One hour later.

Caesar, controlled by Zhou Huai, had already released nearly 1,500 Alien Parasites.

They blended into the noisy crowd within the Asura Arena, like dandelion seeds, silently finding their respective "soil."

At this moment, the experience value record in Caesar's attribute panel backend was refreshing at a dazzling speed.

"Ding! Gained 35 experience points!"

"Ding! Gained 78 experience points!"

"Ding! Gained 102 experience points!"

...In his mind, the System's backend experience refresh rate was more than twice as fast as before.

Zhou Huai felt delighted.

This was too great.

What was the difference between this and automatic AFK leveling?

And as he parasitized more and more "workers," this speed would only get faster.

Just then, a cold System prompt sounded.

"Challenge Mission Triggered: All Things Are Puppets"

"Mission Objective: Successfully parasitize 10,000 hosts."

"Mission Reward: Professional Orb Draw Opportunity X1."

Zhou Huai's eyes lit up.

He hadn't expected such a thing to trigger a mission, and it even rewarded him with an opportunity to draw a Professional Orb.

This mission had no real challenge.

It was just a matter of spending some time; it was practically a freebie.

However, even if he now had a Professional Orb, he couldn't immediately create another Clone.

Aside from the first Clone, Yaso, he needed his main body to increase by five Ranks to create a new Clone.

And his main body's Rank was the same as the highest-Ranked Clone among all of them.

That was, the same as Gandalf.

He was currently still stuck at Rank 44.

He now had Yaso, Ouyezi, Gandalf, Moria, Xiang Yu, Zhuge Kongming, Sona, Da Yi, and Caesar—a total of nine Clones.

To create the tenth Clone, he had to raise his Rank to 45.

In fact, Zhou Huai had always held onto one Professional Orb draw opportunity.

That was the reward from the previous "Overlord of the East Sea" challenge mission.

Today's Eternal Night Guild was already the undisputed number one in comprehensive strength in Donghai City.

This challenge mission had also been completed unknowingly.

But he had been slow to draw the next Professional.

Although Gandalf was only one Rank away from Rank 45.

The time required for this one Rank difference would definitely not be short.

Moreover, Gandalf was currently playing the important role of the military liaison.

It was currently difficult for him to find free time to ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ steadily level up.

Zhou Huai couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

If only his other Clones could also have such a perfect AFK leveling channel like Caesar.

As the beast tide in Dongning Province gradually subsided.

There were not many exotic beasts left in the ruins below Donghai City.

In the future, it would probably become increasingly difficult for his Clones and the brothers of the Eternal Night Guild to quickly raise their Ranks.

Unless he chose to relocate his base.

Taking everyone to larger, more resource-rich cities.

However, that would consume an unimaginable amount of effort and time.

Zhou Huai currently had no energy to invest too much in this area.

He looked up, his gaze sweeping over the glowing Instance entrances within the Asura Arena.

A thought suddenly came to his mind.

He had heard before that the Instances in the Imperial Capital University's Instance Tower seemed to have all been personally crafted by Formation Masters.

Unlike natural Instances in the wild.

Instances crafted by Formation Masters were more refined, and could even be designed with customized scenes and difficulty levels according to one's needs.

Each Instance was an integration of several, or even dozens, of Formations.

He was another research direction for Formation Masters.

All major academies had even established a specific discipline for Instance Architecture for this purpose.

Professor Chen Lanxin of Imperial Capital University had personally crafted an entire Simon City Instance.

And she was merely an S-Rank Formation Master.

But what he controlled was a genuine SS-Rank Formation Master!

Zhou Huai's eyes grew brighter the more he thought about it.

He immediately had Caesar's smart core ai AFK on the spot.

He issued an instruction to every newly born Alien Parasite to find a suitable host.

If someone asked him to team up, he would tell them he was only a C-Rank Insect Tamer.

He believed the other party would certainly retreat when faced with difficulty.

After doing all this, his consciousness quickly completed the transfer.

A streak of light traveled a thousand miles.

Finally, it descended upon Zhuge Kongming outside Donghai City.

At this moment, the section of Donghai City's outer wall that had been breached by the beast tide had been repaired with the combined help of several earth-element Professionals.

The new wall not only returned to its original state but was even taller and sturdier than before.

This Clone of Zhuge Kongming was silently carving a Rank 6 Defense Formation onto the brand new wall.

Six carving knives moved smoothly across the wall, like fish entering water, disappearing from sight.

His Lord's aura had descended.

The several Eternal Night Guild Professionals who were clearing debris nearby all stopped their work.

