The Long Journey to Immortality

"Oh, and they also brought explosives, which they're setting up in every corner of the auditorium, as if they're going to blow it up."

After carefully noting down the key information in Qiu Bin's words, Han Lu asked, "Are you injured now? How is your cousin?"

Qiu Bin remained silent for a moment, and after the masked robbers patrolling the auditorium had moved a little further away, he continued, "I'm fine, but my cousin was unfortunately chosen and taken to another room to be held alone. I don't know how he is now."

"Be careful, my senior sister and I will be there soon." Knowing what was going on, Han Lu made the promise and then hung up the phone.

"Senior sister, how is it? Where is that primary school?" Han Lu put away her phone and looked at Wen Erya.

“Junior sister,” Wen Erya pointed her phone screen at Han Lu and said, pointing to two small dots on the map, “It’s not far from here. We can fly there in about two minutes by sword.”

Han Lu noted down the relative locations of the commercial plaza and Nanyang Road Primary School, and said in a very fast voice, "Then let's not delay, let's set off immediately."

The situation was tense, and the two of them couldn't care less about walking in the commercial plaza in their ordinary human form.

Two spirit swords flew out of the two people's storage bags. The two genius cultivators, who were only at the Great Perfection of Qi Refining, displayed the sword flying ability that was generally only possible for Foundation Establishment cultivators. They flew over the dense crowd in the commercial square, ignoring the "click-click" of countless camera shutters, and quickly headed towards Nanyang Road Primary School.

While Han Lu and Wen Erya, two powerful cultivators, were still on their way, the negotiation experts and elite agents dispatched by Hans Company had already arrived at the scene.

Terrorists who are ruthless and deliberately cause trouble are ultimately a minority. These ten robbers must have had some ulterior motive for doing such extreme things.

The neighborhood where Nanyang Road Primary School is located has been partially sealed off, and the negotiation experts have made contact with the other party through the communication channels deliberately left by the masked robbers.

Soon, the leader of the robbers revealed all his demands, outlining his conditions for exchanging the hostages and his bargaining chips.

The robbers' demands weren't too unreasonable, at least not in the face of a behemoth like Hans Corporation.

There are three in total.

The first condition is the release of a cult leader who was arrested three months ago and scheduled to be executed in two days.

The second point is to prepare 500 million yuan in cash as a bargaining chip for exchanging hostages.

The third option is to broadcast cult propaganda videos on television for the next hour, promoting the cult's doctrines to the public.

“I’ll give you thirty minutes to do three things. If you haven’t done even one of them in thirty minutes, then I’ll have no choice but to pull the trigger…” The robber loaded a bullet and pointed it at a student’s parent who was kneeling on the ground, trembling with fear.

The crying and commotion of several primary school students were also heard by the negotiation expert over the phone.

In order to keep the robbers calm, the negotiation expert naturally agreed to all the conditions and tried to buy time by finding reasonable reasons.

Meanwhile, elite agents from Hans Corporation's security department were trying to figure out the specific situation inside the elementary school and figuring out how to launch a rescue operation.

Just when the experienced security agents, who had dealt with countless dangerous incidents, were at a loss, Han Lu and Wen Erya suddenly descended from the sky, appearing beside them, carrying their spirit swords.

Upon seeing the two monks suddenly appear, the security agents reacted instinctively, drawing their pistols and aiming them at Han Lu and Wen Erya.

"Don't be nervous..." Han Lu did not raise her hands in surrender. She just looked at the gun barrel pointing at her and said calmly, "We are friends, not enemies. We are here to help you solve the problem."

Upon seeing Han Lu's face clearly, one of the security agents suddenly exclaimed, "Are you two the cultivators who appeared at the Hans City headquarters half a month ago?"

"Yes, yes," Han Lu thought she could save herself some trouble since someone recognized her. "What, were you there that day?"

“Yes, yes,” the security agent said excitedly, as if he had seen an idol. “With two seniors here, this matter can definitely be resolved smoothly.”

