"Rumors?"

Baiyu stared at him.

Chester whispered, "I've heard that recently the Empire's Third Legion and the Blood Knight Order have begun to move in mass towards the Eternal Sleep City.

It seems.

Something is happening over there, and the empire plans to take action against Eternal Sleep City."

Hearing this news, Baiyu furrowed his brows again.

Eternal Sleep City.

What on earth is going on now?

The people of Eternal Sleep City control quite a few shelters.

Once things start moving, it will definitely cause unrest.

Baiyu frowned deeply, sensing the complexity of this matter.

Currently.

He just wanted to thoroughly study the newly acquired "Moon Spirit Divine Heaven Seal."

Returning to the Mountain City Shelter seems to be the safest choice.

However, it's already getting late.

Baiyu could only stay at Chester's residence for the night before leaving.

Chester's residence, though not large, was well-located and extremely quiet.

At night.

Baiyu lay on a chair in the bedroom, re-entering the Scholar's Space.

Due to the Ice Skin Jade Bone Skill, he basically didn't need sleep. Even when tired, just a sip of cola could energize him fully.

In the Scholar's Space.

Besides the Dream Battlefield, which is the entrance to the Dream Realm, the task panel and lottery panel were still active.

Yet.

Baiyu hadn't paid attention to them for a long time.

On the task panel.

There were still three tasks, from top to bottom.

But.

This time, the task panel was vastly different from before.

No longer had any simple or elite distinctions.

Instead, before the task tags were the symbols [Blood Qi] and [Spirit].

Aside from that.

The task level labeled as [Nightmare] had not changed.

The change in the task panel seemed to be due to Baiyu's promotion to an elite level martial artist?

He still remembered.

The tasks on the task panel used to mainly focus on honing his "Fanatical Scholar" magic elixir ability.

To help him quickly familiarize and assimilate the magic elixir.

But things have changed now.

Could it be that the space thought his upgrade in the extraordinary sequence was too slow and thus gave up?

Baiyu felt a bit frustrated.

Acquiring the magic elixir was already challenging because there was no sequence for Prayer Technique learners in reality, and it could only be obtained through the space.

How to obtain it?

Of course, by lottery draws or completing nightmare difficulty tasks.

Not to mention the odds of the lottery.

It could yield anything; the chances of getting a magic elixir recipe were far too low, and it had to be the suitable one, like finding a needle in a haystack.

Although nightmare difficulty tasks could typically provide recipes for the next sequence's magic elixir.

However.

The danger level at nightmare difficulty was also the highest.

And one never knew what consequences might ensue.

Now, after Baiyu advanced to a Tier Six Martial Artist, the Scholar's Space seemed to have finally gotten a clue.

Converting the top two task slots into the categories [Blood Qi] and [Spirit].

This way.

The restrictions were considerably reduced.

Baiyu glanced over; the [Blood Qi] task required killing ten Bloodthirsty Rhinos.

These were extremely ferocious exotic beasts, with strengths reaching the level of general Tier Six or even Tier Five martial artists.

Meanwhile, the [Spirit] task demanded Baiyu to read many forbidden knowledge books.

Books like "Dark Annotation," "Gaze of the Abyss," and "Wolf Words"—all of which were classified as forbidden by the East Prosperity Imperial National Library.

Forbidden did not mean unreadable.

Depending on one's strength and status, the reading permissions varied.

"The reward for the Blood Qi task is related to the martial artist's path.

Whereas the spirit task's reward pertains to the extraordinary sequence.

What is this Wisdom Fruit?"

Baiyu curiously looked at the rewards under the [Spirit] category task; this thing sounded powerful?

He glanced again at the books required for the task below.

"Warlock Bu Lande's Alchemy Manual," "Uiru," "Shadow War."

These were the books required for the [Spirit] task.

Just by finishing reading these three books, one could complete the [Spirit] task.

This time, the task had only a single reward, the Wisdom Fruit.

Baiyu was extremely curious about this.

He checked it out.

Villiduo's library happened to have these three books, categorized as "controlled reading."

Baiyu had just the right status for it.

After some thought, he left the manor and drove alone to Villiduo Library.

Due to the night curfew in Villiduo,

there weren't many people on the streets.

With Baiyu's status as a Count, such curfews posed no issue to him.

Even if questioned by the City Guard Army, he could easily handle it.

As expected.

Before long, Baiyu was stopped by the City Guard Army, but upon showing his identification, he was granted passage.

The journey was uneventful.

The curfew in Villiduo made the night exceptionally deep and quiet,

devoid of the usual bustling liveliness.

Replaced by a sense of solemnity and gravity.

Baiyu quickly arrived at Villiduo Library and, using his privileges, borrowed the three books.

Of course.

They could only be read on-site.

Moreover, all three books were handwritten copies, with the originals stored in the national library.

Soon.

By the library's electric light, Baiyu sat at a table, engrossed in reading.

Villiduo's residential and living areas were all electrified.

Only military zones and several important facilities were non-electrified.

Whereas shelters.

Had two sets of equipment.

Normally electrified, but would cut off power city-wide in special cases.

Places like Villiduo Library were generally electrified 24 hours a day.

It also had air conditioning and floor heating.

Extremely comfortable.

However, just as Baiyu was deeply engrossed in reading, a fierce blaze suddenly erupted in the distance.

Like a massive gas explosion from his previous life.

Billowing smoke rose from the ground in the darkness, looking exceptionally glaring against the flames.

Even from afar, Baiyu could smell the scent of gunpowder.

Such a massive explosion alarmed many in Villiduo, but the official curfew was still in place.

Especially at such a critical moment, no one wanted to venture out and stir up trouble.

Therefore.

Except for the large-scale mobilization of the City Guard Army and the movement of firetrucks, there were basically no pedestrians.

"What happened?"

Baiyu approached the front desk and asked the librarian.

Anyone managing a city's library was evidently not an ordinary person; they belonged to the government's civil servant staff.

The librarian, somewhat surprised, said, "Not sure, but Lord Bai, it's best for you to stay in the library for now and not go out.

There might have been an industrial explosion over there."

Industrial explosion...

Baiyu immediately knew it was a lie, but clearly the librarian also had no idea what had occurred.

He took a deep breath and returned to the library.

With a firmer resolve.

As soon as daylight broke, he would immediately return to Mountain City, ignoring these troublesome matters entirely.

However.

As much as he imagined escaping, reality was harsh.

Beyond the raging fire, it seemed that with the explosion, numerous strange occurrences had also infiltrated Villiduo.