22: Chapter 22 Freedom

About half an hour later, the spaceship landed in a mountainous area.

Tang Long and Man Hai disembarked from the ship, where Elder Xie was already waiting with a beaming smile.

"Man Hai, although you have committed faults, the Duke believes that even if you have no merit, you have at least worked hard. Your merits and faults cancel each other out, so he has decided to grant you amnesty."

Man Hai's eyes welled up with tears of gratitude. "Thank you, Duke! Thank you, Elder Xie!"

Elder Xie kindly helped him up with his own hands, then took out a golden seal and approached Tang Long.

"Mine Slave 5726, real name Tang Long."

"After careful consideration, the Duke has decided to keep his promise and grant you freedom according to the mining laws. From now on, you are an official citizen of the Dongyu Kingdom."

"Bear with it, I'll help you process the formalities."

Elder Xie lifted Tang Long's shirt and pressed the seal onto the slave mark on his shoulder. At the same time, a string of electric arcs suddenly burst from his hand. Tang Long felt as if he had been struck by a bull; half of his body went numb instantly, and he nearly collapsed.

But Elder Xie had already reached out to steady him, explaining with a smile, "Don't be afraid. Look closely, this is the Duke's personal seal. By covering your former slave mark, it proves that you have been granted freedom."

Tang Long looked down and indeed saw that a golden maple leaf insignia now covered the slave mark.

Elder Xie then took a metal card from his robe. "This is your proof of citizenship. With it, you can travel throughout the country. Congratulations, young man."

Tang Long took the card, unable to hide his joy as he expressed his thanks repeatedly.

If he hadn't 'overheard' the conversation of these old foxes earlier, he would probably be as deeply grateful to them as Man Hai was right now.

However, at this moment, he was inwardly sneering.

The old man's words sounded pleasant, but unfortunately, his intentions were anything but kind. You have a blood feud with Governor Xu for killing his father, yet you're shoving me over there like I'm a plague god. What will Governor Xu think?

Fine, whatever. At least I have a legal identity now.

If this place won't have me, there's bound to be somewhere that will!

Sure enough, Elder Xie cleared his throat slightly and continued.

"However, you two cannot return to Feng City."

Man Hai hurriedly asked, "Why? I still wanted to thank the Duke in person."

"In the territory of Feng City, it's really not very honorable for such a thing to happen in the Duke's mining area. His Grace has his pride to maintain. As the parties involved, staying in Song City would make it easy for certain bad people to exploit you. Therefore, the best way for you to repay the Duke is to leave. Do you understand?"

Although Man Hai felt deeply pained, he immediately expressed his understanding.

"I understand. I will leave Feng City and never return. Uh... Elder Xie, this place is relatively close to South Song City. Is it okay if we go there?"

"Of course. Governor Xu of South Song is very enlightened, and the new policies he recently introduced are very friendly to the Hetero-blood Species. I have only one request: you must bring Tang Long there safely. Can you do that?"

Man Hai thumped his chest loudly. "Rest assured, I guarantee it with my life!"

"Very good, very good. Due to defense issues, it's not convenient for our spaceship to cross the border. Your journey is quite long, so take advantage of the good weather and hurry on your way!"

As he spoke, Elder Xie took out a large blade prepared beforehand and a knapsack, handing them to Man Hai.

The knapsack appeared to contain some food, water, and other supplies, but Tang Long knew that the mask of calamity was also inside.

Man Hai took the bag and immediately called for Tang Long to leave.

——————

The border area between Feng City and Song City was a vast expanse of mountain forests, making it difficult to traverse.

But with a big guy like Man Hai leading the way, the journey wasn't as arduous as imagined.

After all, with such a massive frame, trees as thick as an arm would fall like grass under his feet. Where he passed, a small path naturally formed.

However, Man Hai's speed was quite fast—so fast that by nightfall, Tang Long was gradually starting to struggle to keep up.

Coming to a mountain stream, Man Hai finally stopped and looked back at Tang Long with a smile.

"Brother, are you tired?"

Tang Long smiled back. "Brother Hai, your speed is too fast. It is a bit taxing."

Man Hai explained while untying the knapsack, "I won't be this fast tomorrow. To tell you the truth, I just wanted to get as far away from them as possible as quickly as I could."

Tang Long was surprised. "What? Weren't you earlier..."

"It was an act." Man Hai snorted. "Don't be fooled by them; none of them are good people. If I hadn't acted a bit stupid, I wouldn't have survived until today."

"They want us to go to Song City. I don't know what scheme they're plotting, but I know that the Duke has a blood feud with Governor Xu for killing his father. With my conspicuous appearance, I'll definitely be recognized if I go there, and it won't end well."

"Even you, little brother, are probably no simple character. I knew from seeing your moves that time; even if you haven't trained, you must have been guided by an extremely powerful expert."

"Mastering the Breathing Method in ten minutes, handing over surplus spirit residue every day, and reaching the entry stage through self-cultivation in just ten days or so—you're a genius among geniuses. the Duke letting me go was likely eighty percent thanks to you."

"But don't worry, I won't ask, and you don't need to explain to me."

"If you're willing to go to Song City, I'll take you there. If not, you can come back to the Manxue Tribe with me."

These words from Man Hai truly caught Tang Long by surprise.

To be honest, during their time together, his assessment of Man Hai's intelligence hadn't been high.

He never expected that this giant was actually meticulous despite his rough exterior, having a good grasp of many things. Even if his estimations weren't perfectly accurate, they weren't far off.

It seemed he needed to be even more careful.

Tang Long didn't respond for a moment, just watching as he rummaged through the knapsack and threw things out.

"The things they prepared, we'd better not use. We especially can't eat the food; just throw it all away. I'll take care of hunting in a bit; I definitely won't let you go hungry."

"This water bottle is fine; we can just refill it here."

"Eh? This is... Brother Tang, look at this!"

While speaking, Man Hai had found the mask of calamity and handed it to Tang Long along with Tang Long's old leather pouch.

Tang Long asked, "Brother Hai, don't you want such a treasure?"

"Treasure? Stop joking! Are you playing dumb, or did you really not notice Elder Xie's face when he saw this thing? In all these years, I've never seen that old guy so terrified. Don't you dare tell me what this is; I don't want to know. If you don't know either, you'd better just throw it away."

Without the slightest hesitation, Tang Long tossed the mask into the mountain stream.

"You... you really threw it!"

Man Hai was stunned for a moment, then said, "Throwing it is for the best. For people like us, some things are just trouble."

After saying that, he took a short blade from the knapsack and shoved it into Tang Long's hand.

"If we run into danger, you usually won't need to do anything. But if we encounter a situation where I can't look after you, you'll have to rely on this."

At this point, Man Hai's large hand patted him gently, and he said quickly in an extremely low voice: "Careful, someone is following us from behind."

"Let's go! Time to hunt!"

Tang Long nodded readily.

"Brother Hai, if it's convenient, leave the killing blow to me."

"Want to test your mettle, eh? No problem!"

In fact, he had long ago discovered the two tails behind them.

With his Level 7 Fire Eye, it would be hard not to see such obvious targets.

The spiritual aura of these two was even stronger than Man Hai's, likely at the fourth stage or above; they must be the people Han Feng had recruited.

Although he had heard Han Feng say they were only tracking them, the human heart is unpredictable. Tang Long had already decided to strike first.

However, it wouldn't be a direct confrontation, but rather a small scheme.