Chapter 4339 — Framed

With Wei Zhao's current strength, he could handle a Nascent Soul expert or two, but if he thought he could single-handedly take on an entire local power like Cheng Haonan's Poison Eye Mercenary Corps, he was dreaming far too big—there was no chance of victory at all. And if things truly reached the point of a fight to the death, he would no longer be able to keep his footing in the Weihu Sea Region.

Wei Zhao had never been afraid of trouble, but neither did he go looking for it. Unless it was absolutely unavoidable, he did not want a death-grudge match with the entire Poison Eye Mercenary Corps. At least before he left the Weihu Sea Region, it was best to avoid such things whenever possible.

Under the gaze of the surrounding crowd, Wei Zhao turned, hoisted the unconscious man in black up with one hand, and strode toward the Qingtian Escort Agency, leaving the dock crowd buzzing behind him.

"Hey, even a tough one like Old Kong got crippled just like that—this fellow's really something! Looks like our Weihu City has a new face about to rise!"

"He's clearly only mid-stage Golden Core, yet he sent a peak early-stage Nascent Soul expert flying in a single exchange. Just who is he? Could he be some genius disciple from a major power, out doing training?"

"Hm, very likely. I heard that a few days ago the Morningstar Academy of the Eastern Continent already started selecting disciples in the Zhen Duan Sea Region. This one might well be a genius disciple from the academy, sent ahead to scout the ground!"

"Ignorant fools, what do you know! This man is no Morningstar Academy disciple at all. He's an escort of the Qingtian Escort Agency—Ling Yi, or something like that. The young master Qi Wenmo himself came out to recruit him last time!"

"Right, right, I remember now. He tangled with Cheng Qitian and his lot here last time too, and got the upper hand. Twice now they've been humiliated by the same man. That Turtle-Field young master really has no eye for trouble..."

"Heh heh, the Poison Eye Mercenary Corps has always been arrogant and overbearing, especially that Turtle-Field young master. Every damn day he makes me pay protection money—the docks might as well be his family's private property. Hmph, this time he's finally run into a nail. Serves him right!"

"Shh! Keep your voice down. The Poison Eye Mercenary Corps people are coming. We'd better make ourselves scarce."

All the talk and commotion that followed at the docks had nothing to do with Wei Zhao. Carrying the man in black by one hand, he arrived at the Qingtian Escort Agency and casually tossed the fellow onto the haystack in the corner of the courtyard. The man wouldn't be waking for a good while anyway; no need to worry about him running off.

He stepped toward the mission hall. Seeing Wei Zhao return so suddenly, the two guards at the door wore obvious surprise, exchanging glances and muttering to each other in low voices: "This one actually dares to come back? His hide's thick enough..."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Wei Zhao's brow furrowed at once, and he shot the two a baffled look. As an escort of the Qingtian Escort Agency, coming back to report a completed mission was only natural. How was that thick-skinned? Someone must be playing tricks here.

Talk was talk, but the guards had no intention of stopping Wei Zhao. However fiercely they gossiped in private, so long as no order came from above, they would not act on their own. They merely watched Wei Zhao with strange expressions and let him through into the mission hall.

At that moment the mission hall was loud with voices, a good dozen or more escorts gathered inside—among them the two who had worked with Wei Zhao before, Li Yanji and Guan Zhiyuan.

The steward had been assigning tasks to the crowd, and the escorts had all been eager to try their luck; judging by the look of it, this was a profitable job with little risk. But once Wei Zhao walked in, the hall suddenly fell silent, and every eye in the room snapped to him at once, each face wearing a complicated, knowing expression.

Li Yanji and Guan Zhiyuan especially—the moment they saw Wei Zhao, their faces changed in unison, and they exchanged an instinctive glance, a distinct flicker of panic in their eyes.

Wei Zhao cupped his hands to the crowd and was just about to speak when Li Yanji suddenly sprang out and, preempting him, pointed at Wei Zhao and bellowed: "You brazen traitor! Ling Yi, you actually dare to come back—truly beyond anyone's expectations! Everyone, seize this traitor, don't let him get away!"

"Right! For scum like this to show his face here is an insult to all of us. He must be caught and severely punished, to serve as a warning to others!" Guan Zhiyuan jumped in to echo from the side.

The rest of the crowd did not react as vehemently as the two, but the looks they turned on Wei Zhao were plainly full of contempt and disdain, some even tinged with hostility. Even so, if Li and Guan hoped to whip them into joining an attack, that was impossible. Everyone present was an old hand who had walked the jianghu for years—how could they be used as someone's spear so easily?

So it really was these two who were behind it! Looking at this melodramatic scene, how could Wei Zhao fail to understand? In an instant the whole chain of cause and effect clicked into place in his mind.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Wei Zhao gave a cold laugh, watching the two with an unreadable calm. Today he was going to sit back and see just how these two meant to play out their little drama.

"What's it supposed to mean? Hmph, your hide really is thick beyond all measure. After pulling such shameless stunts, you actually dare to come back—and act as if nothing happened?" Li Yanji sneered on and on, and to the uninformed outsiders watching, it looked as real as could be.

"Boy, let me tell you—here at the Qingtian Escort Agency, deserting in the face of battle is tantamount to treason, a capital crime of the first order. And what you did back then was far more than mere desertion. You served the tiger as its accomplice, dragged the good name of our entire agency through the mud, and forced us to pay an astronomical compensation. Hmph, a few of your lives wouldn't be enough to pay it back!" Guan Zhiyuan chimed in, righteous indignation thick in his voice.

Watching this, Wei Zhao curled his lip inwardly. These two had little strength and little nerve, but when it came to putting on a show, they were first-rate hands. No wonder so many people here had been taken in by them...

"Serving the tiger as its accomplice? Then by all means, tell me—just how did I serve the tiger as its accomplice?" Wei Zhao was not the least bit flustered or furious as the crowd had imagined. Instead, unhurried, he smiled faintly and countered, the look he gave Li and Guan that of a man watching two clowns caper—as though he did not take them seriously at all.

"You traitor, and you still dare to be so arrogant!" Li and Guan exchanged a glance, alarmed at heart. For the two of them, the best possible outcome was for a few words of provocation to make the filth stick, to goad this Ling Yi into lashing out in desperation—then the charge would be thoroughly nailed down, and in the ensuing chaos they could kill him and shut his mouth for good, tying everything up neatly with no loose ends.

...R1052