To make his words more persuasive and to lower his colleagues' guard against Han Lu and Wen Erya, the security officer exaggeratedly described the supernatural powers that Han Lu and Wen Erya displayed when they fought the Three Heroes of the Western Regions at the Hans Company headquarters that day.

Through this narration, the images of Han Lu and Wen Erya as extraordinary and powerful figures were established.

With such strong support, the expressions on their faces relaxed considerably.

The security officer who had met Han Lu and Wen Erya introduced himself, "My surname is Xu. I wonder what method you two seniors would like to use to resolve this matter?"

When speaking to the two cultivators, Han Lu and Wen Erya, Officer Xu couldn't help but adopt a slightly classical Chinese tone.

Han Lu and Wen Erya had already discussed their strategy on their way here.

Han Lu said confidently, "It's very simple, just take a close look."

[Author's Note] The Amazing Cultivation Simulator has been updated again. I played it for a bit, and after adding some cheat mods, it felt great.

Chapter 233 The Campus Robbery

Although Officer Xu's words just now have already created the image of Han Lu and Wen Erya as experts.

However, this confident demeanor was not enough to put people at ease in the eyes of several experienced security personnel from Hans Company.

In particular, Han Lu's confident demeanor without inquiring about the specific situation on campus makes people wonder if she might use overly aggressive methods to deal with the hostages as well as the kidnappers.

Then, a site supervisor, dressed in a bulletproof vest that differed from the other operators, stepped forward and spoke.

"Ensuring the safety of the hostages is the primary objective of this rescue operation. We hope that the two senior cultivators can reconsider their actions and avoid any mishaps during the operation."

This was said in a very tactful way, lowering the tone and giving Han Lu and Wen Erya plenty of face.

Han Lu naturally understood the subtext and said, "Of course we know that. In fact, we came here because some of our mortal friends are trapped on campus and have become hostages."

"We care about the safety of the hostages just as much, and we will never disregard human life or act recklessly."

After Han Lu explained the reason why the two had come to this place, most of the doubts in the minds of the agents were dispelled.

"I see."

"What methods do you two senior cultivators intend to use to resolve this matter? And is there anything we can do to help?"

Han Lu was naturally delighted that the other party offered to help.

"It's difficult to explain the method to you clearly, but to be clear, it will naturally be done using the methods of cultivators."

"As for help, just have your negotiation expert do more to distract the robbers."

"Oh, right, and..." Han Lu pointed to the campus map spread out on the table and said, "Tell us about the general situation on campus."

Although Qiu Bin recounted everything he saw over the phone, Han Lu did not believe that Qiu Bin, now a hostage, knew the full extent of the kidnappers' plans.

It's more reliable to get information from the security personnel at Hans company who are monitoring the situation.

Han Lu's responsible performance put the other agents at ease.

The person in charge pointed to the officer surnamed Xu and said, "No problem, Xiao Xu, please explain the situation."

Holding a laser pointer, the operative called Xiao Xu pointed out the locations on the campus map.

The information held by Hans Company was not much different from what Qiu Bin reported to Han Lu and Wen Erya.

The only difference is that the number of robbers has increased from ten to twelve, and their approximate locations have also changed.

"...This is the auditorium, and this is the backstage area of ​​the auditorium."

"There were four robbers patrolling the auditorium, and there were approximately 500 students and their parents being held captive in the auditorium."

"There are twenty-three hostages in the back area, guarded by three kidnappers. The kidnapper who just spoke to us is one of these three."

"Finally, there were five more robbers scattered throughout the campus, each holding a button to detonate explosives."

"Their main task was to search for students and parents who were not under control in order to increase the number of hostages."

"It is also one of the bargaining chips."

"If we act rashly and only eliminate the robbers in the auditorium, they will press the button immediately and fight to the death." When he said this, the agent surnamed Xu slowed down his speech considerably, specifically reminding Han Lu and Wen Erya to pay attention to this point.

This caused a slight change in the expressions of Han Lu and Wen Erya.

