Chapter 35
Gu Fan could feel that Marshal Lu did not like her.
In fact, it is very easy to understand. Lu Sheng is equivalent to the leader of a certain cultivation sect in the Jiangnan base, and Lu Ya is the heir of a genius. In terms of marriage, Lu Ya is most suitable to marry with other major sects. At the very least, he must marry with an equally talented and famous female cultivator. It is definitely not the turn of an ordinary ant like Gu Fan.
However, Gu Fandu and Lu Ya had already agreed to pretend to be lovers, and they couldn't break the agreement just because of the elder's expression.
Besides, Lu Sheng didn't like her, and Lu Ya's aunt Lu Ying seemed to be very satisfied with her. Whenever Lu Sheng or Lu Yao brought up topics that might embarrass Gu Fan, Lu Ying would retort them without any hesitation.
Seeing that tonight's social gathering was about to end, Lu Ying suddenly said to Lu Sheng, "This is Fanfan's first time visiting our home. I'm sure you've prepared a gift for us, right?"
Lu Sheng raised his eyebrows slightly.
Gu Fan was secretly happy in his heart, but said politely, "No, no, Lu Ya already told us before we came here that we are just here to have a home-cooked meal."
Lu Ying only stared at Lu Sheng.
Lu Sheng was a great marshal after all, and he had a lot of good things in his hands, so he was not stingy with a gift. He smiled and asked Gu Fan: "Is there anything you like?"
Lu Ya said on behalf of Gu Fan: "Her strength is not high, you should give her something to defend herself."
Lu Ying: "Well, I gave her an A-grade metal knife, and she likes it very much."
Metal knife?
Gu Fan's heart moved slightly, but he wisely did not show his emotions.
Lu Sheng originally wanted to give Gu Fan a flashy gift, such as gold jewelry and jade, but after his daughter and grandson suggested this, he felt that even if he gave him something of the same quality as an A-grade knife, it would be considered unmannerly.
Finally, Lu Sheng took out a pair of dark golden flying boots.
Lu Yao's expression changed and she looked at Lu Sheng in disbelief.
Lu Sheng handed the flight boots to Gu Fan and said, "Try them on when you get home. If they don't fit, ask Lu Ya to take them to the research center to have them altered for you."
Gu Fan said embarrassedly: "This is too expensive..."
Before she could finish, Lu Ying snatched the flight boots and stuffed them into Gu Fan's hands, whispering, "Any S-class weapon is difficult to develop and cannot be mass-produced. Currently, the base has only produced twelve sets of S-class armor. Unless absolutely necessary, don't use these flight boots."
Lu Sheng: "Of the twelve S-class suits, eleven already have owners. This one is for Lu Ya's future child, but he's still not getting married at his age, and it's too early for the baby to be born. I'll give it to you first. If you can give me an S-class grandchild, the twelfth set will be yours, and I'll prepare another set for the child."
Gu Fan: ...
The old man is so direct!
——
After leaving the western-style building, the two first sent Lu Ying back to her residence.
As night fell, Lu Ya concentrated on driving. Lu Ying sat in the back seat, looked at the young man and woman in front, and suddenly asked, "Are you two serious?"
Gu Fan looked at Lu Ya with an expectant look, as if the dominance of this relationship was completely in Lu Ya's hands, and she was just an ordinary woman who loved humbly.
Lu Ya answered his aunt through the rearview mirror: "Yes."
Lu Ying snorted, leaned back in his chair, looked out the window and said, "Whether it's a spur of the moment or a serious matter, live according to your plans as young people. There's no need to have children early just because of the old man. Otherwise, after the child is born, you two will have a falling out, and the child will become a burden."
Lu Ya said succinctly as usual: "I know."
Lu Ying reminded Gu Fan again: "Flight boots are good things, but good things can easily attract attention. Be careful in the future and try not to leave the base alone."
Gu Fan thought of the people at the dinner party. Not to mention Lu Lan and Lu Jingtian, Lu Yao alone would probably tell her fiancé Sheng Xi about this.
After Lu Ying got out of the car, Gu Fan tightened his suit jacket around his shoulders and asked Lu Ya, "Grandpa gave me S-class flight boots. Could it be that he was trying to kill someone with a borrowed knife?"
