Gladys was extremely surprised by the round platform in front of her, its smaller top widening downwards. The sloping, golden rim was carved with various colored runes and reliefs, and the top of the platform was a crystal-clear plane, through which you could see a pale blue flame burning below.
Yu Xian’er nodded slightly and gently tapped the sloping side, a deep blue light appeared above the crystal surface. Those lights quickly converged to form projections of buildings, and Gladys, who had been wandering around Maomu City lately, quickly recognized it as the virtual projection of Maomu City.
"This thing... Wait! I see."
After the Prophecy Doll relayed its perception to Gladys, she then understood why Yu Xian’er had said this object was more useful in her possession than with the Special Duty Team. The Prophecy Doll could connect to this Crystal Mirror within the range of Maomu City and use the mirror to detect the abnormal energy fluctuations within the urban area of Maomu City.
Normally, the Special Duty Team could obtain relevant information from the Abnormal Incident Surveillance Department, so this was not as significant for them. But for the Prophecy Doll, it was different. Gladys could not get information from the Special Duty Team and wouldn’t do so. Now with the Crystal Mirror, the Prophecy Doll could timely peer into suspicious abnormal situations.
"What’s with this gray fog?"
Gladys looked with some confusion at the gray fog gradually spreading across the crystal mirror, which was even affecting the observation. Yu Xian’er shook her head and said,
"I’m not sure. This fog has been appearing frequently lately, but besides devouring spiritual power sensations, there isn’t much difference from normal fog."
"A natural phenomenon? It doesn’t quite seem so."
Gladys looked questioningly at the Prophecy Doll, who used its ability to glimpse something, then shook its head at Gladys; it had not seen anything amiss. Either the fog was no issue, or it could affect the temporal plane.
"It looks like we’ll have to ask Feng Yuan later."
Gladys said somewhat regretfully. Although it was an unfavorable start, it seemed not a big deal; she wasn’t one of those, like Feng Yuan, with Divine Beast friends all over the world. Not being able to resolve this matter didn’t seem to be a major issue.
"Why don’t we call it a day? It’s getting late; how about we continue tomorrow?"
As they left Shuichao Cave, Feng Yuan said to Lanadi, who nodded without objection. Gladys looked at Feng Yuan and said,
"What, you’re not going to show us the night scene?"
"What’s there to see in the night scene? It’s just that."
With a pout, Feng Yuan said somewhat speechlessly. Although Maomu City had a major river running through it, it was just that and had no particularly special sights. Agunas looked at the foggy park and said,
"It’s indeed not a good day to tour the Mao Mu River, at least not with this weather, where you can hardly see the landscape lights."
"Touring the Mao Mu River? We’d need to book in advance, either hire a boat or apply through the Special Duty Team. Riding a Spirit Beast might not be a bad idea either–"
As Feng Yuan spoke, he seemed to take interest as if he thought it was a good idea. Qi Chen, somewhat speechlessly, looked at Feng Yuan and said,
"Where are you getting a touring Spirit Beast from? Surely you aren’t planning to summon Kui Shui Xuanwu?"
He was indeed weary of Feng Yuan. Normally, people would just look for friends to help, but this guy would directly pull a Divine Beast into play. If Kui Shui Xuanwu showed up here, then Captain Yan and his team would probably go crazy. After all, another Divine Beast appearing in Maomu City would definitely stir those with ulterior motives.
"No, Kui Shui Xuanwu isn’t fun for river touring, but something else might be quite interesting,"
Feng Yuan said with a mysterious smile crossing his face, recalling something. Qi Chen looked at him and said,
"You’re not planning on pulling in some strange Divine Beast, are you?"
"How could I? It’s not a Spirit Beast, but a very interesting thing,"
Feng Yuan said with a secretive smile. Gladys, looking around at the thick fog, said,
"Do you know what exactly this fog is?"