Looking at the map, Han Lu casually said to Wen Erya, "If Yi Qiyan were here, that would be great. With her here, all we need to do is control twelve poisonous insects to sting each of these twelve robbers, and the matter will be resolved."

“That’s right,” Wen Erya agreed. “If we follow our original plan and cast illusions, we can’t guarantee synchronization.”

Clearly, if the plan they discussed on their journey had been followed, the final outcome would most likely have been as the officer surnamed Xu had said: many hostages would have been killed along with the twelve cult robbers.

"Do the two seniors have any new ideas now?" the person in charge pressed.

"Can we kill all twelve robbers?" Han Lu asked, a question that was slightly off-topic.

"Of course, there's no need to be polite when dealing with such vicious criminals."

"But it would be even better if one or two could be left alive."

Hearing this, Han Lu whispered a few words to Wen Erya, and only after Wen Erya nodded did Han Lu continue.

“Then there’s a way,” Han Lu said with a relaxed expression. “The way isn’t difficult, but we need you to lend us one thing.”

"what?"

“Two walkie-talkies,” Han Lu explained. “The difficulty of the mission lies in simultaneously clearing out the seven robbers inside the auditorium and the five robbers scattered outside the campus. Therefore, my senior sister and I need to stay in sync and act instantly, each taking care of the robbers we are responsible for, in order to ensure that this matter is resolved smoothly.”

"Huh? Don't cultivators know how to use telepathy?" The person in charge had been paying close attention to cultivators lately, and had read a lot of fantasy novels about cultivation online. "Why not just send a message directly?"

Han Lu's expression changed, and she said, "Why ask so many questions?"

She didn't want to ruin her image of being all-powerful in front of strangers by claiming to be a Qi Refining cultivator, since she hadn't fully opened her divine soul sea yet and couldn't do such a thing.

Sure enough, as soon as Han Lu uttered a harsh word, the person in charge dared not say anything more, and quickly handed over two walkie-talkies, and taught Han Lu and Wen Erya how to use this modern tool.

After pressing the button and speaking a few words into the walkie-talkie to confirm that it was working properly, Han Lu continued, "Then we'll set off. If everything goes smoothly, you can help collect the bodies of these twelve robbers in five minutes."

The two used their lightness-body techniques to leave the temporary command post set up by Hans Company and lightly crossed the three-meter-high wall of Nanyang Road Primary School.

After scaling the wall, Han Lu affixed a transformation talisman to her body and quietly headed towards the auditorium.

Wen Erya sat cross-legged on the spot and summoned the "Hun Tian Yi" that she had used when fighting with Chu Fei and others. She began to set up an array in this modern campus in order to find the five robbers who were wandering around the campus.

The Hun Tian Grand Formation was deployed, but this time Wen Er Ya did not use all of its power.

Even so, it barely achieved an effect similar to the expansion of divine sense by a Golden Core cultivator.

The sky was only slightly dim, and no ordinary person noticed the changes in every inch of the campus.

Soon, Wen Erya found the five robbers scattered throughout the campus.

Han Lu, who was wearing the Illusion Talisman, also infiltrated the school auditorium without any effort and met the more than 500 hostages.

The situation in the auditorium was terrible.

Ordinary citizens and many primary school students had never seen anything like this before.

When robbers appear and fire shots in a show of force, quite a few people wet their pants in fear.

Even though the robbers gathered everyone together and assured them that they would not harm anyone as long as Hans Company agreed to their demands, there were still quite a few children crying in the auditorium.

After observing for a moment, Han Lu realized that the four armed robbers were just standing guard and patrolling and did not linger there. She turned around and walked towards the backstage of the auditorium.

While Han Lu and Wen Erya were on their way, Hans Company continued to communicate with the robbers, following Han Lu's instructions.

Two armored trucks transported nearly 150 million yuan in cash from a nearby bank to the scene, with Hans Company making a show of trying to meet the other party's demands.

Everything was going smoothly, and the twelve mortal robbers who believed in the cult had no idea that they only had a few minutes left before their lives ended.