Quit the team, then picked up a beautiful girl with problems

The girls looked around, and Dorothy released the sacred Magic Flower, using its shining vines to climb upwards, trying to illuminate the space.

"This is the passage built by the previous civilization." Xiao Mo stopped, turned around and said.

"Pre-civilization passage?" Zoe seemed to have thought that there might be something interesting here, and immediately looked into the darkness with all her strength.

"Wow, I really saw an amazing place by accident." Huozui Zhongde said.

"You're still here?" said Dorothy.

"Oh, this lady really hurts my heart when she said that. I still want to cooperate with Platinum Ace."

Li Ang walked towards the light of the lantern in Xiao Mo's hand. The light could illuminate him and the people around him. At this moment, everyone could clearly see his appearance.

Compared to the cynical boy he used to be, he is now much more calm. His brown hair is no longer as long as before, which makes his animal ears look less droopy and he looks much more energetic.

He was not wearing ordinary clothes, but rather a high-level thief's outfit, with his signature dagger stored in a leather sheath at his leg.

He smiled and high-fived Leon.

"Yo, our busy man finally shows up."

"I--"

"I know it all, no need to guess. You were eager to push the group to the forefront, and now that you're here, you've been abandoned by Ramsay."

"Okay, you've said it all."

Although he'd been teased, Leon felt a bit relieved. As Farina had said before, his only task for a short period of time was to help the team improve its rankings. Of course, he had to admit that Meluna had also taken up a lot of his time.

Therefore, when his attention was occupied by various things, he did not get together with his old friends. If he had visited Will specially and could occasionally meet Farina in the Holy City, he had never met Xiao Mo at all.

However, to this always straightforward guy, friends are friends, and saying that they haven't seen each other for a long time might seem pretentious to both parties. Anyway, this makes Li Ang relax now.

Xiao Mo peeked at the girls behind Leon, whistled at him, and nudged him. "Perhaps being kicked by Ramsay isn't such a bad thing after all? I've never seen you try to find a girl before. I'm worried about you, brother."

He opened his hands to the girls and said, "Hello, girls. Nice to meet you. I'm Duncan Morales. Leon and Sister Farina call me Xiao Mo, but you can call me——"

"Hello, Xiao Mo." Zoe greeted directly.

"Hey," Dorothy quickly patted the wild cat, who had absolutely no respect for the concept. "Little Mo is Leon's name. He's probably ten years older than you."

Except for Zoe, no one else made any movement. Only Dorothy, a bully at home, was worried about saying the wrong thing.

"It's okay, it's okay." Xiao Mo laughed and said, "What I hate most is that I'm almost an uncle."

He patted Li Ang on the back: "So what's going on with you? Why are you bringing so many girls with you? Which one is your girlfriend? Are the others her friends? Or did you say you've been working part-time as a tour guide since you were kicked out?"

"I am I am."

More than one person chose to answer in the affirmative, and Xiao Mo's smile immediately froze on his face.

These questionable girls. Leon covered his face.

"Is this an echo? No, it's impossible. I've walked through the core tunnel countless times. How could there be such an echo? I can't believe it. You—"

He grabbed Leon's shoulders and exerted great force. Although he was smiling, the murderous intent in his face seemed to be overflowing.

"I...never mind, this is the truth."

Li Ang introduced them seriously: "This is Zoe, Dorothy, Alulu, and Andasu, members of the air cavalry group I founded. This is Meimei, we are traveling with you temporarily."

He knew that he was no longer a human being, so he was not afraid. It was just that it was difficult to explain it anyway, so he had to pretend that nothing had happened.

"And me, I'm Leon's—"

"Meluna," Leon sighed, "This is Meluna."

He hadn't mentioned Meluna originally. Although he wasn't as angry as he was when he saw her again, he still felt a little hesitant to take the initiative to introduce her, even though she responded very naturally just now.

Interrupting her in time to prevent her from saying anything more has become an action that Leon is very familiar with.

But Xiao Mo is a battle-hardened air knight, so it is impossible for him to have misheard what was said just now.

He stared at Meimei and Meluna, who looked similar, and lowered his voice to whisper in Leon's ear: "You have sisters, right?"

"No, you're mistaken. Including Farina, my air cavalry has only five members. The others are just—"

"Air Cavalry? You call this the Air Cavalry?"

