The amazing thing about the Gate of Secret Keys was that even you wouldn't be able to determine where it led to.
It might be somewhere you've been to before, like Chen Anan's favorite candy house.
It might also be somewhere you've never seen before, like the seaside of Chen Jiu.
This was the most anticipated segment. Even you wouldn't know what was in that gift box.
That was because not everyone clearly understood themselves. People would always avoid certain answers in life.
But Luo Lan was very certain about this. He had never run away from his inner thoughts, and he knew every answer in his heart.
This also made him even more determined.
The moment Xu Man stepped into the Gate of Secret Keys, he knew where he was. This was … the small bungalow that Qing Zhen and Luo Lan used to live in in Stronghold 111.
That year, they sold their original residence and rented a place here on Muzibao Road to treat their father's illness.
They stayed there for eight years.
Later, when Qing Zhen became the Kyung Clan's shadow, the two brothers started to prosper and bought better houses, villas, and manors.
Their lives were getting better day by day.
Xu Man had only been here once, and it was to help Qing Zhen move some of his old belongings from the past.
Now that he was here again, he realized the furniture was exactly the same as when he came here a few years ago.
Xu Man asked in confusion, "Boss Luo, why is the door here?"
"This is my house," Luo Lan said with a chuckle.
"Didn't y 'all rent this house? I thought you'd already returned it to the landlord," Xu Man said.
"No, I bought the house." Luo Lan said, "I usually live here when I'm in Stronghold 111. But I don't have many opportunities to return to Stronghold 111, so y 'all don't know. "
This surprised Xu Man a little. A second-in-command of the Kyung Clan like Luo Lan was actually living in such a run-down place?
Luo Lan glanced at Xu Man. "Why? Doesn't it suit my style? Don't look down on this house. I can only sleep soundly in this house. "
While speaking, Luo Lan had already opened the front door of the small house. Outside the door was the Mule Fort Road, and there was an uncle pushing a Liangpi cart with pots and jars on it.
When Xu Man saw this scene, he was a little surprised. This Boss Luo was so confident in his heart.
Most people in this world would probably find it hard to guess the answer when faced with the Gate of Keys.
Luo Lan looked at everything in the house. Back then, his family of three had curled up in this small one-bedroom house. The sick old man lived in the inner room, while he and Qing Zhen lived in the living room.
The two of them slept on the floor. If they fought outside during the day and sneaked back in the middle of the night, Qing Zhen had to quietly bandage Luo Lan's wounds.
During winter, they would also have to carefully guard the briquettes at the door to prevent the uncle next door from stealing the briquettes they had painstakingly stolen from others.
Their days away from here were certainly more prosperous, but every time Luo Lan thought back to it, he always felt that this small house had carried all of their happiness.
At that time, there was no sign of the Kyung Clan, and they did not need to think about war and politics.
The life that only those old men should be thinking about had not yet arrived in their lives.
They could laugh out loud and move forward while bearing the hardships together. Occasionally, they would look back and see that there was nothing but misery behind them. As long as they moved forward, every step they took would be better than before.
But now, it did not seem like this was the case. Every step they took was more difficult, so Luo Lan often did not dare to look back. He was afraid that he would not be able to bear to continue moving forward.
"Let's go. The soldiers who come later, keep up. Remember to walk softly. My floor isn't sturdy to begin with," Luo Lan urged.
180 soldiers walked out of the house one after another and onto the streets of the Mule Fort Road.
The uncle selling Liangpi was dumbfounded. He watched as more than a hundred people walked out of this small house!
How could a house of only 50 square meters at most hold so many people? Furthermore, all of them were armed with live ammunition!
In just an instant, the uncle selling Liangpi suddenly felt he knew the truth. There must be a secret military base of the Kyung Clan under this house, the kind that was rumored to be hidden underground!
At this moment, the soldiers were marveling at the wonders of the secret passcode. It had taken them several days to get to the Central Plains, but it only took them a few steps to get back.
"Sir, is this witchcraft?" the commander of the special forces company asked Xu Man.
"Mhm." Xu Man said, "This is witchcraft that Boss Luo brought back from the Northwest."
Saying that, the commander subconsciously looked for Luo Lan, but Luo Lan had already disappeared.
"Where's Boss Luo?" the commander exclaimed.
The alert Xu Man did not say a word and turned around to rush into the house. But in this cramped house, there was no sign of Luo Lan.
Xu Man remembered that they had come out from the wall opposite the television in the living room, so he hurriedly went to touch that wall.
However, there was no more passcode on the wall. Luo Lan had personally closed it from the other side!
Xu Man stood on this side of the wall and took a deep breath. The other party had pretended to be calm and lured all of them back to Stronghold 111. In fact, he wanted to return to Stronghold 61 alone to save Zhou Qi.
