Chapter 4455 — All of Them Deathsworn
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"Aye!" the crowd answered in unison, stepping out at once without the slightest hesitation to form ranks. Never mind anything else—at least the sincerity the Qingtian Escort Agency showed its escort masters was second to none among any of the great houses' agencies. As for risking their lives for the agency, they were all of one mind: worth it!
Watching this, Wei Zhao raised an eyebrow slightly. Of the more than thirty escort masters present, every last one was willing to fight for the agency. Such morale was unmatched not only by the other agencies—even the Qingtian Escort Agency of a couple of days ago could not have matched it. Clearly the cohesion gained over these two days was no small thing.
"Excellent!" This too genuinely surprised Qi Wenmo, and he was overjoyed. Turning to Wei Zhao, he said, "Brother Ling, what comes next I leave entirely to you—myself included. Whoever you say goes in, goes in; however you say to fight, we fight!"
"Ha, Brother Qi, you had best sit this one out. If the honored young master of an agency must step into the ring himself, then win or lose, he will be held in contempt." Wei Zhao shook his head with a laugh, then swept his gaze one by one across the escort masters before him, at last selecting five.
One at the great perfection of the Golden Core, two at the peak of the late Golden Core, and two at the late Golden Core—this was the lineup Wei Zhao chose. Such strength could be counted among the Qingtian Escort Agency's first tier, but by no means their strongest roster.
Wei Zhao was deliberately conserving strength. This was only the first bout—he could not very well behave like a gambler and shove everything onto the table with no reserves. After all, these escort masters were not like Wei Zhao himself; often after a single bout, the true qi in their bodies was all but spent and could not be recovered for some time. They could only rest off the stage, unable to fight consecutive bouts.
"This... will this do?" Qi Wenmo asked in a small, uneasy voice. In his thinking, even a lion fighting a rabbit used its full strength—and their opponents, the Wuma Escort Agency, were no easy bone to gnaw. Slight the least bit, and one could capsize in a ditch.
"Whether it will do or not, I've already made my choice. Surely we can't change the lineup at the last moment—that is a cardinal taboo in warfare." Wei Zhao gave him an amused look.
"Oh, oh." Only then did Qi Wenmo catch himself; he hurriedly covered his mouth in apology. He had said before that everything was left to Wei Zhao's arrangement—to stick his own oar in now would be going back on his word, and whom were the men supposed to listen to then?
Just then, staff from the tournament came over to urge them onto the stage. Over there, the five competing escort masters of the Wuma Escort Agency were already standing on the platform, chests out and spirits high.
"Oh my—every one of them a deathsworn. Truly worthy of the famously mad agency—from top to bottom, a pack of lunatics who don't fear death!" Qi Wenmo's eyelid twitched at the sight.
The opposing lineup was one at the great perfection of the Golden Core, one at the peak of the late Golden Core, and three at the late Golden Core—on paper, about equal to their own side. But the aura emanating from those five was as though four words were plainly written across their faces: death without regret.
A deathsworn and an ordinary man—even with equal strength, in a real fight the deathsworn's odds of winning were far the greater. That much was certain! (To be continued)