Chapter 4442 — A Mere Parlor Trick?

As he spoke, Cheng Haonan and Wu Baoliang at his side were eyeing Wei Zhao with ill intent, their faces twisted into savage expressions, as though they meant to swallow him whole.

Wei Zhao glanced at the two of them without a trace of notice. Long Kuiba held no interest for him, but the other two would have to be dealt with before he left the Southern Continent—and when his eyes fell on the latter, he could not help but start slightly. This was, after all, the very target of his journey.

On the wanted notice issued by the Law Enforcement Hall, Wei Zhao had seen a portrait of Wu Baoliang. Though this was the first time he had laid eyes on the man in the flesh, that unmistakable pair of triangular yin-yang eyes was enough for him to recognize him at a glance.

He had long known that Wu Baoliang would also be attending this Southern Continent Escort Gathering, and he had been keeping watch all along. Unfortunately, from yesterday until just now, he had seen Long Kuiba, he had seen Cheng Haonan—but Wu Baoliang alone had never once appeared.

Perhaps they had been saving Wu Baoliang as their final trump card, keeping him cooped up in the inn all this while, never letting him show his face. But now, presumably, they had spotted their opportunity and dragged him over on the spot.

So the creature had finally decided to come out into the light. Wei Zhao sneered inwardly, secretly clenching his fist. He had held himself back so long that he could not quite restrain the killing intent stirring in him—yet in the end he still did not act rashly.

"Young Hero Ling, you decide," Qi Mingyuan said, turning to Wei Zhao. He had no idea how Wei Zhao had managed it, and fearing to ruin the plan, he did not dare act on his own authority.

"Heh, since someone is volunteering to hand us points, then by all means the more the merrier—we would not dream of refusing." Wei Zhao smiled faintly, utterly unconcerned.

"Big words. Then let us open your eyes wide and see who is handing points to whom!" Long Kuiba swept his hand broadly and said to Cheng Haonan and Wu Baoliang, "You two, let us go in together and have a look—see just what kind of trick this brat is playing!"

With that, Long Kuiba led his men straight for Area Thirty. There were not many of them—only himself, Cheng, and Wu. Though they were not part of the "bandit crew," the commotion earlier had been so great that everything inside had been perfectly clear to hear. Bringing more men would have been useless. One Wu Baoliang alone was more than enough.

The three walked into Area Thirty. What had once been a small patch enclosed by a black curtain was now a scene of utter ruin. The original small cargo ship had been torn apart into splintered planks of wood floating on the sea, and the surrounding reefs had been hacked to pieces by true qi. The seawater was thoroughly murky—plainly because every inch of the seabed had been trampled and probed, churning the sand and mud up from below.

"Heh, they certainly searched thoroughly enough," Long Kuiba said with a cold laugh. Anyone else seeing this scene would truly have felt their heart lurch—for if even this could not turn anything up, it meant the thing was genuinely hard to find. But he showed not the slightest sign of worry. "Military Advisor, it is all up to you now."

The reason he had gone out of his way to summon Wu Baoliang at the last moment was a remark Cheng Haonan had made earlier: this military advisor possessed a certain ultimate technique, and employed in a contest like this to search for something, it was simplicity itself.

"A trivial matter." Wu Baoliang's aura abruptly erupted. At first glance he seemed to be only at the Golden Core Great Perfection realm. Yet in the next instant, heaven and earth spun wildly within Area Thirty. Seawater, sand and stone, splintered wood—everything within the area, as though suddenly stripped of gravity's hold, flew up into the air, and the entire region became a world without weight.

Then Wu Baoliang's spread palms slowly closed into fists, and everything suspended in midair instantly went berserk, smashing violently against one another. What had merely been torn apart was now, after this mutual collision and slaughter, ground even finer—reduced at last to powder.

"The Military Advisor is indeed a man of extraordinary skill. Such godlike arts—this Long has truly never seen nor heard of the like!" Long Kuiba was instantly awestruck. If it came to a real fight, his own strength was not weak either, but it was limited to straightforward hacking and killing; he had no such wondrous, marvelous techniques as Wu Baoliang.

"A trifle, no more. This move is called All Things Slay One Another. Whatever is of weaker substance will in the end be ground to powder by what is stronger—and the escort chests are forged of special dark iron, so barring accident, their substance should be the hardest of all. Thus when All Things Slay One Another is complete, the only thing left will be the escort chests." Wu Baoliang smiled with profound mystery.

"Before the Military Advisor's All Things Slay One Another, formations and all are destroyed together. No concealment method is of any use—so long as it is hidden here, it will inevitably be forced to show its true form!" Cheng Haonan added from the side. Given his relationship with Wu Baoliang, he was naturally perfectly clear on such methods.

"Hahahaha, then I shall wait to toast the Military Advisor's success! After this round, my Longzhou Escort Agency will leap to second place on the rankings, with the Skysupport Escort Agency close at hand!" Long Kuiba laughed in smug delight.

"It is only to be expected. Soon now." Wu Baoliang's triangular yin-yang eyes gleamed with satisfaction as he remarked, "Still, this Ling Yi does have some real skill, to hide the escort goods away like this. Ordinary methods truly would not turn them up—no wonder Hai Wuliang and his lot came off the worse."

"Heh, compared to the Military Advisor, is such a trick anything more than a mere parlor trick? The Skysupport Escort Agency only knows how to play at cleverness; they will never amount to anything on the great stage. This time we will let them taste what it is to kick a steel plate!" Cheng Haonan sneered darkly.

While the three chatted in smug satisfaction, the All Things Slay One Another suspended in midair finally ran its course. Everything of weaker substance had already lost all shape, and the reef stones along with them had been crushed to powder.

"The clear rises, the turbid sinks!" Under Wu Baoliang's command, the mass suspended in midair slowly split into two layers: the lighter portion all floated up, the heavier all sank down. And in this process of separation, anything that still retained even a trace of shape could be seen with perfect clarity—and among them, the escort chests were certain to be found.

Long Kuiba, Cheng Haonan, and Wu Baoliang himself—all three stared wide-eyed at it all, hoping to see the chests they had anticipated. Yet when the separation was entirely complete, there was simply nothing at all.

"This... this..." Wu Baoliang choked, unable to string together a full sentence for quite some time. Long Kuiba and Cheng Haonan were both dumbstruck as well. A moment ago he had cut such a figure of serene, lofty mastery, so confident and composed—and in the end the bastard still could not find it? Was this not making a spectacle of themselves for all to laugh at?

"Military Advisor, what are we to do now?" Long Kuiba was utterly flustered. Because they had scored not a single point in the second round, across the previous three rounds combined the Longzhou Escort Agency had earned only one hundred sixty points. Even counting this round—fifty points for lasting a full stick of incense—that made only two hundred ten in all! (To be continued)