This passcode was given to Luo Lan by Ren Xiaosu in private, so Xu Man and the others did not actually know how this witchcraft worked.
Luo Lan remembered what Ren Xiaosu had seriously told him before they parted ways. Although this passcode worked both ways, there would still be drawbacks if it was used as a means of escape.
If all of them passed through the passageway to Stronghold 111 and someone destroyed the Qianlingjiang Bridge, all of them who passed through the passageway would fall out of the bridge again.
Therefore, Ren Xiaosu had told him at that time, "If this passcode is used for escape, you must get someone else to open it for you. Then, turn it ten times counterclockwise from the outside of the passcode, and the passcode will disappear completely. The person who enters the passcode will not be able to return to the other side of the passcode."
Since there was a way to open the passcode, there was naturally a way to destroy it as well. Turn it ten times clockwise to open it, and turn it ten times counterclockwise to destroy it.
However, this method of escape meant that there would definitely be one person left outside the door, watching the others as they fled.
This person was destined to be sacrificed.
However, Luo Lan had never told Xu Man and the others about this. In Luo Lan's opinion, if there was really a need for someone to sacrifice himself to protect the others in this plan, he would have to do it himself.
Moreover, it was his own business to save Zhou Qi. There were old and young among the 180 soldiers, so why would they risk their lives with him?
There was no need for others to pay the price for the risk he wanted to take.
Luo Lan knew very well that if he had insisted on saving Zhou Qi, the soldiers would have died with him.
"I'm a man. How can I let others sacrifice themselves?" Luo Lan muttered.
He did not want Xu Man and the others to take the risk with him, but he had to save Zhou Qi.
Although that evil bastard always liked to tease him, and although he only loved money, he was still his friend.
Luo Lan knew that if Zhou Qi really only cared about money, the artificial intelligence server in Stronghold 61 would not have been blown up.
The timing of the explosion was not right.
He looked at the passcode that had been destroyed and turned around to look at the off-road vehicle parked next to him.
But at this moment, the trunk of an off-road vehicle suddenly opened.
"Are you surprised? Are you surprised? "Third Brother Qing spat out the dust in his mouth as he crawled out of the trunk.
Luo Lan was stunned. "Wait, didn't you go through the passcode just now?"
Third Brother Qing chuckled and said, "I knew none of you would care about my life or death. Hey, I'm so nice that I'll call you Big Bro. Didn't you pay attention to whether I went in or not after you went through the passcode? It's so sad. "
Indeed, just as Third Brother Qing had said, his purpose was to come to the Central Plains and pretend to be Qing Zhen. Once this mission was completed, he would no longer be of much value. A stand-in could only be used once.
Moreover, the artificial intelligence Zero had already proven that it had the ability to distinguish between the main body and the stand-in. Therefore, Third Brother Qing's value dropped even further.
As a result, Xu Man and the others forgot to check if Third Brother Qing had followed them back to Stronghold 111.
This was a person that everyone had overlooked. At some point, he had hidden in the trunk and was waiting for Luo Lan to return.
At this moment, Third Brother Qing had already started taking out his firearms from the trunk. "How many heroic spirits are there in that Temple of Martyrs of yours? Hurry up and prepare your firearms so we can go rescue them. "
There was still some ammunition in the trunk. Xu Man had wanted to take them away with him, but Luo Lan said there was no need to waste time. The firearms and ammunition were not worth much anyway.
"You stayed behind just to save Zhou Qi with me?" Luo Lan was puzzled. "How did you know I'd definitely come back? What would you have done if I hadn't?"
"If you hadn't come back, I'd have driven back to the Southwest myself. What else could I have done?" Third Brother Qing smiled and said, "But I knew you'd come back. Even if Zhou Qi was really dead, you'd probably want to confirm it for yourself. When I was in the Pyro Company, I didn't just study Qing Zhen. I also studied you. "
"Studied me?" As Luo Lan gathered all the firearms in the vehicles into one vehicle, he muttered, "Why do I get the feeling that you were very free when you were in the Pyro Company? You were always studying this and that? Don't you play mahjong or Fight the Landlord with your friends? "
Third Brother Qing smiled but did not answer this question.
"Alright then, since you're not afraid of death, come with me to rescue Zhou Qi," Luo Lan said.
Third Brother Qing suddenly said, "Didn't you always ask me why I went to the Southwest? Maybe I'll have a chance to tell you this time."
…
On a mountain road 200 kilometers Northwest of Stronghold 61, Ren Xiaosu looked quietly at Vanilla and Tang Hualong in front of him.
Ren Xiaosu's hair was disheveled, and his clothes were dirty.
This time, Zero's Dusk attack was too explosive and forcefully split the steam locomotive in two. Just like Old Xu's glabella, it had to be reassembled before it could be used again.
