Chapter 4231 — A Grudge Is Born

At this thought, Wei Zhao could not help but smile faintly. He cupped his hands toward Qi Wenmo and replied, "My junior sister and I happen to be in the Wei Arc sea region to train for a time. We have nowhere else to go in any case, so since Brother Qi is so warmhearted, it would be unreasonable for us to keep declining. We shall accept your kind offer with gratitude."

"Good, excellent indeed! The young hero is a straightforward man, as I thought. Come, come, let us find a place where we can eat and talk at leisure—consider it my humble welcome for the two of you!" Qi Wenmo laughed heartily on the spot, inviting them with an open, cheerful expression.

"Since it is Brother Qi's bidding, how dare we disobey!" Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao exchanged a glance and laughed just as heartily.

In the present circumstances, they had no better choice than to go with Qi Wenmo. If they refused, Qi Wenmo himself might not fly into a rage, but getting past Cheng Qitian would be another matter entirely.

Since someone was willing to extricate them from this predicament, Wei Zhao was not one for false modesty. Better to go along with him for now than to stay and face Cheng Qitian and the wounded, furious Old Kong alone. As for whether Qi Wenmo truly meant to hire them as bodyguards for his house or had some other design, they would simply have to play it by ear.

Having spoken, the two sides felt as though they had met too late. They promptly walked off laughing and chatting, leaving Cheng Qitian and his men behind, so furious they could not utter a word for a long while.

In broad daylight, someone had brazenly snatched away the men Cheng Qitian had set his eyes on, and from first to last not a single word of explanation had been offered. This was more than infuriating—it was outright bullying, beyond all endurance!

Yet however furious he was, Cheng Qitian could do nothing at this moment. The other man's backing was in no way inferior to his own, and he too had a formidable Nascent Soul servant. If they truly came to blows in relentless pursuit, he would be the one to suffer. What could he do but swallow this bitter humiliation?

"Fine! Fine! Fine!" Cheng Qitian shouted the word three times in his rage, and behind the departing Wei Zhao and the others he stamped his feet and threatened, unwilling to give up: "If you have the guts, then follow this fellow surnamed Qi forever! Otherwise, if I ever catch you alone—heh heh! Mark my words: when I, Cheng Qitian, want to kill someone in the Wei Arc sea region, I have never yet failed!"

For all Cheng Qitian's screeching and clamoring behind them, Qi Wenmo and Wei Zhao paid him not the slightest heed, walking off chatting and laughing among themselves. The onlookers drawn by the commotion only grew more numerous, and the young master Cheng of the Poison Eye Mercenary Corps had become a stamping, raging clown for all to gawk at.

Under Qi Wenmo's lead, the group arrived at an upscale tavern in Wei Arc City. He deliberately secured a private room and ordered a table of rare delicacies, proving quite generous and openhanded.

Once they had all taken their seats, Qi Wenmo spoke up: "Young hero, I wonder where the two of you have come from? Perhaps you would introduce yourselves?"

"Brother Qi, I am Ling Yi, and this beside me is my fellow disciple, Junior Sister Huang. We are both disciples of the Sandie Pavilion of the North Island." Wei Zhao concealed nothing and frankly acknowledged their identities, though he gave false names for the two of them.

He had not said so plainly on the road earlier, fearing that among so many people some ill-disposed listener might overhear and report it to Cheng Qitian, which would not do at all. After all, even false names would have to be used consistently throughout their time in the Wei Arc sea region.

Though it was certain as certain could be that Cheng Qitian would have his eye on them from now on, so long as their names and origins remained unknown, Cheng Qitian would have to expend considerable effort even to investigate their backgrounds. That made them relatively safer—concealing it for a time was worth it.

Of course, he had not brought the Thousand-Layer Mask on this mission. With Huang Xiaotao accompanying him, and in an unfamiliar place like the Wei Arc sea region where they knew neither the people nor the land, wearing it or not made little difference.

Better by far to keep it in reserve for an emergency. If matters truly came to the point where he had no choice, he could put on the mask, alter his appearance, and slip into a crowd—who would recognize him then?

"So the two of you are disciples of the Sandie Pavilion of the North Island—a great sect indeed! Forgive my discourtesy, forgive my discourtesy." Qi Wenmo at once wore an expression of long-standing admiration, cupping his hands again and again.

"Not at all, not at all. We are merely ordinary inner disciples. Coming out to train this time, we shall still need Brother Qi's generous support." Wei Zhao smiled faintly, secretly observing the expressions of Qi Wenmo and that Nascent Soul servant, and found that the other party was indeed noticeably less guarded than before.

He had deliberately brought up the Sandie Pavilion of the North Island to show that their origins were clear and legitimate, precisely in order to win Qi Wenmo's trust. Otherwise, had he rattled off some fabricated background, it would have been no great matter, but it was highly likely the other man would have spotted the flaw—and then he would truly have been hoist with his own petard.

"Surely, surely. Since the two of you hail from a renowned sect like the Sandie Pavilion of the North Island, no wonder your skills are extraordinary—you even wounded that Old Kong of the Cheng family. Truly a sight to marvel at." Qi Wenmo smiled with an air of amiability, though his words carried three parts flattery and seven parts probing.

"Heh heh, a trifling trick, merely a stroke of luck." Wei Zhao brushed it off with a laugh, showing no inclination to elaborate.

"Haha, Young Master Ling, that is far too modest of you. Excessive modesty is a veiled form of pride—if you put it that way, where does that leave me? Even if I used every ounce of strength I had, I could not wound him a hair!" Qi Wenmo took the initiative to clink cups with Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao, laughing at his own expense.

"The only reason we could wound him was that he trusted too much in his own superior strength and grew careless for a moment. A second time, we might not have such good fortune." Wei Zhao waved a hand dismissively with a smile.

"Even so, it proves the two of you have real skill, and talent is hard to come by. Our Qingtian Escort Agency needs fine hands like you, Young Master Ling. Since the two of you intend to train here, why not let the Qingtian Escort Agency serve as your backing? At least there would be someone to look out for you." Qi Wenmo smiled on.

Wei Zhao's earlier guess had been entirely correct. Though this man was by nature generous and forthright, as the young master of the Qingtian Escort Agency, his every action represented the agency's stance. He and Wei Zhao were neither kin nor friends—how could he possibly have acted out of sheer righteous indignation and publicly offend a figure like Cheng Qitian for no reason?

The real reason was that he had taken a liking to the strength of Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao. On paper they were merely early Golden Core cultivators, hardly formidable, yet together the two of them had wounded a peak early Nascent Soul expert like Old Kong. What astonishing strength that was!

Hence he was utterly convinced that these two disciples from the Sandie Pavilion of the North Island must hold some exceedingly powerful trump card. (To be continued...)