"We"ll take a look as well. Elders, you two can stay behind. The Zhong brothers will follow me." Ma Xiaotao immediately made a quick decision after twitching her eyes slightly. She didn"t know where Huo Yuhao was. He hadn"t told her that he would stay in Sunrise City. Instead, he"d instructed her to flee from the evil soul masters and regroup in Shrek Academy after their plan was carried out. With Ma Xiaotao"s current condition, the evil energy in her body wouldn"t act up for a week at least. If she didn"t get into a fight, this period of time could be extended further.
Seeing that the Evil Tyrant Legion was this powerful, she naturally couldn"t just let them go after Huo Yuhao and the rest. In the event that they were able to catch up to him, what good would come of that? On the other hand, she could use the name of the Holy Ghost Church to s.n.a.t.c.h them when the time came. The reason why she didn"t want the two elders to follow her was because she couldn"t control two t.i.tled Douluo. Moreover, the Zhong brothers could only listen to her orders now, since they had committed a grave mistake earlier.
Ma Xiaotao"s plan wasn"t bad, but she never would"ve thought that her little brother, who she worried the most about, was actually in Sunrise City, and not far away from her.
The few evil soul masters around her didn"t have any objections at all. In the first place, they were the ones who"d let the hostages escape. As a result, Ma Xiaotao"s preference to chase after them by herself was naturally within reason. Moreover, she"d even left the two elders behind.
Two hundred rays of blue light, in addition to Ma Xiaotao and the Zhong brothers, flew into the distance like a bolt of lightning. Within the blink of an eye, they had disappeared without leaving any traces behind.
---
The Third and Fourth Elders looked at each other with ugly expressions on their faces. How could they not see how Ma Xiaotao was trying to exclude them? However, she was a person who would wield enormous power in the Holy Ghost Church in the future.
The Fourth Elder whispered, "We"ll need to find the vice-leader when we get back."
"Yes," the Third Elder replied. Then, he turned towards the person fully clad in black and said, "Are you Wu Yun or Wu Yu?"
The black-clothed person suddenly raised her head, letting her cloak slide back to reveal an extremely pale, yet abnormally beautiful face.
If Huo Yuhao were here, he definitely would have been stunned to see that this woman was completely identical to the evil soul master that he had killed a few days ago.
"How were you people even watching over Sunrise City? My sister is dead. Did you people not know that? Were it not for the spiritual connection that we had, I would"ve been left in the dark." The black-clothed woman"s sharp voice was filled with rancor, and her blood-red eyes looked as though they wanted to spit out fresh blood.
"You"re Wu Yu? Are you saying that Wu Yun is dead? How can this be?" the Third Elder said, astonished.
Regardless of whether it was him or the Fourth Elder, they both understood Wu Yun"s strength very well. Although she was only an eight-ringed Soul Douluo, even a t.i.tled Douluo would find her a nuisance in a fight due to her powerful Spirit of Vengeance. The Third Elder knew that he wouldn"t be a match for her if they were to fight within a distance of a hundred meters.
However, it was because of the peculiarity of their martial souls that Wu Yun and Wu Yu were considered extremely abnormal people, even within the Holy Ghost Church. No one was willing to interact with them, and so they were stationed in an unremarkable city to govern it.
When Sunrise City was chosen to hold the hostages, the Holy Ghost Church didn"t feel rea.s.sured with Wu Yun alone. Thus, they specially sent Ma Xiaotao over to directly take over Wu Yun"s position.
However, the two elders didn"t think that Wu Yun, who they saw as evil and powerful, would actually perish.
Wu Yu"s blood-red eyes trembled slightly after seeing the astonishment in the eyes of the two elders, "It seems like you weren"t the ones who did it. The astonishment on your faces can"t be faked. The person who harmed my sister is still in the city. Follow me." As she spoke, Wu Yu turned around and flew towards the city.
The hundred members of the Evil Tyrant Legion who were left behind all unfurled their flying-type soul tools and followed her.
The Third and Fourth Elders also hurriedly followed her. They were both flabbergasted at this moment, as they didn"t know what this Wu Yu was trying to do.
------
Sunrise City was currently a mess, but there were very few people on the streets.
To the citizens living in Sunrise City, the violent booms and shaking earth were signs that something huge was coming. What else could the ordinary folk do but hide in their houses, trembling? The soldiers didn"t travel via the streets, leaving a deathly silence looming in the city. The sky was already very dark, but, possibly due to the excessively bright lights from the huge explosion earlier, Sunrise City was still somewhat lit up.
A light and twisting figure quietly appeared at the corner of the street, then leapt like a fish over a wall to arrive at a different street. His footsteps were extremely quick, and he switched roads every few moments. Finally, he stopped at a rather large courtyard.
"Qiuqiu," Huo Yuhao whispered. After splitting up with He Caitou, he had immediately rushed over to group up with Nan Qiuqiu.
Hidden beneath the shadow of the door to a nearby house was Nan Qiuqiu, who leapt up as lightly as a cat. Within a few moments, she arrived by Huo Yuhao"s side and was covered by his Imitation, which allowed her to blend into their surroundings.
