Luo Shen heard his words and remained silent.
Although he wasn't blood-related to her, he had raised Luo Ru like his real granddaughter, being separated from her like this wasn't something he desired but had no other option.
Her parents were already hiding for their life, even if they offered to take him with them, he could tell that they were forced to ask this, he would just act as a burden if he agreed, he had gained rich experience throughout his life so he knew how to make the right decision.
When Rex offered to take him to the upper realms he was hesitant, one side of him told him to stay here and wait, this place was his home he was attached to things here, he wasn't sure if he would do good in Middle Realm, a part of him believed that if he kept waiting maybe someday his young naive granddaughter would mature and come looking for him.
"Be realistic old man, I assure you once she has ascended there is no way she can come back, traveling from upper realms to lower realms isn't that easy, and only strong powerhouse who have a Teleportation Scroll in their possession can come back here, and finding a Teleportation Scroll for coming to Lower Realm is harder.
And even if Little Ru doesn't forget you, the people around will try their best to do it, don't mind my rudeness but I won't be surprised if they prepare a fake proof of your death to convince her not to use a precious Teleportation Scroll even if she finds it, this is just how cultivators in upper realms think.
You got a Light Element Special Physique, although you are old but if you try hard then you can definitely gain a good footing of your own in the future, exploring new things in Middle Realm is way better than dying here while reminiscing over old memories," Rex said.
He had a good image of Luo Shen, he was a man who repaid kindness with kindness, such kind of peoples were very rare, it was better to have as many of them as possible, around.
"I am going to bring her back anyway, if you come with me, then you would have a higher chance to meet her," Rex added.
Luo Shen looked at him for a while then nodded.
Rex smiled, he now had one more loyal fellow with him.
[Is it necessary to put efforts in convincing him? If he lives here, he can enjoy his life in peace, but once he goes to Middle Realm, he would become one of the weakest kind who is not even qualified as cannon fodders and has to work hard for years if he hopes to receive the same level of respect and status as here in Middle Realm,]
'Of course, it is necessary, if I want, I can raise an army of strong fellows in the upper realm, but I cannot make their nature good or plant the seed of loyalty in them unless I turn them into puppets using Mind Control.
When my Little Aru grows up, I don't want him to live between the hypocrites and schemers who can do anything for strength and status, Frozen Flame will always be a city of people like Luo Shen, I will set the environment as same as Earth, a peaceful place where people have their rights, and not dog eats dog shit like Azure Emperor,' Rex said.
He had just finished convincing Luo Shen when his smart band buzzed and a call came from Altan.
{Chief, it's a fortunate emergency,} (Altan)
{Speak,} (Rex)
{A while ago, when I used the portal for the transfer of goods, I received a message from Andusk saying that a fleet consisting of three skyships with Azure Empire's flag is advancing towards Frozen Flame, do you know what that means?} (Altan)
Rex's eyes shined.
{It means, three free skyships!} Rex said in an excited tone.
{Exactly!} Altan was also excited.
{Good, tell them to use whatever means... No, just go directly use the trump cards, w need to get those ships with as little damage as possible. On another thought, you stay here and manage the business, I will go myself,} Rex said than ended the call.
"Old man, I have some business to tend to, I will see you later," Rex said then left.
Luo Shen nodded.
....
Middle Realm...
Frozen Flame City...
The Ancient Teleportation Portal situated at the second last underground floor of the castle activated.
Rex stepped out of the spinning black vortex and hurriedly headed towards the meeting hall on the first floor.
Aeneas, Aiden, Fred, Van, Andusk, Jiang Shuang, and other beastman were having a serious meeting in the hall.
Rex kicked open the door and shouted with an excited expression on his face.
"What I am hearing, three skyships are coming to us? Really?" Rex asked with a broad smile on his face.
"..." Everyone.
Except for Andusk, all the people in the hall were at a loss, the ships weren't coming as gifts, they were being used to attack them! But it seemed like the whole army fleet got completely ignored by Rex.
"We were talking about how to handle it," Jiang Shuang said.
Rex cast a meaningful glance towards him, he hadn't forgotten the incident from earlier.
Jiang Shuang looked at him with a straight face, not showing any guilty expression. He had learned from Rex, the ability to make the face thicker.
Rex decided to put it aside for now.
Revenge is a dish that tastes better when cold, he thought.
"Yeah, you are right, we need to acquire the ships without doing much damage, anybody has a good idea?" Rex's expression turned serious.
Everyone gave him a look which said... You just don't get it, do you?
"Ahem, Master Rex, the problem is, we don't have a good way to fight in the air against skyships, and trying to reduce the damage on top of that would be a little troublesome," Fred said breaking the silence.
"If I had some time then I would be able to make something to disrupt the flying mechanism of those ships making them fall on the ground but it isn't possible to do that in one or two days, and the ships would be here by the evening," Andusk said.
