Lu A′cang stood at the end of the long, winding, intricate, and precise underground tunnel, unable to help but admire the group of mole yaokais who couldn't even speak human nguage. These low-level yaokais had managed to complete a grand project in less than 24 hours that would normally take humans at least a month to finish.

  From the pce where she had been imprisoned to here, Lu A′cang walked for an hour, with three figures following her. No, not three people—three yaokais.

  The two wild boar yaokais, looking almost identical, still appeared as foolish as ever. They wore the same T-shirts, showing their tusks, drooling as they followed her closely. One held a fshlight in their left hand, and in their right hand, each held an inconspicuous bck stick.

  Lu A′cang, of course, knew that those were modified electric batons, and they were much more powerful than the usual 20,000 volts. What interested her was not the wild boars or the electric batons, but the man walking ahead of her. Under the unsteady beam of light, his wide trench coat was open, revealing his tall, lean body. His gray hair shimmered with a dark sheen. His face was hidden, as he wore a mask—the same mask as the one on the strange figure she had seen on the wall, a smiling face.

  Her intuition told her that this man was not the same as the one on the wall. He was also a yaokai, but of an unknown species. Lu A′cang could sense his yaokai aura. Moreover, it was he who had just taken her out of that five-star prison room. As she sat in the elevator, heading straight to the starting point of this underground tunnel, she saw a strong, brown-furred mole yaokai leading a group of simir creatures emerging from the shadows, standing at his feet, chattering in their yaokai nguage.

  Yaokais have no borders, and yaokai nguage is universally understood across the country. Lu A′cang intermittently heard phrases like "It's already connected." "You can see it once you go out," and "Where's the reward?"

  The man made a phone call, and soon a few incredibly strong wild boar yaokais appeared, carrying dozens of wooden crates and setting them down in front of the moles. Lu A′cang sneaked a gnce at the crates and saw that they were beled with "Brand X Cat Food."

  The mole leader directed his subordinates, who joyfully carried the crates away.

  "Only in the city can we get food! Although cat food isn't as tasty as bugs, it's better than going hungry!" One of the moles, said.

  "Yeah, back home, the fields are full of human factories, and not even a bde of grass grows anymore. Thank goodness we followed the boss out!" another mole, chimed in.

  "I wish we weren't moles but humans instead!" Lu A′cang overheard two of them saying.

  At the end of the tunnel, there was a steel wall with a rge hole broken through it. Behind the wall was a room about twenty square meters in size. Calling it a room didn′t seem quite right—this “room” was more like a rge gss cube, with nothing inside except for a crystalline container about one meter tall, positioned in the center.

  The man carefully took out a test tube-like sealed transparent container from his chest, one end fitted with a metal nozzle. Inside, there was a shallow yer of blood-red liquid, which slowly flowed as the tube tilted.

  His gaze at the container was intense, as if what he held in his hand wasn′t a gss tube but a lifeline.

  "Miss Charlotte, this way, please!” The man led her to the front of the cube, then aimed the test tube at a square area in the center of the gss and pressed down forcefully.

  The viscous liquid in the test tube sprayed evenly from the nozzle, transforming into a cloud of red mist that adhered to the thick gss. After a peculiar hissing sound, the blood mist fully permeated the gss, and a six-pointed star symbol with a faint blue glow appeared.

  "Please pce your right hand here first, and then your left hand,” he instructed politely, pointing to the six-pointed star.

  Lu A′cang obediently complied. She was a hostage and had to do her part, especially with two wild boar yaokais holding electric batons watching her from behind.

  A row of numbers fshing with green light gradually appeared in three-dimensional form within the six-pointed star.

  "Now, please bring your left eye close to the six-pointed star, and then your right eye,” the man continued to instruct, and Lu A′cang followed suit.

  A red circle, about the size of a thumb, appeared at the center of the six-pointed star. The man, seemingly pulling it from nowhere, took out a fine needle and pricked Lu A′cang's left index finger. After drawing a drop of blood, he pressed her finger onto the red circle.

  Lu A′cang felt a slight tremor in the air, and a fine white thread extended from the center of the six-pointed star, splitting the “gss wall” in front of her into two halves, which then slowly opened to the sides.

  "Take the blue diamond-shaped piece off the crystal cluster,” the man instructed, not intending to approach the cube. He handed her a small golden box. “Pce it inside here.”

  "Oh…” Lu A′cang pretended to nod timidly.

  As her finger touched the blue diamond-shaped piece suspended on the crystal cluster, she was struck by an intense cold, as if winter had seeped deep into her flesh and veins. Though it sted only an instant, the chill was profound enough to be frightening. She focused her gaze. Inside the blue crystal, there was a tear-shaped, white, fluffy substance, slowly flowing, like a nebu in the cosmos. The longer she stared, the more dizzying it became. She quickly pced the diamond piece into the golden box and stepped back out.

  Above, there was a sudden movement. On a whim, Lu A′cang asked the man, "What's up there?"

  "The Louvre," the man replied, carefully taking the golden box from her hand.