Lu Ya analyzed: "It's not that he's using someone else's knife to kill someone. At most, he wants to test your ability to see if you can keep the flying boots."
Gu Fan frowned: "Is it too late for me to go back now?"
Lu Ya: "Even if you quit, others may not believe you quit."
Gu Fan suddenly felt regretful as if she had gotten on a pirate ship. She had actually thought that she was taking advantage of Lu Ya by accepting two expensive gifts.
Lu Ya glanced at her and said, "Don't worry, our relationship is settled, no one in the base will attack you."
Gu Fan was not worried. The things had already been collected. Instead of being anxious and disturbed, it would be better to be prepared.
"S-class flight boots, can they be faster than S-class monsters?"
"That's usually the case, but if you encounter an S-rank bird monster or a wind bear that excels at speed, there's a high chance you'll be caught up if you don't employ evasive tactics."
"What counts as a dodging technique?"
"To deal with birds, you can lower your altitude and use the shelter of trees. To deal with wind and bears, you can cross the lake or go high up in the sky."
Gu Fan nodded and put the pair of S-class flight boots, the A-class gun given by Lu Ying, the A-class armor set and the S-class dagger given by Lu Ya together, next to her own life-saving treasures.
On the human side, the S-level strongmen will not come to compete with her, and as for the other A-level mutants, there are only a few left, and she can easily escape even if she cannot defeat them.
——
After meeting the parents, Lu Ya had no more social engagements that required Gu Fan's participation, so Gu Fan continued to refine pills and practice, while Lu Ya continued to stay at her place for one night every three to five days.
The Galaxy Team set out with Li's army on September 11 and returned to the base on October 2. As soon as they entered the base to restore communications, Fenghuo rushed to contact Gu Fan.
Gu Fan, distracted by refining the elixir, said in surprise, "You're back so soon? Weren't you expected to be back on the 6th?"
Fenghuo: "The Li family army was lucky. The area of Xing City they cleared was one-third smaller than An City, and there weren't many high-level monsters in it. We finished the battle in four days."
Gu Fan: "How are you guys? Is no one hurt?"
Fenghuo: "Don't worry, everything is fine. Just wait at home and I will make you a big meal at noon."
Gu Fan smiled, took the furnace of pills, and drove to Villa No. 2.
She had the key here, and she used the dust removal technique on the entire villa, and everywhere was clean.
Xinghe, Qingteng and Taishan came back first. Fenghuo and Menglianying went to the supermarket to buy vegetables and came back an hour later.
Xinghe went upstairs to wash up, then came down and sat on the sofa to read the newspaper. After reading the latest issues, he asked Gu Fan: "Did you hear any special news at the base?"
Gu Fan shook her head. Seeing Xinghe's brows slightly furrowed, as if worried about something, her heart also began to lift slightly: "What happened?"
Xinghe looked at her and whispered, "We have followed the army many times, and this trip to Xing City was too smooth."
Meng Lianying came out of the kitchen after helping out. Upon hearing this, he laughed and said, "You just like to overthink things. Everything went smoothly because Xing City is small, so there are not many A-level monsters."
Xinghe: "There's a lake in Xing City that's not smaller than the one in An City. The A-level monsters there are as densely distributed as in An City. Since the proportion of water is normal, there shouldn't be such a big disparity in land monsters."
Qing Teng asked directly: "What exactly do you suspect?"
Xinghe pushed his glasses up on his nose and said solemnly, "When the three major bases first decided to gradually eliminate monsters by region, a monster researcher speculated that according to this elimination plan, the high-level monsters would eventually form an alliance to protect themselves. Thirty years later, and with so many elimination missions, are the high-level monsters really unaware of humanity's plan?"
Gu Fan's heart sank. "Are you saying that Xing City's A-level monster escaped early?"
Xinghe: "Whenever the army decides to encircle and suppress an area, they will first send S-class experts to verify whether there are any S-class monsters in the area. Marshal Li's verification results show that there are no traces of S-class monsters surviving in Xing City."
