"I'm a Wimp" had successfully caught Little Bad King's attention, because he had the most victory points of the three challengers.
This "Melon" really is something! The Combat Arena's rules are perfectly clear, with no loopholes to exploit. To accumulate enough victory points, you have to win them through your own strength, step by step. Those twenty-two points definitely carry serious weight... After mulling it over for a while, Ren Ye made his decision. Still, that has nothing to do with me. I'm going to play it safe. I'm not accepting a challenge right now.
Having decided, he immediately contacted the Heavenly Dao through his divine sense. "I refuse all three challengers' invitations."
[You may refuse the challenges, but upon doing so, you must accept the "coward's penalty": you may neither issue nor accept challenges for two months.]
The Heavenly Dao Proclamation rang out, leaving Ren Ye momentarily stunned. "Refusing a challenge means sitting out for two months? Damn, where am I supposed to appeal that?!"
He felt a little irritated. The struggle over the Fortunate Destiny Dao Mansion outside had already begun, so a two-month timeout was certainly rather long for him. But after thinking it through, he accepted it. If refusing challenges carried no penalty, some cautious old bastard could enter this place, keep lying low and refusing, wait for everyone else to fight until all sides were badly injured, then suddenly strike. That would completely undermine the Combat Arena's rules and purpose.
Clearly, the Dragon Palace Combat Arena rules encouraged competition among Heavenly Prides, allowing the capable to obtain better rewards, while those who only sought shortcuts would be suppressed by the rules. Viewed that way, a two-month timeout was actually acceptable.
You could refuse, but you had to accept that you would gain no