Chapter 4420 — No One Takes Up the Challenge
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"May I ask Chief Escort Hai—on this new sea route we're to sail, does each of us take a different course, or are we all on the very same stretch of water?" someone in the crowd suddenly called out.
"On that point I can tell you plainly: every contestant will sail the same stretch of sea, on routes that are broadly identical. But to prevent anyone from competing sluggishly—deliberately trailing behind and letting others brave the dangers first—each vessel must leave the starting dock at least twenty meters apart. Right now the sea fog is at its thickest; once we're out on the water, twenty meters is enough to lose all sight of one another, and judging your position relative to the rest becomes very difficult." Hai Wuliang answered with perfect composure.
"Then what if someone cheats—turns back halfway without completing the course?" another voice from the crowd asked. At those words everyone pricked up their ears, and indeed there were more than a few present who had been entertaining exactly such a scheme.
"A good question. For this round of perilous-sea navigation, the start and the finish are both fixed at the Moleng Dock. But twenty li out there is a checkpoint that everyone must pass, and the assembly's stewards are already waiting there. Only with the seal from their hands may you turn back, and only then will your result for this round count. Should anyone dare to cheat and turn back midway, not only will he earn not a single point, but the escort agency he belongs to will face a heavy fine—three hundred thousand spirit jades!" Hai Wuliang replied.
"And the scoring—how exactly is that reckoned?" someone asked amid the general uproar.
"That too is simple. It is reckoned by each man's time of passage. Those who pass within one stick of incense earn two hundred points; within two sticks, one hundred points; within three sticks, fifty points; within four sticks, thirty points; within five sticks, ten points. As for those who cannot even finish within five sticks—there is no need to reckon their score, for such men generally do not come back at all." Hai Wuliang declared in a ringing voice.
The "stick of incense" he spoke of was no ordinary short stick such as most people knew, but a long stick specially commissioned by the assembly. Just as with the first round of fending off robbers, the time it measured was far longer than what people commonly conceived a stick of incense to be—otherwise, with this new sea route running a full forty li out and back, to say nothing of the dangers along the way, even for one who knew every reef and current, such a span of time would never suffice.
By now everyone had a thorough grasp of the rules for this second round of perilous-sea navigation. What remained was to see how each of the thirty-two escort agencies would marshal its forces and lay its plans.
Unlike the first round, this second round—though likewise restricted to Golden Core cultivators of quality—did not in fact demand much of an escort's raw strength. Even an early Golden Core would not be amiss. But there was one requirement: his seafaring experience had to be beyond compare, or else even a Golden Core at the peak of perfection would be useless.
Should a vessel strike a hidden reef or a whirlpool and go down, then to say nothing of a Golden Core expert, even a Nascent Soul expert cast into the vast ocean would find nothing but death. Cultivators might endlessly proclaim their defiance of heaven, but before the immensity of the sea—at least for those below the Nascent Soul stage—they were still far from possessing the confidence to contend with it.
Every escort agency, more or less, had a few veteran escorts rich in seafaring experience. But at a time like this, hardly a single man would step forward of his own accord to sign up.
There was no other reason: this round looked simple, but its perils in truth surpassed even those of the first.