Chapter 4417 — The Situation Settled

"What on earth is that boy selling in that gourd of his?" The Yongxing Escort Agency's woman chief escort was struck dumb on the spot.

She had gone to enormous pains for this grand gathering of the Southern Continent's escort agencies. Even though the draw had handed her two of the five great agencies in succession—the Sihai Escort Agency and the Qingtian Escort Agency—and her prospects looked bleak, none of it could dampen her towering ambition. She might not be able to take down Sihai, but this Qingtian, delivered right to her doorstep, she was going to devour today for certain!

After two exchanges, the Yongxing Escort Agency's position was excellent. Everyone assumed the outcome of this duel was settled, and the only question left was how many of Qingtian's people would die—who could have imagined that Qingtian's response would be so utterly unexpected?

Sitting cross-legged on the ground—did that mean they had seen they could not win, and were preparing to concede and surrender?

The woman chief escort at the sidelines could not make sense of it for the moment, while the four Yongxing men on the field, as time trickled away, had been in high fighting spirit and instead found themselves rattled and impatient.

Before they took the field they had been instructed that under no circumstances were they to leave the escort goods and take the initiative to attack. So at this moment, even if Qingtian's people lay down and slept, they dared not act on their own.

"Hmph, cheap trick—playing mind games with this old lady?" The woman chief escort thought she had seen through Wei Zhao's sinister design, and with a cold laugh she abandoned her original plan, waved a hand, and said, "Since they don't dare come at us, then we go at them. Kill them all for me—those eighty points are mine!"

At those words, the four Yongxing escorts, like fierce tigers freed of their chains, bared their savage, razor-sharp claws in an instant and struck as one—they had been waiting for exactly this word!

Facing the onrushing foe, the four from Qingtian could not help but tighten inside. They had taken the field resolved to fight to the death, but against the enemy's Blazing City, they were truly at a loss, with no way out at all.

The four glanced at Wei Zhao, but he remained unmoved. Watching the enemy draw nearer and nearer, they had no choice but to grit their teeth and rise. Matters had come to this; there was no other way—they could only trade life for life. Never mind the rest: even at the cost of two lives, they had to smash open the breach that was the short one, Number Four!

"Kill!" A grim, unstoppable resolve suddenly radiated from the four. Knowing full well the mountain harbored a tiger, they nonetheless headed straight for the tiger's lair. With their deeds they were vindicating the Qingtian Escort Agency's name: among the five great agencies, there were no weaklings!

"Utterly ridiculous." The Yongxing woman chief escort smiled with contempt. Blazing City, which they had trained together painstakingly for a year, feared nothing less than a head-on clash. If you were a Nascent Soul expert, fair enough—but at the Golden Core stage only, meeting force with force was simply courting death.

In the four-man formation, the late Golden Core looked like the weakest link—but if you truly took him for the breach, hmph, you would not even know how you died.

Around the field, one and all could not help but hold their breath. This first round was nothing but a meat grinder of death—four against four in a frontal, bone-grinding clash—and no one knew how many would survive it.

The two sides were about to come to close quarters; at that critical instant, Wei Zhao's voice suddenly rang out from the sidelines: "Number One!"

The others had no idea what that meant and were still puzzling over it when they saw the four from Qingtian on the field suddenly switch their target as one—from the enemy's weakest, the late Golden Core, to the enemy's strongest, the peak of late Golden Core!

"Haha, I've never seen such fools. I was going to let only two of you die—now I'll wipe you out entirely!" The Yongxing woman chief escort laughed in triumph. They could not even break through the weakest late Golden Core, yet they meant to go after the strongest, the peak of late Golden Core—if that was not courting death, what was?

Yet no sooner had the woman's laughter risen than it broke off short, like a duck suddenly seized by the neck—indescribably comical.

But no one present felt the slightest urge to laugh. Every one of them gaped, jaws hanging open for a long while, because on the field at that moment, the strongest of Yongxing's men—that peak late Golden Core—had truly been cut down in a single exchange by the four from Qingtian striking together!

That sight stunned everyone—even the four from Qingtian, who had done it, found it hard to believe.

A moment ago they could not even break through the weakest late Golden Core, and in that instant the enemy had shown not the least sign of underestimating them or holding back—still the same arrogant, overbearing Blazing City. So why was it, once they switched their target to the strongest, the peak of late Golden Core, that it all became so effortless?

They had thought at least two of them would die—but now, not one of the four had fallen; they were merely wounded.

"How did you see it?" Steward Song had at some point come to stand behind Wei Zhao.

"Simple. Their Blazing City depends on the rapport between them. That late Golden Core looks weakest on paper, but his coordination with the others is the tightest, which makes him the hardest to break. The one who looks strongest on paper, that peak late Golden Core, is exactly the opposite—so he is the best point to break through." Wei Zhao smiled faintly.

Since he had styled himself the on-the-spot coach, he naturally had to fulfill a coach's duty. Never mind that he merely stood at the sidelines doing nothing—in truth he had been watching for the enemy's flaw all along.

While the enemy had not taken the initiative to attack, that flaw had not been very obvious. But now—well, it was a fly on a bald man's head: plain as day.

Watching her own man fall before her eyes, the Yongxing woman chief escort turned ashen. Blazing City was a four-man combined strike; lose any one of them and it could not be deployed. Now they were finished.

"Young Hero Ling, truly brilliant—this old man is in awe," Steward Song said with wholehearted admiration. With matters having come this far, anyone could see the outcome was settled: Yongxing had lost a man, their combined strike was broken, and the four from Qingtian had taken advantage to seize the escort goods—their cause was lost.

"Ha, Steward Song flatters me. I merely rather enjoy the look on certain people's faces when they eat shit." Wei Zhao smiled and cast a meaningful glance at the arrogant, overbearing woman chief escort.

The eyes of the onlookers immediately turned speculative. A moment ago this woman chief escort had publicly declared that if she could not beat the Qingtian Escort Agency she would eat shit—and no one knew whether she would keep her word...(To be continued..) R527