Chapter 4346 — Confronting Them at Their Door

"Three cuts, six holes..." Li Yanji and Guan Zhiyuan turned deathly pale, their legs giving way beneath them as they collapsed to their knees once more. Even the other escorts around them exchanged uneasy glances—the young master was truly in earnest this time!

"Men, carry out the sentence," Qi Wenmo ordered coldly, his hands clasped behind his back.

The agency guards exchanged a glance, then dared not delay an instant. They hurried over, trussed Li and Guan up, and bound them securely to the iron frame standing in the courtyard outside.

Throughout it all, the two could only let themselves be bound hand and foot, their faces ashen, not daring the slightest resistance or even to shield themselves with true essence! The three cuts and six holes were terrifying, but with the constitution of Golden Core cultivators, it would not kill them outright. Yet were they to resist, once blades were drawn in earnest, death would truly be close at hand.

The so-called three cuts and six holes meant three stabs through the body, each one driven clean through to leave a pair of bleeding holes, six in all—a torture second only to taking one's own life. Many sects and powers on Cloud Tier Island still employed this punishment, and in the Wei Arc Seas, it was an acknowledged code of the jianghu.

The first cut... the second cut... the third cut...

Before the eyes of the crowd, amid screams like hogs being slaughtered and the scalp-crawling sound of blades grating on bone, Li Yanji and Guan Zhiyuan passed out on the spot. The thrusts had avoided absolutely fatal spots like the heart, but three cuts and six holes still left them gravely wounded—Golden Core experts though they were, they were no exception.

A dead silence fell over the whole scene. Under the deterrent of such a cruel punishment, no one dared so much as whisper anymore. As every gaze turned toward Qi Wenmo, it was markedly more respectful and fearful than before—such was the effect of killing the chicken to frighten the monkey.

Watching this, Wei Zhao nodded to himself. The incident had certainly caused enormous losses, but for Qi Wenmo it was not necessarily an entirely bad thing. At least from now on, his grip on the Qingtian Escort Agency would be far firmer than before—a blessing in disguise.

"Throw them out," Qi Wenmo said, waving a cold-faced hand. At once the guards dragged the unconscious Li and Guan out like dead pigs and dumped them in the street outside, drawing a crowd of passersby who pointed and stared.

The two wretches had been thrown out, but everyone remaining on the scene still scarcely dared to breathe, waiting for Qi Wenmo to speak again.

"Brother Ling, care to come with me to the Hong Chamber of Commerce? I must settle this score properly with that old bastard Wei Zhaotong!" Qi Wenmo said, grinding his teeth.

This time the old fox Wei Zhaotong had set a trap, and he had blundered right into it. Not only had he been left utterly beset and forced to pay three hundred thousand spirit jade in compensation, but his authority—indeed the reputation of the entire Qingtian Escort Agency—had suffered badly. He could not possibly swallow this score!

"Naturally," Wei Zhao said with a faint smile. Not only was he a party to the affair, he had also captured the pirate chief who served as witness. In reason and in feeling alike, he could not possibly stay away.

All the more since Wei Zhaotong was so black-hearted as to treat the several hundred lives of the Fang Family Manor on Xianpeng Island like so much grass. Even simply as Hong Zhong's friend, Wei Zhao could never stand by and do nothing.

"Good!" Qi Wenmo raised a hand and declared, "All of you, set aside whatever is in your hands. Come with me!"

"Yes!" the crowd answered in unison. Compared with going to the Hong Chamber of Commerce to settle accounts with Wei Zhaotong, everything else on hand was now a trivial matter.

Qi Wenmo was a man of straightforward temper who acted the moment he decided. At once he led his people in a mighty procession toward the Hong Chamber of Commerce. Their menacing momentum drew a great crowd of onlookers.

The earlier dumping of the half-dead Li Yanji and Guan Zhiyuan had already stirred up a commotion; now, word spread from one to ten and ten to a hundred, and before Qi Wenmo and his party even reached the Hong Chamber of Commerce, the affair was already boiling over and blanketing the whole city.

This suited Qi Wenmo perfectly. In a matter like this, the bigger the uproar the better—at the very least, everyone must know that the incident was not the Qingtian Escort Agency's incompetence, but a trap set by Wei Zhaotong of the Hong Chamber of Commerce. In this way he could also thrust Wei Zhaotong, the hand behind the scenes, into the teeth of the storm and drag his name through the mud!

The procession arrived in force at the Hong Chamber of Commerce, every one of them radiating a chilling menace. The moment they took their stand at the entrance, the customers around hastily cleared a wide berth, taking them for a gang come to fight and settle a feud—hardly a rare sight in the chaotic Wei Arc Seas, and everyone feared being caught in the crossfire.

The Hong Chamber of Commerce went on high alert. Even the expert retainers stationed there were roused, blocking the way before the crowd with wary, grim faces. After all, Qi Wenmo had brought not only a host of escorts but several Nascent Soul experts who guarded the agency. If it came to blows with such a force, the chamber's few retainers alone might not be able to hold them back.

There was no need for Qi Wenmo to announce himself; a servant had already run to the rear courtyard to report to Wei Zhaotong: "Steward, trouble! The Qingtian Escort Agency has come to wreck the place!"

"What?" Wei Zhaotong started, and when he grasped the meaning his heart lurched. He could not help muttering to himself—could the truth have come out?

Impossible. Those pirates were seasoned veterans; they would not be caught so easily. Besides, Qi Wenmo had only delivered the three hundred thousand spirit jade in compensation yesterday—and now, a single day later, he had turned hostile?

Though puzzled, Wei Zhaotong did not lose his head. He quickly regained his composure and instructed the servant with an air of calm: "I understand. Show Qi Wenmo to the reception hall."

"And... the others?" the servant asked hesitantly.

"Bar the door to them, of course. Do they think the Hong Chamber of Commerce is a place where anyone can come make trouble whenever they please? Go, now!" Wei Zhaotong shot him a glare, and the servant nodded hurriedly and hurried out.

A short while later, Wei Zhaotong met the furious Qi Wenmo in the reception hall. To his slight surprise, however, the servant had not ushered in Qi Wenmo alone, but three men.

Of the two who entered with Qi Wenmo, he had seen Wei Zhao once before and knew him for one of the escorts on the last run. But at the sight of the other man, his eyes flickered—why would this fellow be here, instead of in the Far Star Seas?

Yet however alarmed he was inside, Wei Zhaotong let nothing show on his face. He merely cast the man in black a faint glance, as though he were a stranger he had never laid eyes on.

"Steward, Young Master Qi insisted on bringing these two in, I..." the servant began, panic-stricken, begging Wei Zhaotong's pardon. He had no choice—it was already no small feat that he had talked down the crowd outside. With Qi Wenmo determined to bring the two in, how could a mere servant truly stop him? (To be continued...)

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