"You"re finally here. I was almost worried to death." For the first time ever, Nan Qiuqiu finally thought that Huo Yuhao was rather cute. At the very least, he had been able to make it on time at a crucial moment like this.
Huo Yuhao asked, "Are there any movements inside?"
Nan Qiuqiu shook her head. She said with an impatient look on her face, "I"m worried precisely because I haven"t heard anything going on inside! What about your side? Were you able to save everyone?"
Huo Yuhao nodded, "I"ve saved them, but I can"t say for sure how many of them will be able to escape. Hopefully, most of them will make it out." As the hostages had split up in different directions, a large majority of them would definitely be able to escape. He could guarantee that this would happen. However, Huo Yuhao knew that their plan wasn"t a hundred percent perfect. If one person were captured, it would be hard to say whether their meeting point could remain a secret. Yet, they simply couldn"t make any careful arrangements, nor relay them to the several hundred hostages due to the time constraints they were put under. As such, they could only resign themselves to fate. In any case, Huo Yuhao had already told Xu Sans.h.i.+ and the rest that a s.h.i.+p had been prepared for them once they reached the harbor. Moreover, Shrek Academy"s support should"ve already arrived by then, as well.
It didn"t matter whether the soldiers chasing after them could find their meeting point. What did matter, however, was whether the hostages could reach the meeting point in the first place. They would be safe if they could make it there.
Other than the people from Shrek Academy who were in charge of rescuing them, there were also experts from the Body Sect, as well as the various sects and academies whose disciples and students had been kidnapped. This was a force that contained over ten t.i.tled Douluo, as well as countless Soul Douluo and Soul Sages. A large majority of these people were under the surveillance of the Sun Moon Empire, and as such couldn"t leave their home empires easily, but after using subst.i.tutes and various different methods to escape from the Sun Moon Empire"s spying, they had traveled over to the harbor using the greatest possible speed they could muster. This was because Huo Yuhao had only given out the correct meeting point two days before the plan had been carried out.
Even if the Sun Moon Empire were to discover that these people were missing, it wouldn"t be easy for them to relay this news back home that quickly. Moreover, the rescue team and hostages would already have started returning to the Douluo Continent by that time. Considering how boundless the world was, how could they even attempt to recapture them at that time? There was no need to even talk about a Beast-Lord Soul Engineer Legion. Even two or three Legions would have no choice but to flee after encountering so many experts. Even if the main army arrived, they would have to fight over the ocean, where soul engineers couldn"t fight for long, as they would have to rely on flying-type soul tools. Once their soul power was fully exhausted, they would only be food for the setype soul beasts living in the ocean.
At this point, Huo Yuhao"s plan could be considered to have been successful.
Roughly five minutes after splitting up with He Caitou, he received the latter"s last message via his long-range transmission soul tool. The objective had been achieved, and all of the flying-type soul tools they had prepared had been activated, and they were no longer in the area they had been left in. In other words, the hostages had already flown away using the flying-type soul tools.
Those flying-type soul tools were equipped with Cla.s.s 4 Sealed Milk Bottles. Even if they didn"t have any physical strength at all, these Sealed Milk Bottles would allow them to fly for two hours. If several hundred people all flew in different directions for two hours, even a few hundred soul engineers wouldn"t be able to catch up to them. Even if the Evil Tyrant Legion was more conceited than they already were, they wouldn"t dare to split up and chase after so many elite soul masters.
"Let"s go in." Huo Yuhao was feeling quite happy now. What he needed to do now was rescue Nan Shuishui, then hide the mother and daughter duo for a while before returning to the academy once this whole mess was over. Since there would only be three of them and combined with how things were going already, they simply had no need to travel via water. Huo Yuhao had his own ways to conceal them as they returned to Shrek Academy by a different route.
This courtyard was where the Third Elder had imprisoned Nan Shuishui. Huo Yuhao released his Spiritual Detection and sent it out like a net that covered the entire courtyard.
There was no way the Third Elder could be here. Sunrise City was a big mess, and Sister Xiaotao was by his side.
Huo Yuhao gestured at Nan Qiuqiu, then gently leapt up. He used his right hand to vault the top of the courtyard"s walls, then floated into the courtyard.
Nan Qiuqiu quickly followed him, and she too entered the courtyard.
Huo Yuhao gestured at her again, then used his Spiritual Sharing to send her a mental message, "I"ll handle the two in the room, and you handle the two in the courtyard. Your mother is fine. I can sense her breathing. She"s just a bit weak, so don"t worry." The evil soul masters who were in the room were a bit stronger, and as such he felt more rea.s.sured taking them on.
"Okay." Nan Qiuqiu was overjoyed. Bending down, she quietly hid in a dark spot near the courtyard. On the other hand, Huo Yuhao used his Imitation to quietly reach a side room on the left side of the courtyard.
"Pa!" Nan Qiuqiu flicked her fingers, and a small rock fell into the courtyard without making much noise.
Almost noiselessly, a shadowy figure instantly appeared at the spot the rock fell. This shadowy figure was followed by a rotten smell, and green smoke started spreading through that narrow area.
Nan Qiuqiu squinted her eyes. What a fierce evil soul master!