Chapter 276

"Chapter 276: Beaten to the Punch?"

"City-wide lockdown?"

Zhou Huai's brows knitted into a knot.

"Out of nowhere, why is there a sudden lockdown?"

Uncle Fu shook his head, a trace of confusion showing on his wrinkled face.

"This old servant is also unaware of the specific situation."

"It is said that the command was personally issued by the City Lord."

"City Lord..."

Zhou Huai felt that the matter was not simple.

Donghai City was not a vital border town; unless it was facing a large-scale beast tide attack, it would be absolutely impossible to easily lock down the entire city.

But if a beast tide were approaching, the intelligence network of the Evernight Guild could not possibly have failed to catch the slightest wind of it.

Then only one possibility remained.

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

Zhou Huai's heart stirred, a certain premonition prompting him to immediately open the System backend.

He quickly scanned the System prompt.

A line of ignored information instantly grabbed his gaze.

【System Prompt: The complex grand array deployed by the Avatar 'Zhuge Kongming' at the entrance of the Abyss of Mist has been forcibly cracked.】

"Three days ago..."

At that time, he was controlling Gandalf, matching wits and courage in the Kaslandis Ruins for the Pendulum of Life.

He simply had no time to pay attention to these details.

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

Zhou Huai put down the porridge bowl in his hand, his eyes turning sharp.

"Uncle Fu, help me guard the door and do not let anyone in."

After speaking, he closed his eyes, and his consciousness instantly transferred to Moria's body.

Inside the office of the Evernight Guild.

Jasmine was buried in a pile of complicated documents when suddenly, as if sensing something, she abruptly raised her head.

Her gaze accurately cast toward the deepest shadow in the corner of the office.

A slender figure slowly walked out from that shadow.

He wore a black windbreaker, his silver-white long hair casually scattered, his skin fair to the point of being nearly transparent, and within his deep eyes, it was as if endless loneliness and melancholy were contained.

The light in the entire room seemed to dim by a few shades because of his appearance.

Jasmine quickly put down the pen in her hand and stood up swiftly.

She walked quickly in front of that figure, respectfully bowing her head.

"Greetings, Master!"

Controlling Moria, Zhou Huai calmly let out an 'Mn'.gle

His voice carried a trace of unique magnetism, as if it could pierce through people's hearts.

"During these days when I was absent, has any major event happened in Donghai City?"

Hearing this, Jasmine showed a trace of apology on her face and gently shook her head.

"Reporting to Master, this subordinate has recently placed all energy on the exploration work of the Abyss of Mist."

"As for the things happening within the city, I am rather unclear about them."

Zhou Huai nodded without blaming her.

In his heart, however, he pondered secretly.

The current member composition of the Evernight Guild was ultimately too single-faceted.

Most of them were combat Classer and supporting combat Classer.

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

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

Whenever there was the slightest disturbance, he could grasp the information at the first moment and make responses in advance.

Qin Ming's clever face surfaced in his mind.

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

When the intelligence department was established in the future, he could be put in charge.

Zhou Huai withdrew his thoughts, his gaze falling back onto Jasmine as he continued to ask.

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

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

Mentioning this, a confident smile instantly surfaced on Jasmine's pretty face.

"Master, rest assured!"

"The area we explored is one that the people of the Zhou Family and the Liu Family have never come to at all."

"Coupled with the fact that Mr. Zhuge has laid down several clever illusion arrays along the way, even if they wanted to come over, it would be absolutely impossible for them to discover us."

She paused, the smile on her face growing thicker, carrying a trace of excitement.

"Furthermore, these past few days we have assembled all high-Level members of the guild to fully wipe out the exotic beasts behind that huge stone door."

"Just a moment ago, the first batch of elite squads responsible for deep exploration just returned, bringing back the latest intelligence, and I was just preparing to report to you!"

Hearing this, Zhou Huai's spirits immediately perked up.

"Oh?"

"What kind of scene is actually behind that door?"

Jasmine took a deep breath, seemingly organizing her language, striving to fully convey that shock.

"According to the descriptions of those few members, behind the stone door is as if another world."

"The top of the head is no longer a gray expanse, and there is not the slightest mist blocking the line of sight before the eyes."

"If the area we explored previously was ruins where ancient commoners lived."

"Then behind the stone door is the imperial city where ancient nobles, or even royalty, lived!"

