Ma Wanbao and his party finally shook off the giant sea beasts, only to find that the pirates had vanished. They hurriedly dispatched their forces to pursue them in every direction.
Li Ling had already intervened, of course, and would not let them find Luo Jingwei so easily.
With a few simple tricks, he diverted the search parties from the correct route. Naturally, they found nothing.
When the news came back, Ma Wanbao still refused to give up. He brought out a mysterious compass, hoping to use it to locate the Greenfly Coin.
This compass was reportedly a secret creation of the Merchant Association, used to retrieve Greenfly Coins when necessary by sensing the causality bound within them.
But once its needle began moving, it spun around and around without stopping, turning the thing into a little fan.
Ma Wanbao stared dumbfounded at the sight. For the time being, he had no other recourse.
Wang Erxi glanced at him and asked worriedly, "Master, what should we do now?"
"Withdraw the troops!" Ma Wanbao said bitterly. "We're going back!"
This crushing defeat had far-reaching consequences. The first was that unrest once again stirred among the people of Northsky Island.
Many had never accepted Ma Wanbao's domineering, arbitrary conduct in the Council of Elders. With their deliberate encouragement, tales of his defeat spread through every street and alley. Northsky Island's prestige was swept into the dust, and it all but became a laughingstock.
The rough-and-tumble world of outlaws, meanwhile, was stunned by Pirate Commander Luo Jingwei's heaven-defying feat.
He had escaped encirclement by Core Formation cultivators twice in succession. The first time, he had faced only Wang Erxi, defeated him, and seized his ship, which could still be explained as a stroke of luck. The second time, however, the Merchant Association's many