Chapter 555: Cooperation

The sound of breaking wind rang out as figures leaped out from the forest one after another.

Among those many figures, Li Luo spotted some familiar silhouettes at a glance.

Lan Lan's squad, Gong Gong Shenjun's squad, as well as Qin Yin Yue, Zhao Zhao Beili, Lu Ming and others who had previously cooperated at Thunder Roar Mountain.

Li Luo even spotted Sun Sun Dasheng's figure.

These squads were all ranked high on the points board, their strength formidable, which was why they could arrive outside Red Stone City at roughly the same time.

These squads had naturally been drawn here by the light pillar released by the Princess; they swept up to Gao Po and landed one after another.

"Classmate Gong, we meet again."

A smile surfaced on Lan Lan's face. He first glanced at the Princess and her two companions, then his gaze shifted to the massive city in the distance, blocked by crimson-red walls. His pupils narrowed slightly, and he said, "What a clean Red Stone City. No wonder you came here first, Classmate Gong, yet never entered the city."

The other squads were also sizing up the final target city before them at the first moment. The squads that could make it this far were practically the most elite squads in this Holy Grail War; their strength was beyond doubt. So when they saw this Red Stone City, so clean that not the slightest trace of malice could be found, their first thought was not joy, but rather a rising sense of wariness and unease.

The Princess's phoenix eyes swept over the many squads as she said frankly, "This Red Stone City is extremely dangerous. None of our squads alone can take it. So I believe we need to temporarily set aside our differences and cooperate."

At the Princess's words, the squads present all fell into thoughtful expressions and did not immediately object. After all, they all understood that as the capital city of Red Sand Prefecture, the anomalies within Red Stone City must be of the highest grade and the strongest. The anomalies inside would very likely reach the Great Calamity grade, which was equivalent to the strength of Tian Xiang Jing... And looking at all the Four Star Academy students present, whether Lan Lan, Gong Luan Yu, or Gong Gong Shenjun, they were all only at Tian Zhu Jing.

Lan Lan pondered briefly, then suddenly said, "We passed through several small towns earlier and discovered something strange — all the anomalies inside seemed to have vanished without a trace."

At these words, looks of shock and suspicion immediately appeared on everyone's faces.

"The anomalies in the towns you passed through also vanished?" The Princess's pretty face shifted slightly as she said solemnly, "The Level Three city we fought over earlier was also an empty city, with no anomalies inside at all."

"We encountered the same situation," Gong Gong Shenjun also spoke slowly at this moment.

The other captains spoke up one after another, and the result left everyone somewhat horrified. It turned out that within several hundred li of Red Stone City, all the anomalies had vanished without a trace.

"Those vanished anomalies... could they all have come to Red Stone City?" Li Luo hesitated, then suddenly offered a possibility.

The crowd immediately fell silent, and when they looked again at that quiet, clean Red Stone City, they could not help but feel a nameless

chill. If it really was so, then this Red Stone City was truly a demon's den.

The Princess said solemnly, "It's not impossible. If that's the case, it can only mean there is an extremely powerful anomaly within Red Stone City, and all the anomalies within several hundred li have been driven by it, which is why they left their lairs and gathered here."

Jiang Qing's golden eyes narrowed slightly as she said, "That means the anomaly already knows of our existence. It is gathering its forces to deal with us."

Everyone's pupils contracted. The caution and cunning of this anomaly was in no way inferior to a human's.

"There is one more piece of intelligence. I wonder if any of you encountered obstruction from those black-armored men when purifying the cities of Red Sand Prefecture?" the Princess asked.

"Black-armored men? We did encounter one."

The speaker was an extremely burly youth named Qin Lian Zong. Along with Sun Sun Dasheng, he came from Holy Mountain Academy. In their squad, three iron-tower-like burly men stood out at a single glance.

And Holy Mountain Academy was most famous for their Ten Thousand Beast Aspects.

"That black-armored man was around the Earth Sha General rank. He tried to stir the anomalies to ambush us, but I spotted him and punched his head clean off." Qin Lian Zong grinned, revealing gleaming white teeth. His pockmarked, fleshy face looked like a brute's, savage to the extreme.

But aside from Qin Lian Zong's squad, the other squads had not encountered this kind of black-armored man.

"When we were at Thunder Roar Mountain with Classmate Gong, we did indeed encounter this kind of black-armored man," Qin Yin Yue and Zhao Zhao Beili spoke up at this moment, confirming the existence of the black-armored men for the Princess.

