The passage Zhou Huai spoke of was, of course, the one he had Shi Lei and Chen Mo excavate.

As long as Li Gang could successfully find the entrance,

he would be able to quickly return to the surface.

At that time, neither the Zhou Family nor the Liu Family would easily be able to catch him.

Once Li Gang returned to the military, it would be a nightmare for both the Zhou Family and the Liu Family.

Leaving aside the Liu Family,

the Zhou Family was destined to fall.

Discovering a Secret Realm and exploring it privately was a serious crime.

Moreover, he had enslaved so many professionals.

And privately sold Demon Crystals.

As long as Li Gang reported everything he knew truthfully,

it wouldn't be long before the military sent troops to Donghai City.

What if there were many strong individuals?

Could they compare to the military?

Would they dare to oppose the military?

At that time, the Zhou Family would only face one outcome: annihilation.

Those Zhou Family members would also become prisoners.

This was Zhou Huai's plan.

Originally, he had wanted to quietly develop in the Secret Realm,

taking his time. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

But now, Zhou Huai couldn't wait.

He might die any day.

Then the Zhou Family must die before he did!

In the cave, Li Gang, after hearing the words from the shadow, was still full of doubts.

He frowned, lowering his voice again.

"Who exactly are you?"

"Why are you helping me?"

However, this time, the shadow at his feet returned to stillness.

No more sounds came from it.

Li Gang's heart sank.

Where did he go?

Where did he go?

"Hey? Hey! Are you still there? Hey?"

He called out to his crotch in an almost inaudible voice.

Not far away, a Radiant Alliance member responsible for guarding, seeing him acting strangely, walked over.

The long whip in his hand cracked loudly in the air.

"Crack!"

"What are you doing?!"

The man snapped impatiently.

"Staring at your crotch for so long, what's wrong with you?!"

"If you've rested enough, go back to work!"

Li Gang quickly composed himself, a fawning smile on his face, nodding and bowing repeatedly.

"Yes, yes, yes! I'm going now! I'm going now!"

He stood up, picked up the blunted pickaxe from the corner, and began to work, pretending to be busy.

At this moment, Zhou Huai had already controlled Moria to stealthily move to the other end of the cave.

As for whether Li Gang believed him, he didn't bother to waste any more words explaining.

He believed that with Li Gang's intelligence and situation, he would make his own judgment.

He had another, more important purpose for coming to this place.

That was Demon Crystals.

The hundred Demon Crystals from last time had already been mostly eaten by the Little Black Dragon.

This time, he planned a major operation.

With a few Shadow Leaps, Moria's figure silently arrived at the Demon Crystal storage point.

The sight before him made him catch his breath slightly.

The number of Demon Crystals here now was several times more than when he had last visited.

Countless Demon Crystals, containing pure energy, were casually piled together, forming a dazzling small mountain over ten meters high.

In the dim cave, they emitted an alluring glow.

Moria carefully bypassed the two drowsy guards in the corner.

He wasn't in a hurry to steal the Demon Crystals this time.

Instead, he reached out and pulled out a palm-sized yellow talisman from his storage space.

The talisman was made of a material that was neither paper nor wood, with complex and profound patterns drawn in cinnabar on its surface. It was precisely the small Illusion Formation that Zhuge Kongming had replicated using 【Ink-Preserving Rules】.

Zhou Huai was going to use this Illusion Formation to pull off a grand deception.

He flicked his finger.

The yellow talisman transformed into a stream of light, silently flying to just above the pile of Demon Crystals.

The talisman ignited in the air without a flame.

Specks of golden sparks, like dandelion seeds, scattered and drifted down.

Each spark trailed a thin golden thread in the air.

Countless threads intertwined and wove in the air, quickly outlining a huge and complex three-dimensional Formation pattern.

Once the Formation was complete, it flashed with light and then completely disappeared from sight.

From the outside, everything looked normal.

All the Demon Crystals were still piled up like a small mountain there.

Touching them, one could clearly feel the hard, cold touch of the Demon Crystals.

However, inside the Illusion Formation, it was already a different scene.

Zhou Huai had already begun to sweep through them on a large scale.

Moria's fingers moved like phantoms; wherever he passed, large quantities of Demon Crystals were collected into his bag and disappeared.

