護花近衛 - 第4234章 衛昭請纓 - 翰墨軒

But at the same time, one had to remember that high returns often came with high risks. A top-tier outfit like the Hong Clan Trading Company, even in a place like the Wei Arc Sea, had its own logistics channels.

Under normal circumstances, they had no need at all to seek help from an escort agency; and once they did come knocking, it meant this assignment had already exceeded what they themselves could handle. One could well imagine how difficult it must be.

And what made the crowd shrink back even more was that the destination of this run was none other than Xianpeng Island!

Geographically, Xianpeng Island, though likewise an island of the Wei Arc Sea, was in fact the one nearest to South Island among all the islets of the Wei Arc Sea.

South Island was the gathering ground of the spirit beast race, where savage spirit beasts abounded, every one of them ferociously aggressive. To ordinary human cultivators it was an absolute forbidden zone. Xianpeng Island lay too close to South Island; a single misstep, and one would easily draw the attacks of those spirit beasts.

Beyond the threat of the spirit beast race, Xianpeng Island held an even deadlier peril: the miasma fog.

The miasma fog was unique to South Island. In a sense it could be regarded as a union of pestilential qi and sea mist, never dispersing through all four seasons. To the spirit beast race, whose constitutions were fierce and whose senses far outstripped those of humans, it was nothing much; but to human cultivators it was utterly lethal.

Caught within the miasma fog, one suffered not only desperately poor visibility and a tendency to lose one's way—the crucial thing was that the pestilential qi was highly toxic. Even a powerful cultivator could not hold out for long once immersed in it.

Xianpeng Island lay too close to South Island, shrouded in miasma fog the whole year round. The locals who had dwelt on the island for years, soaked in medicinal baths since childhood, still possessed a degree of immunity to the fog; but for outsiders, it was a fearful headache.

So unless there was some special necessity, no sane person was willing to go to Xianpeng Island. That the assembled escorts should wear such daunted looks was hardly surprising.

"Every one of you is an escort of my Qingtian Escort Agency, and I have never stinted on your keep. As the saying goes, feed troops for a thousand days to use them for one hour. Now that the hour has come, and every last one of you is being so courteous—that is hardly fitting, is it?" Seeing this, Qi Wenmo's originally sunny, amiable countenance could no longer hold.

The Hong Clan Trading Company was not merely an old patron but a power of great reach; the bond between them was not a simple matter of business dealings but a strategic partnership of mutual support. By every measure of sentiment and reason, he could not turn Wei Zhaotong's commission away. However hard the road, the Qingtian Escort Agency must not only take this assignment but guarantee it went off without a single mishap.

Qi Wenmo knew well that this run would be a hard one, and that these nominal escorts should shrink back was still forgivable. But the trouble was that there were standing escorts present as well—men he kept on at great expense day in and day out, who now flinched at the critical moment. How could that stand!

Seeing Qi Wenmo's displeasure, the assembled escorts could not help looking sheepish, and those few standing escorts in particular dared not meet his eye. Yet even so, they were still unwilling to take this assignment.

"Young Master, it is not that we do not wish to take it, but we have already pledged ourselves to other runs. Surely we cannot simply abandon them," someone replied, steeling himself.

"That I can understand—but surely not every one of you here is in such a case?" Qi Wenmo said, frowning.

"Young Master, I will go." At last one escort stepped forward.