"Compared to Miss Sushang's contributions to the Xianzhou, from my perspective, you friends from the Astral Express are even more remarkable."
"Holy shit, Dan Heng, this guy's got a silver tongue!" Zeig said, grabbing Dan Heng by the neck.
"Cough cough… I heard that."
"If it weren't for this face of his, I'd want to swear brotherhood with him!"
"? Is there something wrong with my face?"
"For now, no problems. But later? Not so sure."
Suddenly, Sushang glanced at her phone.
"So… shouldn't we get going? Staying at Cloudford this whole time isn't safe, right?"
"You're right."
In an instant, Zeig snapped his fingers, and a portal appeared beside them.
"Where do you want to go? I've already unlocked 70% of the Luofu's map. Anywhere safe is fine, except for heavily restricted areas."
"…Brother Zeig, your abilities are truly impressive. I am in awe."
"Where are Mr. Welt and March? How about… we go meet up with them first?"
"Wait wait wait… No can do. I'm a Cloud Knight. I have to rendezvous with the troops at Cloudford. If I suddenly disappear, it'll cause huge problems!"
Sushang quietly stepped back by herself and said awkwardly, "Well… if you're going to leave directly using that, then you guys go ahead. Since none of you are ordinary people, I'll leave Luocha in your care. I need to stay here and continue providing support."
"?"
Zeig narrowed his eyes. "Cloudford's already been evacuated of civilians. Your Cloud Knight comrades are on the verge of withdrawing too. Just come with us."
"Huh?! How do you know that?"
"The Xianzhou is full of my informants right now."
Zeig raised his hand and pointed a finger toward the sky.
Everyone looked in the direction he pointed. In the sky above Cloudford alone, there were several large robots hovering in the air.
"Those are Divine Machine Bardel. Luocha, do they look familiar to you?"
"Such massive mechs. But flying them in the skies above the Xianzhou like this— is that really okay?"
Luocha asked Zeig in confusion, "Normally, unidentified flying objects like these, without flight clearance, would be attacked by the Luofu's military, right?"
"Yeah, they're already under attack."
"…"
"But it's fine. This little conflict doesn't matter. If they've got the skills, they can shoot these mechs down."
Luocha couldn't help but fall silent.
So he was stationing troops here without the Xianzhou's consent…
Dan Heng asked Sushang, "Miss Sushang, are you still insisting on returning via the normal route?"
Sushang hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, I'll stick to the regular path. Besides… maybe your informants have blind spots. Along the way, I might be able to save a few more civilians."
"Blind spots?!"
"Come on, these are the crystallization of technology. Their vision can see right through shipping containers. Isn't that way better than the naked eye?"
Dan Heng tried persuading again. "Zeig, even if there are no civilians left, it wouldn't hurt to take some Cloud Knights with us when we withdraw."
If what Zeig said was true and Cloudford's civilians had all been evacuated, then there were surely still Cloud Knights like Sushang here. If they could give them a lift, maybe they could save their lives.
"…"
"What's your take?" Zeig turned to Luocha.
"As for me, either way is fine… As long as we end up in a safe area in the end."
"Alright then."
Zeig closed the portal and said to Sushang, "You know the way, right?"
"Of course!"
The three of them followed Sushang and headed forward.
Finally, they came across a squad of Cloud Knights covered in wounds.
"Huh? Little Sushang, what are you doing here too?"
"Following orders to evacuate the civilians. Look, these people behind me are… Ah, no— there are no civilians left here anymore. Let's all go together, shall we?"
The Cloud Knight leading the squad shook his head. "Sigh, there really aren't any other civilians around. Some colleagues encountered monsters nearby and got injured. We just rescued them. It's about time we withdrew too."
"Then let's all head out together!"
"Mm… You guys go first. We need to stay behind to cover the rear."
"Cover the rear? No way, I don't agree. All of you, scram!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, a portal appeared behind those Cloud Knights.
Zeig kicked each and every one of them through it, one by one!
"Next stop!"
Sushang: "…"
The four of them continued forward.
Along the way, Dan Heng saw many shipping containers that had been crushed and deformed by gravity.
"Zeig, these were left behind by you guys back then, right?"
"Yeah, the Alliance Leader did it. Back then, there were a few Cloud Knights plus a foxian kneeling right here."
Zeig pointed to the side, where there were six deep pits the size of knees. From the marks, it looked like exactly three people had been kneeling there. Among them, the middle one's mark was the shallowest.
"Holy crap, you guys were already this arrogant the moment you arrived!" Sushang was greatly shocked.
After running a bit farther, Sushang stared blankly at the shipping containers in front of her.
"That's not right. There should've been a passage here… How come it's gone?"
Luocha reminded her, "Someone tampered with Cloudford's control console and used cargo containers to block the path."
"Who the hell did this?! We're screwed. This girl doesn't know the first thing about these mechanisms… Wait a sec, how do you know that?!"
"I'm a traveling merchant. I've been here many times. On the other hand, you, a Cloud Knight, seem completely clueless about all this."
"I've got a small question."
Zeig stared at the cargo containers blocking the way. "I've been wanting to say this for a while now— are these cargo containers really that tall? Just climb over them and be done with it. Why insist on moving them?!"
"…" "…" "…"
He silently walked up to a cargo container as tall as a person and easily climbed on top. "See? It's that simple. Why not just hop over? Can't you guys jump?!"
"…" "…" "…"
Sushang: "The way you're acting makes this game look really dumb."
Zeig: "Sorry."
After the four of them climbed over the containers one after another, sure enough, there was still another group of Cloud Knights behind.
"Huh? Eh? How did you guys climb over here? Why didn't you go to the control console?!"
"Yeah, that's not following the rules at all!"
"Quit yapping. All of you, scram."
Zeig kicked these people into the portal with one foot each, then looked ahead. "There's no path ahead anymore. There's just one starskiff. We probably don't need to go any farther, right?"
"Yeah, if we take the starskiff from here, after a while we'll reach Central Starskiff Haven. Then we'll be safe." Sushang said happily.
Dan Heng looked at Luocha and asked, "Luocha, where was your original destination?"
"Me? My original plan was to leave the Xianzhou. Now… anywhere's fine, as long as it's safe."
"Lucky for me, as a registered merchant, I get preferential policies for food, clothing, shelter, and travel on the Xianzhou. Staying a bit longer is no problem. Haha."
Bang bang bang——!!
Zeig kicked them one by one— Sushang, Luocha, Dan Heng— all through the portal.
"We can chat after we get the hell out of this damn place."