Chapter 67 - Begin the Journey

At last, Caesar had emerged from seclusion, and Lu Hong had been waiting in the inn’s lobby for Lai Li.

Soon enough, Lai Li walked out through the side door with Caesar, who, upon seeing Lu Hong, asked, “I heard you’re going to the Sea of Flames?”

“Yes, Lai Li must have told you,” Lu Hong replied.

Caesar nodded, “The Sea of Flames is a dangerous place after all, you must be very careful.

I set up a teleportation array near the Sea of Flames many years ago, which should make things convenient for you.”

Caesar seemed to have ventured into the Sea of Flames before and knew a bit about the place.

He continued, “Remember, don’t just go into any cave you see; nearly all of them are nests for the fire-consuming worms.

These worms are huge, with astonishingly high defenses, and apart from dragons, they almost have no natural enemies.”

“And also—”

Before Caesar could finish, Lu Hong interrupted, “I know, I know, I should also watch out for the flowing magma filled with fire ants, right?”

“Exactly, fire ants might only be level seven, but their numbers are staggering.

Each one is only the size of a common ant, and once disturbed, you could end up facing thousands of them.

Even dragons have been bitten to death by them.” Caesar looked at Lu Hong in surprise, not expecting this young man to be so knowledgeable.

“Have you been to the Sea of Flames before?”

“No, I’ve just heard about it and remembered,” Lu Hong lied slightly, thinking it wouldn’t do any harm.

He definitely couldn’t mention that he had been there before in a game, and died countless times to these fire ants and fire-consuming worms.

“Dad, I’ve told you, this guy knows a lot; there’s no need to explain more to him.

And he definitely has been there; he was just lying just now,” Lai Li ruthlessly exposed Lu Hong’s lie.

“No, actually, I was saying it for your sake.” Caesar said seriously to Lai Li, “Although you’re following him, you’re still in charge of the actions.

I’m just worried you might go wild the moment you leave.”

Lu Hong felt speechless about why Lai Li would expose him, weren’t they all adults who understood the saying ‘see through but do not tell’?

He could only awkwardly smile and say, “This matter, it’s not convenient to discuss.”

“It’s fine,” Caesar replied nonchalantly, “Everyone has their own secrets.

Since you know about the Sea of Flames, I won’t say more.

Have a safe trip and come back soon.”

“Xiaoxiao?

Are you guys going out?” At this moment, Lock Fan, hearing some noise, hurriedly ran down to the lobby.

“Xiaoxiao is what you call her?

I haven’t even settled the score with you yet!” Caesar became instantly furious upon seeing Lock Fan, somehow over the last few days, the colorful dishes Lai Li used to make had dulled, turning back towards ordinary cuisine.

It turned out Lai Li had been preparing food for Lock Fan, and worse, she used some of his precious ingredients from other realms!

“Fuck!” Lock Fan saw Caesar tear off a leg from a stool and jump at him, which made him panic and quickly run back up the stairs.

“I’m going to kill you today!” Caesar wasn’t about to let Lock Fan escape and hurried after him.

“I and your Xiaoxiao are going to buy some things for the inn, we’ll be back in a few days!” Lu Hong yelled up the stairs, using Lai Li’s alias in the small town, Tu Xiaoxiao, since she had been spending a lot of time with Lock Fan these last few days, and Lock Fan had been calling out ‘Xiaoxiao’ even in his sleep.

Thus, Lu Hong thought it prudent to maintain peace by not giving the impression that he was trying to steal his brother’s wife.

“Why can’t you take me with you?” Lock Fan’s voice floated down from upstairs, followed by the clang of objects and Caesar’s angry shouts.

“Settle things with Old Tu first; we’re leaving,” Lu Hong could not help but laugh.

“You behave well in the inn with my dad, and I’ll make you something delicious when I get back!” Lai Li called up to the second floor, then turned to Lu Hong, “Come with me to the basement.”

“What love potion have you fed my daughter?

Why does she want to cook for you?” Caesar felt a pang at Lai Li’s words and was even more determined to chase down Lock Fan.

Lu Hong followed Lai Li to the side, where she kicked at her simple bed, and like a spring-loaded mechanism, the bed shot up to the ceiling.

“Let’s go.” Lai Li led the way down the stairs beneath the bed.

“Your traps are quite unique,” said Lu Hong, not surprised by her inventive mind, given her years of experience.

While most people had rotating secret doors, hers were ejecting.