Andusk's first mission was to modify the Green Mantis Skyship into a War Ship, while doing that, he had obtained vast knowledge about the inner structure of a ship, and coupled with the Array Circuit Tech, it wasn't hard for him to make a jammer but the attack caught them by surprise and he didn't have the time to even make the blueprints for it much less the real thing.
"The only way to minimize the damage is dealing with them as fast as possible," Aeneas said.
Rex was a little disappointed but he had no choice, he couldn't ask for Zakiya's help for such a thing, she was his teacher not a subordinate, it would be like humiliating her to ask her to deal with such opponents only to acquire three ships.
He nodded then agreed, once he joined, the meeting didn't last long.
Rex left the meeting and headed to the control room of Core Smart Brain.
Two hours after the meeting ended, two shocking emails were sent to every ID cardholder having 2 Star or above grade ID cards.
The content of the two emails was quite similar. The first mail carried the sketch and details of Liu Wei while the second one of Luo Ru, a mission was present below them.
[Event: Find A Friend
Description: Two members of Frozen Flame has been gone missing, anyone who finds and returns them unscathed would be handsomely rewarded by the organization.
Prize: 10,000,000 $$ for each]
Rex casually sent the mail to those of higher status, every ID cardholder of 2 Star or above grade has their own network, if any of the two entered their range then it would become easy to find them.
He wasn't worried about any of his enemies caught them to use as hostage, because even if they are caught they won't get harmed to be used as hostages, it was way better than them being used as slaves or canon fodders by others.
Liu Wei might be strong in Lower Realm but here, he would be very weak, if his luck isn't good, as for Luo Ru her parents would, of course, keep a low profile but in case she gets exposed, this would guarantee her safety to some extent.
Rex was confident in saving them even if they get taken as hostages, but once Zakiya goes to Higher Realm that confidence would disappear which was why he took action now.
At evening...
Twenty miles away from Corentis...
Three enormous black skyships were flying towards the city, although the speed of the three ships was just about average their size was twice as big as an average ship, they were famous carrier ships from the Black Steel Kingdom.
The Black Steel Kingdom, there was a time when it was one of the ten giants of the Golden Bird Continent know as Black Steel Empire but during the time of Azure Emperor's expansion, the Royal Family governing it chose to surrender instead of fighting in exchange for keeping their ruling rights over the Empire, as a result, it became the vessel of the Azure Emperor. The Empire paid a hefty price and lost its status as an Empire turning into Black Steel Kingdom.
When the news about Frozen Flame was spreading to all corners of the continent, the higher-ups in Azure Empire chose to remain silent and observe but once the news related to tomb and Treasure Artifacts spread they couldn't keep their calm. If given enough time, Black Scorpion Sect and Cold Heaven Sect would become giant forces that could possess a strong threat to the empire, if it wasn't enough they soon got another piece of information stating that both of these sects surrendered to Frozen Flame which was already a threat.
The gathering of these three forces made the Emperor act, the vessel, Black Steel Kingdom was ordered to use the full force with the support of an expert to permanently deal with this threat at once.
All the three ships were filled with elite soldiers ready to enter the battle any moment, a man and woman cultivator were standing on the deck of the ship at front.
The woman was old and looked like she was in her fifties, but her eyes were shining fully of vitality, she was standing straight with her hands folding behind her back, looking at the setting sun.
The man had the appearance of a young man, he had a pointed nose and large thin eyes, his body was emitting a cold and ruthlessly aura.
"What are the chances of the enemy having more than two Calamity Lords?" The woman asked in a solemn tone.
"Hehe... Now the once great Empress Dongfang is actually worrying about some unnamed enemies? Oh, my mistake it should be Queen Dongfang now, after all, it's the Black Steel Kingdom and not Black Steel Empire now," The man laughed.
Seeing that the woman ignored his words, he was enraged but he still held it in and spoke.
"Calamity Lords aren't roadside cabbages, their organization has shown all their cards by now, even if I purposely overestimate them, they can have three Calamity Lords but don't forget, according to the intel, one of those Calamity Lord received severe injuries when exiting the inheritance ground. They can't face experts at our level at all.
Instead of worrying about their strength you should focus on cutting their escape routes, if we catch them all at once then we can keep one Treasure Artifact each moreover your kingdom won't have to pay tax for the next hundred years, but if you make a mishap then we would both get punished instead," The man said in a heavy tone.
But he soon discovered that the woman wasn't focusing on him, she was looking at the dark clouds in the sky with a frown.
"Isn't the weather changing too fast? It was clear just a while ago and now..." She muttered to herself, she was having a bad premonition.
"Humph, are you making excuses to retreat? Why don't you directly say that they are controlling the weather?" The man snorted in an annoyed tone. He was, after all, a Sky Body Formation expert, he can easily tell if someone sets an ambush for them.
"Woah, how did you find out?" A curious voice reverberated in the sky then a figure of a young man descended from the clouds, looking at the man who just spoke.