Along the way, Ren Xiaosu had to run all the way here. Later on, he felt he was not fast enough and even had Old Xu carry him on its back.
Fortunately, when Dusk struck Old Xu's body with its palm, it did not hit its fatal head.
Immediately, Vanilla and Tang Hualong stood in front of each other, with the former standing in front of the latter to protect him.
In the stalemate, hundreds of steel needles were constantly spinning around Vanilla. Meanwhile, on the small stove in front of Tang Hualong, the sugar syrup had been boiled to the color of amber.
The old man surnamed Tang was stirring the boiling pot with a large iron ladle. It looked like he was about to scoop out a spoonful of the sugar syrup and pour it onto the smooth iron plate beside him.
"Who told you to stop me?" Ren Xiaosu asked.
"There's no need for us to answer that question, right?" Vanilla said calmly.
Ren Xiaosu asked again, "I'll ask you again. Was it Wang Shengzhi who gave you the order, or was it the artificial intelligence?"
At this moment, Ren Xiaosu even saw white paper cranes constantly landing on the tree branches by the road. Those cute yet terrifying little fellows stopped and stood on the branches to comb their non-existent feathers.
"Artificial intelligence?" Vanilla was puzzled. "It was Director Wang Shengzhi who called us."
"In other words, it wasn't Wang Shengzhi who gave you the order." Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, "Then before you came to stop me, did you know what you were going to face?"
Tang Hualong replied, "We only received orders to stall you here. He didn't say exactly how long we needed to stall you."
"With just the two of you?" Ren Xiaosu sneered.
The moment he said that, Vanilla and Tang Hualong were stunned. Meanwhile, the paper cranes on the tree branches by the road all stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at Ren Xiaosu.
At this moment, a dark cloud floated over in the sky. The originally clear sky instantly darkened, as though the world was catering to Ren Xiaosu's anger.
But at this moment, while the dark clouds cast a large shadow in the sky, Ren Xiaosu made his move like a bolt of lightning.
A Shadow Door opened up before him. Then Ren Xiaosu reached out and flipped over the stove and pot in front of Tang Hualong across space, splashing the boiling hot syrup all over the ground.
All of this happened in an instant. After a moment, it was as though nothing had happened, leaving behind a stunned Vanilla and Tang Hualong.
Tang Hualong felt like crying but had no tears. He had fought quite a number of battles, but this was the first time he had met an enemy like Ren Xiaosu who could directly flip over his pot.
However, it just so happened that this move was the most effective against him.
Ren Xiaosu said, "Because of Yang Xiaojin, I don't want to make an enemy out of you. So please move aside. I'm going to go and save someone."
Vanilla and Tang Hualong looked at each other. Actually, they did not even know why they wanted to stop Ren Xiaosu from heading to the Central Plains. Now that Ren Xiaosu said he wanted to save someone, they did not know who Ren Xiaosu wanted to save.
At this moment, Yang Anjing slowly came out from the mountain path. "Who are you going to save?"
"Luo Lan," Ren Xiaosu said coldly.
"Wang Shengzhi has no intention of killing Luo Lan." Yang Anjing said calmly, "Don't worry about that."
"Maybe Wang Shengzhi doesn't intend to kill him, but what about the artificial intelligence, Zero?" Ren Xiaosu said, "Tang Zhou, who was in charge of delivering intelligence to the Northwest Army, died on the way to Stronghold 144. I was even hunted down and stopped by Zero on my way to the Central Plains. Do y 'all know about this? "
Yang Anjing fell into deep thought. "This wasn't part of the Wang Clan's plan, so how can you be sure that this isn't a ploy by the Kyung Clan? They're deliberately discrediting the Wang Clan. "
Yang Anjing's understanding of artificial intelligence was not as good as Wang Shengzhi's. After Wang Shengzhi guessed that Zero might have awakened her will, he did not even reveal it to Yang Anjing.
Therefore, even Yang Anjing did not know that Zero was actually completely different from what she knew.
Ren Xiaosu said, "I'm very sure it was the doing of the artificial intelligence. Since Wang Shengzhi has never intended to harm Luo Lan, why did he send y 'all to stop me? What's he afraid of? If y 'all aren't feeling guilty at all, then let me ask you again. When y' all received the order, were you sure it was given by Wang Shengzhi? "
Yang Anjing fell into deep thought. She already found it a little strange this time, but the problem was that no one linked it to Zero.
There was nothing wrong with Wang Shengzhi's voice and tone. Even the coughing on the other end of the phone was no different from what she remembered.
But just as Ren Xiaosu had said, she knew very well what kind of attitude Wang Shengzhi had towards the peace talks. Based on Wang Shengzhi's character, he would probably be a little happy if he knew Ren Xiaosu was coming.
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