As Lai Li snapped her fingers, a row of lights began to automatically ignite in the dim basement, illuminating it as bright as day.

“Wow!” Lu Hong gasped upon seeing the basement clearly.

Is this even a basement?

It looked more like an underground city with countless intersecting passages.

From his position, Lu Hong could see a straight passage stretching so far it seemed endless, probably larger than the town above.

“Aren’t you afraid someone in the town might want to build their own basement and accidentally dig into this?” Lu Hong curiously asked.

“No, we’re two hundred meters underground here; nobody’s going to get bored and dig down this far,” Lai Li explained.

“Two?

Two hundred meters?

Didn’t we just come down twenty-some stairs?” Lu Hong asked, surprised.

“There’s a teleportation matrix on the stairs, short-range so you didn’t feel it,” Lai Li said as she led the way to a small path on the right, row fifteen, “come this way, I remember storing the coordinates for the Sea of Flames in this warehouse.”

The two entered the side path, and inside was a huge warehouse.

It was filled with rare items from around the Sea of Flames: weapons, ores, herbs, gems, and so on, everything one could imagine.

“You guys really are rich!” Lu Hong swallowed hard, imagining that Caesar’s inventory here couldn’t be much less than the Empire’s treasury.

“If you lived longer, perhaps you’d have even more saved up.” Lai Li opened a box that contained a piece of sheepskin with space coordinates written on it.

“Yes, that’s right.

Hope Sea City, I visited there with my father two thousand years ago, just don’t know what it’s like now.” Lai Li noted down the coordinates, then took out a teleportation scroll from the Space Ring in her pocket and was about to activate it when Lu Hong suddenly stopped her.

“Could you find the coordinates near Stone Moss City?

I need to find that sword quickly and go save someone.”

“I can, but right now I don’t have the coordinates inside Stone Moss City because it hadn’t been relocated when I last set the coordinates,” Lai Li said, and then found the coordinates near Stone Moss City with Lu Hong.

“What do you mean?” Lu Hong was stunned, a city that relocates?

It was the first time he’d heard of such a thing.

“Stone Moss City is near the Nansha Great Forest.

Every two hundred years or so, it faces an attack from Demon Beasts.

Sometimes it withstands it, if not, it’s essentially rebuilt after the beast wave is over.” Indeed, it might be something seen once in a lifetime; Lu Hong had never encountered such a beast wave in his previous games.

“Alright, it’s time we left.” Lai Li channeled the Power of Soul into the teleportation scroll in her hand; a stream of light flashed, and a teleportation gate slowly formed in front of them.

“Let’s go.” Lai Li walked through the teleportation gate first, followed by Lu Hong.

After a moment of disorientation, the first thing Lu Hong saw was a row of urinals.

Lai Li, her face red, turned her back to the wall as a man’s figure hastily fled the scene, shouting, “There’s a pervert here!”

What the hell— where did we teleport to?

The public restroom of Hope Sea City?

And a men’s restroom at that?

“You sure set the cheerful coordinates!” Lu Hong couldn’t help but laugh.

“A few thousand years ago this was the southwest corner of the city wall—when did it turn into a restroom!” Lai Li complained, flustered as she rushed out of the restroom.

“The city had to expand, right?

How else to develop the economy?” Lu Hong shook his head and followed her out.

Stepping out of the public restroom they were on the streets of Hope Sea City, but strangely, only a few people were wandering around the broad avenues.

Moreover, many buildings around were half-collapsed, and the ground was stained with pools of blood that no one had bothered to clean.

“Even here, the Eight Great Families didn’t hold back?” Lu Hong’s expression darkened, realizing this place was cleaned out and seized for power just like Tuzhui City.

Hope Sea City, with almost no strategic value, had developed slowly only due to the annual influx of adventurers entering the Sea of Flames; those families were indeed ruthlessly insane.

Lai Li wasn’t surprised though; having seen much slaughter before and even though she had once been the ruthless Princess Lin Lang, who had claimed countless lives.

“Let’s leave the city,” Lai Li said calmly.

“It’s not safe here now; let’s wait until night to leave,” Lu Hong suggested, given that the Eight Great Families had struck here, Hope Sea City was unsettled at the moment.

“No need, nobody can stop me.”

Hearing Lai Li’s words, Lu Hong suddenly remembered just how terrifying the strength of the young-looking woman beside him was.

Ah!

Why couldn’t it be me?

This kind of setting—looking young and invincible—should have been mine!