Chapter 4237 — Pirate Encounter

"What is it?" Huang Xiaotao asked, at a loss.

"Listen to the water. Something about it feels off," Wei Zhao said with a frown.

Though nothing could be seen with the naked eye, from a moment ago the steady, monotonous sound of the water had plainly grown more disordered, giving Wei Zhao the feeling that another ship was fast approaching.

The moment the thought took shape it hardened into conviction; Wei Zhao's heart gave a leap, and at once he meant to warn Li Yanji and Guan Zhiyuan—better safe than sorry.

Yet before he could get the words out, four powerful auras suddenly shot skyward not far off, sweeping toward them without the least attempt at concealment. Wei Zhao was startled—all four were peak late-Golden Core experts!

There was no time to wonder why four such men should suddenly appear on a vast sea shrouded in so thick a fog; Wei Zhao hurriedly drew Huang Xiaotao back several steps while signaling a warning to Li and Guan.

In the blink of an eye the four peak late-Golden Core experts had alighted on the deck, each of them fierce in bearing and ill of countenance.

Meanwhile, having caught the warning, Li and Guan likewise hurried onto the deck. The two exchanged a glance, then looked at Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao, and only then turned to regard the four uninvited guests bearing down on them.

Veterans of the escort trade, though—most men would likely have collapsed in fright at such a sudden turn, yet on the faces of Li Yanji and Guan Zhiyuan there was no great sign of alarm.

"Four gentlemen, I am Li Yanji of the Qingtian Escort Agency. We are but passing through your waters, and I beg you to grant us passage. You will be repaid for it afterward," Li Yanji said, cupping his hands to the four and drawing a deep breath.

To invoke the name of the Qingtian Escort Agency—elsewhere one might not boast of it, but here at least in the Weihu Sea, it was known to all and carried a certain weight. Ordinary bandits, even when they robbed an escort, would make a point of avoiding a great agency like Qingtian, lest they be hunted to the ends of the earth thereafter and leave trouble behind them.

Wei Zhao nodded inwardly. Li Yanji had not seemed much before, but when it truly came to the crunch he could keep such composure—that was rare enough. Had he instead begun trembling with fear at the first, betraying himself as a soft persimmon anyone might squeeze, there would have been no room left for maneuver at all.

"The Qingtian Escort Agency? Heh. You think a name like that can frighten me?" The leader curled his lip in contempt, and the other three peak late-Golden Core experts behind him joined in with grating laughs, plainly not regarding the Qingtian Escort Agency as worth a thought.

At that, Li Yanji's expression faltered. He and Guan Zhiyuan looked at each other, and for the moment neither knew what to do.

Both were seasoned escorts who had weathered several robberies before, but each time, once the name of the Qingtian Escort Agency was raised and a few fair words spoken, they had generally passed through without trouble—after all, the Qingtian Escort Agency was the local power in the Weihu Sea, its influence deeply rooted. Both the black and the white paths of the world had to give it some face.

Even the most difficult bandits would harbor some misgiving, and as a rule, a little extra profit for them was enough to settle the matter.

Yet these four peak late-Golden Core experts, sprung from nowhere, were wholly unlike the bandits they had met before. On hearing the four words "Qingtian Escort Agency," they showed not fear but disdain—and that feeling was plainly that they had come for the Qingtian Escort Agency itself.

"This..." Li Yanji hesitated, exchanging a look with Guan Zhiyuan. They were, after all, resident escorts kept on the Qingtian Escort Agency's lavish payroll, and now was precisely the moment their worth was called for; to simply yield on the spot would be hard to justify.

But just as he steeled himself to say a few more conciliatory words, the leader cut him off with an impatient sneer: "Enough of your fucking nonsense. This ship is under my command from now on. If you lot know what's good for you, I'll spare your miserable lives. If not—heh—then don't blame me for being unkind. There may be no sea beasts in these waters, but I can still break your dog legs and throw you overboard to drown."

As he spoke, the four let loose the full, unreserved force of their peak late-Golden Core auras, frightening Li Yanji and Guan Zhiyuan out of their wits; they nodded and nodded again, cringing, and dared not speak another word.

Four peak late-Golden Core experts against their side—and though they too numbered four, their strongest was only a peak mid-Golden Core, and the weakest two were merely early Golden Core. They were not even in the same league. How could they fight?

There was no room to resist at all. Apart from yielding outright, what else could they do?

Li and Guan were seasoned men—two old hands, to put it plainly—and in such a situation they would never act on impulse. The goods were not theirs in any case; they were merely running an escort for others. Why stake their lives on it?

Once they got back and explained matters, with the gap in strength plain for all to see, even the Qingtian Escort Agency could hardly blame them—at worst they would forfeit a single trip's pay.

Seeing this, Wei Zhao threw Huang Xiaotao a look, and likewise did not move.

This escort was under Li and Guan's command; if even the two of them had surrendered outright, then Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao naturally had no need to step forward either.

Given Wei Zhao's temperament, had Li and Guan chosen to resist, he and Huang Xiaotao would never have flinched. Even against four peak late-Golden Core experts, with the disparity in strength seeming so vast, the two of them joining forces might yet have had a fighting chance—the power of their combined Frenzied Flame Eight Trigrams Palms was fatal to any Golden Core expert alive!

"Good, you all know your place—saves me the trouble. Hands on your heads, all of you, and squat over there!" The leader sneered, then ordered the man behind him, "You take the helm."

Li Yanji and Guan Zhiyuan dared not resist, and at once squatted obediently to one side; Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao followed in silence.

Moments later, the ship's course suddenly swung through a great angle, veering more than ninety degrees from its original heading.

In Wei Zhao's mind rose the sea chart he had studied before setting out. To turn in this direction now would take them—not to Xianpeng Island, nor even to the Weihu Sea, but straight toward another sea altogether at its edge.

If he remembered rightly, that sea in this direction was called the Zhenduan Sea. Conditions there were much the same as in the Weihu Sea, but word had it that it was even more chaotic—a true lawless land without a master.

Meanwhile, Li and Guan were also puzzling over it—though what puzzled them was how four such villains could have appeared out of nowhere in this place. (To be continued...)