City lockdown?

Zhou Huai's brows furrowed into a knot.

Why would the city suddenly be locked down for no reason?

Butler Fu shook his head, a hint of confusion on his wrinkled face.

"This old servant isn't clear on the specifics."

"It's said to be an order personally issued by the City Lord."

The City Lord... Zhou Huai felt that things were not simple.

Donghai City was not a frontier stronghold; unless it was facing a large-scale beast tide, it would never easily lock down the entire city.

But if a beast tide was approaching, the Eternal Night Guild's intelligence network couldn't possibly have missed even a whisper.

That left only one possibility.

Some extremely urgent and unknown drastic change had occurred within the city.

Zhou Huai's heart stirred, and a premonition made him immediately open the System backend.

He quickly scanned the System notifications.

A line of ignored information instantly captured his gaze.

【System Notification: Clone 'Zhuge Kongming's' complex array deployed at the entrance of the Abyss of Mist has been forcibly breached.】

Three days ago... at that time, he was controlling Gandalf, battling wits and courage for the pendulum of life in the Castlantis ruins.

He had no time to pay attention to these details.

In other words, the Zhou Family and the Liu Family had already re-entered the Abyss of Mist three days ago.

Zhou Huai put down his porridge bowl, his eyes sharpening.

"Butler Fu, help me guard the door and don't let anyone in."

With that, he closed his eyes, his consciousness instantly shifting to Moria's body.

Inside the Eternal Night Guild's office.

Molly was buried in a pile of complex documents when suddenly, as if sensing something, she sharply raised her head.

Her gaze accurately fell upon the deepest shadow in the corner of the office.

A tall, slender figure slowly emerged from that shadow.

He wore a black trench coat, his silver-white hair casually draped, his skin almost transparently pale, and his deep eyes seemed to hold endless solitude and melancholy.

The light in the entire room seemed to dim slightly with his appearance.

Molly quickly put down her pen and stood up swiftly.

She walked quickly to the figure, bowing her head respectfully.

"Greetings, Master!"

Zhou Huai, controlling Moria, calmly hummed in acknowledgment.

His voice carried a unique magnetism, as if it could penetrate hearts.

"These days I've been away, has anything major happened in Donghai City?"

Molly heard this, a hint of apology on her face, and gently shook her head.

"Reporting to Master, your subordinate has recently focused all her energy on the exploration of the Abyss of Mist."

"As for what happened in the city, I am not very clear."

Zhou Huai nodded, not blaming her.

However, he pondered inwardly.

The current composition of the Eternal Night Guild's members was, after all, too singular.

Most were combat professions and auxiliary combat professions.

In terms of intelligence gathering, it was almost a blank slate.

It seemed it was time to establish a dedicated intelligence department.

With any slight disturbance, he could grasp the information immediately and respond in advance.

Qin Ming's clever face appeared in his mind.

That guy's adaptability and courage displayed while undercover in the Radiant Alliance were quite good.

Once the intelligence department was established, he could be made its head.

Zhou Huai withdrew his thoughts, his gaze falling back on Molly as he continued to inquire.

"How is the exploration progress of the Abyss of Mist?"

"Have the people from the Zhou Family and the Liu Family discovered our existence?"

At this, a confident smile immediately appeared on Molly's pretty face.

"Master, rest assured!"

"The areas we've explored, the people from the Zhou Family and the Liu Family haven't come this way at all."

"Plus, Mr. Zhuge has laid out several ingenious illusion arrays along the way, so even if they wanted to come, they would never discover us."

She paused, the smile on her face growing wider, with a hint of excitement.

"Moreover, these past few days, we've gathered all high-Rank members of the Guild and fully cleared out the exotic beasts behind that huge stone gate."

"Just now, the first elite squad responsible for deep exploration just returned, bringing back the latest intelligence, and I was just about to report it to you!"

Zhou Huai's spirits immediately lifted upon hearing this.

"Oh?"

"What kind of scene is behind that gate?"

Molly took a deep breath, seemingly organizing her words, trying to convey the shock completely.

"According to the descriptions of those members, beyond the stone gate, it's like another world."

"Above, it's no longer a hazy expanse, and there's no longer any mist obstructing the view."

"If the areas we explored before were the ruins where ancient commoners lived."

"Then beyond the stone gate, it's the palace city where ancient nobles, or even the imperial family, resided!"

"The architectural complex there is extremely well-preserved, tall, magnificent, and completely different from the broken walls outside!"

