Pi Zhihai had broken through only a single grade to reach the peak of the early Earth Rank, while Wei Zhao had leapt across several grades. Such was the advantage of the internal school over the external! External experts advanced quickly at first and then stagnated later, but the internal school was different.

Wei Zhao did not care who the others faced. The four matches were held simultaneously, and he walked straight to the arena.

Seeing the pairing, the Pi family's old master heaved a silent groan of despair. How had their luck turned so foul? In this arena challenge, the Pi family had intended Pi Zhihai as their seed fighter—after all, his martial skill was formidable, one punch carrying the force to split mountains and cleave seas!

With such a heavy-fist technique unleashed, even experts at the peak of the late Earth Rank would give way. So long as he did not run into one of those Jinzhong Sect nemeses, his chances of victory were good! But Old Master Pi had not anticipated this sudden factor, Wei Zhao!

In martial skill, Wei Zhao was even stronger than Pi Zhihai—the martial skill contest that day had shown it plainly. Wei Zhao's martial power far surpassed the Pi family's! So matching martial skill against Wei Zhao was out of the question!

But if not martial skill, then what? Nothing else would do either. Wei Zhao could withstand the full-force blow of an expert at the early Heaven Rank—could Pi Zhihai?

Old Master Pi's face was frightful to behold, like a ball deflated of its air, and yet there was nothing he could do.

"Grandfather, why don't I just go all out!" Seeing his grandfather's expression, how could Pi Zhihai fail to guess his thoughts? He ground his teeth and spoke.

"Reckless!" Old Master Pi at once waved a hand. "That Wei Zhao is unstoppable now. Clashing with him head-on gives you no chance at all! Your strength was never high to begin with—you rely on martial skill, and Wei Zhao's martial skill surpasses yours besides. So when you go up, drag it out as long as you can, put on a show, and that's enough. Preserve your strength, and later challenge for the top three!"

"Yes..." Though Pi Zhihai was unwilling, he knew Wei Zhao's might. The irony was that he and Pi Zhishan had once meant to hunt down that Ling Yi for revenge—and now Ling Yi stood before him, on an arena of life and death, and he had to step up and concede!

To think how foolish the Pi family had been to provoke Wei Zhao on the Xiao family's behalf! If Wei Zhao's underling was that formidable, Wei Zhao himself must be more formidable still. They had clung to illusions then, but now, after these several matches, every one of them had Wei Zhao as its leading player!

Old Master Pi wondered whether they ought to step aside for a time and avoid Wei Zhao's edge. The boy was not to be trifled with—like a hedgehog, one wrong move and you got pricked!

Pi Zhihai's fighting spirit withered before the battle began; hatred churned in his heart with no outlet. He walked onto the arena with Wei Zhao, cast him a look of loathing, and did not strike. Pi Zhihai was a martial fanatic, but no fool: he had come up only to go through the motions, so he would wait for Wei Zhao to attack, then concede.

"Pi Zhihai, I have killed no small number of your Pi family's people, but in the end, my grudge is with the Xiao family of the secular world, not with your hidden Pi family. So in this fight, I do not wish to take your life!" Wei Zhao said mildly. "Taking your life would be easy as turning my hand—your level of strength is plain to see, and I have no wish to bully you. How about this: you strike me one blow, and if I cannot evade it, I lose. What say you?"

"No need. Since it has come to this, there is no point in fighting. My skill is inferior—there is no shame in conceding!" Pi Zhihai cupped his fists and said.

Pi Zhihai's response surprised Wei Zhao somewhat, but seeing Old Master Pi's smile, he guessed roughly that the old man knew he could not win and had told Pi Zhihai to conserve his strength, to challenge for the top three at the end rather than waste his energy and his life here.

Wei Zhao's victory was beyond doubt. Though Old Master Zhao was somewhat displeased, he still announced the result.

While the other three arenas were still raging, Wei Zhao's side ended without a fight—with a surrender.

"How amazing the leader is! The fight hasn't even started and his opponent has already conceded!" Han Xiaopo rubbed his eyes, hardly able to believe the scene before him—but it was true enough: Pi Zhihai had surrendered without fighting, and Wei Zhao had won.

Wei Zhao shrugged and turned to look at the other battles. For the most part, they were nearly decided!

On the three arenas, those holding the upper hand were Yu Ba of the hidden Yu family, Tang Yuyi of the hidden Tang family, and Ma Dashen, a disciple of the Jinzhong Sect!

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