Meng Lianying: "What's the big deal? S-level monsters are rare. Generally, only one or two places in ten cities will have S-level monsters."
Xinghe: "According to statistics, in urban areas without S-rank monsters, there should be more A-rank monsters."
Meng Lianying fell silent for a moment before he said, "Forget it, forget it. If there really is any unusual movement, the military at the base will definitely notice it before us. I'll go talk to my cousin tomorrow."
Xinghe glanced at Gu Fan and smiled gently. "Well, maybe I'm overthinking it. The military has more complete data. If Young Master Lu and the others think the situation in Xing City is normal after discussion, we don't have to worry about anything."
Meng Lianying breathed a sigh of relief.
Gu Fan knew that Xinghe said that just to comfort her, fearing that the timid girl would worry about the safety of the base.
Gu Fan was indeed affected. She thought that when Lu Ya came to see her in a couple of days, she would ask him in detail.
At the same time, in the mayor's conference room of the inner ring center government building, the five S-level powerhouses of the Jiangnan base and government officials all gathered.
Mayor Sheng Ming asked Marshal Li Zhen to first summarize the monster situation in Xing City.
Li Zhen is an S-class fire expert. Compared with the tall and straight Lu Sheng, Li Zhen is short and stocky, but he has strong muscles and one can tell at a glance that he has a lot of power in his body.
The Li family army's operation was very smooth, and the death rate of soldiers was almost zero. Li Zhen was originally very satisfied. Unexpectedly, the Lu and He families found out about the battle process and insisted that there was something strange, so they held this meeting.
"What's there to doubt? I didn't find any S-rank monsters the first time I went to Xing City, and there weren't many A-rank monsters either. Could it be that because I wasn't there, they predicted this operation and fled in advance? This is a joke. No matter how smart a high-level monster is, it can't be so reckless."
He Qing, the leader of the younger generation of the He family, projected a map of the Jiangnan base and the surrounding clearing areas onto the screen. The map was divided into three colors. The small white area in the middle was the area of the Jiangnan base. The second circle of orange area, which occupied one-fifth of the entire map, was the cleared area. The remaining large red area, which was nearly three-fifths, was the area to be cleared.
He Qing pointed to Xing City, then highlighted the three adjacent areas to the east, south, and west of Xing City. He looked at the crowd and said, "These three urban areas have all been cleared. If I were a high-level monster occupying Xing City, it wouldn't take much intelligence to deduce that I was about to face danger."
Li Zhen snorted heavily and pointed at Anshi, where Lu Ya had just led his troops to clear out the enemy. "According to what you said, the area around Anshi has also been cleared out. How come the Wind Bears and Black Snakes there aren't on guard?"
Lu Ya: "Even humans will make different choices when faced with the same danger."
Li Zhen sneered, "Oh, you two are singing the same tune in front of everyone again. I say, Old Lu, are you going to treat us to a wedding banquet soon?"
Facing his teasing, Lu Ya had no expression on his face, and He Qing just looked at the map, turning a deaf ear to him.
The old man from the Wang family, wearing a Zhongshan suit, said, "Old Li, you're out of touch. Lu Ya and Xiao Qing are just ordinary friends. His girlfriend is someone else. They've been spending so much time together lately. I think there's going to be good news soon."
Lu Sheng: "Let's stop talking about other things and talk about Xing City first. If there are really high-level monsters that predict the base's clearance operation in advance, we are not afraid of them uniting to protect themselves, but we must be wary of them continuing to expand their forces and forming a unified beast tide to attack the base."
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone's expressions became solemn.
The beast tide has never happened, but some scholars have predicted it.
If one or two S-level monsters come to the base to cause trouble, the strong people in the base can easily repel them. However, if more monsters come and have the advantage in numbers, it will inevitably lead to disaster.
Mayor Sheng: "I don't think so. Monsters have a strong sense of territory and won't leave their lair easily."
Lu Sheng: "There are exceptions to everything. In special times, we can only prepare for the worst and do our best."
Mayor Sheng: "Should we cancel the base opening ceremony originally scheduled for the 15th?"
Lu Sheng shook his head: "No, the military should take precautions quietly to avoid disturbing the people."
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