After speaking with Jason in the sky for a while, Rulu returned to the armored vehicle with C.C., Sphinx, and A-Niu, and asked Captain Guan to keep a close watch on General Li's situation.

  Within a few minutes, a surprised voice came through the communicator: "Um... Commander, General Li's side just contacted me. He says something strange happened over there — the Sanctuary forces, for some reason, have stopped attacking them."

  "Stopped attacking?" Rulu thought for a moment, then said, "The Sanctuary forces must have retreated. Contact General Li right away and tell him to break through with full force and evacuate Blue Sea City."

  "But why would the Sanctuary forces retreat?" Captain Guan said, puzzled. "Could this be a trap? Maybe the Sanctuary forces are pretending to retreat to lure General Li's side into moving, then strike again."

  "No, the Sanctuary side already has the upper hand — there's absolutely no need for them to do that," Rulu said with certainty. "Tell them to move immediately. If we wait for the Sanctuary side to redeploy, breaking through won't be as easy as it is now."

  "Understood." Captain Guan agreed and contacted General Li's troops again. After a moment, a joyful voice came through the communicator: "Commander, you were right. For some reason, the majority of Sanctuary's forces have withdrawn. The remaining Sanctuary troops can't hold back General Li's forces at all. His troops are advancing rapidly toward the northwest — looks like they'll be out of Blue Sea City before long."

  Rulu said in a remarkably calm tone: "I see. I had already anticipated that the Sanctuary would pull back their troops."

  Hearing how confident and calm Rulu sounded, Captain Guan was puzzled: "But... Commander, what exactly did you do to make the Sanctuary withdraw? You've been with us the whole time and didn't seem to do anything. How did you manage it?"

  "Don't worry about that. As long as the objective is achieved, that's all that matters."

  At that moment, the Bald Scarred Man's voice came through the communicator: "My guess is it has something to do with those few words the Commander said to the sky just now. The Commander must have gotten something on Governor Suwen and used it to threaten him into pulling the Sanctuary troops back."

  The other Rebels chimed in: "That must be it. No wonder the Commander has been so calm the whole time — it was all pnned out from the start. Looks like our worrying was for nothing."

  "Ha! General Li's side managed to break through successfully, and we rescued all the captured prisoners. This operation has been a tremendous success! Haha!"

  The Rebels were all smiles, basking in the joy of the moment — but just then, Rulu's cold voice cut through: "Don't celebrate just yet. This isn't over. There are definitely rge numbers of Sanctuary forces pursuing us from behind right now."

  The Bald Scarred Man said with a grin: "Ah, it'll be fine. We're about to enter the underground tunnels. The space down there is too tight for rge troop numbers — even if they catch up, there's nothing they can do to us."

  Rulu said: "Just because you can think of something doesn't mean others can't. If I'm not mistaken, the Sanctuary will definitely send troops to seal off every entrance and exit of the underground tunnels to prevent our escape."

  The Bald Scarred Man was taken aback: "That can't be right. There are so many entrances and exits to Blue Sea City's underground tunnels — how could they possibly seal them all? And if they really did seal all the tunnel exits, what would they use to fight General Li's troops?!"

  Rulu said: "Have you forgotten? The Sanctuary forces on General Li's side have already withdrawn. Where do you think those troops went?"

  The Bald Scarred Man's expression shifted to arm: "You... you mean the Sanctuary forces have all come to surround us?!"

  Rulu said: "Exactly. If we enter the underground tunnels, it's like walking into a cage — we'd be trapped with no way out."

  Captain Guan said urgently: "If that's really the case, we can't enter the underground tunnels. We need to change our pn of action immediately."

  Rulu said: "It's alright. We'll proceed with the original pn. Aside from escaping through the underground tunnels, we have no other way to safely leave Blue Sea City."

  Captain Guan said: "But Commander, didn't you just say the Sanctuary would seal off all the tunnel exits? If we enter, aren't we walking right into their trap?"

  "I'll figure out a way to handle that. You just need to do as I say."

  The Bald Scarred Man ughed: "Haha, Captain Guan, don't worry. If the Commander says so, he must have already made careful arrangements. As long as we follow his lead, we'll definitely make it out of Blue Sea City safely — right, Commander?"

  Rulu said: "Not necessarily. I can't fully guarantee you'll make it out of Blue Sea City. At most, I'd say there's a fifty-fifty chance."

  "Fifty-fifty?" The Bald Scarred Man muttered, "Fifty-fifty... that's actually not bad. It should be fine."

  While Rulu and Captain Guan were talking, the Rebels' convoy had already reached the underground tunnel entrance and entered the tunnels, beginning to make their way through.

  Once the entire convoy had entered and was nearing an exit inside the tunnels, a bck-robed masked figure holding a silver staff appeared, alongside a woman with long green hair, a four-armed Minotaur, and a sphinx.

  "Hey, Rulu," C.C. said to the masked figure in bck. "You told us to stay here instead of leaving with the rest of the Rebels — is there a particur reason for that?" Since the other Rebels had all gone, she called Rulu by name directly.