Morales turned to look at Farina again, his expression full of disbelief, as if to say, "You too?"

"Alas," Farina chuckled, "Relationships between young people are a little more complicated."

She mentioned the young man, which meant to exclude herself. Xiao Mo heard it, but he still growled: "Is this a complicated matter?! How can such a good thing with such a complicated relationship fall on me?!"

It took him a while to accept Leon's current situation, especially when he kept looking at the indifferent members of the Star Flower Brigade. The only one who was afraid of being misunderstood was Meimei, so she quickly hid aside.

"Let's talk business."

Li Ang said seriously, "Since the first thing you said when you saw us was to joke, it means that your situation is not that severe, even if the sharp blades of the empire are right in your home."

"Are you kidding? I really want to beat you up now. If I had known, I wouldn't have come to save you." Xiao Mo said with clenched fists.

After saying that, he sighed: "Of course they don't have the ability to catch me."

Leon glanced at the panel of this old friend.

[Name: Duncan Morales]

[Race: Beast-eared Tribe [Shadow Fox Tribe]]

[Occupation: Rogue, Level 8. Ranger, Level 6]

[Summoned Beast: Shadow Crocodile, Level 7]

[Energy Source: "Super Lucky Group" Refined Magic Core, Level 7]

[Equipment: Dancer's Edge, tier 8. Juggler's Blade, tier 7. Ranger's Shadow Cloak, tier 7. Blade Dancer's Wraps, tier 7. Breathless Padded Boots, tier 6.]

[Secret Skill: Comprehensive Secret Skill - Shadow Dance Attack, Professional Secret Skill - Dazzling Fight]

[Skills: Shadow Control [Shadow Entanglement, Shadow Curtain], Rogue [Light Steps, Agile Strikes, Swift Movement, Stealth, Ambush], Weapon [Dancing Steps], Weapon [Acrobatic Strikes], Cloak [Shadow Clone], Gloves [Sword Skill Enhancement], Boots [Sprint]]

[Combat Power Increase: 54%]

Combining his thief abilities of dodge and agility with his innate shadow control, it was difficult for those insane Annihilation Knights to subdue him.

But generally speaking, where there are Annihilation Knights, there are also supervisors who come to ensure their effective actions, usually the Apostles of the Divine Eye.

This is also what Li Ang wants to talk about.

"Tell me, what does the Empire want here? How did your conflict with them come about? Also, have you seen anyone from the Soul Apex?"

Xiao Mo looked at Li Ang and said, "There are so many questions. It will take a long time to explain them."

"But," he changed the subject, "I have even more to say. Let's get going."

Leon felt that Morales wanted to take them somewhere.

Farina smiled and said, "After a few years in the Rudder City, it seems you've secretly learned a lot of secrets, such as where we are now."

"Sister Falin, you're secretly accusing me of stealing again."

Xiao Mo turned around lightly and walked backwards towards Leon and Farina. Even though the light was dim, he was not afraid of missing a step. It was obvious that he was very familiar with this "machine core tunnel".

"This path we're taking isn't a secret I discovered secretly; our group discovered it before I joined.

"Well, it feels a bit weird to talk to you guys about 'our group', so I'll just call it the Good Luck Group."

Xiao Mo pointed his finger downwards and said, "You'll never guess what's buried beneath the Rudder City."

Li Ang didn't know why he brought the topic to this aspect, and wondered if it was related to what was happening here.

Xiao Mo smiled and pointed at Li Ang: "It's Li Ang, you're starting to use your brain. Tell me what you think."

Leon said bluntly: "This passage is related to some secret of the Rudder City, and the Empire came here for this."

"It's somewhat related, but it's pretty close. There are some things that outsiders can't understand just by analysis."

Xiao Mo asked again: "Do you know why our regiment chose this place as its main base?"

"What did you say last time? I don't have any information. How can I know by analysis?" Li Ang asked back.

"Oh, it's just a starter."

Xiao Mo spread out his hands and explained directly.

The Super Lucky Group is an air knight group mainly composed of various interesting people. The concept of the group is "happy adventure, good things, and praying for wealth". Since the group leader himself is very skilled, it is not a group that can be easily joined by air knights who come here to have fun. In the end, it inexplicably became a super group.

