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Dietrich knew quite a lot about the apples, and since it wasn’t some big secret, he chattered on and told Gu Xi a great deal.

That way, Gu Xi also learned the story between the Great Monarch, the Mirror Image Underground Palace, and the British Royal Family.

Since Dietrich counted as a subordinate of the Great Monarch, what he knew was naturally biased toward the Great Monarch’s side.

But for Gu Xi, it was actually enough.

After all, Gu Xi didn’t visit Victoria City very often, whereas Yalidu City was right under the Great Monarch’s nose; if he didn’t get a clear read on things, he might wake up one morning to find a massive army already pressing down on him.

Thinking of this, Gu Xi immediately followed up with another question.

"How many men does the Great Monarch have under him? That doesn’t count as core information?"

"That doesn’t count." Dietrich shook his head. He had already talked about the Great Monarch’s Four-Eyed Corps earlier—if he dared talk about that inside the Mirror Image Underground Palace, you could tell it really wasn’t much of a secret.

"Even if I don’t tell you, you could slowly piece it together if you wanted to know.

When the Great Monarch first formed his Legions, the plan was to build them according to Seven Eyes, Seven Hearts, and Seven Tentacles.

It’s just that Leader-level commanders are hard to find, and for various other reasons, Seven Eyes ended up with only Four Eyes, Seven Hearts has only Three Hearts, and there are Five Tentacles.

The Eyes are monitoring and scout units, responsible for surveillance and exploration inside the Mirror Image Underground Palace. You’ve seen the situation yourself: my forces are about thirty thousand, which puts me at mid-tier among the Eyes. The largest has just over forty thousand, with Heroes capped at Level 20 and Soldiers capped at Level 19.

The Hearts are Defense units, mainly responsible for guarding the Great Monarch’s Throne, the Source of the Void, and the Golden Apple Forest. I don’t know much about troop numbers over there, but I’ve heard each Heart has around two hundred thousand troops, and the three Hearts’ Leaders are at about Level 30.

The Tentacles are offensive units, mainly used to expand the size of the Mirror Image Space and to wage war against Britain. Their troop numbers range between a hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand. But because they fight for Experience, their Levels tend to be a bit higher.

In addition, the Great Monarch also has a Personal Guard. As for their numbers and Levels, I’m not too clear, but I have seen one of them—someone above Level 35. I imagine people of that caliber aren’t exactly rare in the Personal Guard.

As for Yalidu City, you don’t need to worry too much, my lord.

Although that place is the starting point of the Mirror Image Underground Palace, no one really pays it much mind anymore.

All these years, the Tentacles have opened up quite a lot of passages. Yalidu City is just the anchor point for the Mirror Image Underground Palace’s existence; if not for that, the place would probably have been forgotten long ago."

Huh?

There was something like that?

Hearing this, Gu Xi froze for a moment.

Was Yalidu City really that unimportant?

Thinking back, it made sense. Leaving everything else aside, back when Gu Xi first took the main city, even the Deceitful Shadow Level cap there hadn’t exceeded Level 5.

Which had made Gu Xi assume that the Mirror Image Underground Palace was nothing special.

He’d never imagined that what he’d seen was just a puddle on the beach, and the real ocean floor wasn’t there at all.

"How big is the Mirror Image Underground Palace now?"

Once he understood the situation here, Gu Xi immediately shifted topics.

"It’s never been calculated." As the Eye Corps Leader under the Great Monarch, Dietrich actually understood the Mirror Image Underground Palace extremely well, but if you asked him exactly how big it was, he had indeed never tried to calculate it.

However, seeing that Gu Xi really wanted to know, Dietrich spoke with some difficulty.

"How should I put it... Because of the Mirror Image factor and the time-flow problem, the Mirror Image Underground Palace has been cut into many chunks. A lot of areas can’t be pieced together; they can only be connected by certain tree roots.

Sometimes fragments will suddenly appear or disappear. Even if the Great Monarch himself came, he wouldn’t be able to calculate the total area.

But I can put it this way: the place where the Great Monarch currently resides is called the Great Monarch’s Throne.

I’ve been there once. Its size is about the same as Yalidu City."

"About the same as Yalidu City? Are you talking about all three layers of Yalidu counted together?"

"What three layers? I mean all of Yalidu City added up together. I’ve passed through Yalidu City a few times before—Yaliduvi Tower can link to seven stable time periods, right.

I’ve been to all those places. The Great Monarch’s Throne is as large as all seven time-period Yalidus combined.

And the Great Monarch’s Throne accounts for less than one percent of the Mirror Image Underground Palace."

With Dietrich’s comparison, Gu Xi more or less grasped just how big the Mirror Image Underground Palace really was.

"Then near Yalidu City, is there anything I should pay attention to?

I know Yalidu City might not draw much attention, but there have to be some dangers nearby, right?"

"Now that you ask, there actually is." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Dietrich thought for a moment and said, "Outside Yalidu City during the Plantagenet Dynasty era, about fifteen hundred li away, there’s a Mirror Image Rift that no one knows when it was opened.

Every now and then, some bizarre things come through there. The Thunder Night Tentacle Corps dealt with it at the beginning.

They wanted to seize that Mirror Image Rift and go through it to explore other places, but they hit a wall there and lost some men.

After that, the spot was simply marked down, and Eye Corps passing through on routine surveillance will always swing by for a look.

That should count as the biggest threat to Yalidov."

"The Plantagenet Dynasty, huh?" Gu Xi nodded. "Alright, I understand. Then let’s talk about your situation now.

You’re clearly a Level 20 Leader. Under normal circumstances, I should give you a Corps-level Battle Banner, or arrange a Corps-level garrison for you."

"It’s just that your Battle Banner was given by the Great Monarch, and we definitely can’t bring that thing back to Yalidu City.

If I go find someone to exchange it, it’ll probably take some time to get something suitable.

And as for you, can you enter Yalidu City to fight right now?"

Dietrich shook his head. "I have to change identities now. I need at least one Corps-level Battle Banner and one Battalion-level Battle Banner to reestablish a Legion of my own. Only then can I cut all ties with the Great Monarch.

Before that, I’d better not take action in Yaliduoli."

Listening to this, Gu Xi thought for a moment and said, "I can find a way to trade for Battle Banners. After all, we currently have four Banners on hand; as long as we’re willing to take a small loss, we can trade for just about anything.

But that will take time. During that time, you’d better not sit idle. How about this.

Come back with me in a bit, sort out what kind of troops you need, and I’ll assign you somewhere to drill your forces. That’ll also let me swap out the Leader I stationed there.

We need to take Yalidu City back as soon as possible."