Half an hour later,

tens of thousands of Demon Crystals were completely plundered by Zhou Huai.

Not a single one was left.

The dazzling small mountain was now completely gone, becoming empty.

Yet, from the perspective of everyone outside, the Demon Crystal mountain still stood tall, emitting an alluring glow.

The professionals transporting Demon Crystals didn't notice any abnormality either.

They continued to throw the newly mined Demon Crystals, one by one, into that # Nоvеlight # 'Void Realm'.

The moment a Demon Crystal passed through the Illusion Formation, it was taken by Zhou Huai.

But in their eyes, that Demon Crystal merely landed on the pile, making a crisp clinking sound.

This was the power of the Illusion Formation.

It could not only deceive your sight but also all your other senses.

Of course, it was only a matter of time before it was discovered.

The Illusion Formation was ultimately fake.

Once the Radiant Alliance members tried to move Demon Crystals out of it, they would find that not a single Demon Crystal could be taken from here.

At that point, the shocking case of the stolen Demon Crystals would fully explode.

This was the 'big event' Zhou Huai had told Li Gang about.

It was imaginable what a huge commotion would erupt in the entire underground cave when the Radiant Alliance discovered tens of thousands of Demon Crystals had vanished without a trace.

That would be Li Gang's best opportunity to escape from this place.

Having done all this, Zhou Huai did not linger.

He controlled Moria to quietly return along the original path.

He had done everything he needed to do.

Now, it was up to Li Gang's own performance.

...

Moria's figure reappeared by the lake where the Eternal Night Guild members were leveling up.

He casually pulled out three basketball-sized Demon Crystals from his storage space and threw them to the Little Black Dragon, who was rolling and frolicking on the shore.

The Little Black Dragon's eyes instantly lit up when it saw the Demon Crystals.

It let out a joyful Dragon roar, bit into one of them, chewing with a 'crunch, crunch' sound, as if eating a delicious candy bean.

Just then,

Jasmine walked over quickly, bowing respectfully.

"My Lord."

She reported,

"It seems we have almost cleared out the Strange Beast on the lake shore."

"In the past two days, no other Strange Beast have climbed out of the lake."

Zhou Huai nodded, indicating he understood.

It seemed it was time to continue exploring outwards to find new leveling spots.

However, Jasmine did not retreat.

She hesitated for a moment, then continued, "My Lord, what I need to report is not this matter."

"What else is there?"

Moria's voice was calm.

Jasmine's expression became somewhat strange.

"Not long after we cleared all the Strange Beast ,"

"a bridge suddenly... suddenly rose from the bottom of that lake."

"I only just discovered it, so I immediately came to ask for your instructions."

"Should we send people to explore the bridge?"

Oh?

Hearing this, Zhou Huai immediately became interested.

He controlled Moria, and with a few flashes, arrived at the lake shore.

Indeed, a huge stone bridge had appeared on the calm lake surface at some unknown time.

The stone bridge was entirely built from a kind of greyish-green giant stone; its body was wide, enough to allow over ten people to walk side by side.

The bridge surface was covered with mottled moss from the erosion of time, appearing ancient and weathered.

It spanned the entire lake, one end connecting to the shore where everyone was, and the other extending into the depths of the dense fog that perpetually shrouded that area.

And that direction was precisely where the golden light had previously emanated from.

"How can there be a bridge here?"

Zhou Huai controlled Moria, slowly walking onto the bridgehead.

He reached out and lightly touched the bridge's railing.

It felt hard and icy cold to the touch.

Just then, Zhou Huai's gaze was drawn to the patterns carved on the bridge railing.

They were not ordinary decorative patterns.

Instead, they were rows of neatly arranged, unfamiliar characters he had never seen before.

The strokes of these characters were complex, their structure bizarre, as if they contained some mysterious power; just looking at them made one feel a dizzying sensation.

Zhou Huai couldn't help but take a deep breath.

A startling thought suddenly sprang into his mind.

He remembered what Nakamura Shin'ichirō had said before.

The biggest difference between a Secret Realm and a Ruin was that

a Ruin contained traces of an ancient civilization's existence.

And these profound runes before him...

Could they be the script once used by some ancient civilization?

Which meant...

This Secret Realm beneath Donghai City was very likely...

also a Ruin?!