When Liu Shishi asked this, Hua Qiushui smiled and waved her hand. "It's fine. Just wait and watch how Auntie Hua handles this for you."
"Thank you, Auntie Hua." Liu Shishi beamed sweetly, feeling much better already.
Hua Qiushui immediately contacted Zhan Wuji and said in a low voice, "Wuji, what's your assessment of the Asura team's strength?"
"An assessment?" Zhan Wuji was puzzled by the question. "The Asura team is quite strong. Several of them pose a genuine threat, and as for their captain Night Fang, he's a master at the micro-control level. But with our strength, winning shouldn't be a problem."
The team competition was divided into five matches—two one-on-one bouts, one two-on-two bout, and two three-on-three bouts. Winning three out of five was enough to claim victory.
Even if a team had one peerless powerhouse, they could only guarantee one win at most. There was no way to clinch the entire match. Besides, Night Fang of the Asura team was far from invincible. Zhan Wuji had over a sixty percent chance of defeating him.
"No problems?" Hua Qiushui's expression was very serious. In terms of the stakes, this wager was enormous. Even the Glorious Lions team would feel the sting of putting up so much. Betting this big—it was either the mark of a fool or someone with absolute confidence in their own strength.
The former couldn't have formed a team in the first place, and the latter was far more troubling to consider.
Hua Qiushui trusted Zhan Wuji's assessment, but she didn't believe the Asura team were fools who would stake everything on a slim chance. Such reckless brutes couldn't have made it this far.
"Wuji, make the arrangements. Send in the second team," Hua Qiushui said after thinking it over, having made up her mind.
"Deploy the second team now?" Zhan Wuji was startled. "There are still several matches before the host rights contest. There's no need to act this quickly. Revealing our strength this early will only make the remaining opponents find easier ways to beat us."
During the Glorious Lions' tryouts, nine people had been selected. Those nine became the first team's members.
But Zhan Wuji later learned that the nine chosen in the tryouts were merely reserves. The real members had been decided long ago—they simply hadn't told him. It had been one of the Glorious Lions' closely guarded secrets. Even he had only met two of them, and their strength was something he found genuinely intimidating.
The nine tryout recruits, however, refused to accept this. They challenged the two to a team battle. The result was a complete victory for the pair—the fight ended without them even losing a sliver of health…
That outcome forced the nine tryout recruits to accept their fate. The gap in strength was simply too vast.
So the first team members were actually the squad's reserves. The second team was the real deal. Even Zhan Wuji had no idea where Hua Qiushui had found these powerhouses.
He had only been appointed as the second team's vice-captain. As for that mysterious official captain, he had never met them either. But he knew that whenever Hua Qiushui spoke with that person, her tone was genuinely respectful—nothing like the commanding manner she used with him.
"The stakes this time are enormous. We cannot afford to slip up. Notify the organizers—since the matches haven't started yet, swapping team members at this point is still acceptable." Hua Qiushui's brooked no argument.
In truth, besides worrying that the Asura team might be holding back, there was another reason—she wanted Night Fang to learn that the people from the tryouts were nothing but the reserve squad, mere pawns meant to deceive.
"Understood." Zhan Wuji sighed helplessly. He had been looking forward to an intense, thrilling clash, but it seemed that wasn't going to happen. The first team alone could already defeat the Asura team, and the gap between the first and second teams was enormous. The Asura team didn't have the slightest hope of victory.