Douluo Continent: We agreed on a simulation, but they've come to life?

Deep underground in Mingde Hall, another roar came, and the shockwaves echoed through the metal corridor. Countless researchers watched helplessly as their hard work went down the drain, their hearts bleeding, yet they had no choice but to stand still.

Some stubborn researchers tried to fight back, but they were kicked away by a powerful member of the Body Sect, and their fate is unknown.

After about ten minutes of rioting.

Many powerful members of the Body Sect returned to the agreed location, their storage soul guide diamond rings gleaming with the light of a bountiful harvest. Almost everyone had diamond rings on every hand, making them look like nouveau riche.

"Master."

The Grand Elder's eyes were filled with excitement. This was truly a great harvest. More than a century had passed since the Body Sect last went to the Star Dou Great Forest to frantically harvest 100,000-year-old soul beasts. Because the former sect leader, Du Bisi, had passed away, the sect had lost the support of a top expert, and its arrogance had been somewhat restrained in the past century. Now, after thoroughly plundering the Mingde Hall, its momentum had once again reached unprecedented heights.

Time was too tight, and there was no time to examine many things in detail, but the mountains of rare and various metals, and even the soul-guided equipment filling the warehouse, were almost comparable to a large armory of the Sun Moon Empire. Even if they were sold, they would be worth at least several hundred million gold soul coins, not to mention using them themselves.

This is going to be a huge windfall.

"Okay, let's retreat..."

With a smile on his face, Du Bu Si glanced at Jing Hong Chen, whose neck veins were bulging and whose teeth were almost ground to powder. With a wave of his hand, many black-robed Body Sect experts moved in an orderly manner and jumped into the earth-drilling soul-guided vehicle.

At the same time, countless points of light lit up outside the Mingde Hall, rushing towards this place. At least several legions stationed nearby and countless Soul Masters took to the air. In just ten minutes, they had all gathered. Their organizational ability and speed were quite exaggerated.

However, Jing Hongchen offered no resistance whatsoever, resulting in a truly alarming loss for Mingde Hall this time…

"Master Jing, let's talk another day..."

Du Busi chuckled, glancing at Jing Hongchen's gloomy face and the Sun Moon Empire's experts arriving one after another, and said rather irritatingly, "I'm leaving, no need to see me off."

After saying that, he also climbed into the earth-drilling soul-guided vehicle, and the huge drill bit roared and started drilling downwards.

"Stop it!"

A massive soul-guided drilling ray instantly appeared on Jing Hongchen's shoulder. With a roar, the scorching ray shot towards the drilling vehicle, which nimbly dodged it and then, accompanied by a loud hum, went deep underground.

Immediately afterwards, another Level 9 bunker buster was released by Jing Hongchen, rushing into the tunnel left by the bunker buster and closely following behind.

At the same time, dozens of fully armed elite members of the Sun Moon Empire's Royal Soul Master Corps rushed into the cave.

Just as Jing Hongchen was about to stop him, his pupils suddenly contracted.

"Rumble..."

The dark cavern collapsed instantly, and the terrifying force of the explosion swept through the entire tunnel. Because the cavern was not spacious, all the elite Sun and Moon warriors who had just rushed in were killed by the aftershocks. Their bodies were thrown out by the aftershocks, and all of them had their internal organs shattered, with blood seeping from their eyes and ears. They looked extremely gruesome.

Many medics set up equipment and began treatment, but it was clearly too late...

What's even more troublesome is that the passage was destroyed by the level-nine soul-guided cannon shell. If they want to continue the pursuit, they'll need to get a new burrowing soul-guided vehicle. But given the speed at which the enemy burrows underground, by the time a new pursuit vehicle arrives, they'll probably have already disappeared from Mingdu...

"Master Jing, what on earth happened?!"

An elderly man with white hair rushed over, his face solemn, and asked the question.

"It was the Body Sect... They launched a surprise attack on Mingde Hall." Jing Hongchen said with a bitter expression. He knew he was in deep trouble this time, especially with that last bunker buster, which he launched in a fit of rage, and could even be considered a basic mistake.

"What?" The white-haired old man's pupils dilated in shock, and then a surge of anger rose on his face. "So you let them loot and destroy Mingde Hall without doing anything to stop them?"