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

"They also said that in the deepest part of the imperial city, they caught a distant glimpse of an unimaginably huge palace, resplendent in gold and jade, possessing a majestic aura!"

"It's just that the number of exotic beasts along the way is still massive, and their Levels are generally higher, so they dared not venture deep rashly and could only withdraw first."

"Royal imperial city?"

"Huge palace?"

A flash of brilliant light crossed Zhou Huai's eyes.

It seemed that the secret of the Divine Artifact was most likely hidden inside that palace!

Now the matter of the Pendulum of Life had come to an end.

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

Thinking of this, Zhou Huai no longer had the slightest hesitation.

Speaking concisely, he quickly made arrangements.

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

"Once there is any discovery, report to Da Yi in a timely manner. I will receive the news at the first moment."

Jasmine nodded to indicate understanding.

As her voice fell, Moria's figure once again turned into a shadow, silently melting into the ground and disappearing from sight.

...

Abyss of Mist, in front of the huge stone door.

The shouts of killing shook the heavens.

Just as Jasmine said, the exotic beast army here, under the uncounted cost encirclement and suppression of the Evernight Guild, had been largely eliminated.

The guild members were high in morale, and while clearing out scattered residual exotic beasts, they formed formations and steadily pushed forward into the depths of the stone door.

An unnoticed shadow, like a ghost, silently passed through the fiercely fighting crowd.

Moria's figure flickered a few times, and it had already crossed the guild's vanguard troops, completely disappearing into the deep darkness of the stone door.

The moment Zhou Huai's feet stepped into the land behind the door.

The scene before his eyes could not help but make him dazed.

Inside and outside the door were as different as two worlds.

Instead of that oppressive gray dome, strange crystals emitting soft light illuminated the entire space as bright as day.

There was no longer the slightest mist blocking the eyes, and the field of vision suddenly opened up.

Looking out, a white jade avenue wide enough to accommodate dozens of carriages traveling side by side extended straight into the distance.

On both sides of the avenue were carved and painted, magnificent pavilions and palaces, overlapping and staggered in an orderly fashion.

Although these buildings had experienced the baptism of endless years, they were still well-preserved; the vermilion palace walls and golden glazed tiles all recounted the past brilliance and majesty of this place.

In Zhou Huai's mind, only two words remained.

"Imperial Palace!"

Here, it was clearly an ancient imperial palace buried deep underground!

His gaze crossed the overlapping palaces and finally landed at the end of the white jade avenue.

There, an unimaginably huge city gate stood tall.

The city gate was a hundred meters high, cast entirely from an unknown black metal, carved with complex and majestic dragon-shaped totems, emitting a domineering aura of ruling the world.

Passing through that city gate, one could vaguely see the outline of an even more towering and magnificent palace, like a crouching ancient giant beast, quietly lying there, waiting for the worship of the world.

That should be the main hall in Jasmine's words.

Could the Divine Artifact be inside it?

However, just as Zhou Huai was about to control Moria to continue venturing deeper,

His footsteps abruptly halted.

A strong sense of discordance surged into his heart.

"Too quiet."

Here, it was truly too quiet.

Except for the faint roaring of exotic beasts coming from afar, within this magnificent imperial city, there was a deathly silence.

According to Jasmine's intelligence, the number of exotic beasts here should be extremely massive.

Zhou Huai's gaze became vigilant.

Controlling Moria, his figure quietly melted into the shadow of a huge corridor pillar, carefully observing the surroundings.

Very quickly.

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

That was an Abyss Demon Lizard, with a Level as high as Level 42.

Its corpse was still very fresh, and the dark green blood had not yet completely solidified.

Zhou Huai's gaze involuntarily narrowed.

He continued to investigate forward.

The second corpse, the third corpse...

The further forward he walked, the more exotic beast corpses there were.

When he bypassed a rockery, the scene before his eyes made his pupils suddenly shrink!

He saw that on the plaza ahead, over a hundred exotic beast skeletons were lying horizontally and vertically!

The rich smell of blood was almost nauseating!

These corpses piled up like a mountain, forming an extremely tragic Asura painting scroll.

Zhou Huai's gaze swept across the wounds on those corpses.

Some had their necks cleanly and neatly severed by sharp blades, some were directly blasted into charcoal by the tyrannical power of thunder, and others were frozen into ice sculptures by cold chill before shattering all over the ground...

Without exception, all these wounds were caused by the skills of Classer!

It looked like someone had beaten them to the punch!