Chapter 4438 — Crude Imitation?
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
It turned out that this escort of the Four Seas Escort Agency had not, like the escorts of the other agencies, tucked the cargo into this or that nook aboard the ship. He had taken a different path entirely: in a reef not far from the vessel he had chiseled out a hole, forced the cargo inside, and taken care to restore the reef to its original look.
Such an out-of-the-blue method—had Qi Mingyuan not heard someone mutter that it might have been thrown into the sea, and drawn inspiration from it—even he could never have found it.
By the rules of the contest, the cargo could not be thrown into the sea, but nothing had ever said it could only be hidden aboard ship and not in the reefs alongside. So the trick was entirely permissible.
Yet for all its ingenuity, the Four Seas Escort Agency still failed to earn full marks, for Qi Mingyuan's flash of insight came just as they were near the end of the third stick of incense, and they fell short at the final moment. The time counted as two sticks of incense only, and they received seventy points!
At this result Hai Wuliang ground his teeth in fury. Everyone else had already given up; had that bastard Qi Mingyuan not made trouble, his Four Seas Escort Agency's full marks would have been a certainty.
But thanks to Qi Mingyuan's meddling, not only had their score shrunk by a full thirty points, the more crucial loss was the chance to accept a challenge. With his brilliant hiding scheme, he had stood a fine chance of scoring two hundred; now it had been whittled down to seventy. Anyone in his shoes would have exploded.
"Just you wait—in this round your Skysupport Escort Agency won't get a single point!" Hai Wuliang was so furious his teeth clenched. With a venomous look he led the crowd aboard Ship Number Thirty. In his view, so small a vessel, and placed so far back in the order—hide it however well you liked, a single stick of incense would surely be enough to turn it out.
After practicing on twenty-nine agencies before, these "bandit crew" men could now count themselves half experts at finding cargo. The moment they boarded they made for every nook and cranny that might conceal a cache, each with his own clear assignment, far more practiced than at the outset.
At the sight, Qi Mingyuan's heart could not help but sink. He himself, of course, was only putting on a show and would not search in earnest—but Hai Wuliang's lot were going about it so expertly, and the ship was so uncommonly small. Never mind missing him; even if ten of them were absent, the rest could easily turn out the cargo.
Yet after the whole company had searched the ship from top to bottom, not one of them found the treasure chest.
"Don't tell me this one's been hidden in the reef too?" The crowd exchanged looks. Strange as the idea was, if the Four Seas Escort Agency could think of it, then this man of the Skysupport Escort Agency might well have thought of it as well.
"Hmph—crude imitation, nothing worth a second glance!" Hai Wuliang gave a cold snort, then abruptly flung out a surge of forceful true qi that sheared half the surrounding reef away. Now whether there was a hole in the rock was plain at a glance, and no hiding place could avail. (To be continued)