They turned and bowed in the direction of Zhuge Kongming.

"Greetings, My Lord!"

Zhou Huai waved his hand, his voice gentle.

"Go call Guild Leader Molly here."

The several subordinates immediately took their leave, acting without any hesitation.

Before long, Molly hurried over.

"My Lord, do you have any instructions for me?"

Zhou Huai, controlling Zhuge Kongming, did not stop carving the Formation with his fingertips.

He asked without turning his head.

"Does the Guild have any data specifically researching Instance architecture?"

Molly was stunned for a moment, clearly not understanding why her Lord was suddenly interested in this.

She thought carefully and shook her head.

"There probably isn't such obscure data in Donghai City."

"However, I heard that Dongning Academy has a specialized Instance Architecture discipline, so there should be relevant books there."

Zhou Huai nodded.

"Send someone to Jiangning City to borrow them."

"Just say the Eternal Night Guild needs them."

A trace of pride flashed in Molly's eyes.

"Yes, My Lord!"

Today's Eternal Night Guild was no longer what it once was.

The story of defending Donghai City against the beast tide by its own strength had spread completely.

The entire Guild's reputation was soaring.

Not only within Dongning Province, but even nationwide, rumors of this legendary Guild were gradually emerging.

Many eyewitnesses spread the word, exaggerating details.

The Eternal Night Guild implicitly gained the title of the Great Xia Country's strongest and most mysterious Guild.

Even Governor Hou Changfeng of Jiangning City was somewhat disbelieving when he came to inspect Donghai City.

He privately met with Molly more than once, trying to subtly inquire about the specific situation of the Eternal Night Guild.

But in the end, Molly parried him with flawless rhetoric.

Today's Molly was no longer the little girl she once was.

After experiencing so many events, she had indeed grown a lot, increasingly showing the maturity and responsibility of a Guild Leader.

After receiving the order, she quickly arranged for personnel to depart for Jiangning City.

In just over an hour.

The team sent to Jiangning City quickly returned.

But when they returned, there was an extra person in the car.

The team leader's face was beaming with uncontrollable excitement as he quickly ran to Zhou Huai.

"My Lord, when we arrived at Dongning Academy and explained our purpose, the dean of the Instance Architecture Department immediately, without a word, had all the relevant data sent to you."

He pointed to the somewhat reserved figure in the car behind him.

"The dean was afraid you might have something you didn't understand, so he even specifically had the most Professional teacher in the field of Instances from the Academy come along, saying he wanted to personally explain it to you."

Zhou Huai's gaze fell on that person.

He was a man in his thirties, slender, wearing a neatly pressed scholar's uniform.

A pair of gold-rimmed glasses rested on his nose, and his hair was meticulously combed.

He clutched a heavy briefcase tightly in his hand, appearing somewhat uneasy.

The man saw Zhuge Kongming's gaze, quickly took a few steps forward, and bowed respectfully.

His posture was very low, even carrying a hint of pilgrimage-like devotion.

"You... are you the Lord of the Eternal Night Guild?"

"My name is Gao Yuan, a lecturer in Instance Architecture at Dongning Academy. I greet My Lord."

Zhou Huai nodded: "Teacher Gao, there's no need to be so polite."

He didn't waste time and went straight to the point.

"You should have noticed, I am also a Formation Master."

"In the future, I want to design some Instances for Donghai City, but I haven't delved into the field of Instance construction before. I hope Teacher Gao can guide me."

Gao Yuan was stunned for a moment when he heard this.

Then he shook his head.

"I wouldn't dare to guide; Instance Architecture is a very profound subject."

"I've studied it for over ten years and have only scratched the surface."

"First, you need to prepare a large amount of Space-Stabilizing Materials, and at least a hundred types of rare Ore used to construct Formations."

"Then comes the design; the Instance's scene, monster types, difficulty gradient... all these require precise calculations and repeated deductions."

Zhou Huai was a little surprised; he hadn't expected this Teacher Gao to be quite straightforward.

As soon as he expressed his idea, the other party immediately began to speak voluminously, like pouring beans from a bamboo tube.

Zhou Huai smiled wryly and quickly interrupted: "Teacher Gao, this is not the place to talk."

"Why don't we go to the Eternal Night Guild's base and talk slowly?"

Gao Yuan then realized, and smiled shyly.

"How rude, how rude. It's mainly been a long time since anyone was willing to discuss these things with me. I got a bit carried away."

Zhou Huai finally understood why the dean of Dongning Academy would send him over.

This Gao Yuan was a very pure scholar.