Feng Yuan, looking a bit puzzled at Gladys, didn’t quite grasp what she meant by that. Looking around, Gladys said,
"This fog seems to have the ability to block spiritual power. What do you think?"
Feng Yuan scratched his head in confusion and tried to release his spiritual power, but he sensed nothing unusual and looked toward Agunas to ask,
"Did you notice anything?"
Agunas, slightly puzzled, flicked his tail and said,
"The fog seems normal, at least my spiritual power isn’t affected at all."
"Indeed, it has reduced the range of spiritual power’s sensitivity, but it’s not severe. It seems there’s a slight difference compared to regular fog."
Dou Yanlan said with some uncertainty. After all, her spiritual power wasn’t strong. Even her powers were not seriously affected, not even as much as the Nether Mist Technique could diminish. Perhaps this fog wasn’t so special? After all, no one knows what strange things might inadvertently mix into the fog.
"Is it very weak? Then should we ignore it?"
Feng Yuan said with some doubt, scratching his head. As for why he couldn’t detect it, wasn’t that normal? Such a slight weakening effect was useless to him, and he could hardly feel it.
If the impact were significant, it might be necessary to investigate, but given the current situation, it seemed it didn’t even reach the influence of a typical mist technique; there seemed to be nothing to worry about.
"It might be a mixture of other forces that caused this result, but I don’t know what force exactly has mixed in."
Agunas pondered for a moment and said. It wasn’t the kind of being particularly sensitive to forces. It really didn’t know what was happening with this mist that had a meager amount of special energy mixed in.
Gladys was caught off guard and, after a moment, released her spiritual power and realized it was because the Crystal Mirror didn’t have strong enough spiritual power amplification, which made the dispersed spiritual power very weak and led to the situation from before. However... normal mist would block, but the previous sensing seemed...
Thinking this, Gladys looked at Feng Yuan and asked,
"What kinds of fog are capable of devouring spiritual power?"
"Devouring spiritual power? The most common are the Death Series, and then, the Ghost Series seem to have a similar effect. Beyond that, there are hardly any others, at least among the commonly known attributes, unless there’s some very special force,"
Qi Chen expressed his surprise, and Feng Yuan glanced at Gladys then said,
"If you’re talking about devouring, those two attributes are indeed commonly seen, but if it’s blocking, then there are many. Almost all attributes can accomplish that."
"Death and Ghost Series? Have these forces blended into this heavy fog? Or did these forces cause this fog?"
Gladys muttered to herself, and Feng Yuan looked at Xiao Ji and said,
"It’s easy to tell the difference, Xiao Ji, burn the surrounding fog."
Xiao Ji looked at Feng Yuan in confusion, not quite understanding, but Agunas appeared to have an idea and said,
"Using the Death Series fire to check if there’s anything wrong with the surrounding fog?"
Though not fully understanding, Xiao Ji did as instructed. Batches of azure-blue flames floated around Xiao Ji. Watching the flickering and occasionally bursting azure-blue flames, Feng Yuan thoughtfully said,
"It’s a leakage of Death Series power, but it’s not severe. Could there be trouble in the Netherworld?"
"A leakage of Death Series power?"
Lanadi was taken aback. Death Series power was a mortal enemy of living beings, and if such a situation had arisen, wouldn’t it be serious? Feng Yuan looked at the azure-blue flames now steadily burning around Xiao Ji, and after pondering, he said,
"There might be damage to the barriers between reality and the Netherworld, although the impact isn’t big, but when there’s time, we need to handle it."
"Can’t we handle it now?"
Qi Chen asked worriedly, and Feng Yuan, looking at him nonchalantly, replied without good humor,
"Gitalien is currently busy traipsing around and couldn’t help. It’s like a very thin crack in a water basin; when filled with water, you can see the leaking signs on the ground, but if you look directly, how can you locate that crack?"
Professional matters can only be resolved by professionals, at least, Feng Yuan didn’t think he could handle it faster than Gitalien.