Chapter 4419 — Anchored Pirates
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
In past editions of the Southern Continent's grand escort gathering, the favored agencies were always the same few traditional powerhouses. They ate the meat, and the rest of the agencies could only sip the thin broth. As for the small agencies ranked at the bottom, they could not even scoop up a mouthful of that thin broth—they could only stand to one side and look on hungrily.
Five years ago, the Qingtian Escort Agency had always been among those sipping thin broth. Even after it had finally clawed its way into the ranks of the five great agencies last time, it was still nowhere near as sought after as the traditional powerhouses. But this time, it had finally joined the ranks of those who ate meat!
At this very moment, a crowd had gathered around Qi Wenmo—stewards and managers from a dozen or so trading companies, large and small, and among them the most dazzling was Chai Laoshi, representing the Hong Trading Company. In both quantity and quality, they could now stand on equal footing with the other traditional powerhouses.
Such a blazing scene—not to mention the small agencies sipping thin broth, even people from the Sihai Escort Agency and the Shenfeng Escort Agency could not help feeling a tinge of envy. All of this had once been meat in their mouths, and now the Qingtian Escort Agency had suddenly risen to prominence, adding yet another competitor to snatch a bite of that meat...
Qi Mingyuan, as the chief escort of the Qingtian Escort Agency, had originally felt somewhat diminished sitting among the heads of the other five great agencies, but now he straightened his back at once, and men like Hai Wuliang and Zhao Bufan finally began to strike up conversations with him on their own initiative.
Strength decides who gets to speak. Although the Qingtian Escort Agency had been one of the five great agencies for five years, only now had it truly begun to win recognition from the other five. In this, Wei Zhao—an honorary chief escort who was essentially an outside hire—had rendered invaluable service.
After an hour of rest, once the first round of brief negotiations between the various escort agencies and the many trading companies had concluded, the second round of the competition finally began to unfold.
The agencies one and all rolled up their sleeves again. The leaders had to hold on to their advantage, and the laggards had to fight their way back up. Though many trading companies had already placed enormous orders, businessmen never put all their eggs in one basket; they still held piles of orders in their hands, and so long as one performed well in what followed, it was entirely possible to overtake the leaders from behind—and step into the ranks of those who ate meat!
"The second round is also closely tied to your work as escorts—it is hazardous-sea navigation," Hai Wuliang announced to everyone present.
At the name, the crowd nodded one after another. Escort agencies elsewhere, being on land, might never need to put out to sea in their lives, but in the various waters of the Southern Continent, without skilled seamanship one simply could not work as an escort. Every single escort run here required going to sea.
"The rules are simple. Each agency sends out one Golden Core-stage escort, who sails a boat alone through a stretch of sea route. Along the way there are miasmic fogs, hidden reefs, whirlpools, and also some anchored pirates. In short, whatever you might encounter on a normal escort run will appear in the competition," Hai Wuliang explained the rules to the crowd.
"Anchored pirates?" Wei Zhao was slightly taken aback. The rest was easy enough to understand, but these anchored pirates sounded a little strange.