Chapter 55 - Lan Sa Breaks the Barrier and Escape Plan

“Uncle Lando, do you know that a rebellion is currently taking place in the empire?” Lu Hong drew closer, leveraging his connection with Lock Fan.

“I had no idea.

If it weren’t for this kid crushing the summoning stone I left him, I’d still be holed up in the deep forests of the Beastman Empire.” Lando curiously asked, “What exactly happened?

You must know something, right?”

Lu Hong nodded, “All I know is that the Eight Great Families have revolted, seeking to overthrow the entire empire.”

“The Eight Great Families have revolted?” Lando seemed not at all surprised and turned to Lock Fan, “Son, the empire is troubled these days.

Why don’t you come with me to the Beastman Empire to take refuge?”

“Dad, why don’t you care about the empire at all?” Lock Fan certainly didn’t want to go, and he couldn’t understand why his father showed no concern for the survival of the empire.

“As a mercenary, what kind of sense of belonging do you expect me to have?

I work for whoever pays, like this mission from the Beastman Empire to find an ancient ruin.

I don’t care who is in charge of the empire, nor can I.” Lando spoke indifferently, his mindset indeed different from ordinary people, having grown up in a mercenary group.

“Dad!

You…” Lock Fan wanted to say more but was stopped by Lu Hong, “Let it be, Uncle Lando has his own considerations.”

“Are you coming with me or not?

This portal won’t last another ten minutes, and I still need to get back.”

“Not coming!”

“Good!” Lando was not angry but rather relieved, “However, I’m out of summoning stones, and next time you encounter danger, I may not be able to help you.

I guess your mother and I should get ready to have another child.”

At that moment, the Knight trapped under the buildings finally broke through his predicament.

“Boy!

Let’s fight again!” The Knight’s eyes were fixed only on Lu Hong, clamoring to fight him another three hundred rounds.

“Silence!” With a gentle wave from Lando, a tornado quickly formed, lifting the Knight into the air and hurling him away like a shooting star, disappearing without a trace.

“Is everyone recovered?” Lu Hong asked the remaining group of students.

Thanks to Lando’s medicinal potions, most of the students had regained some ability to move.

“Du, we can almost leave now.”

Seeing the original hundred members of the spearhead team decimated by more than half from the hellish battle, and now losing over thirty more in the territory of the Continent of God’s Grace, many of whom he couldn’t even name, for the first time Lu Hong felt a keen sense of his weaknesses, unable to protect them.

“Let’s do this, I’ll escort you out of the city.” Having learned from his son about the current situation in Tuzhui City, Lando decided to lend a hand.

“Thank you, Uncle Lando.” Lu Hong thought the same, knowing Lando would say it if he didn’t ask.

This time, just a squad of five had lost over half its members, and who knew how many Second Transition professionals were waiting for them at the city gate.

“No time to delay, follow me!” Lando looked back at the portal, urgency pressing him to hurry.

“Are you guys coming?” Lock Fan asked the remaining thirty or so students from Heavenly Vine Academy.

“We’re not leaving.

The principal instructed us to wait here for his return,” the students from Heavenly Vine Academy refused his kindness.

“But thank you for what you did earlier, we are sorry you were dragged into this and lost so many companions.” The students from Tiandeng Academy all wore expressions of sadness, their bleak emotions spreading.

Lock Fan didn’t know how to console them, “Just try to survive,” he said before catching up with the students from Kains Academy and following Lando towards the city gate.

As expected, the city gate was heavily guarded, with over a thousand Second Transition professionals holding it firmly, and thousands of civilians already lying dead in pools of blood below them.

Seeing a group of students charge over, the rebel army at the gate immediately issued an attack command, and a Rain of Fire descended from the sky.

“Get out of the way!” Lando’s Magic Power surged, his iron fist pounding heavily on the ground, immediately causing Earth Element powers to burst forth.

A gigantic hand, formed from the Earth Element, surged from the ground, crushing all rebels and the gate of Tuzhui City into dust.

“Disperse!” Watching the incoming Rain of Fire, Lando waved his hand again, and wind Element powers swept into a fierce gale, completely clearing the incoming Rain of Fire.

When a Third Transition powerhouse took action, it was extraordinary, casually solving the problems for Lu Hong and the others.

“All right, there should be barely any danger now, you should quickly leave the city.

If you ever find yourselves in a desperate situation, Lock Fan, take them to my Black Fortress, I believe no one would be foolish enough to attack my stronghold.” After finishing his instructions, Lando hurried back to the portal, realizing that if he missed the time window, he truly wouldn’t be able to return to the Beastman Empire.