"They also said that in the deepest part of the palace city, they distantly saw an incredibly huge palace, resplendent and majestic in Aura!"

"However, the number of exotic beasts along the way is still massive, and their Ranks are generally higher, so they dared not venture deeper and could only retreat first."

Imperial Palace City?

Huge Palace?

A glint flashed in Zhou Huai's eyes.

It seemed the secret of the Divine Artifact was, in all likelihood, hidden within that palace!

Now that the matter of the pendulum of life was concluded.

Next, he must seize the time and get the Divine Artifact in the Abyss of Mist before the Zhou Family and the Liu Family!

Thinking of this, Zhou Huai no longer hesitated.

He quickly made arrangements in a concise manner.

"Send a team to secretly monitor the movements of the Zhou Family and their old residence."

"Once anything is discovered, report it to Dayi promptly. I will receive the news immediately."

Molly nodded in understanding.

As her words fell, Moria's figure once again turned into a shadow, silently merging into the ground, disappearing... Abyss of Mist, in front of the huge stone gate.

The shouts of battle shook the sky.

As Molly said, the army of exotic beasts here, under the Eternal Night Guild's relentless encirclement, had been mostly annihilated.

The Guild members were in high spirits, clearing out the scattered remaining exotic beasts while forming formations, steadily advancing deeper into the stone gate.

An undetected shadow, like a ghost, silently passed through the battling crowd.

Moria's figure flickered a few times, then bypassed the Guild's vanguard and completely disappeared into the deep darkness of the stone gate.

The moment Zhou Huai's feet stepped onto the ground beyond the gate.

The sight before him made him lose himself in wonder.

Inside and outside the gate, it was like two different worlds.

Above was no longer the oppressive gray dome, but a strange crystal radiating soft light, illuminating the entire space as bright as day.

There was no longer any mist obstructing his view, and his vision was suddenly clear.

Looking out, a wide white jade avenue, spacious enough for dozens of carriages to travel abreast, stretched straight into the distance.

On both sides of the avenue were magnificent pavilions and palaces, intricately carved and painted, arranged in a dense yet orderly fashion.

Although these buildings had endured countless years, they were still perfectly preserved, with vermilion palace walls and golden glazed tiles, all speaking of the place's former glory and majesty.

Only two words remained in Zhou Huai's mind.

Imperial Palace!

This was clearly an ancient Imperial Palace buried deep underground!

His gaze swept over the layers of palaces, finally resting at the end of the white jade avenue.

There, an incredibly huge city gate stood.

The gate was a hundred meters tall, cast entirely from an unknown black metal, with intricate and majestic Dragon totems carved upon it, exuding an overbearing Aura that commanded the world.

Through that city gate, the outline of an even more majestic and magnificent palace was vaguely visible, like a crouching ancient giant beast, quietly lying there, awaiting the worship of the world.

That should be the main hall Molly mentioned.

Could the Divine Artifact be within it?

However, just as Zhou Huai was about to control Moria to delve deeper.

His steps suddenly halted.

A strong sense of discord surged into his heart.

It was too quiet.

It was simply too quiet here.

Aside from the faint roars of exotic beasts in the distance, this magnificent palace city was utterly silent, like death.

According to Molly's intelligence, the number of exotic beasts here should have been extremely large.

Zhou Huai's eyes grew vigilant.

He controlled Moria, his figure silently blending into the shadow of a huge corridor pillar, carefully observing his surroundings.

Soon.

He discovered a massive exotic beast corpse at the entrance of a side hall not far away.

It was a Deep Abyss Demon Lizard, Rank forty-two.

Its corpse was still fresh, the dark green blood not yet fully congealed.

Zhou Huai's gaze narrowed involuntarily.

He continued to investigate further.

The second, the third... the further he went, the more exotic beast corpses there were.

When he rounded a rockery, the sight before him made his pupils suddenly contract!

He saw hundreds of exotic beast carcasses lying haphazardly on the square ahead!

The strong smell of blood was almost nauseating!

These corpses piled up like mountains, forming a tragic and hellish tableau.

Zhou Huai's gaze swept over the wounds on the corpses.

Some had their necks cleanly severed by sharp blades, some were directly charred by violent lightning energy, and others were frozen into ice sculptures by cold Qi, then shattered across the ground...

These wounds, without exception, were all caused by the skills of professional cultivators!

It seemed someone had beaten them to it!