The strongest fortresses were often the easiest to breach from within.
The Three Rivers Pavilion base was in such a deplorable state that everyone who had only just arrived lost hope. Especially when they saw how effortlessly the sturdy, heavy internal security doors had been broken through. Fearing the entire base would be smashed to pieces, the ordinary people who weren't Wizards could no longer hold out. They grabbed their families and whatever belongings they could carry, then fled in panic.
The moment they saw Shi Boxue and the others, they immediately guessed what was going on.
There had been rumors that Institute 507 had dispatched an operation team to target the defectors hiding in the Rocky Mountains. Now the rumors had finally been confirmed.
The government troops were here. Why wouldn't these rebels surrender?
The families of the fleeing defectors weren't the only ones escaping. The base had several exits, and people were streaming out of all of them.
The group Shi Boxue encountered had around seventy or eighty people. They'd organized their own escape party and planned to leave the bitterly cold Rocky Mountains for a big city elsewhere.
They'd had enough of this miserable life.
The Three Rivers Pavilion had only been established recently, and it was clearly about to collapse. Staying here would be no better than waiting to die.
If they surrendered to the government troops, they might still have a chance to live. Better to live poorly than die well, so the group surrendered without hesitation.
After a brief discussion, operation team leader Shi Boxue arranged for some people to escort them to the rear. He also learned a little about the situation: the Nine Provinces Xuan Association defectors in Canada had set up on their own, and now called themselves the Three Rivers