"Xiao Ran of Cave Dwelling Fifteen at the foot of the mountain challenges Zha Wu of Cave Dwelling Fourteen at the foot of the mountain!" Xiao Ran announced in a ringing voice once he had stepped onto the platform.

At these words, another wave of uproar swept through the newcomers below, while Meng Jue Ming and Meng Tong—who had just groggily regained consciousness—could not help but breathe a sigh of relief.

In the eyes of those people, Xiao Ran, as Qiao Hongcai's comrade, had stood by and watched Qiao Hongcai get robbed by a crooked judgment. Surely, then, Xiao Ran was stepping forward to vent Qiao Hongcai's grievance—so how had he ended up challenging the weakling Zha Wu? It made no sense at all!

Compared with everyone else, Zha Wu, the man in question, turned black as the bottom of a pot the instant he heard Xiao Ran's words, a sight too ghastly to behold, and nearly let out a cry of dismay on the spot.

Before this, having watched Qiao Hongcai and Meng Tong fight each other to mutual ruin—and especially having heard Pavilion Master Hu Yun Feng's unfair verdict—Zha Wu had, frankly speaking, felt rather pleased and fortunate.

Of course, he was not so foolish as to challenge Meng Tong. Though Meng Tong was now a gravely wounded man who could not truss a chicken, and a challenge would net him a full four points with less effort than blowing away a fleck of dust, if he truly dared to kick a man when he was down like that, he would be finished afterward, dead without even knowing how he died.

Still, though he had no intention of kicking Meng Tong while he was down, Zha Wu had spotted an opportunity in all this—a chance to let Meng Tong and Wei Zhao's lot tear each other to pieces like dogs, while he himself stood serenely on the sidelines.

Qiao Hongcai and Meng Tong had ruined each other; Xiao Ran, to vent Qiao Hongcai's grievance, would challenge Meng Tong directly; and once Meng Tong recovered, whether for the sake of face or for the practical matter of points, he would inevitably challenge Xiao Ran and Qiao Hongcai in turn. Thus would they all tear at each other like dogs, while never once deigning to notice him. That was the ideal script in Zha Wu's mind.

After all, the challenge tournament had only eighteen rounds in total. If one were to remain endlessly bogged down among the low-ranked cave dwellings, it would clearly be a terrible bargain for powerful newcomers like Meng Tong; they had to claw their way up to higher ranks as quickly as possible for any chance at more challenge points.

So in theory, Zha Wu's ideal script had every chance of coming true—only he had never expected Xiao Ran to slap him hard across the face the moment he stepped up.

Looking at Xiao Ran's air of a seasoned hand—condensed, restrained, immovable as a mountain—Zha Wu was very nearly in tears.

Heavens above! Could you show a little brotherly loyalty? Didn't you see what a grievance Qiao Hongcai just suffered? Hurry up and trample that wretch Meng Tong to avenge him—that's the proper path! What the hell kind of nonsense is coming after a weakling like me supposed to be?

No matter how he cursed and swore in his belly, Zha Wu in the end could only drag himself up onto the platform with the greatest reluctance. He had no choice but to accept the challenge.

"Third round, second match of the Welcoming New Pavilion Newcomer Challenge—Xiao Ran of Cave Dwelling Fifteen at the foot of the mountain challenges Zha Wu of Cave Dwelling Fourteen at the foot of the mountain. Begin!" the referee declared.

"After you," Xiao Ran said without betraying the slightest emotion, making a gesture of invitation.

Zha Wu's scalp went numb at once. Rationally, he knew that as the bottommost dreg of the Welcoming New Pavilion's newcomers, he could certainly never beat Xiao Ran, and that at a time like this it would be more reliable—and safer—to simply concede. But he was still, for all his weakness, a master at the great perfection of the Heaven Rank!

Every cultivator possessed a powerful sense of pride, and even a weakling trodden on by all and sundry like Zha Wu was no exception.

True, judging by his various performances so far, this Xiao Ran really was no simple character. But he had never truly fought anyone to the death; the last time Meng Tong named him in a challenge, he had straightforwardly conceded of his own accord. That suggested this fellow's strength might not be as great as everyone imagined—perhaps he was nothing but a pretentious fraud!

After all, this Xiao Ran was a creature who had come up from the mundane world. That his foundation was shallow and his roots poor was only to be expected, and the odds that he was a counterfeit were not small at all. Surely not every cultivator who came up from the mundane world could be a madman like Wei Zhao?

If that were really so, the status of the mundane world and Cloud Terrace Island would have been swapped long ago—and these people would not have gone to such great lengths to come to Cloud Terrace Island at all!

Zha Wu still had four points. If he could win today's match, then not only would he avoid losing two points, he might even earn one off Xiao Ran. That way, so long as he could muddle through the spirit herb trial and keep two spirit herb seeds alive, he could preserve his last shred of dignity—at the very least avoid falling into negative points, and retain some glimmer of hope.

But if he conceded of his own accord today, then all hope was gone. So no matter what, Zha Wu could only grit his teeth and choose to fight Xiao Ran for all he was worth.

Clinging to that last shred of hope, Zha Wu drew a deep breath and finally mustered the courage to launch his attack.

Compared with a foundational-stage expert like Meng Tong who had cultivated a thousand-leg technique, Zha Wu, even going all out, could hardly be called fast, let alone bring Xiao Ran any pressure. Xiao Ran did not even need his Phantom Steps; with one simple sidestep, he evaded the other's assault outright.

Then, before the man could react, Xiao Ran reached out his long arm and seized him by the collar. With the slightest exertion, Zha Wu's body went hurtling into the air—and when he came down again, he was already outside the platform.

By the rules of the challenge tournament, any party who fell outside the bounds of the platform, injured or not, was counted the loser.

"Th-that's it? It's over?" Everyone in the hall was instantly dumbstruck. This ending was a little too fast, wasn't it?

Zha Wu was a weakling, true enough, and the last time he had volunteered to challenge Wei Zhao he had been cleanly finished off in a single move—but that had been Wei Zhao, the domineering number-one newcomer, and the crowd had long since been prepared for such a sight, so it was no surprise at all. This time, though, it was only Xiao Ran, who had never shown any particularly commanding performance!

In a single exchange, without even the most basic martial technique being employed, the people below could not even gauge what Xiao Ran's current strength really was—and yet the wretch Zha Wu could not so much as let out a peep before he was inexplicably flung down. A weakling really was a weakling, utterly good for nothing!

"Xiao Ran of Cave Dwelling Fifteen at the foot of the mountain challenges Zha Wu of Cave Dwelling Fourteen at the foot of the mountain—Xiao Ran wins!" the referee declared decisively.

"I yield to you," Xiao Ran said, cupping his hands toward Zha Wu below the platform, then stepped down light as a drifting cloud.

Good heavens! How did I get down here? Even after Xiao Ran had left the stage, Zha Wu still had not come to his senses—how on earth had he gotten down here?

This match left the other newcomers utterly baffled; they could not tell how much strength this Xiao Ran, Wei Zhao's right-hand man, really possessed. But one thing was beyond doubt: Xiao Ran's strength was at least far beyond that of ordinary newcomers like them!RS