"Captain, we’ve already begun evacuating the civilians. I just spoke with a few staff members who made it out of the building—none of them noticed anything suspicious. What should we do next? Should we send in a team to check it out?"

Go in and check?

Check your ass!

Barin glared at his trusted subordinate, cursing him silently for being an idiot.

Last time, that sewer incident with Black Fog had several tens of thousands of mutant worms hiding inside.

Now the Black Fog was even denser—who knew how many mutant worms might be hidden in there?

You want to go in and check?

You really weren’t afraid of death...

Barin glanced at the spawn-contracted private security team also standing by at the entrance of the building and said in a deep voice, "No rush. We’re the guard squad—our top priority is the safety of the public. Maintain the lockdown and wait for further instructions from the spawns."

"Yes, sir!"

The security team recruited by the spawns had suffered a heavy loss last time. This time, they had learned their lesson and stayed put outside the building.

After all, their mission was to ensure the safety of spawn lives and property.

This building didn’t belong to the spawns.

There was no reason to take that kind of risk.

The Seed of Ouroboros incident and the Black Fog outbreak from a while ago had just happened again tonight. Since it was rumored that many people died in the last incident, this time civilians didn’t dare to gather and evacuated obediently.

Soon, a team of warriors dispatched by the spawns also arrived one after another, gathering outside the building where the Black Fog continued to pour out.

Just like the guards and the security teams, the warrior teams were unwilling to enter the building for investigation.

As the Black Fog’s concentration rapidly increased, it began to interfere with their perception.

No one could say how many mutant worm creatures might be hiding inside.

No one wanted to take the risk.

Everyone waited.

Suddenly, the warrior team captain furrowed his brow slightly and sharply turned his head to the right, "Who’s there?"

Everyone turned their eyes in the direction the captain was looking.

It was just an area where the Black Fog had spilled out of the building—no one was visible.

"What’s wrong, Captain?"

"I felt like someone was there."

The warrior captain withdrew his gaze from the distant Black Fog and shook his head. "I’m not sure."

"Captain, this Black Fog is strange, but we haven’t perceived any mutant worm creatures."

"Mm. Something’s off here. No need to rush in. Stay alert and wait for reinforcements."

"Understood."

They waited for more than half an hour before reinforcements from various teams, including personnel from the Seven Realms Martial Capital’s military department, finally arrived. Only then did they form small teams and begin entering the building in an orderly fashion.

The result was unexpected.

None of the teams found any signs of mutant worm presence, nor did they discover any clues related to the Black Fog.

It was as if the Black Fog had never existed.

They couldn’t find the source of the Black Fog’s spread. Or perhaps the source had already vanished. In any case, the concentration of the Black Fog’s aura in the building quickly dropped.

Just as they were about to continue their investigation, another alert came in.

In another building not far from their current location, a new high-concentration Black Fog leak had occurred.

They left a portion of the team behind, and the rest immediately rushed to the other building to provide support.

All night long, the guard squad, the security teams, the military department, and the spawn-recruited warrior teams were run ragged back and forth, dragged through an exhausting mess.

But no matter how thoroughly they investigated, including the spawns and the Seven Realms Martial Capital’s joint investigation team, they found nothing abnormal.

Eventually, everyone became numb and simply stopped responding.

Fortunately, the Black Fog had no direct impact on the body. As time passed, a few hours later, the Black Fog spread out and gradually faded away. By daytime the next day, it had completely disappeared.

However...

Why had this domain experienced two consecutive outbreaks of that eerie Black Fog?

The spawns fell into a state of panic.

According to their understanding, there absolutely should not have been any Black Fog within the Seven Realms Martial Capital.

This applied to both the Black Fog and the Seed of Ouroboros.

Yet none of the investigations produced any results.

A wave of fear swept through the spawn ranks.

...

Meanwhile, Fang Heng had already returned to the basement of his villa.

After wandering around all night, he had finally reduced the Black Fog concentration in the basement to a very low level.

Now he could resume idle grinding.

First, he would max out alchemy to the transcendent level, then work toward the demigod level.

This part required zombie clones to continuously set up alchemy magic arrays to grind experience.

Then came Occult and natural science.

To break through grandmaster-level Occult and transcendent-level natural science, he needed to absorb natural science energy.

This part couldn’t be done by zombie clones. He had to do it himself.

Fang Heng sat cross-legged at the center of the basement, absorbing the natural science energy released by Abe Akaya.

With the bonus from the rules-based magic array, the natural energy remained highly active.

The improvements in his Occult also allowed his body to absorb natural energy more efficiently, even slightly increasing the conversion speed of ’Qi.’

The combination of both resulted in a synergy where one plus one was greater than two.

Choosing to start with Occult and alchemy had proven to be the right move!

Fang Heng thought to himself as he once again focused his mind entirely on cultivation.

[Hint: The player has absorbed Occult energy. Occult experience +12,000. Current Occult level increased to Level 33.]

[Hint: The player’s zombie clone has completed an alchemy magic array. Alchemy experience +9...]

One round of cultivation followed another.

He didn’t know how much time had passed. Fang Heng slowly exhaled and glanced at his phone beside him.

It was already 10 p.m.

He had been grinding for three days straight again.

At this rate, he estimated he could max out Occult in another day. Alchemy would probably need two or three more days.

Perhaps after improving both Occult and alchemy, his absorption rate of natural energy would improve even further?

This constant level-up cycle and rapid self-improvement felt amazing—Fang Heng was already starting to feel impatient.

If it were a normal person, continuous cultivation for an entire day would already be terrifying. If they pushed any further, their body wouldn’t be able to handle it.

But Fang Heng’s physique was absurdly strong, and with the bonus from the Undead effect, nonstop 24-hour training was no problem at all.

The only real issue was that his spirit was stretched a bit too tight, which slightly affected his cultivation efficiency.

Fang Heng stood up and stretched.

After three days of nonstop zombie clone activity, a thick layer of Black Fog had accumulated again inside the basement.

So be it.

He’d head out for some fresh air and stretch his limbs.

Fang Heng once again converted to his spirit form and set off toward the spawn-controlled territory.

This time, Fang Heng was bolder. He headed straight for a campus belonging to a spawn division company.

....

At the spawn company division campus...

Ever since the Black Fog was discovered three nights ago, patrols throughout the entire street and the campus had been strengthened. The number of night patrols had doubled compared to before.

The high-intensity work left the guards frustrated.

Same low pay, but the workload had increased several times over.

How was that fair?

The guards grumbled in their hearts as they made their routine rounds along the building.