It's easy to guess what happened. There are no signs of battle at Mingde Hall now, and many researchers are unharmed. It was probably a desperate measure taken by Jing Hongchen to save lives.

but……

The empire will show no mercy.

From his perspective, even if all these researchers were combined, including Jing Hongchen, none of them would be as important as the research projects themselves, because the data not only represented the current level of soul guidance in the Sun Moon Empire, but also risked data leakage if plundered.

This is the Sun Moon Empire's only core and most precious asset.

But it was lost by Jing Hongchen.

Chapter 189 The Unlucky Shrek Exchange Student, the Scapegoat ( )

"Okay, you're very good!!"

Xu Jiangliu's face was grim as he pointed at Jing Hongchen: "This is the result of the hard work of countless predecessors of the Sun Moon Empire, not yours! How dare you be so selfish!"

"Just wait, Jing Hongchen, I will definitely report you to His Majesty, and you'll be dismissed and investigated!"

He angrily threw down a sentence and then commanded the Royal Soul Guidance Legion, the most core violent organ in the heart of the empire, to start operating. First, they quickly launched a reconnaissance mission to calculate the current location of the Level 9 Earth-Drilling Soul Guidance Vehicle based on its speed, and then sent guards to intercept it.

Even though he knew perfectly well that there was almost no hope of successfully intercepting it.

But at least we should do our best.

Otherwise, if those soul-guided secrets were to leak to the original continent, it would be a catastrophic blow to the entire Sun Moon Empire. After all, the Sun Moon Empire's advantage over the original continent lies in soul-guided weapons, and without this advantage...

Then they would probably get beaten up by the other major powers.

He uttered a few harsh words and then led his personal guards straight towards the imperial city.

Jing Hongchen was utterly despondent; several strands of her hair had turned white, and her eyes remained tightly closed, unwilling to open them for a long time.

……

"Over a hundred tons of refined iron, over a hundred tons of sunken silver, over a hundred tons of mithril, seventy-two tons of blazing sun iron, fifty-seven tons of black steel, thirty-two tons of purple iron, seven tons of sea god gold, two tons of meteorite iron..."

Outside of Mingdu.

In a small town.

Inside the tavern.

The surrounding patrons were all drunk and the atmosphere was lively, but they seemed not to notice a group of strange people in the corner. The group of people seemed to be hidden in the air, with almost zero presence.

Lu Cheng and the others lifted their black hoods, their faces beaming with smiles. Lu Cheng, in particular, couldn't hide his grin as he counted their spoils. As expected of Mingde Hall, even with the Sun Moon Empire's abundant metal mines, this was a devastating blow. All of these items, if sold, would fetch at least 300 million gold soul coins. This didn't even include the various high-grade soul guide devices in the warehouse. Conservatively speaking, they would have at least 500 million gold soul coins.

This time, they practically robbed the entire Mingdetang.

But the key point is that the most important person hasn't been won over yet.

Not bad... Mirror of the Mortal World.

Upon hearing that Lu Cheng wanted to return, Zhang Lexuan panicked, her pretty face filled with worry: "Now that Mingde Hall has been robbed, the entire Mingdu will inevitably be on high alert, and everyone's identity will be strictly checked. If you go back now, aren't you courting death? I don't agree!!"

Poison Undying also spoke cautiously, "Xiao Cheng, those old foxes have very sharp eyes. I've dealt with them my whole life, and even I've never gained an advantage from them..."

His words were already quite tactful; no one is a fool, especially since Lu Cheng's identity has not yet been verified.

"But I have reasons why I have to go."

Lu Cheng said softly, "Do you all know how I obtained the information about the internal blueprints of Mingde Hall?"

"..."

The scene suddenly fell silent.

"It's in the hands of Meng Hongchen, the granddaughter of the Mingde Hall Master." Lu Cheng said slowly, "So before leaving, we must at least take her with us. Also... Jing Hongchen, I must at least try to win her over. This move is to win Jing Hongchen over. With the right timing, location, and people, if Jing Hongchen joins the sect, our sect's Soul Guidance Department will have a place to settle down, and Senior Brother Langya won't have to struggle alone."

"You mean... you've won over Jing Hongchen's granddaughter?" The elders were dumbfounded, after all, no one had expected that Lu Cheng's charm had reached such a miraculous level.

