Hearing Jasmine say this,

Zhou Huai seemed to see hope.

"Bring all the Mortal Demon Source Stones over."

"Yes, Master."

Jasmine acknowledged the order, turned around, and left in a hurry.

Half an hour later,

she brought two subordinates, carrying a heavy metal box, and returned before Zhou Huai.

The box was opened.

A dozen strange stones, pitch-black throughout with what seemed like a flowing galaxy inside, lay quietly within.

Each piece was several times larger than the two Zhang Donglai had given him.

However, Zhou Huai's brows only relaxed for a moment before locking tightly together once more.

It was too few.

The number of his Avatars was already approaching double digits.

There would be even more in the future.

Throwing this bit of Mortal Demon Source Stones into the Body Tempering device probably wouldn't even be enough to raise all the Avatars by three to five Levels.

It was not even enough to scratch an itch.

His goal went far beyond this.

He couldn't guarantee too much, but at least... everyone should reach Level 50, right?

The ones in front of him were clearly not enough.

"Were these all found in the Abyss of Mist?" Zhou Huai asked in a deep voice.

Jasmine respectfully nodded.

"Yes, Master."

"The scale of the Abyss of Mist is far larger than we imagined, and the richness of the resources inside far exceeds our imagination."

"It's just that..."

Jasmine's tone paused, and a trace of hesitation appeared on her face.

"Now the entrance to that Secret Realm has been completely blockaded by the military."

"And they have sent a full two companies of troops to conduct twenty-four-hour uninterrupted control."

"Although the military has not yet begun formal exploration, they have strictly forbidden anyone else from entering."

Zhou Huai had long anticipated that the ruins would be controlled by the military.

After all, ruins were extremely important strategic resources; it was impossible for the military not to notice them.

However, these were all minor issues to him.

Back then, how strictly controlled was the Radiant Alliance of the Zhou Family?

Wasn't he still able to enter at will?

He pondered for a moment and gave an order to Jasmine.

"Organize an elite team within the guild that is best at excavating resources."

"Prepare to move this afternoon."

A flash of surprise crossed Jasmine's eyes, but she didn't ask any more questions.

"Yes, Master."

She acknowledged the order again, immediately went out, and began to make arrangements.

...

At a location less than twenty miles away from Donghai City,

a vertical deep pit with a diameter of over a hundred meters was branded upon the earth like a ferocious scar.

This was the mark left behind when the beast horde broke through the surface back then.

Now and then, heart-palpitating roars of exotic beasts could still be heard coming from deep within the pit.

Surrounding this huge scar, the military had long designated it as a highest-Level restricted area.

Circles of high-voltage electric nets surrounded this place layer by layer, and cold metal watchtowers rose from the ground, even equipped with heavy Magical Cannons.

Just at this moment,

"Hum—"

a burst of intense energy fluctuation came from the deep pit.

Following that, a military squad of dozens of people flew out of the dark cave in a flustered state.

They all carried injuries to varying degrees, and their faces were filled with solemnity.

An officer bearing the military Level of major on his shoulders immediately went up to meet them.

"How is the situation?"

The leading captain panted heavily.

"Report, sir!"

"Although the main force of the beast horde has subsided, the number of exotic beasts in the cave is still quite large."

"We only explored the outermost perimeter once, and we were attacked by no less than ten waves of high-tier exotic beasts!"

"Among them, there were even several Calamity-grade bosses exceeding Level 40!"

The officer's brows furrowed even deeper.

"Are you confident you can clear them out?"

The captain gave a wry smile and shook his head.

"Wanting to completely clear out these exotic beasts on the periphery of the ruins would take at least two weeks."

"And that's still the most conservative estimate."

Hearing this, the officer was silent for a moment, then heavily patted his shoulder.

"You've worked hard."

"It's fine, safety first, we'll take it step by step."

"Tomorrow, I'll apply to the superiors again to transfer more brothers over for reinforcement."

He lowered his voice, and his tone became exceptionally serious.

"Governor Hou is also quite concerned about this matter and specifically instructed us to hurry up."

"Yes!"

Everyone responded in unison.

Amidst the conversation, no one noticed,

a practically imperceptible dark shadow that almost merged with the ground's shadows had silently passed beneath all of their feet.

It did not arouse anyone's vigilance.

In the end, that dark shadow slipped smoothly like flowing water into the heavily guarded giant deep pit not far away.

...

The cave was deep and dark.

The rock walls were slippery, and the air was mixed with the musty smell of mud and blood.

Going less than a hundred meters deep, Zhou Huai saw dense figures on the rock walls.

They lay there motionlessly like giant geckos, their crimson compound eyes flashing in the dark.

Zhou Huai did not linger, manipulating Moria to head all the way down while his figure shuttled rapidly through the shadows.

Until at the deepest part of the underground, a damaged annular platform appeared before his eyes.

In the center of the platform, a huge vortex nearly twenty meters in diameter slowly rotated, emitting strong energy fluctuations.

This was the entrance to the ruins, the Abyss of Mist.

The closer it was to the entrance, the greater the number of gathered exotic beasts.

They were stacked layer upon layer, almost covering the entire platform, leaving only a narrow path leading to the vortex.

Zhou Huai did not plan to clear out these exotic beasts.

Any energy fluctuations might penetrate the strata and attract the attention of the military personnel on the surface.

Relying on the concealment effect of 【Shadow Stealth】, Moria silently passed through the dense beast horde without alarming a single exotic beast.

He smoothly plunged headfirst into the giant vortex.

The dizziness brought by spatial distortion flashed by in an instant.

The next second, the scene before Zhou Huai suddenly opened up.

Before his eyes was the familiar dense fog, and the air was also filled with a familiar feeling.

It was very cordial, just like coming home.

This used to be his back garden.

Relying on his memory, Zhou Huai casually chose a direction to begin exploring.

He originally thought that after the beast horde was wiped out, the exotic beasts in the ruins would significantly decrease, but the result was completely the opposite.

Not only did the number of exotic beasts here not decrease, but it was even more than before the beast horde erupted.

He had only walked a few steps when several waves of exotic beast groups appeared within his mental perception range, among which there were even elite monsters above Level 30.

After going in for a certain distance, Zhou Huai manipulated Moria to come to a relatively hidden cave.

Moria's figure slowly emerged from the shadows.

He raised his hand, and a quaint little seal appeared in his palm.

This was Zhuge Kongming's skill — Stick to Convention.

Inside this seal, a complete teleportation Formation had long been copied.

As the seal was casually thrown on the ground,

"Hum—"

a pale blue light flashed, and a complex Formation pattern quickly spread across the ground, filling the entire cave.

The light flowed, eventually gathering in the center of the Formation and growing brighter and brighter.

Following that, pillar after pillar of white light lit up successively within the Formation.

Members of the Evernight Guild walked out from the pillars of light one after another.

The one in the lead was none other than Qin Ming.

He had now replaced Yasuo, becoming the true Vice Guild Leader of the Evernight Guild.

Glancing at the dense fog all around, there was no panic on Qin Ming's face; instead, he grinned.

"The Abyss of Mist!"

"We're back!"