Chapter 4413 — Wei Zhao Directs the Battle
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 3
The throne of the Five Great Escort Agencies was for them a hopeless, distant luxury. Their most realistic goal was simply to hold their ranking; squeezing into the top ten this time would already count as a great success. Their past rankings had been earned precisely by fighting opponents to the bitter end, so this time, naturally, they would fight with even greater desperation.
So these two were both absolutely tough nuts to crack. No wonder Qi Wenmo looked so glum and worried. This was his first time leading a team to the Southern Continent Escort Gathering, and if he stumbled at the very start, if he capsized in a ditch right out of the gate, he would truly have no face left to show anyone.
"No need to be nervous. We are the stronger side. If we perform normally, there will be no problem. They are the ones who should be nervous." Wei Zhao patted Qi Wenmo's shoulder and offered these words of comfort.
"Brother Ling speaks truly. It is I who have been too close to see clearly," Qi Wenmo said, breaking into a cold sweat on the spot. Turning to look at the assembled escorts, whose eyes were all fixed on him, he nodded at Wei Zhao in gratitude.
The general is the courage of his soldiers. The battle had not yet formally begun; if even he, the young master, had already lost his composure, the effect on the men's morale could well be imagined. Let such panic spread unchecked, and it might truly bring on a rout as a mountain topples.
Wei Zhao smiled. He did not much care about the Sky-Holding Escort Agency's results, but neither would he stand by and watch Qi Wenmo and the others commit some elementary blunder. If only for the sake of their friendship, he would see to it that the Sky-Holding Escort Agency kept its place among the Five Great as best it could—otherwise, as the powerful ace in whom the Qi father and son placed such heavy reliance, he would lose face as well.
Gazing at the match pairings posted on the huge notice board, the escorts of all thirty-two agencies rubbed their palms and flexed their fists one after another. At last, upon the judges' announcement, they filed into their respective arenas in succession.
For every escort agency, the first round comprised two matches—the escort-defense battle and the escort-seizure battle—with no interval for rest or adjustment between them. They began simultaneously.
Across the vast Demon-Cold Plaza, each of the thirty-two agencies occupied a patch of ground. At the very center of each patch sat a prepared treasure chest; this was their escort cargo, and one might also call it their dueling ring.
Eight escorts took the field. Four of them had the task of guarding the cargo and holding their own ring, while the other four were to go to the opposing agency's ring and launch the seizure.
At a single command from the judges, all thirty-two pairings of the first round began at once. Across thirty-two patches of ground, two hundred and fifty-six Golden Core-stage escorts plunged into the fray. The atmosphere on the spot was instantly driven to its peak, cheers and battle cries surging skyward, loud enough to split the ears.
The escorts in the field attacked, defended, stood off, or circled—all of them on high alert, not daring to show the slightest carelessness. Yet at such a moment it was not they who were busiest, but rather the heads of the various agencies.
Qi Wenmo was a case in point: because the two matches started simultaneously in different locations, it was simply impossible to attend to both. He truly had no way to be in two places at once. In the end, with no other choice, he could only ask Steward Song for help, sending him to direct the other battle, the escort seizure.