The reason for choosing the Rudder City as the base was simple. The head of the group was a local, and his father and grandfather had been engineers in a large shipyard. Perhaps because of the family background, he discovered a strange notebook while sorting out his father's belongings. The author was unknown, but it was filled with research on the pre-civilization of the Rudder City.

The leader of the Super Lucky Group prefers adventurous battles and has not learned much about engineering. He does not know whether the notebook contains any information on this matter, but he has discovered the focus of his attention - there may be some extraordinary treasure under the Rudder City.

Therefore, in addition to going out for adventure, the Super Lucky Group will also explore the Rudder City when they rest at the base, trying to discover its secrets.

Then they discovered these steel passages inside the island.

"In fact, similar channel guilds have known about it for a long time."

Morales pointed upwards and said, “The reason the guild office is built on top of the island is because they are guarding a passage and are exploring the secrets inside.

"As a city rebuilt on the ruins of a previous civilization, the construction of the Rudder City is also a process of clearing the wreckage and restarting large-scale equipment. During this process, many secrets will surely be discovered. It's not surprising that others know of different passages."

"What you mean is that there are many channels like this one, but they are not connected to each other," said Li Ang.

"Right." Xiao Mo snapped his fingers.

"The captain said that each major shipyard controls one passage, and the guild controls another. This passage, according to the numbering, is passage number 14."

Farina continued, "Number 14 is the passage controlled by the Super Luck Group?"

"No." Xiao Mo gave a negative answer.

"The Super Luck Group didn't open Channel 14, but rather discovered it. Before that, it already had someone in control."

The young man with animal ears slowed down his pace and raised the lantern so that the light could illuminate farther and higher places.

His purpose was to show everyone in the dim light how big the space they were in was.

"According to its controller, Passage 14 is far wider and deeper than the other thirteen passages. It's called a passage, but it's actually an entire interconnected underground space with many branching paths. The deepest one allows you to look directly out from under the island, through the clouds and mist, and see the blood-red earth."

Li Ang frowned slightly: "Its controller is——"

"Shadow Factory."

Xiao Mo smiled. "It's a legend in the Rudder City. It's a group that everyone in the local area knows really exists. This is the Shadow Factory. We're walking through the passage they found and cleared."

"Shadow Factory is also an ally of the Super Luck Group. We are exploring Passage 14 together, trying to open the door at the end of the passage.

"There are doors like this at the end of the other thirteen passages."

Xiao Mo stopped and said this.

Li Ang knew that he had something important to say. This guy usually wandered around, but he would be like this once he got serious.

Morales raised his hand and made a spindle shape in the air.

"Just imagine, this is the outline of the island of the Rudder City."

Leon and the girls who were listening to him attentively nodded.

Xiao Mo clenched his fist and put it in the middle of the spindle.

Li Ang seemed to realize what he wanted to say.

"These fourteen channels are collectively known as the Core Channels. They're so called because they all point to the center of the island."

293. Shadow Dock

Farina pinched her chin and thought, "You just said that there is a door at the end of every passage that cannot be opened."

"Yes, the passages start from different places, all pointing to the core in the center of the island. The note the captain received only mentioned seven passages, but this was enough for him to draw the cross-section he envisioned based on the directions.

"These passages lead to the same place, a huge, circular, inaccessible enclosed space called the 'Machine City Core'. That's where the names of these passages come from."

Zoe's eyes lit up. "A new adventure?"

Xiao Mo looked at her with a smile: "It's not really an adventure. Those doors can't be opened at all. This is just the background of the incident."

He raised his index finger. "Based on the events of the Machine Core Tunnel and the Machine City Core, a group of engineers separated from the major shipyards and formed an underground organization called the 'Shadow Factory'. They know the true nature of the conspiracy unfolding in the city, which is why the Empire has come to me."

Whenever a powerful air cavalry group arrives at an island, it will cause corresponding waves, but the size of the waves will vary depending on their purpose and behavior.

If a powerful group that can be called a "celestial group" chooses to station on an island, even if they choose to live in peace, it is impossible for them to completely avoid establishing contact with the local rulers.

The Super Lucky Group is in this situation.

Its leader is a native of the Helm City. After the team becomes strong, under the leadership of the guild, it will take on some missions to help the city.