Chapter 4412 — Adapting to the Moment

"I'll go too! Count me in!" The others, unwilling to be outdone, vied eagerly to sign up, each afraid the eight places would be snatched up by somebody else.

At the sight, Wei Zhao could not help but laugh. Money makes the devil turn the millstone—that saying was not one bit false. Any clear-eyed man could see that stepping onto such a contest was nine parts death to one part life, a high-risk trade that meant wagering one's own skull against the odds; yet before the lure of fifty thousand spirit jades, these men did not even fear becoming ghosts.

"Good! The escorts of my Sky-Holding Escort Agency are indeed men of surpassing courage—I knew I had not misjudged you. So then: all who wish to fight, sign your names with me first, and I shall choose the contestants from among you!" Qi Wenmo said with satisfaction.

The power of spirit jades was truly boundless. In the space of but a few short moments, more than ten escorts of the Sky-Holding Escort Agency had rushed to enlist, far exceeding the eight places the contest required, which gave Qi Wenmo no small room for deploying his forces.

The first battle bore directly upon the morale of the entire gathering to come; whether they could make a victorious start was of vital importance. If possible, every agency would send out its strongest hands—if not its hidden trump, then at least first-rate fighters of the agency. Yet here was one weighty precondition: these men must volunteer.

After all, unlike a sect, which holds absolute mastery over all that its disciples do, the bond between an escort agency and its escorts was one of pure hire and profit. Just as with an ordinary escort job, whether a man took the work depended entirely on his own will; the agency could neither compel him nor would it wish to.

A melon torn from the vine is never sweet. Setting aside whether the escorts would even heed the agency's bidding, even if they were forced reluctantly onto the field, they would only go through the motions and give no true effort—and in the end it would still be the agency that suffered.

Therefore, any agency that wished to achieve the best deployment of its forces could only do as the Sky-Holding Escort Agency did: tempt its escorts with profit to volunteer, and then choose from among them—only such selected hands would possess both strength and motive, and thus truly fight to the death for the agency's glory.

As the young master of the Sky-Holding Escort Agency, Qi Wenmo had always been the one to take charge of affairs in person, and so he knew the strength of these escorts like the palm of his own hand. His gaze swept one by one over the faces of the men who had signed up, and his mind was already made up—after all, these past days they had been cooped up in the inn making every kind of preparation, and such effort had not been spent in vain.

"Brother Ling, what do you make of it?" Qi Wenmo turned and asked Wei Zhao. Though his own judgment was settled, he must still weigh Wei Zhao's opinion—this man, after all, was the mighty trump he relied upon most.

"Ha, Brother Qi, you are the commander—how the troops are arrayed is your affair. Whomever you say should go, should go. Why come asking me?" Wei Zhao laughed.

With his strength, he was an utterly invincible presence at the Golden Core stage. To others this first round was nine parts death to one part life, but to him it carried no pressure at all; he could go or not go, entirely depending on whether Qi Wenmo made the arrangement. If there were too few men and he was needed to make up the number, Wei Zhao would not object in the slightest.

"Haha. One man's wit is short, two men's wit is long—Brother Ling, lend me your counsel as well, how about it? Brother Ling, are you interested in stepping up for a bit of sport?" Qi Wenmo laughed heartily. A contest like this really was, to Wei Zhao, no more than a bit of sport.

"That depends on how you arrange it, Brother Qi. If you have use for me, then I'll go," Wei Zhao said with a faint smile. Then he paused and added, "But what concerns me more just now is the Dragon Boat Escort Agency. Will Wu Baoliang take the field in this first round? If he does, Brother Qi, you must save me a place."

Wu Baoliang was the secret strategist of the Poison Eye Mercenary Corps, his standing nearly equal to Cheng Haonan's, and now that the Poison Eye Mercenary Corps was a key outside supporter of the Dragon Boat Escort Agency, Wu Baoliang stood to the Dragon Boat Escort Agency as Wei Zhao stood to the Sky-Holding Escort Agency—both were surely hidden trumps of formidable power.

If the Dragon Boat Escort Agency was bent on seizing the initiative in the first round in order to contend for a place among the Five Great Agencies, it was highly likely to send out Wu Baoliang.

Wei Zhao had come to this Southern Continent Escort Gathering with Wu Baoliang as his original aim. Even if the draw might not pit him against the Dragon Boat Escort Agency, he would not let slip this thread of a chance—for if he could not dispose of Wu Baoliang at this gathering, finding another chance to deal with the fellow afterward would be far harder.

"Yes. Before the draw begins, every agency must submit its roster of escorts for this round to the panel of judges. I'll go speak to the old man and have him keep a close watch. If Wu Baoliang is on it, I'll enter Brother Ling's name; if not, we'll let it be," Qi Wenmo said with a nod.

Though he too was determined to win the first round, he had no intention of sending Wei Zhao out right from the start. After all, the role he had assigned Wei Zhao was that of a mighty trump to turn the tide at the critical moment; to play it at the very first match would not only be a waste of great talent on a small task, but would also expose his own trump and leave him at a natural disadvantage in the contests to come.

Moreover, the Sky-Holding Escort Agency was, after all, one of the Five Great Agencies—even if it ranked last, it still had ample confidence. So long as the luck of the draw was not too poor, with the first-rate fighters within the agency it should be no trouble to secure a victorious start. Thus in the first round there was no need at all for Wei Zhao to take the field.

Of course, if it was because of Wu Baoliang that Wei Zhao himself resolved to fight, that was another matter.

Qi Wenmo at once took up brush and paper and wrote out two eight-man rosters—one with Wei Zhao on it, one without—to be used as circumstances required, and then, full of vigor, he strode toward the raised platform in the center.

By now, with the draw about to begin, the great majority of the thirty-two agencies had already prepared their eight-man rosters and submitted them one after another to the panel. Qi Wenmo, however, did not hand his in at once; instead he ran up and whispered a few words at his father Qi Mingyuan's ear, then came back down with the rosters in hand and waited at the side to watch.

Nor was Qi Wenmo alone—men from other agencies likewise kept watch nearby, and all of them shared one thing in common: they were of the Five Great Agencies.

First to review the other agencies' rosters, and only after knowing the enemy to make a targeted deployment—such was the privilege the Five Great Agencies had always enjoyed, a privilege the other agencies could only envy and never hope to match.

For having no one on the panel, it was useless for them to stall on purpose; unable to see the other agencies' rosters, they of course could not target their arrangements and could only charge in on the strength of their own ability.

Fortunately, the rosters were to be submitted before the draw, and as yet no one knew who his opponent would be—so relatively speaking, it was still fairly even. (To be continued...)

/iv

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