Chapter 4870 — The Alliance Leader

"Well then, since you've all said as much, I've no objection either—let Master Lin be the captain." Bao Zuoliang declared on the spot.

A stir ran through the crowd. The man had plainly wanted the post for himself—could his attitude have turned around any faster?

Be that as it may, the matter of the captaincy was now settled once and for all. Since Lu Xiaozhong, Bao Zuoliang, Su Kesheng and the rest had all come around to endorsing Wei Zhao, and Wang Xinyan and Huang Xiaotao were close to him besides, it was fair to say every person of consequence present had spoken; the opinions of the rest no longer mattered.

In truth, even if the others had thoughts of their own, they could only swallow them. From this day on, Wei Zhao was the captain of their Morning Star Squad.

Over the next two days everyone remained aboard the treasure ship without incident. Wei Zhao had expected Bao Zuoliang and Su Kesheng to seize some chance to make trouble, yet they made no move at all, as though they had genuinely accepted the reality of his captaincy—not only did they refrain from stirring up mischief, they were downright deferential toward him.

"What are those two devils playing at?" Wei Zhao wondered privately. He was not naive enough to believe the pair had truly resigned themselves; their present quiet could mean only one thing—the two must be plotting something bigger, and that was why they were holding themselves in check so tightly!

Any possible danger must be strangled in the cradle—that was the operating creed of every assassin. Unfortunately, Wei Zhao could not simply manufacture a pretext to strike at the two of them. For now there was nothing for it but to take things one step at a time, keep his guard up, and stay vigilant.

Two days later, a long, melodious blast of horns suddenly came from beyond the docks, and shortly afterward the Morning Star Libation appeared before them and gave the order: "Enough. The Trial of the Giants' Road is about to begin. Assemble and disembark!"

"Yes, sir!" The crowd's spirits surged at once. Falling in behind their captain, Wei Zhao, they spontaneously formed a neat column, their every movement carrying a hint of discipline.

The sight rather startled the Morning Star Libation. These were all proud, high-minded sons of heaven; even a man of his rank could at best compel their grudging obedience. Discipline of this kind was all but unimaginable.

After making a few quiet inquiries, the Morning Star Libation finally got to the bottom of it and could not help giving Wei Zhao a thumbs-up. If the group could keep in step throughout the coming trial, they would benefit both in protecting themselves and in breaking through—perhaps this trial really would produce a few more Mystic Ascension experts!

Led by the Morning Star Libation, Wei Zhao brought the others to the dockside plaza and sat down cross-legged in the area marked for Morning Star Academy, quietly awaiting the opening of the Trial of the Giants' Road.

Not far ahead stood a raised platform, on which a neat row of seats had been arranged. Many of the senior figures from the various academies had already taken their places, and the crowd buzzed with speculation, privately debating which of those above was the legendary Alliance Leader.

Wei Zhao's thoughts, however, lay elsewhere. From the very start he had been searching out the Morning Pride Academy contingent, trying to pick out Huo Yudie's figure—but in the end he had no luck.

The crowd was unexpectedly vast, and with so many giants gathered in one place, Wei Zhao did not dare casually release his divine sense to sweep the area. Should he happen to displease one of those giants, a mere flicker of their thought would rebound on him and leave him gravely injured—and besides, refraining from casually releasing one's divine sense in public was the most basic rule of the cultivation world.

If he could not use his divine sense, he would have to rely on his naked eyes alone. Yet perhaps because of the enmity between Morning Star and Morning Pride, the territories allotted to the two sides were placed far apart. Unless Wei Zhao climbed onto the platform and picked a good angle, trying to find someone through the gaps between so many academies' disciples was a fool's dream.

A short while later, all the academies' disciples had taken their places, and the senior figures of every academy had likewise seated themselves. Then a young man suddenly appeared at the very center of the platform, and everyone's expression turned grave; no one dared speak.

Everyone was sizing up this young man, Wei Zhao naturally included. Though the man looked young and radiated no fearsome aura whatsoever, everyone knew there could be only one person who would appear on that platform at such a moment: the legendary Alliance Leader.

Wei Zhao exchanged a glance with Wang Xinyan and Huang Xiaotao beside him, a measure of astonishment on all their faces. They had assumed the Alliance Leader would be an elder of Ling Yuanqing's ethereal, otherworldly bearing—never had they expected such a young and handsome face.

Still, this was hardly outlandish. Once cultivators advanced to the Heaven Rank, their looks would be forever fixed; so long as they wished it, they could live hundreds or even thousands of years retaining the appearance they had at the moment of their ascension. It came down purely to personal preference.

It was merely that women prized beauty and men prized gravitas—an exceedingly common state of affairs in the cultivation world. Most male cultivators, even after reaching the Heaven Rank, would not deliberately halt the aging of their features, preferring to keep the appearance of a dignified middle or old age. After all, for a centuries-old monster to insist on preserving a twenty-year-old's youthful face left one at a loss for words...

But this Alliance Leader was plainly an exception—he belonged to that small minority.

Almost every disciple below was exchanging looks, yet not one dared make the slightest sound. The man on the platform was a legendary giant of the Earth-Splitting stage, perhaps even the Sea-Rending stage; even if he leaked not a trace of aura, the name alone was enough to press the breath out of everyone present.

The Alliance Leader slowly swept his gaze across the whole assembly, until some of the academy disciples were on the verge of crumbling under it, and only then did he finally speak slowly: "You are all elites from the various academies, and you have come here for one purpose alone—to break through to Mystic Ascension. Although private combat is not forbidden in this trial, I hope you will keep first things first! And one more thing: you had best not harbor the laughable notion that a failure this time can be made up next time, for by past experience, once the first attempt at Mystic Ascension fails, the second will be ten times harder, and the third a hundred times. Weigh it well!"

A stifling silence fell over the crowd at these words. In truth, among the many academy disciples present there were indeed some who had come to the Giants' Road a second or even a third time—Morning Star Academy had one such this time, a taciturn middle-aged man.

By rights, a man with that first experience behind him would have stood a very good chance had he stepped forward two days ago to contest the captaincy. Yet from first to last he had not uttered a single word, barely registering as a presence at all; the drive and ambition the others carried had long since drained out of him, and ordinarily no one paid him the slightest attention.