Chapter 4425 — A Vicious Move
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
"What's going on here? Is he just riding on my coattails?" The middle-aged man was both startled and suspicious. His name was Wang Baitiao, and he had once been one of the most notorious pirates in the Demon Cold Sea, until Hai Wuliang subdued him and made him a guard for the Four Seas Escort Agency.
Say what you would about him, but when it came to familiarity with the Demon Cold Sea, there was absolutely no one in the world who could surpass Wang Baitiao. After all, he had been born and raised here; whether running as a pirate before or working as an escort after, his life had been spent back and forth across these waters—he was a true local snake, rooted in this ground.
This stretch of sea route in particular—for the sake of this race, he had spent two full months surveying it bit by bit, and only then had he finally found the safest round-trip course. Apart from himself, not another soul in the world knew it!
So as far as this race was concerned, Wang Baitiao was brimming with confidence. Every other escort agency had been wiped out entirely; only the Number One Sailing Ship, representing the Four Seas Escort Agency, had returned safely—that was the demand Hai Wuliang had set for him.
Everything had gone smoothly at first; all the ships that ought to have capsized had more or less done so. But Wang Baitiao had never imagined that at this moment, a Cheng Yaojin would come crashing out of nowhere!
Wang Baitiao simply refused to believe that this thing had caught up through sheer skill, because no matter how superb one's seamanship, it was absolutely impossible to pull that off. The only possible explanation was that this thing had been following the route he himself had taken, picking up the ready-made gains all along the way—only that made sense.
"How can this be? If I let this thing follow me back safe and sound, Chief Escort Hai will flay me alive!" Wang Baitiao broke out in a cold sweat on the spot.
Never mind that Hai Wuliang ran an escort agency—when it came to getting things done, his hand was far more ruthless and vicious than any pirate's. Otherwise he would never have been subdued so easily back then; lend Wang Baitiao ten times the courage, and he still would not dare face Hai Wuliang's wrath.
Though he had made up his mind to do away with the ship behind him, Wang Baitiao did not dare act rashly before he had sized up the situation. In a place like this, killing someone did not necessarily require a face-to-face showdown—this sea route was naturally one giant death trap. Use it well, and never mind one man; ten thousand could be killed just the same.
The two sailing ships moved one ahead, one behind, keeping a distance neither far nor near, and so it held for a moment—but then the Number One Sailing Ship ahead suddenly changed course, tracing a zigzag of enormous amplitude. It was not that he deliberately chose to do so; the hidden reefs ahead were thick as a honeycomb, and without such a path there was simply no getting through.
At the same time, Wang Baitiao was using the opportunity to observe the movements of the ship behind him more closely. If it could not keep up, all the better—then it would certainly die among these reefs. If it did keep up, that would prove the ship behind was indeed riding on his coattails, and had already fixed its eyes dead on him.
He did not know what secret art the other side possessed that let them keep track of him in this sea fog which blocked a cultivator's divine sense—but track him they certainly had!
A moment later, a cold gleam flashed in Wang Baitiao's eyes. From the sound of the water, that ship had actually followed him through. This thing really was a tag-along riding on his coattails!
From first to last, Wang Baitiao had never once considered the possibility that the other party was navigating by their own ability, because in anyone's understanding, such a possibility did not exist—no exceptions.