Seeing this, Gong Gong Shenjun pondered and said, "You mean there really is a mysterious force within Red Sand Prefecture trying to obstruct us?"

The Princess nodded slightly and said, "The black-armored men are basically all around the Earth Sha General rank, so the threat isn't that great. But we happened to obtain a piece of intelligence — above these black-armored men, there exists a 'Red Armor General.' He should be the leader of these black-armored men. We don't know his exact strength yet, but I suspect he must be at the Heavenly Gang General rank. As for whether that's Tian Zhu Jing or Tian Xiang Jing... that we don't know."

"Red Armor General?"

The brows of everyone present furrowed tightly. If this intelligence was true, then the Red Stone City before them would become even more thorny. A single squad truly could not handle it alone.

"Perhaps the academies ultimately intended for the various squads to cooperate, because many of the rules of this Mixed Grade Tournament did not encourage overly sharp confrontations between squads." Qin Yin Yue smiled and said.

This remark drew nods from many. In this Mixed Grade Tournament, aside from some competition at those Level Three cities earlier, the squads from the various academies had actually cooperated more often. For instance, the trip to Thunder Roar Mountain was also a cooperation between squads from three academies.

And if the academies

wanted to see these squads engage in more aggressive confrontation with each other, they would only need to allow squads to snatch points from one another, and that alone would be enough to max out the hatred between them.

But the major academies did not do so, clearly intending to avoid this.

After all, this Mixed Grade Tournament was not a simple competition, but a resolution of the anomaly disaster in the Black Wind Empire. The greatest enemies of the major squads were not each other, but the powerful anomalies entrenched in Red Sand Prefecture.

"As for cooperation, I have no objections. After all, if we cannot purify Red Stone City, then the Mixed Grade Tournament will be considered a failure." Lan Lan smiled slightly, his voice soft as he spoke.

The captains of the other squads pondered for a moment, then ultimately, unsurprisingly, nodded in acceptance of the cooperation.

When it was clear that Red Stone City had become this dangerous, insisting on going it alone would not be courage, but suicide.

Seeing this, Li Luo let out a sigh of relief. If so many top squads could truly cooperate, that combined force would be quite astonishing. Under the joint efforts of these captains, even if they truly encountered a Great Calamity grade anomaly, they would not be without the strength to fight.

His gaze swept across, and he counted. There were eight squads present in total. Among these eight squads, their Holy Mystic Star Academy and Holy Bright King Academy each had two. The rest were Skyfire Holy Academy, where Lu Ming was from, Holy Mountain Academy, where Sun Sun Dasheng was from, North Sea Holy Academy, where the Two Star Academy strongest student recipient Ao Bai was from, and one final squad that was rather special — a top academy called "Mystic Ice Academy." This academy was not a Holy Academy, but one that had risen suddenly in the current Outer Shenzhou of the Eastern Domain, rumored to have the potential to vie for Holy Academy status.

The squad from Mystic Ice Academy was quite low-key. The three of them emanated an aura of icy cold, clearly all possessing Ice Aspects. It was said they had mastered some kind of joint attack technique, with considerable power.

The eight squads before them could be considered the elite of the younger generation in the Eastern Domain's Outer Shenzhou.

With a decision reached, the crowd did not dawdle, but began to maintain formation, advancing toward Red Stone City with cautious posture.

As they approached Red Stone City, Lu Ming walked over to Li Luo and asked with some surprise, "I heard you defeated Jing Jing Taixu in a single move?"

Li Luo showed a reserved and modest smile: "I am, after all, the strongest of the One Star Academy. Such a record is nothing surprising."

Lu Ming rolled her eyes at him. How could she not guess that Li Luo's strength had surged greatly at Thunder Roar Mountain, and Jing Jing Taixu certainly hadn't expected that, so in their second clash he was caught completely off guard and crushed in a single move.

Although the two of them were not speaking loudly, with everyone gathered together now, Jing Jing Taixu, more than a dozen steps away, immediately darkened in expression.

At the same time, Sun Sun Dasheng strode over to his side and asked boisterously, "Jing Jing Taixu, how are you so useless? You can't even take a single move from Li Luo. If you're this trash, it'll make me, whom you defeated, look useless too."

The corner of Jing Jing Taixu's eye twitched, and an icy voice squeezed out from between his teeth.

"Scram!"