Jing Hongchen's Choice; a Brazen Retreat and a Bountiful Haul

"But Master..."

Lin Jiayi's surprised voice came from the other end of the communicator.

"I said... put down your weapons and don't resist. Don't you understand what I'm saying?" Jing Hongchen said coldly.

Du Busi's current cheerful demeanor, like old friends catching up. He knows the nature of the Body Sect all too well. These guys are neither entirely good nor evil, acting solely on their likes and dislikes. They are extremely domineering and don't have the same baggage as the hypocrites from Shrek. They kill without hesitation, without any psychological burden.

If he orders resistance, do you believe those guys could immediately turn on him and slaughter all those hundreds of researchers?

Thinking about this made me quite heartbroken. No wonder Lu Cheng joined the Body Sect. It was a match made in heaven. They were both fickle and impulsive, and you could never figure out what they were thinking.

The fact that they were willing to give up the championship when they had already reached the finals made Yan Shaozhe so angry that his face turned black on the spot. At that time, he only laughed at Yan Shaozhe, but now that it had actually happened to him, he couldn't laugh anymore. Thinking of his terrifying talent, and his alliance with the Body Sect, they were birds of a feather. Just thinking about it gave him a headache.

He was well aware of the consequences of issuing this order, but these were the elite of the Illustrious Virtue Hall, the true backbone of the organization. He would be heartbroken if even one of them died. He could always trouble his teacher later...

"Yes, Master!" Lin Jiayi sighed.

It is obvious that although this order saved hundreds of the Illustrious Virtue Hall researchers and disciples, it put the hall master himself in an extremely dangerous position. If His Majesty investigates later, it will be troublesome and will also give rise to gossip. After all, in the eyes of those in the Sun Moon Empire's royal family who truly control life and death, imperial secrets are a hundred or a thousand times more important than the lives of these researchers.

If Jing Hongchen had ordered a desperate resistance against the invasion, regardless of the outcome, he would have faced responsibility, but only minor consequences such as the stripping of his title. Instead, he chose to spare the lives of the researchers, preventing them from dying in a pointless war...

That would be very controversial.

In other words, Jing Hongchen must bear full responsibility for this intrusion.

But... can he handle it?

"Boom!"

Deep underground in the Illustrious Virtue 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 were kicked away by a powerful member of the Body Sect, their fate 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 every one of them had diamond rings on every hand, making them look like nouveau riche.

"Master."

The Grand Elder's eyes held a hint of 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 Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. Because the former sect Du Bisou passed away, the sect had lost the support of a top expert, and its arrogance had somewhat subsided in the past century. Now, after thoroughly plundering the Illustrious Virtue 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 Tool 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 Coin, 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 Busi glanced at Jing Hongchen, 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 jumped into the earth-drilling soul-guided vehicle in an orderly manner.

At the same time, countless points of light lit up outside the Illustrious Virtue Hall, rushing frantically towards this place. At least several legions stationed nearby, along with countless Soul Engineer who took to the air, had gathered in just ten minutes. Their organizational ability and speed were quite astonishing.

However, Jing Hongchen offered no resistance whatsoever, resulting in a truly staggering loss for the Illustrious Virtue Hall this time...

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

Du Busi chuckled, glancing at Jing Hongchen's gloomy face and the arriving Sun Moon Empire experts, 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 following closely behind.

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

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

"Boom..."

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 Moon warriors who had just rushed in were killed by the aftershocks. Their bodies were thrown out by the aftershocks, all of them with their internal organs shattered, blood seeping from their eyes and ears, and they looked extremely gruesome.

Several medics set up equipment to treat him, but it was clearly too late...

What's even more troublesome is that the passage was destroyed by the level-nine Soul Cannon. To continue the pursuit, they would 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, it will probably have already disappeared from Mingdu...

"Hall Master Jing, what on earth happened?!"

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

"It's the Body Sect... They launched a surprise attack on the Illustrious Virtue Hall." Jing Hongchen said with a bitter expression. He knew he was in deep trouble this time, especially with that last earth-penetrating bomb, which he had launched in a fit of rage, even a low-level mistake.

"What?" The white-haired old man's pupils dilated in shock, then his face flushed with anger. "So you let them loot and destroy Illustrious Virtue Hall without doing anything to stop them?"

It's easy to guess what happened. There are no signs of a battle at the Illustrious Virtue 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 those data not only represent the current level of soul guidance in the Sun Moon Empire, but also could potentially lead to data leaks if looted.

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

But it was lost by Jing Hongchen.