Chapter 4441 — Let Us Try Too

Hai Wuliang lowered his head and said nothing. He would have liked to object, but he had just made such a spectacular fool of himself, and the other side had even made a show of magnanimity by not pressing the matter. How could he have the face to object now?

Even Hai Wuliang had backed down, so Zhao Bufan and the others were even less inclined to stick their necks out. They could only choose to acquiesce.

"That settles it, then." Seeing this, Qi Mingyuan nodded in satisfaction and exchanged a smile with Wei Zhao, Qi Wenmo, and the others. There had been many twists and turns, but the outcome was more or less ideal—they had secured a full score of one hundred points, far exceeding their expectations.

Everyone assumed the farce would end there and was about to move on to the next agency, but just then Wei Zhao suddenly spoke up: "Wait a moment, everyone. Isn't there still a special challenge segment? I'd like to give it a try. I wonder if any agency would be willing to take up the challenge? If so, I'll put the cargo back right now, in exactly the same place."

At these words, everyone's eyes lit up at once. That was right—this was the most crucial part of the round! Staking a hundred points, the swing between winning and losing was a full two hundred points!

Still, excited as they were, the crowd had just gone to enormous trouble and still failed to find anything—which showed plainly enough how hard it was. What ordinary escort agency would have the nerve to step forward and challenge?

"I'll do it!" Hai Wuliang suddenly shouted. He had just taken such a heavy loss and was lamenting that he had no chance to win back his face—who would have thought the boy would hand him the opportunity on a platter!

"Very well." Wei Zhao smiled lightly, turned, walked to the Number Thirty area, and hid the cargo once more. He stepped back out, gestured toward Hai Wuliang in invitation, and said calmly, "Go ahead."

"Hmph. Boy, don't tell me you think your little tricks are really so brilliant that no one can crack them? Just now I was only letting you taste a bit of sweetness on purpose. This hundred points—my Four Seas Escort Agency is taking them for certain!" Hai Wuliang laughed viciously, then turned and ordered his deputy: "Go fetch Lai Zhenzi!"

The whole hall erupted in uproar. Zhao Bufan and the others finally understood—so this was a case of fattening the pig before the slaughter. Hai Wuliang had a follow-up move after all. No wonder he had lowered his head and acquiesced just now; it was not at all like his usual style.

"Lai Zhenzi?" Father and son Qi Mingyuan and Qi Wenmo both changed expression at once.

"What is it? Is this man very formidable?" Wei Zhao asked, puzzled.

"Er, I wouldn't call him formidable—his strength is only so-so. But he's an odd talent. They say he's extremely skilled at breaking all kinds of formations. He used to roam primitive places like the Rufeng Forest. I never thought he'd end up throwing in his lot with the Four Seas Escort Agency!" Qi Wenmo explained.

"Skilled at breaking formations?" Wei Zhao was slightly taken aback, and all the more puzzled: "What does that have to do with the competition?"

"Eh? Don't tell me you didn't hide the cargo with a formation, Brother Ling?" Qi Wenmo could not help lowering his voice. His thinking was exactly the same as that of Hai Wuliang and the rest at that moment: he felt sure Wei Zhao must have set up some small illusion inside to conceal the cargo, and that was why so many people had looked right past it...

"Who said that?" Wei Zhao shot him a glance and burst out laughing.

Just then, a slovenly fellow came from afar. From hair to clothes, everything about him was dirty and torn, and he carried a pungent, unbearable body odor. He was the very picture of an old beggar—and this was none other than Lai Zhenzi, one of the Four Seas Escort Agency's men.

After Hai Wuliang explained the whole business to him, Lai Zhenzi bared a mouthful of big yellow teeth, looked Wei Zhao up and down, and said with a look of disdain: "Folk who know formations are few and far between these days. And even those who do only manage paltry tricks that can't be shown in decent company. They might fool a layman, but to an expert like me, the flaws show at a glance. Just you wait, Master Hai."

With that, Lai Zhenzi, mouth twisted to one side, strutted into the Number Thirty area with a swaggering gait. Wei Zhao looked at the fellow and could not help laughing: "This is what you call an odd talent?"

"Odd talents have odd looks. Not even knowing that—have you truly never seen the world, or what? A frog at the bottom of a well?" Hai Wuliang sneered upon hearing this.

"We'll soon know who the real frog at the bottom of the well is," Wei Zhao said with a faint smile, not bothering to argue.

"Ha! A dead duck's beak stays hard!" Hai Wuliang wasted no more words and simply waited outside for Lai Zhenzi's good news. He had expected it to be a trifling matter settled in the bag—but who would have thought the wait would stretch to two full sticks of incense!

"Time's up, Chief Escort Hai. Might you call your Master Lai out now?" Qi Mingyuan said at once. The time limit for the challenge segment was two sticks of incense.

"Go call him out!" Hai Wuliang's heart gave a lurch. He had no idea what was going on inside, but he had no choice but to comply. Yet when he saw Lai Zhenzi come out empty-handed, his face turned ashen at once. Not found again?!

"Master Hai, this... you can't blame me for this... Apart from that big illusion formation on the outside... there really is no formation inside... not the slightest ripple of formation energy..." Lai Zhenzi spread his hands with a bitter, helpless look.

The whole hall was in an uproar. One and all stared at Wei Zhao with strange looks on their faces. They had searched everywhere and found nothing, and now even formations could be ruled out. Just how had this fellow hidden the cargo? So consummately—could he be a professional at this sort of thing?

"Haha, many thanks for the hundred points, Chief Escort Hai. As a senior of the trade, your Four Seas Escort Agency has spared no effort in mentoring us juniors of the Qingtian Escort Agency—truly the conduct of an elder. We'll accept these hundred points without ceremony!" Qi Mingyuan said with great delight.

Hai Wuliang's face was as dark as the bottom of a pot, but it was already too late to take anything back now.

In this segment they had earned only seventy points in total, and now they had lost a full hundred in one stroke. In the fourth round they had not only failed to gain a single point but had gone thirty points into the hole. This was far more than a huge loss—it was a bleeding wound!

By contrast, the Qingtian Escort Agency had won a sweeping victory in this round, raking in a full two hundred points at a stroke—more than the total scores of the vast majority of the agencies. It was enough to drive people green with envy.

"Next agency." Hai Wuliang did not even want to look at Qi Mingyuan and the rest a moment longer, and turned to head for the next one. Just then someone suddenly stepped forward and said loudly: "Hid so well—why not give our Dragon Boat Escort Agency a chance too, and let us have a try?"

A fresh uproar broke out. The speaker was Long Kuiba, chief escort of the Dragon Boat Escort Agency! (To be continued..) R527