Chapter 4410 — Facing the Ambush
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"The Southern Continent Escort Gathering has been held for many editions now, and its purpose is clear—I trust everyone present knows it well. It is to seize this rare opportunity to jointly test and jointly raise the escorting skills of the escorts of the great agencies!" Hai Wuliang paused, then turned to the assembled escorts and said in a deep voice: "Escorting goods is your proper work and the foundation of your livelihood. If you cannot even do this well, what face have you to call yourselves escorts, and by what right would you stand firm in the seas of the Southern Continent? Therefore every contest at this gathering will revolve around escorting. I trust no one will object to this?"
Below the platform, the escorts of the thirty-two agencies nodded their agreement one after another. This was the Southern Continent Escort Gathering; as escorts, what they competed in should naturally be escorting. Otherwise, surely they would not be asked to compete in looks, in temperament, in embroidery? This was not an election for Dongfang Bubai...
"Very good. Next, Chief Escort Zhao Bufan of the Divine Wind Escort Agency will announce the rules for the first round." Hai Wuliang gave a slight nod to the middle-aged man seated at his right hand, then sat back down.
"Everyone, after deliberation the panel of judges has decided that the content of the first round of this Southern Continent Escort Gathering shall be a simulated scenario closely tied to your daily escort work—responding to an ambush!" Zhao Bufan took up where Hai Wuliang had left off.
At these words the crowd's spirits rose at once. Responding to an ambush—just hearing the name, one could already guess that despite being only the first contest, it would certainly be no easy affair.
But they had long since steeled themselves for it. After all, every past edition of the Southern Continent Escort Gathering had been a contest of extreme bloodshed and cruelty; never had one passed without deaths. This too was the abiding style of the Southern Continent's seas.
Otherwise, what would it mean for an escort gathering that drew the eyes of all to end in mere petty skirmishing without blood—a hothouse competition too fragile to withstand any trial? Even if one were ranked among the Five Great Agencies in the end, so what? Could that overawe those desperate, vicious pirates?
In the seas of the Southern Continent, only two things could earn one true say: strength, and blood. Lacking either, one need not dream of cowing those lawless pirates—one could only become an utter laughingstock.
"The rules are simple. Each agency takes the stage in the order of the draw, sending out four Golden Core escorts to convey the goods, while the agency that draws the corresponding lot likewise sends out four Golden Core escorts to launch the ambush," Zhao Bufan announced.
To put it plainly, it was a four-on-four team contest. Yet what slightly roused Wei Zhao's curiosity was this: why restrict it to Golden Core cultivators?
"This rule is in fact quite normal. Even for the Four Seas Escort Agency, the mightiest of them all, the vast majority of its escorts are Golden Core cultivators. It is not that they cannot afford Nascent Soul cultivators—it is simply that for ordinary cargo, troubling a Nascent Soul escort to set out would leave the agency no profit, and there would be no need for it either," Qi Wenmo explained from the side. (To be continued..) R527