Chapter 270: Ruin Expedition (34) Exiting

The students felt excited as they quickly realise that that was the exit portal. Despite the happiness, they were cautious when they stepped towards the portal.

While they carefully tiptoed to the portal frame while simultaneously observing their surroundings, Lee casually walked past them and went ahead.

"Children, being over-cautious is more problematic than being carefree."

With this, he placed his palm on the stone frame.

*rumble*

The stone frame trembled briefly and calmed down after a few seconds. At the same time, Lee could see that his Mana reserve had lost about 70 Mana.

'Did it just take away 70 Mana?'

[Don't ask me. Though I know about Lurelands, I too am a stranger to these events.]

[Maybe it needs some sort of energy to kick-start the process.]

'Sounds reasonable.'

By this time, the space inside the stone frame distorted and the party saw the platform on which the Ruin entrance was. Like a weird photoshop, the dusty insides of the cave did not fit the view of the platform.

[The beacon is fired!]

Dnekewy opened the Map and Lee Shen saw that a beacon was standing like a pillar of light above the surface, where the cave entrance was. And when Hudson zoomed out the Map, he saw numerous figures flying towards the beacon.

"Okay. We need to move fast. Others are rushing here."

The students saw Lee Shen spacing out for a second as he stood staring at the wall. Then he came out of the peculiar state and spoke these words.

The students frowned as they saw this development, but did not question the professor's intuition. They quickly stepped into the stone frame and their consciousness faded.

--

When the students came conscious, they saw light and found themselves standing on the stone platform. The party recognised the scenery around them and saw that all 13 of them were present.

When the students saw the face of their professor, the excitement of exiting the Ruin in the first place vanished into thin air.

Because...there was an unpleasant expression on his face befitting the situation!

Lee Shen had his eyes fixed in a distance and the students followed his line of sight. What they saw in the direction of the Piscerent City was two large pillars of smoke rising from a distance.

"The hell happened in the city!"

Lee spoke to himself but it was louder than self-talk. The students heard his words and thought the same.

"Depart!"

With this word, Lee Shen dashed forth. All of his agility value erupted out and his figure flashed. The students could only stand there and witness him moving at incredible speed.

"We should go too!"

Felrian clenched his fist as his Mana was concentrated in his feet. He leaned forward and followed Lee Shen's trail.

Seeing this, the remaining students quickly augmented themselves with Mana and darted at the city.

-----

Lee Shen was now only 2 kilometres from the city gate. He could see that the pillars of smoke were active and quickly summoned the Map.

[That is a waterfolk warship!]

Like a submarine, something floated in the water with only a hatch protruding above the sea level. The waterfall warship was enormous and it's length rivalled the size of a cricket stadium.

That warship had parked in a rather aggressive way. The concrete and solid portions of the port have been thoroughly broken down as the warship breached into the land with its menacing structure.

The port and the Guild were the places from which the smoke rose. There were signs of widespread destruction as many buildings had kissed the ground. The market area had casualties and the sects had dispatched many of its cultivators to control the situation.

Through the Map, he could see that the students were following his tail so he decelerated and came to a halt. Though Lee Shen's Agility value was 4000, it was yet slow when compared with a Tubian.

"All of you go to the academy and query what is happening. Take these spatial rings and show them as the trophies to the principal.

I will go and check the situation."

When the students reached him, Lee took out the remaining five spatial rings and gave it to Zona while saying this. He then took off again at a relatively slower pace but was still fast in the eyes of the students.

Lee Shen saw the deserted city gate with only one or two soldiers guarding it. Seeing his familiar figure, they were not alert.

Lee walked to one of the guards and enquired to which the guard replayed-

"It happened on yesterday evening. The waterfolk's vessel came up to the surface without any warning and shot two projectiles at the city. One fell at the port and greatly deformed it. Another fell near the Cultivator's Guild and subsequently damaged the market area.

Several waterfolks came walking into the city and gravely injured anyone who tried to stop them. I heard from other soldiers that they came asking for some explanation."

Though Lee Shen was able to form an outline from the guard's description, many factors of the story remained missing.

[Waterfolks never attack the landfolks without provocation. Someone must have done something idiotic to piss the waterfolks to this extent.]

'We will have to know more about what had happened to conclude.'

Lee Shen darted to the Guild. He slowed down as he neared the market area.

[What kind of projectiles did they use?]

There was a crater between the Guild complex and the market section. The terrain inside the crater was scorched and was black.

The buildings around the crater were shattered not by brute force but by the energy rippled out from the impact!

[The waterfolks seems to be more advanced.]

Lee Shen clenched his fist as he could see severed limbs and decapitated heads here and there on the ground. Torsos and limbs were projecting out of the ruins.

"What in the world fell here?"

Mumbling to himself, Lee Shen walked to the Guild building.

But he was stopped from entering into the building by cultivators.