Chapter 4446 — Secret Backing
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
"Hmph—so you want me to throw the matches?" Hai Wuliang's expression changed at once, his face turning cold. "You may as well forget it. Every South Continent Escort Agency Grand Meet has always been held to absolute fairness, with no hint of cheating permitted; otherwise the assembly would lose all reason to exist. The three of you had best be on your way."
"Wait!" Seeing that Hai Wuliang was about to lift his teacup and dismiss them, Cheng Haonan hurriedly spoke up. "Hold on, Chief Escort Hai. The opponent we want you to arrange for us is none other than Qingtian Escort Agency!"
"Qingtian Escort Agency?" Hai Wuliang's hand paused a fraction. Those were the four words he least wished to hear these days; the mere thought of how badly he had been bested earlier set his fury smoldering.
"Exactly. The one we most want to deal with is Ling Yi of Qingtian Escort Agency. You have suffered at his hands too, Chief Escort Hai, and I trust your hatred for the man runs to the bone. We can work together!" Cheng Haonan said rapidly.
Ling Yi was a thorn in his eye and a splinter in his flesh. To deal with Ling Yi and avenge his son, he would pay any price. If he let this chance slip by, he would truly regret it forever.
"Oh?" Hai Wuliang slowly set the teacup he had raised back down. He did not drive them out after all, but fell into thought.
There was hope after all! Long Kuiba and the other two exchanged glances, their spirits soaring and their hearts settling.
"Tell me, then—why are you so determined to deal with Ling Yi?" Hai Wuliang drummed his fingers on the table in rhythm and looked up, reappraising the three of them.
Had it not been for that one sentence from Cheng Haonan, he would certainly have turned on them and thrown them out on the spot. After all, the name of the Four Seas Escort Agency stood here. If these men had loose tongues and went about spreading talk, trouble would easily follow; for that reason, in ordinary matters—even if only out of concern for appearances—Hai Wuliang had to remain impartial.
But where Qingtian Escort Agency and this Ling Yi were concerned, that was another matter entirely. Cheng Haonan was not wrong at all. He did indeed hate Ling Yi to the bone!
The Four Seas Escort Agency had fallen from its zenith as the overlord of escort agencies to its present dimmed and diminished state, its points total mired in third place, nearly dropping out of the top five altogether. The chief culprit behind all of it was this Ling Yi.
It was no exaggeration to say that of the six hundred and seventy points Qingtian Escort Agency had earned, at least five hundred had come directly from Ling Yi's own hand. The man's abilities were truly those of a madman, beyond the measure of common sense.
Having twice suffered crushing losses at his hands, even Hai Wuliang had to admit a fact: so long as Ling Yi remained, the odds of the Four Seas Escort Agency ever turning itself around were bound to be vanishingly small. And now that ready-made henchmen had delivered themselves to his door, he did not mind fanning the flames a little and playing a round of killing with a borrowed knife.
He had seen with his own eyes how Long Kuiba and his companions had clashed with Ling Yi during the day, and so he believed the two sides had the foundation to become allies. But before that, he had to first ascertain the specifics; otherwise this would not be killing with a borrowed knife—it would be letting himself become the knife in another's hand.
"You may not know, Chief Escort Hai, that our Longzhou Escort Agency and the Poison Eye Mercenary Corps share the city of Weihu with Qingtian Escort Agency. We have always been at daggers drawn, and it is hardly once or twice that we have fought and killed one another," Long Kuiba hastened to explain.