Chapter 4336 — Overwhelmed with Gratitude

"A ship! A ship! We're saved! We're saved!" Before the freighter had even come alongside, Wei Zhao could already hear the children's shouts from afar, and soon a crowd had gathered on the dock—men and women, old and young, every face lit with delighted smiles.

What was going on here? Wei Zhao could not help but feel puzzled. The crowd on the dock was not large, a hundred or so at most, and they all looked like ordinary folk; forget Golden Core experts—there were scarcely a few Heaven-tier cultivators among them, and those at Foundation Establishment were even fewer.

Whether in the Zhenduan Sea or the Weihu Sea, these were chaotic, masterless waters where the strong devoured the weak. Wei Zhao had always assumed that anyone able to live here must be a formidable cultivator, at the very least a Foundation Establishment expert; he had never expected to find only ordinary people, no more than a small cultivator tribe at best.

This was truly far beyond Wei Zhao's expectations. After the freighter slowly came alongside, a middle-aged man of dignified bearing stepped out from the crowd below and, raising his hands in salute to Wei Zhao on the deck, asked, "I am Fang Biwu, master of the Fang Family Estate on Xianpeng Island. Might I ask whether this honored vessel belongs to the Qingtian Escort Agency?"

Wei Zhao's gaze sharpened slightly. This Fang Biwu's aura was gathered and hidden; even his own golden finger could not see through the man's strength—he was unmistakably an early Nascent Soul expert!

So this was how one gained a foothold in these chaotic waters. Even a cultivator tribe as small as this was absolutely not to be taken lightly. Wei Zhao's instinct told him that this man's strength, even among Nascent Soul experts, must be considered no common thing.

"Indeed it is. I am Ling Yi, an escort of the Qingtian Escort Agency. Greetings, Master Fang!" Wei Zhao leaped down from the ship and saluted with clasped hands.

"The road has been long, and you have had a hard journey, Young Hero Ling. Might I trouble you to invite the other escorts down as well, so that I may thank them in person?" Fang Biwu said with a courteous smile.

"Master Fang, to tell you the truth, I am the only escort." Wei Zhao shook his head with a bitter smile.

"Oh? But there is clearly another man aboard?" Fang Biwu was puzzled at once. He was a Nascent Soul expert; no one on the ship could escape his perception. Besides, this consignment was worth a fortune—how could the Qingtian Escort Agency send only one escort?

"Ha, Master Fang misunderstands. That fellow is a pirate I captured along the way to do hard labor—hardly an escort." Wei Zhao explained with a smile.

"A pirate?" Fang Biwu was taken aback, then comprehension dawned. "No wonder the shipment, which should have been sent a month ago, has only arrived now. Was it set upon by pirates?"

"Exactly so. It should indeed have arrived long ago, but these pirates seized it midway, and there was nothing we could do at the time. Then there was a delay in Zhenduan City. I had already resolved to return to Weihu City, never expecting to run into them again—so I simply took it back by force. I hope I have not delayed Master Fang's affairs." In a few brief sentences, Wei Zhao explained the causes and consequences of it all.

Though he did not go into detail, Fang Biwu could sense from those few simple words how difficult the affair had been. At once he bowed deeply to Wei Zhao. "Young Hero Ling, on behalf of the five hundred souls of my Fang Family Estate, I thank you for your great kindness!"

"You speak too seriously, Master Fang. As an escort of the Qingtian Escort Agency, this is all part of my duty. What great kindness is there in that? Why must you be so, Master Fang?" Wei Zhao waved his hand hastily.

"Ah, Young Hero Ling, you do not know. The cargo aboard this ship is the life-saving supply for every soul in our Fang Family Estate!" Fang Biwu explained. "In a few days comes our Heaven Sacrifice Day. Every year at this time, the miasma returns—thick and fiercely poisonous. Even those born and raised here must rely on Miasma-Resolving Pills to survive it, or the consequences are unthinkable: at best crippling, at worst death!"

"So severe?" Wei Zhao was startled. He had assumed the locals, baptized in the miasma since childhood, would have grown used to it.

"Worse than severe. The Miasma-Resolving Pills are the very lifeline of our entire Fang Family Estate. But some time ago we suffered an attack by spirit beasts, and the storehouse was destroyed along with everything else. With the Heaven Sacrifice Day drawing near, I had no choice but to spend a fortune commissioning the Hong Merchant Guild to buy the pills. The other goods were of little consequence—lose them and it is no great matter—but the Miasma-Resolving Pills could not be lost for anything. Had you not delivered them in time, Young Hero Ling, our five hundred souls..." Fang Biwu shook his head again and again, still shaken with dread.

Truth be told, these past days he had nearly gone white-haired with worry. If Wei Zhao had failed to deliver today, he reckoned he would have had to lead the whole Fang Family Estate in fleeing Xianpeng Island!

Yet though that would let them avoid the Heaven Sacrifice Day, it would inevitably mean contact with the outside world—and the outside was full of the vicious and the murderous, while they were mostly ordinary folk. Venturing out like that, he feared, would cost many lives.

And then, one cannot easily leave the land of one's birth. Unless there was no other choice, who here would willingly leave Xianpeng Island?

Having heard all this, Wei Zhao felt a bewildering tangle of emotions. Thank goodness he had run into those pirates; thank goodness he had not stood by and watched—otherwise all these people would have faced calamity, and that was several hundred lives!

Pirates were hateful enough, but the most hateful thing in this whole affair was still the man behind the scenes, Wei Zhaotong. This wretch would not even spare life-saving supplies, treating the several hundred lives of the Fang Family Estate as worth less than weeds—clearly his conscience had rotted away entirely. Such a scoundrel truly had no shred of humanity left.

Originally, even after being played for a fool by that bastard, Wei Zhao had not intended to single out this Wei Zhaotong, for the sake of his old friend Hong Zhong. After all, he himself had not suffered much loss; a warning would have been enough, and he could have turned a blind eye without harm. But now, Wei Zhao had changed his mind.

This time, if Wei Zhaotong was not made to pay a bitter price, Heaven itself would not tolerate it!

The people of the Fang Family Estate were all jubilant. Some were sent to unload the cargo from the ship, while Fang Biwu himself came out to receive Wei Zhao, ushering him into the Fang Family Hall and seating him as an honored guest.

To the whole Fang Family Estate, Wei Zhao counted as nothing less than a true savior. Without him, the entire clan would have faced utter ruin; so now, naturally, they received him with the highest honors.

Wei Zhao had not originally planned to stay long on Xianpeng Island, but he could not withstand the warmth of the whole Fang Family Estate and was dragged into staying two days; only after much persuasion was he finally seen off the island by all several hundred members of the clan together.