Chapter 4496 — Smacked in the Face

"If you're so careful and cautious, then how come now, over some trifling bit of hearsay, you dare to call our Ling Yi a heretical cultivator?" Qi Wenmo scoffed from below the stage, sneering, "And your logic is complete nonsense. If he and Wu Baoliang were both heretical cultivators who escaped from the Sandie Pavilion of North Island, then why would they travel thousands of miles to this Southern Continent Escort Gathering to fight to the death? You think everyone's brain is waterlogged like yours?"

To be mocked to his face by a junior like Qi Wenmo sent Hai Wuliang into a fury, though in the end he swallowed it and did not strike directly, saying with ill intent, "This is a matter between heretical cultivators. If you want to know, you'll have to ask them yourselves. If I were to speculate, it's probably because he and Wu Baoliang cultivated the same heart method, so he killed him to silence him and conceal his identity as a heretical cultivator..."

"You slander him with bloody lies!" Qi Wenmo flew into a rage. Hai Wuliang was determined to nail the charge of heretical cultivation onto Ling Yi no matter what, ready to destroy a man's life with a few scraps of words—vicious and venomous, a heart deserving execution!

"Hmph, I say it's you who spouts nonsense, letting a heretical cultivator infiltrate the upper ranks of an escort agency without even knowing it, and now you still dare to openly shield him. Do you really think our Southern Continent Escort Alliance cannot deal with your one Qingtian Escort Agency?" Hai Wuliang glared with brows drawn, the very picture of righteous indignation.

At last Qi Wenmo could no longer contain his anger, and even his father Qi Mingyuan had both fists clenched. The whole of Qingtian Escort Agency shared a common hatred; at a single word of command they would have gladly come to blows on the spot. For a time Demon Cold Plaza was tense as the wind in a lonely pass, heavy with the sense of a storm about to break.

Just then, among the seats of the merchant association representatives beside the panel of judges, a man rose to his feet dead center, cleared his throat, and cut in loudly: "Would everyone hear me out for a moment?"

Every eye in the hall snapped to this man. Those with sharp eyes recognized him at once—was this not Chai Laoshi, the newly installed manager of the Weihu Branch of the Hong Merchant Association?

As the second-largest merchant association among the five Cloud-Tier Islands, the Hong Merchant Association was a power not to be ignored wherever it went. Men of business set store by harmony and profit; leaving aside the vast wealth at its own command, the mere web of powers and connections closely tied to it was enough to strike awe into anyone.

To offend the Hong Merchant Association was by no means simply to offend one merchant giant—it was all but to offend a whole host of top-tier powers, not a few of them masters who held entire islands in their grip.

So for all that Chai Laoshi was but the manager of one small Weihu Branch, his presence here represented the entire Hong Merchant Association, and his every word and deed represented its stance. Even Hai Wuliang did not dare slight this in the least, and could only lower himself to curry favor.

After all, including their own Four Seas Escort Agency, more than half the business of these Southern Continent escort agencies came from such merchant associations. The Hong Merchant Association, chief among them, was their golden patron—and if they failed to keep this great patron happy, what would they have to drink in the future but the northwest wind?

Seeing Chai Laoshi suddenly rise, Hai Wuliang's heart gave a thud, a bad premonition stealing over him. But the man's identity carried too much symbolic weight; he dared not brusquely cut him off, and could only say tactfully, "Manager Chai, might I trouble you to wait a little longer? Once we have dealt with this family disgrace, we can discuss business matters with you in detail, how would that be?"

"Chief Escort Hai misunderstands me. What I wish to speak of is not business, but the identity of Young Hero Ling Yi." Chai Laoshi glanced at Hai Wuliang, and without waiting for him to speak, turned to address everyone: "There is something you may not know. On behalf of the Hong Merchant Association, I make this clarification here: Young Hero Ling Yi is the honorary vice-chairman of our Hong Merchant Association."

Honorary vice-chairman? The hall was in an uproar once more, every face stamped with incredulous shock. This unremarkable-looking Ling Yi was actually the honorary vice-chairman of the Hong Merchant Association?

With a halo of status like that, he was a true personage wherever he went. Truly, a man cannot be judged by his looks, nor the sea measured by the bucket!

Yet at the same time, the same doubt rose in every heart: why would such a personage come to fight in the arena on behalf of Qingtian Escort Agency? Had he nothing better to do with a full belly? The minds of great men were truly unfathomable...

The crowd was merely shocked and clamorous; Hai Wuliang, however, was utterly dumbstruck. In the investigation report on Wei Zhao from a few days earlier, there had been no mention that this fellow bore such a dazzling halo!

Bearing the title of honorary vice-chairman of the Hong Merchant Association, any normal person would wish the whole world to know it. Yet this fellow, confound him, had not breathed a word from beginning to end, carrying on as if he had something to hide. Damn it, how could there be such a low-key monster under heaven!

"Think about it, everyone. Our Hong Merchant Association is open for business—how could we let a heretical cultivator serve as our honorary vice-chairman?" Chai Laoshi said, turning an unfriendly gaze upon Hai Wuliang.

Though a timid man who feared trouble, Chai Laoshi knew Wei Zhao was the noble benefactor who had turned his luck around, and in days to come he would still have to rely on the protection of Wei Zhao and Hong Zhong. For this bastard Hai Wuliang to slander him so brazenly in public—if he still kept silent, he would truly be ungrateful.

In an instant the situation had been completely reversed, and the looks the crowd turned on Hai Wuliang were plainly full of doubt!

Earlier, when Qi Wenmo proved that Wei Zhao was a disciple of the Sandie Pavilion of North Island, Hai Wuliang could still fob them off by claiming that Wu Baoliang was also a disciple of the Sandie Pavilion of North Island. But now Chai Laoshi had proven that Ling Yi was the honorary vice-chairman of the Hong Merchant Association—surely he could not claim that Wu Baoliang was also an honorary vice-chairman of the Hong Merchant Association? Lend Hai Wuliang a hundred guts, and he would never dare fabricate such a rumor...

As for Wei Zhao below the stage, seeing Qi Wenmo, Qi Mingyuan, Chai Laoshi and the others step forward for his sake at such a critical moment, willing to tear off all pretense with Hai Wuliang and argue their case on principle, he felt genuinely gratified.

But in truth, even had Qi Wenmo and the others not done so, Wei Zhao alone could have cleared his name. The reason he kept silent was that the bigger and more heated the affair grew, the greater the disgrace Hai Wuliang would suffer!

Qingtian Escort Agency might well rise, but as the old overlord, Four Seas Escort Agency still retained a lingering prestige. Wei Zhao meant to trample even that last bit of prestige into the ground, to make Hai Wuliang a laughingstock for all, so that afterward he would have not a shred of authority left to speak of.

And that Hai Wuliang had dared to turn his crooked schemes on him today had already sealed his fate: he was bound to be smacked in the face. R1152