“Your dad is incredible!” The students who had escaped the city finally breathed a sigh of relief and sat down in the field to rest for a moment.

“It’s alright, just average, I will definitely surpass him in the future!” Lock Fan, hearing his companion’s praise, wanted to keep it low-key.

“Lock Fan, come over here!” Lu Hong grabbed Lock Fan, who was lying on the ground, and dragged him away to a quiet spot.

“What’s up, Du?”

“Do you know Lando?” Lu Hong asked curiously.

“I…I don’t know.” Seeing Lu Hong’s sudden question, Lock Fan quickly shook his head.

“I’ll give you another chance,” Lu Hong sneered, seeing the boy’s panicked expression, it was clear he was lying!

“I…well, Brother Tu, you have to keep this secret for me!” Lock Fan shrank his head and whispered, “Lando is my aunt.”

“…” Lu Hong was taken aback.

Lando is your aunt?

How did you not recognize her when you were in hell?

Is this how relatives act?

“But I heard my aunt ran away from home when she was young and joined the hell sect.

Later, my dad went to look for her, but their conversation fell apart,” Lock Fan continued.

“Actually, I’ve only seen my aunt once, when I was three years old.

It was the day my grandfather died, and my aunt came back.

After that, I never saw her again.”

“Alright, that’s all,” Lu Hong, after meeting Lansa, always felt he was somewhat similar to Lando, and both had the name Lan.

He didn’t expect his guess to be true.

“That’s it?” Lock Fan was startled.

Lu Hong glanced at Lock Fan, “Yes, what else?

Should I say you’re colluding with the hell sect?”

“Then…then where do we go next?” Lock Fan quickly asked about the plan.

“I really don’t know.

The imperial capital is definitely the main target of the rebels now.

Returning to the academy now is like seeking death.

Let’s just find a place to hide and gather information about the empire’s situation for the time being.”

“I have a map of the empire’s transit routes here.

My dad gave it to me when he left; Brother Tu, take a look.” Lock Fan pulled out a scroll of parchment from his waist pouch and handed it to Lu Hong.

With the map, things were much easier; they wouldn’t be running around like headless flies.

Lu Hong took the map, sat down on the ground, and started studying it with Lock Fan.

This map was very detailed, marking each city’s guard distribution and even the power distribution.

It was evidently Lansa’s handiwork.

The appearance of this map undoubtedly gave them a greater chance of survival.

Soon, the two found Tuzhui City, and an adventurer town was to its west.

“Let’s head there,” Lu Hong decided, pointing at the adventurer town.

“The adventurer town is made up of adventurers, merchants, and mercenaries.

It should be a neutral area with no imperial army stationed, and since there’s no imperial army, it probably won’t be a target of the Eight Great Families.

Relatively speaking, it should be safer.

Additionally, we can use the adventurer town’s liquidity to inquire about the current situation of the empire.”

After listening to Lu Hong’s analysis, Lock Fan nodded; the boss was indeed different, smart!

Then, the two carefully planned their route, avoiding official roads in case they ran into the rebels and got killed in minutes.

“Besides, we need to change out of our academy uniforms,” Lu Hong said, frowning.

“From the way the rebels target people from the Heavenly Vine Academy, they might have special tasks to kill us students.

If we continue wearing the academy’s uniform, we’re likely to be marked like those from the Heavenly Vine Academy.”

“But we don’t have any other clothes to change into right now!” Lock Fan said helplessly.

Currently, only Lu Hong was not wearing the academy uniform, as he had given his clothes to Lando when they were in hell, and now he was wearing casual clothes from an inn.

“Big deal, we’ll just go shirtless,” Lu Hong said nonchalantly.

“Shirtless?” Lock Fan was startled, “We’re people who have received higher education; how can we just go…around…”

Before Lock Fan could finish, Lu Hong slapped him, “Stop your nonsense!”

“I’ll take it off right now!” After receiving a slap from Lu Hong, Lock Fan quickly became wiser and immediately took off his shirt but then asked, “What about the pants?”

“The pants are fine; once we get into the wild jungle, we’ll kill a few demon beasts and soak them in beast blood, then rub them in mud heaps.

I guarantee they won’t look the same,” Lu Hong wasn’t insane enough to make them run in the nude, so he casually gave another bad idea.

“I think we might as well run naked,” Lock Fan couldn’t help but say after hearing Lu Hong’s suggestion.

Slap!

Another slap.

“Where’s your higher education quality?

Running naked?

Pah!

Shameless!”

Lock Fan held his head and couldn’t help but sigh.

Ah!

Being an underling is really tough!