"This is the place," Youlong Gongzi whispered.

Through the ventilation grille, the group cautiously surveyed their surroundings—it seemed to be a large factory building, with overhead cranes on both sides. Below, it was empty, with only a few abandoned old machine tools and rusty conveyor belts remaining. Clearly, before closing this place, the factory owner had removed all equipment worth dismantling.

However, the factory, which should have been silent, was now ablaze with several torches. In the low-light vision, the flickering flames were almost white-green, and the light was even a bit dazzling. In the center where the flames converged, about twenty distorted figures could be seen.

"Are those people our targets?" Luo Hua asked.

"Most likely," replied an old-school martial artist. "I can feel their undisguised power fluctuations. Judging by the degree of corruption, they are in the late stage."

The so-called late stage meant that the consciousness as a human being was completely lost, and they had become puppets of the encroaching power. At this point, the Fallen were basically no different from beasts, no longer communicating with humans, only acting according to instinct.

"They—were they once martial artists?"

"Not necessarily. Although the Association has records of many martial artists falling, in general, corruption is more likely to occur in wild awakeners."

"Even though this is my first time seeing living Fallen, martial artists who lack ambition and self-discipline are useless no matter what they become." Luo Hua scoffed. "Pathetic fellows... They don't deserve to possess the power of nature. Captain, let's take care of these monsters now."

"Wait a little longer," Youlong Gongzi calmly stopped him. "It seems that there are more Fallen gathering here—the more enemies we deal with, the less pressure there will be on the outside. And don't you think it's strange? Since they are already in the late stage of corruption, instead of hunting wild awakeners according to their instincts, what are they doing here? I have a feeling things aren't that simple... If we can find out their intentions, maybe annihilating them directly would be more meaningful."

As the others exchanged opinions on the situation, Roland's gaze repeatedly fell on the genius girl.

Fei Yuhan's address of "Your Majesty" still lingered.

It could be said that in a few short seconds, his emotions rose and fell with that phrase. After years of experience on the throne of Graycastle, there were few words that could make him so uneasy.

When he first heard the familiar title, he almost thought that Elena's soul had possessed her, and he almost blurted out her name. However, in the end, his reason forced the words back—if Fei Yuhan was really Elena's new body in the Dream World, then she couldn't have given that self-introduction from the start, and she wouldn't have sat beside him without any scruples.

This sudden shift from joy to disappointment was not pleasant. At that time, Roland almost suffered internal injuries from holding it in. As for why she inexplicably called him "Your Majesty," a little recollection was enough to draw a conclusion—Garcia had said that martial artists' five senses were far superior to ordinary people, and some gifted individuals were even more adept at it. Considering that she also attended the Sanye Group's banquet, she must have heard his conversation with the witches.

The next question was, to what extent did Fei Yuhan know about his origins?

Judging from her obviously probing actions, Roland believed that she didn't know much, at least nothing about another world outside the Dream World. But this still set off alarm bells in his heart. No conscious being wanted to believe that they were just a virtual existence. Once the secrets of the Dream World were revealed, it would inevitably lead to unpredictable consequences—and most likely, the consequences would be disastrous.

Garcia was right, Fei Yuhan was the person he needed to be most wary of.

"Huh? Look, that new Fallen... seems a bit different." At this moment, a low voice from the earpiece interrupted Roland's thoughts. "It seems to be directing the other Fallen."

He took off his night vision goggles and looked towards the center of the factory through the grille. He saw a group of Fallen carrying three containers slowly walking in, guided by a man in a suit.

"A traitor who hasn't completely become a puppet..." Youlong Gongzi wondered, "What exactly are they trying to play?"

Several old-school martial artists also frowned. Compared to the late-stage Fallen who had become completely bestial, this kind of opponent between human and non-human was often more difficult to deal with. They had lost the compassion of humanity, but retained their cunning and danger. Those who could do this were mostly awakeners who had already been well-known before they fell.

"Shhh—" Fei Yuhan, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke. "Quiet, there's movement in the boxes."

Everyone immediately held their breath.

After a moment, she said in a deep voice, "There are... people inside."

"What?"

"I heard faint cries and pleas, like they were coming from someone with a gag in their mouth."

"Are you saying that the boxes are likely filled with innocent civilians?" Youlong Gongzi asked in surprise, "I've never seen anything like this in the Association's records before—while the Fallen aren't afraid of killing, they wouldn't specifically target ordinary people."

