The First Order

Chapter 822: Retreat

The prison break featuring a theme of gratitude was finally coming to an end after more than an hour. The Great Hoodwinker took off the warden’s watch and checked the time. It was already 4 AM.

Ren Xiaosu was satisfied with completing the quest the palace had assigned him. This time, the reward was two allocatable attribute points. He added one point to each of his Strength and Dexterity attributes. Currently, his Strength was rated at 14.5 while his Dexterity was 14.1.

Although the palace did not give him a Skill Duplication Scroll this time, Ren Xiaosu did not find it sad. After all, a Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll was rare in itself. Furthermore, every attribute point Ren Xiaosu could get was a tangible improvement for him.

If “Old Xu,” the black saber, City Crusher, and his other powers were considered his “skyscraper” skills, then Ren Xiaosu’s physical attributes could be considered the “foundation.”

While they were heading outside, the Great Hoodwinker looked at Ren Xiaosu. “This warden is still alive. How should we deal with him?”

Ren Xiaosu took a look at the warden. Actually, he was feeling very conflicted, because he really wanted to duplicate his superpower. If the conditions allowed, he even wanted to lock him up until he got his hands on three Perfect Skill Duplication Scrolls, which he could then use on the man.

When the Great Hoodwinker saw Ren Xiaosu hesitating, he asked, “Are you keeping him alive because you wish to convince him to join the Prosperous Northwest?”

“That’s impossible.” Wang Yun said from nearby, “This warden is the illegitimate son of the Kong clan’s second ancillary branch. How could someone like him possibly join the Prosperous Northwest with us?”

Ren Xiaosu glanced at the warden who was lying on the ground and said bluntly, “Just kill him. We don’t want him getting to our comrades in the future.”

Since they were enemies, Ren Xiaosu did not feel bad about having him killed. He only felt bad that he would have to pass up on that power.

However, they were about to face the problem of how to escape from the city. With Stronghold 31 in a state of chaos, Ren Xiaosu could not possibly let the Great Hoodwinker bring such a potential threat back to the Northwest.

With that, Wang Yun shot a blast of air through the warden’s eardrums.

Then Wang Yun looked at Ren Xiaosu. “What do you plan to do next? The Kong Consortium will definitely learn about the incident at the secret prison. I believe the Kong Consortium’s troops will be here soon. I saw you were not in a hurry when you released the prisoners just now, so you must be very confident of what to do next. Tell us about your plan.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “I don’t have a plan.”

Wang Yun felt stifled. He realized the people from the Northwest did not seem to like planning at all!

He said with a dark expression, “Then what should we do? Send ourselves to our deaths by going out there and facing the Kong Consortium’s garrison troops? Do you know that there’s a reinforced brigade here in Stronghold 31!?”

Ren Xiaosu said, “Oh, you’re talking about that? I doubt they’ll care about us now. Don’t worry, I’ve already done all the prep work. Look, I broke into the secret prison an hour ago, but no one came to stop me, right?”

Wang Yun thought it really was the case. He wondered again, “After I was arrested, it was Wang Ziyang who took over my position, right? Did you get the detonator from him? How could no one from the intelligence agency go after you?”

“Oh!” Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “They did come after me. But those people are dead.”

Wang Yun fell silent. He somehow felt that this future commander of the Northwest was bragging to him!

As a matter of fact, the intelligence agency was the strongest force in Stronghold 31. They even had two supernatural beings within their ranks, so there was no need to mention their other combatants.

Ren Xiaosu swaggered out of the secret prison and said, “Don’t worry, y’all will understand once we get outside the secret prison.”

At this moment, the sound of an engine came from nearby. Yang Xiaojin had found an off-road vehicle in the secret prison. She looked at everyone and said calmly, “Are you all planning to walk to the other prison? Get in.”

Ren Xiaosu was amused. His girl was quite thoughtful.

Everyone squeezed into the vehicle, with Ji Zi’ang, the Great Hoodwinker, and Wang Yun sitting in the backseat. The Great Hoodwinker sat between them and said, “You two, move aside a little!”

“I don’t have any space here!”

The three people nearly got into a fight in the vehicle over such a trivial matter!

But the moment the off-road vehicle drove out of the secret prison, the Great Hoodwinker and the other two shut up. They looked at the stronghold that was engulfed in flames and heard explosions in the distance. Everyone had a shocked expression on their face.

The walls of the stronghold were damaged. Everyone could see through the flames from far away that the towering walls in the distance had been blown apart.

As the vehicle drove on, they even saw countless stronghold residents fleeing in the streets.

Gunshots could be heard intermittently. No one knew where a battle had broken out in the stronghold.

The sight before them was like an oil painting of the Middle Ages before The Cataclysm that looked extremely thick and heavy. Under the backdrop of the red-orange flames, it was as though the God of Death had passed his judgment upon the Kong Consortium.

Wang Yun muttered, “Future Commander, is this the prep work you mentioned?”

To be honest, Wang Yun was a little unconvinced with Ren Xiaosu a second ago. Although he had witnessed Ren Xiaosu’s capability in the Sacred Mountains, he was dumbfounded by the Great Hoodwinker’s unprepared prison break. As a result, he was a little worried Ren Xiaosu would be the same.

But now, Wang Yun was convinced. In order to save them, the future commander had actually destroyed Stronghold 31?!

It was no wonder no one did anything about the secret prison after it was broken into!

Earlier, he had foolishly doubted the future commander’s ability to kill the intelligence agency’s personnel who were pursuing him. How could he have such thoughts?!

This was the Stronghold Destroyer he was talking about!

There might be some names in this world that were given badly, but there was really no such thing as a bad nickname!

Ji Zi’ang looked at the burning flames and asked in a daze, “What exactly is going on? What happened?”

“This is not to my credit either.” Ren Xiaosu explained sincerely and modestly, “The Pyro Company suddenly attacked Stronghold 31. I analyzed that the main forces of the Pyro Company might arrive at daybreak, so we had to be faster and get y’all out before that. By the way, Wang Yun, can you point the way to the other prison?”

Wang Yun calmed himself down. “Turn left.”

Yang Xiaojin turned the steering wheel, and the vehicle suddenly veered left and sped off into the distance.

There were only three hours left until dawn, so it was going to be a race against time.

…

In Stronghold 61 of the Wang Consortium, Wang Shengzhi was sitting in his official residence and flipping through some documents. In recent times, the Wang Consortium’s authoritarian only slept three hours a day. He cherished every minute and second he could get.

There were seven telephones on the table in front of him. All of the calls that were made to him would first be screened by the artificial intelligence before being transferred to the different telephones.

Suddenly, a dark red telephone rang. Wang Shengzhi looked up and saw it was the intelligence agency’s dedicated line.

He slowly put the receiver to his ear and said, “This is Wang Shengzhi.”

Wang Run’s voice came from the other end of the line. “I’m currently protecting Wang Jing and the others in the villa. Ren Xiaosu…”

Wang Shengzhi listened to Wang Run’s report on the Kong Consortium’s situation. The longer he listened, the more he was surprised. It was as though something extremely unexpected had happened.

At this moment, Yang Anjing pushed open the door to his study and asked, “What happened?”

Wang Shengzhi thought for a moment and summarized, “Stronghold 31 will probably be gone soon.”

Wang Shengzhi had asked Ren Xiaosu to kill Kong Erdong so the Kong Consortium would get plunged into chaos. As long as Kong Erdong died, the Kong Consortium would only take three months to fall based on the current situation.

But from the look of it, the prediction of three months was too conservative.

Wang Shengzhi thought for a moment and said, “Since the goal has been achieved, it’s time to retreat.”

“Roger that.”