Chapter 4429 — The Victory Feast

"Many thanks, many thanks! Thank you all, thank you all!" Qi Mingyuan hurriedly cupped his hands in salute to the crowd, the delight on his face impossible to conceal, so excited that he could barely string a coherent sentence together.

Small wonder he was so elated. Returning within the span of a single stick of incense was a full two hundred points!

Yet in one stroke, the entire situation had been reversed by the Skyshaker Escort Agency. Combined with the hundred points from the first round, that made a full three hundred, leaving every other escort agency far behind in the dust. They had become a dark horse the likes of which had never been seen.

"Impossible!" Just as the crowd was lost in jubilation, Hai Wuliang suddenly spoke up in a cold, heavy voice, pointing straight at Wei Zhao. "You turned back halfway, didn't you?"

At those words, the whole gathering fell silent. Every gaze fixed upon Wei Zhao; apart from the people of the Skyshaker Escort Agency, every face was written over with suspicion.

Hai Wuliang was nearly a hundred percent certain of it. To make the round trip within a single stick of incense—even a local snake like Wang Baitiao, who knew the safe route inside and out, could not manage it, let alone some total outsider who had never set foot here before.

At the sound of this, Wei Zhao smiled. Slowly he drew the seal token from his robe and held it high for all to see. After that, not a single person dared question him any longer—surely no one could claim that the seal token he had obtained from the mandatory checkpoint was forged as well.

Hai Wuliang's face shifted through a whole spectrum of colors, turning now green, now purple. As the chief escort of the Four Seas Escort Agency, he was a figure who commanded the eyes of the world on an occasion like this. And yet, in the space of a few short moments, he had been slapped in the face twice in a row, right to his face. There were no words for such a feeling. If a crack in the earth had opened up here, he would surely have burrowed into it and vanished without a trace.

The only chance Hai Wuliang had left to salvage his dignity lay in Wang Baitiao. If Wang Baitiao could also make it back within one stick of incense, then his face as chief escort of the Four Seas Escort Agency would not look quite so ugly.

Yet never mind one stick of incense burning out—he waited until the second stick had burned out as well, and now even the third was nearly spent. And still the No. 1 sailboat representing the Four Seas Escort Agency had not returned. Had the No. 1 jade tablet not remained unbroken, Hai Wuliang would even have suspected that Wang Baitiao had already kicked the bucket.

"Why hasn't that worthless wretch dragged himself back yet?" Hai Wuliang was livid, his face ashen. As a great clan escort agency fighting on home waters, that air of commanding the seas and dictating the course of events had vanished into thin air. Forget standing out now—before the heads of the other escort agencies, he did not even dare lift his head, terrified of being laughed at.

At last, just as the third stick of incense was on the verge of burning out, the No. 1 sailboat finally came limping in. But before anyone could go out to welcome it, they saw that the boat was battered and riddled with holes. Right before everyone's eyes, the hull visibly sank lower and lower, and then simply went under altogether. The crowd stood utterly dumbstruck.

Fortunately, by then they were not far from the docks. Paying no mind to his bedraggled state, Wang Baitiao gritted his teeth and dog-paddled his way back, gasping and struggling all the while.

Before Wang Baitiao could even crawl ashore, the furious Hai Wuliang met him with a kick square in the face. Blood streaming down his face, he was sent crashing back into the sea. Already drained of every ounce of strength, he very nearly drowned then and there.

Wang Baitiao was on the verge of tears. At his normal level, he would never have dared hope for one stick of incense, but he could reliably make it back within two. This time, however, he had not only gotten tangled up with Wei Zhao for a while—the real killer was that he had run into pirates at the designated spot. That he had escaped with his life at all was nothing short of a miracle.

Luckily, there was one of the Four Seas Escort Agency's own people among the pirates, who secretly let him slip through. Only then did Wang Baitiao get his chance to break free. Even so, in the panic he had smashed a great hole in his boat.

Sailing and patching all the way, Wang Baitiao had truly squeezed out every last drop of strength, even the strength he'd used to suckle at his mother's breast, to survive this time. He had clawed back his miserable little life—only to be greeted by Hai Wuliang's fury.

Over two rounds, the Skyshaker Escort Agency had accumulated three hundred points in total, surging from behind to claim first place. The Four Seas Escort Agency had one hundred and seventy, placing second.

Staring at the scoreboard, Hai Wuliang truly regretted it down to his very guts this time. For the sake of this second round, he had exhausted every trick he knew to get the others to nod it through, believing he could use it to cement first place. Little did he expect that he had only been lifting a rock to smash his own foot, while the Skyshaker Escort Agency sat back and reaped the rewards, perched at the top of the standings.

And so the first day of the Southern Continent Escort Gathering drew to a close. The great escort agencies dispersed one after another, each conserving its strength and preparing for the contests of the second day.

Whether in the streets and alleys or in the taverns and inns, the talk of everyone in Demon Cold City over tea and meals now revolved around the Southern Continent Escort Gathering—and of them all, the one who had stolen the show was none other than the dazzling Skyshaker Escort Agency.

Though it was one of the five great escort agencies of the previous term, its foundations were shallow, and apart from the Vaunted Arc Sea, the Skyshaker Escort Agency had never been particularly well known throughout the Southern Continent's waters. Many people did not even know it was one of the five great agencies.

But this time, the Skyshaker Escort Agency's star had eclipsed every other agency at once, the Four Seas Escort Agency included. Its fame and the eyes upon it had exploded overnight, and it was now regarded as the greatest dark horse of this gathering—even the eventual favorite.

For any escort agency, fame usually meant strength. The greater the fame, the more the public acknowledged one's strength, and the more business came knocking at one's door.

Even Qi Mingyuan and Qi Wenmo, father and son, had never imagined that the Skyshaker Escort Agency could one day be like this, crowding out every other agency to become the center of everyone's conversation.

"Young Hero Ling, the credit for today's contest belongs to you. On behalf of our agency, father and son, we thank you!" At the Skyshaker Escort Agency's victory feast, Qi Mingyuan, with Qi Wenmo at his side, bowed solemnly to Wei Zhao in gratitude.

"The chief escort is too kind. Since I am a member of the Skyshaker Escort Agency, it is only right and proper that I do my part for the agency. Why stand on ceremony?" Wei Zhao hurried to stop him.

"It is no exaggeration at all—you are our agency's great benefactor and hero, and no amount of thanks could ever be enough! We have nothing else to repay you with, so please accept these hundred thousand spirit jades, Young Hero Ling. A small token, do not think it beneath you." As he spoke, Qi Mingyuan had Qi Wenmo bring over a miniature card reader that had been prepared in advance.

A hundred thousand spirit jades! The escorts gathered around could not help swallowing hard at the words.