"Boss, you really are something! I was worried I wouldn't be able to handle myself up there, but in the end, a few words from you and the hidden Pi family conceded. And to think they were putting on such a swaggering front before—turns out they were just paper tigers, all show and no substance!" Han Xiaopo said excitedly.

"Just luck," Wei Zhao said. "They insisted on entering the arena. Otherwise, you might well have been hurt."

"Hmph—me, hurt? If they'd gone up, they'd have died outright. Anyone with half a brain knows which is the heavier loss and which the lighter," Han Xiaopo said carelessly.

Wei Zhao smiled and neither confirmed nor denied it, offering no further explanation.

About half an hour later, the results of the other matches came out as well. The final four were the hidden Han family, the hidden Zhuang family, the hidden Yu family, and the Qianshan Sect. When the hidden Yu family saw the list of the remaining four, they began to have second thoughts.

None of these old masters was a fool. Old Master Yu had watched the hidden Pi family run into Wei Zhao and concede outright. So in this final-four contest, if the draw went badly and they pulled Wei Zhao, they would simply concede; if they drew anyone else, they would at least put up a fight.

The final-four showdown began after a short rest, and the order of the draw was announced: the hidden Han family against the hidden Zhuang family, and the hidden Yu family against the Qianshan Sect!

Wei Zhao did not much care about this outcome, but the hidden Yu family drew a sharp breath.

The Qianshan Sect's one-man-one-beast arrangement had never been favored by these old masters of the hidden clans. After all, they reckoned that a man and a spirit beast working together could hardly be as tight as two men working together—so a man-and-beast pair should be the easiest to deal with. Take out one, and that counted as victory!

But the earlier battle between the hidden You family and the Qianshan Sect had made the hidden Yu family aware of the danger! That one-man-one-beast combination from the Qianshan Sect was no boast—their coordination was actually more in sync than that of two men. Most terrifying of all, that mid-Yellow-Rank spirit beast could hold its own against a late-Earth-Rank expert, and one slap could send a late-Earth-Rank expert of the hidden You family sprawling face-first in the dirt!

There is no fixed relationship between a spirit beast's rank and its actual strength. Some spirit beasts may reach the Heaven Rank and still not be a match for a human expert at the Yellow Rank. Yet some spirit beasts at the Yellow Rank already possess tremendously powerful combat skills—and this spirit beast of the Qianshan Sect was one such case!

Wei Zhao, however, was no stranger to this. Back in the ancient tomb, the tomb-guarding spirit beast had also been a Yellow Rank beast, yet it had beaten Yu the leader so badly he could not fight back—and yet before General Weiwu it had been docile as a lamb!

The hierarchy of the spirit beast world was truly nothing like that of human cultivators.

The Zhuang brothers had long since heard tales of how fierce and formidable Wei Zhao was. In the singles arena challenge, his opponents had conceded one after another! And today, the two Pi brothers had conceded as well, leaving Zhuang Niaodao and Zhuang Niaopao baffled and unwilling to accept it.

Was this Wei Zhao really that formidable? After all, the two Zhuang brothers were no pushovers either. The pair had trained in joint-attack techniques since childhood. Frankly speaking, with the combined strength the two brothers had at present, they would not come off badly even against early Heaven-Rank experts. It would be no exaggeration to call them invincible below the Heaven Rank!

So when they first heard Wei Zhao's name and battle record, the two had turned up their noses. After the draw paired them with Wei Zhao, the two said little and could not wait to mount the arena, waiting for Wei Zhao to step up.

Before this, Zhuang Niaodao and Zhuang Niaopao had not known Wei Zhao either, because the two of them only entered the doubles arena challenge and had not observed a single match before that. Naturally, they did not know that Wei Zhao was Ling Yi from the Ice Palace trial.

Moreover, in the earlier match between Wei Zhao and the hidden Pi family, the Pi family had conceded, and Wei Zhao had not even stepped onto the arena—so of course they had not seen him.

"Where is Wei Zhao? Come up and face the challenge of the two Zhuang brothers!" Zhuang Niaopao declared with great righteous dignity.

Wei Zhao and Han Xiaopo had gone to the latrine and did not hear Zhuang Niaopao's clamor.

"The match hasn't started yet—no shouting!" Old Master Zhao frowned. These two brothers, Zhuang Niaopao and Zhuang Niaoqiang, had just eliminated the disciples of his hidden Zhao family. Though Old Master Zhao hated Wei Zhao too, he did not have much goodwill toward these two Zhuang brothers either.

"Hmph—brother, I say this Wei Zhao is all reputation and no substance. In a moment, you and I will join forces to tie him up first, then find a chance to go after that Han Xiaopo!" Zhuang Niaopao said.

"Naturally. With the two of us brothers joining hands, we are invincible!" Zhuang Niaoqiang was confident as well. The two of them had been unstoppable all along, sweeping aside the two Zhao family disciples in what was basically a clean victory, so their confidence was full.

"That Wei Zhao—is he coming or not? If he doesn't come, it counts as a voluntary concession!" Zhuang Niaopao said impatiently.

"Concede? Ha!" Before Wei Zhao could speak, Han Xiaopo laughed coldly. "If you two have any sense, you'll concede on your own. Don't end up throwing your lives away too—don't blame me for not warning you. The moment my boss makes his move, any expert at all gets wiped out!"

"Haha! Any expert at all gets wiped out? With the two of us Zhuang brothers joining hands, we are invincible below the Heaven Rank. Let's see how he wipes us out!" Zhuang Niaopao said with a cold sneer.

"Oh, is that so?" Wei Zhao and Han Xiaopo walked over together and looked at the two Zhuang brothers on the arena with a cold smile. "I happen to specialize in wiping out people who are invincible below some rank. When I was at the Mystic Rank, I wiped out two men who claimed to be invincible below the Earth Rank. Now that I'm at the Earth Rank, I might as well wipe out two more who are invincible below the Heaven Rank—just to keep my hand in!"

"Big talk... gah?" Zhuang Niaopao was about to say big talk, that boasting so loudly would make him bite his tongue—but then he saw Wei Zhao's face, and in an instant he stood there dumbstruck as if struck by lightning, unable to speak a word...

"Niaopao, what's wrong with you?" Zhuang Niaoqiang was puzzled to see Zhuang Niaopao frozen, and followed his gaze. When he saw Wei Zhao, his whole body gave a shudder, and he blurted out involuntarily, "Lord Ling?"

Ling Yi had left far too deep an impression on the two brothers. Even a freak of nature like Zhang Naipao had been crippled by Wei Zhao—what virtue or ability did the two of them have to lock wrists with Ling Yi? And Zhuang Niaoqiang thought that even now, the two brothers might not be a match for Zhang Naipao, would they?

The Chrysanthemum Treasure Manual's Bee-Devouring Divine Art was simply an unnatural thing—it drained a person's true qi directly. Who could withstand that? Yet Ling Yi could. Not only did he withstand it, he even crippled Zhang Naipao!

Originally, he had thought Wei Zhao was boasting, but after seeing Wei Zhao, he no longer thought so...

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