"Mm." Lu Cheng nodded.

"I need to go back early, otherwise Teacher Xuan will also be affected."

Besides, so what if we get caught?

He also has the Necropolis given to him by Elder Yi. If pushed too far, he can throw two bone dragons at the palace. Since advancing to Soul Saint, his pure soul power has increased several times, and the power of his Ice Bone Technique has also increased exponentially. It won't be able to kill that old emperor.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Lexuan had no choice but to accept it. Her beautiful eyes were like two pools of deep springs, making Lu Cheng break out in a cold sweat. He hugged and comforted her for a while before reluctantly agreeing. He gave her a sweet kiss and then followed the many elders of the Body Sect to leave.

I also gave them a heads-up: when you pass through Shrek City on your way back, remember to kidnap Xiao Hongchen, and have the Body Sect publicly announce their gratitude to Shrek Academy for sharing the information...

……

dorm room.

Lu Cheng stretched leisurely, yawned, and glanced sideways at the guards of the Sun Moon Empire's Royal Soul Guidance Corps who filled the corridor. They knocked on doors one by one to check the guards, and took away all the disciples from Shrek Academy.

"I'm Ye Xiaosheng, an exchange student at Shrek Academy, not a spy. What right do you have to arrest me? I want to see my teacher!"

The guard leader, his eyes bloodshot, slapped Ye Xiaosheng hard across the face and roared, "Shut up! This kind of thing only happened after your Shrek Academy exchange students came to the Sun Moon Empire. What's there to argue about? You're all a bunch of beasts. You'll behave yourselves once you're in jail."

Having said that, he snorted coldly and waved his hand, signaling his men to take the other party away.

Lu Cheng crossed his arms and watched with interest as the Shrek Academy exchange students struggled angrily, only to be forcibly taken away with shackles that imprisoned their soul power. Only Bei Bei and Tang Wutong were not in such a sorry state, but they were still in the group. Clearly, the Sun Moon Empire did not intend to completely offend Shrek Academy. However, the nature of last night's events was too egregious, and Shrek Academy's only bargaining chip was Xiao Hongchen, a useless lad, which is why they acted so recklessly.

That's good; it helped him distract himself.

"Excuse me, student, please show your identification."

A middle-aged Royal Soul Guidance Corps guard, dressed in a red and black military uniform and exuding a somewhat murderous aura, finished checking the previous room, came to Lu Cheng, saluted, and spoke.

"Here..."

Lu Cheng said with a smile.

The guard glanced at the student ID briefly, his expression softening considerably, and then bowed again: "All done."

Students with high status and strong talent will inevitably become his superiors after graduating and joining the Soul Guidance Legion. Moreover, in the eyes of most Sun Moon Empire people, the culprits of last night must be related to this group of Shrek exchange students. The others, especially their own people, are just doing routine checks and putting on a show.

"Hey friend, what exactly happened last night?" Lu Cheng pretended to be just woken up, looking surprised and uncertain.

"Mingde Hall was attacked by the Body Sect..." The guard looked around and, seeing that no one cared, said in a somewhat ferocious tone. After speaking, he turned and left.

Only Lu Cheng remained, leaning leisurely against the railing, watching the indignant Shrek Academy members below.

……

laboratory.

Keke looked nervous. "Senior Brother, you weren't in the lab last night, were you? It was so scary..."

"No." Lu Cheng shook his head with a smile.

"Early this morning, guards checked our dormitory. I was wearing a bear-patterned bra and almost had my underwear exposed." Keke patted her chest, her voice filled with emotion and a touch of感慨 (gan3kai3, a feeling of mixed emotions, often including regret or unease).

Only Ju Zi, though smiling, had a strange undertone in her gaze when she looked at Lu Cheng.

The Body Sect launched a surprise attack... isn't this guy from the Body Sect...?

I wonder what Keke's expression will be when she finds out the truth.

Chapter 190 Do you have anything else to say?

"Hey, Lu...you haven't left yet?!"

Upon seeing Lu Cheng, Xuan Ziwen broke out in a cold sweat. If it weren't for Ke Ke and the others around him, he probably would have wanted to drag Lu Cheng away. Last night's commotion was so big that the hall master was detained early this morning, and all of them, the researchers, were called in for questioning one by one.