Chapter 438: The Opponent is the Thornton Family

Gwyneth returned to the spectator seats.

"Ms. Powell, how did it go?"

Gwyneth clenched her fists , her face looking rather grim. "The Ancient Martial Arts Alliance won't let The Whispering Sect withdraw. The Ancient Martial Arts Alliance and The Whispering Sect must have been in colluding all along."

From the very beginning, this competition was aimed at the Powell family.

The goal was to make sure the Powell family didn't keep first place.

Everyone wanted to bring the Powell family down - the seven great families, and even more so, the other forces.

"Ms. Powell, what do we do now?"

They weren't very clear about the Whispering Sect's strength. Whether the young members of their family could match them, they couldn't easily say for sure.

Gwyneth pressed her temples. "Things have come to this. We can only win this competition and not give anyone anything to talk about."

As she spoke, Gwyneth took Isabella's hand and squeezed her fingers. "Ansley, can you do it?"

Isabella thought for a moment, looked at Gwyneth with determined eyes. "I won't let the Powell family lose to anyone, whether it's the Fife family or The Whispering Sect."

The more everyone wanted to pull the Powell family down from this position, the more she couldn't let them succeed.

Gwyneth looked at Isabella, a relieved smile rising in her eyes.

She hugged Isabella. "I believe you can do it too."

As her daughter, Isabella definitely wouldn't disappoint.

"Mom, I know what to do next. The competition is about to start, so I'll go prepare first."

"Okay."

——

Isabella returned to the preparation area.

Soon, the competition began.

Robbie announced, "The first round is a one-on-one elimination match. The sixteen competing forces will draw lots to go on stage and face off in pairs. The losing side gets eliminated."

So after one round, only eight forces would remain.

"Representatives from each competing team, please come draw lots."

The lots were for platform numbers.

Isabella drew number 3.

"Please have each team go to the corresponding platform according to the number in your hand."

Isabella didn't move. She looked toward platform 3 and noticed the Thornton family's team going up.

It seemed the Thornton family had also drawn number 3.

In the first round, the Powell family's opponent was the Thornton family.

Isabella turned to them and said, "It's platform 3. You five go up first."

Hearing this, Zander led the group to head up to the platform, but after a few steps, he realized something was wrong. He turned around to find Isabella still standing in place.

Zander frowned. "Ms. Powell, aren't you coming up?"

The team leader, as a member of the team, was supposed to fight alongside the five team members.

Until now, Zander had never seen Isabella show her skills in front of them. He wanted to use this match against the Thornton family to see what she could do!

But Isabella just yawned lazily and said casually, "The opponent is the Thornton family. Do we need to send everyone? Aren't you guys enough?"

The Thornton family was one of the four lower families, but their strength was far below the Fife family and the Bautista family. They weren't worth worrying about at all.

Zander looked at Isabella. No matter how he looked at her, she seemed completely laid-back, as if she didn't take this competition seriously at all. She wasn't even planning to go on stage, and said they were enough.

Was she just counting on them? Then what was she here for? To watch the show?

"Ms. Powell, as both the young lady of the Powell family and the team leader, even if this opponent isn't the Fife family, you should still go on stage instead of just standing below doing nothing," Zander said.

"That's right, Isabella. Since you're the team leader, you should act like one," Felicity Powell also said.

Felicity was the girl who admired Zander.

Isabella looked at them and explained, "I'm not going on stage so I can observe the other teams' matches."

Especially the Whispering Sect's young competitors - she needed to observe their strength.

However, to them, Isabella's words were just an excuse to avoid the competition.

Isabella made it sound so noble - what could she possibly observe?

Just by watching, could she win the competition?

If she was scared to go up, she was scared. Why make it sound so good?

"Forget it, if she won't go, she won't go." Zander turned away, his eyes showing disgust. "She'd just be a burden anyway."

His disgust for Isabella had reached its peak.

They couldn't count on Isabella in this competition. What could she do besides hide?

Cordelia Powell also glared at Isabella, then turned away unhappily. "Let's go!"

They walked toward platform 3.

"I've never seen anyone like Isabella. Slacking off during training, and now too scared to even go on stage during the competition!"

"How can the Powell family's young lady be like this? It's really embarrassing."

"Exactly. Why do we have to put up with someone like this?" Felicity sneered. "It would've been better to have Walter as team leader. Then maybe we could've taken first place. None of us can beat Phaedra, and now, the Whispering Sect people are joining in too. With just a few of us, how can we take first place?"

Knowing how important this ancient martial arts competition was to the powell's family, why would Gwyneth let someone as useless and selfish as Isabella participate? What good was Isabella anyway?

She didn't even dare go on stage against the Thornton family now. When it came time to fight the Fife family or The Whispering Sect, she definitely wouldn't dare go up then either. Who knows what excuse she'd come up with!

Zander, Felicity, and the other three Powell family competitors all went on the platform together.

The Thornton family's team had been waiting on the platform for a while. When they drew platform 3, they were curious who their opponent would be.

They never expected it to be the Powell family!

The Thornton family members' faces looked terrible. Who would've thought they'd face such a strong opponent in the first round?

The Thornton family's team leader was a young man in his twenties named Callum Thornton.

Callum looked around and noticed only five people from the Powell family had come. By rights, each team should have six people on stage!

"Where's your team leader? Didn't come?"

Zander snorted coldly and looked at Callum and the others. "To fight you guys, the five of us are enough."

"Is that so?" Callum naturally knew the Powell family's team leader was Isabella. His eyes rolled, and he smiled with ill intent. "Your team leader couldn't possibly be too scared to come, could she?"

Hearing this, Zander and the others suddenly looked like their sore spot had been hit, their faces all turning ugly.

"Who says? How could our team leader be scared to go on stage?" Zander naturally couldn't admit it. He could only clench his fists and quickly deny it.

The Thornton family members immediately laughed.

A playful glint flashed in Callum's eyes.

Looked like he guessed right!

Isabella was so timid that she didn't dare go on stage in the first round!

"I heard Ms. Isabella Powell didn't grow up in the Northern Ice Empire. She's probably never seen anything like this before, which is why she doesn't even dare go on the platform."

The conversation on the platform could naturally be heard below.

So everyone assumed Isabella really was too scared to go on the platform! They immediately formed some opinions about this newly announced young lady of the Powell family.