Just as everyone was looking at each other, the enemy who seemed to be the leader suddenly shouted, "The time has come, children! The divine will is near, and the gods are craving sacrifices!"

"Roar—!" the other Fallen roared in unison.

"Come, let the power return to its source, let the divine envoy descend upon the earth!"

"Roar————!"

"The destruction of this world will be exchanged for our rebirth! Entrust everything to the gods—the sacrifice begins!"

The Fallen immediately let out deafening roars!

"Damn it, we have to act now." The captain gritted his teeth. Although he had never heard of the Fallen organizing to sacrifice ordinary people, let alone trying to please some god like a cult, the fact was that they couldn't sit idly by and watch innocent civilians being slaughtered. In a sense, saving people was even more important than eliminating the Fallen—the core spirit of the Martial Artist Association was protection. "Everyone, get as close as possible to the boxes, block these monsters outside. It doesn't matter if one or two get away, trust the guys outside—they will take care of them for us!"

Fei Yuhan nodded expressionlessly and was the first to rush out of their hiding place.

The others followed closely behind, plunging into the enemy ranks like a drawn sword.

The long-sealed factory instantly erupted!

The Fallen were caught off guard. Their unbreakable bodies shattered layer by layer under the bombardment of natural force, and once the core was separated, they immediately became paralyzed.

Roland walked at the back of the team, both covering his teammates' rear and carefully concealing his own abilities. This was not his first time fighting the Fallen, and his combat (gang fight) experience was far higher than that of anyone else in the team. Unlike the martial artists who had awakened natural force, he didn't need to fight the enemy to the death. As long as he touched them, the Fallen would lose all their power and be completely beaten up by him. Also, he didn't dare to touch the stripped red vortexes, otherwise everyone would see the scene of the core spiraling into the sky.

In addition, the bug on his shoulder was also trembling slightly, which proved that Phyllis and the others had arrived on the scene. With meat shields in front and support in the back, Roland fought more and more smoothly. Although his fighting style looked the most simple and unadorned, he actually knocked down the second most enemies, only after Fei Yuhan.

Fortunately, the entire main battle team's attention was now focused on the boxes, and with his deliberate disguise, no one noticed this unusual scene in the chaos.

Everything went smoothly. After only suffering the cost of several people being injured, the group successfully rushed to the containers.

More than half of the Fallen at the scene were already dead or injured.

"What, it seems easier than I imagined," Luo Hua shook the blood off his hands, grabbed the lock on the container door, and broke it in two. "Maybe the Association should issue me a hunting license as well. Hey, don't be afraid, the Martial Artist Association is here to save you—"

He froze in place before he could finish speaking.

Everyone else's gazes also turned solemn!

Inside the box, dozens of people were densely packed and bound, fixed to many steel pipes like skewers, their eyes and mouths covered with strips of cloth, only able to make muffled groans. Above their heads hung the same number of core vortexes.

Roland felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

He instantly remembered what Garcia had said several months ago—

"This thing is both the source of the Fallen's power and the proof of their corruption. And once it mutates, natural force can no longer recover. If it's not collected and properly sealed, it will eventually infect new hosts—even the simplest touch by an ordinary person will rob them of their senses."

"You mean... it can be used by different people?"

"That's why people collect them. It's obvious what these madmen are up to. Aren't they afraid of the world heading towards destruction!"

So... half a year of preparation was for this moment?

Roland turned around and looked sharply at the Fallen leader.

It was wearing a monocle, its hair combed straight back, wearing a well-tailored suit and a pair of white gloves, looking like a stern butler. However, at this moment, its face was full of madness.

"Although this sacrifice can be completed without your support, the more gifts offered to the divine envoy, the better, isn't it?" It raised its right hand and snapped its fingers—

The core vortexes on top of the boxes all fell down.

"No—!"

Luo Hua reached out to push away the people tied up inside the box, but with such a dense crowd, it was almost impossible to prevent them from touching the cores.

"Kill them, now!" an old-school martial artist shouted.

"But... these are all ordinary people..." Luo Hua murmured.

In just a few seconds, the corruption was complete—even if they were all newly born Fallen, their strength and skills were far inferior to those of the fallen martial artists, but their numbers were an overwhelming advantage. Especially in close combat, the instinct to simply gnaw was fatal enough.

A group of Fallen easily broke free of their bonds and poured out of the box like a tide, engulfing Luo Hua, who was closest, layer by layer.