Nearly twenty people walked out the back door of the Extreme Martial Arts Hall.
Behind the Martial Arts Hall was a fully developed residential area with rows of apartment buildings. They walked on a secluded, little-known shady path within the community, heading straight forward.
Looking at the direction, they were gradually approaching the edge of the Luoxia Sanctuary.
"Master, are we leaving the city to go to headquarters?"
A younger apprentice couldn't help but ask.
Boss Carmen walked at the front of the group, each step as if measured, his aura becoming deeper as he neared Great Perfection.
"We do indeed need to go to headquarters, but we don't need to leave the city."
The young apprentice was bewildered.
Hearing that Green Shadow was more than a thousand kilometers away from Luoxia, if they weren't leaving the city, how would they get there?
He had fantasized about a bloody wilderness journey, fighting all the way, and arriving at the Green Shadow headquarters with a fierce air about him, but now he felt completely lost.
Only a very few people showed an understanding expression.
'Big Sister' Chen Xiaojia was one of them.
She saw that Xiong Qianqian, a baby-faced young girl beside her, was swaying her arms and asking with curious eyes, her lips curving into a crescent-like smile:
"That would be... cough cough."
Originally wanting to speak out and let her best friend admire and marvel, Chen Xiaojia thought back to her cousin's advice... to be mature, elegant, and composed, especially as Big Sister, she needed to set an example.
So she gestured with her hand and replied indifferently, "Not to be said, not to be said."
They didn't walk far before arriving in front of a building with a sign 'Community Security Office.'
This building really was the community security post, but behind the hallway, in the off-limits area, a metal gate sealed the passage to the underground space.
Once the metal gate was opened, Carmen led the group of apprentices down the tunnel.
The interior was still as complex as a maze, but the shortest distance through, a trafficked corridor used to transport goods, had already been widened with the help of Earth Series Ability Users. The rugged ground had become as smooth as a road, wide enough to accommodate two trucks driving side by side.
At each intersection, the direction to proceed was marked, and some passages were completely sealed off.
After walking for several hundred steps, the path suddenly opened up.
A vast underground space, large enough to rival several soccer fields and over ten stories in height, lay fully exposed before the apprentices' eyes.
The green crystals that once adorned the rock walls were no longer there, but in their place were even brighter Source Power crystal lamps with halos of light, illuminating the dark underground space.
A silvery-gray metal fortress, under the protection of numerous black towers, fiery-red giant cannons, and exquisite crystal towers, stood silently in the center of the underground space.
The iron-blooded atmosphere was overwhelming, rendering it impossible to look away.
Those with keen Perception even felt danger emanating from the strange tower-like structures, making their hair stand on end like being pricked by needles.
There wasn't much time for awe.
Like herding ducks, the apprentices rushed down from the gently sloping ramp made of mud and came to a circular platform near the silvery-gray fortress, elevated above the ground by one step and with a radius exceeding ten meters.
Around the edge, eight spire-shaped columns with strange patterns, all spaced at equal intervals, were soothing to anyone with a penchant for orderliness.
The apprentices, still curious, looked around as they stood on the platform.
Chen Xiaojia, who understood what was going to happen next yet had never been to the other side, could hardly contain her excitement, "Next, is the moment when the miracle occurs."
A faint blue halo covered the entire Transmission Array platform, and the figures of the twenty or so people blurred. The halo flickered with cascading waves of light, and in the next instant, the figures on the transmission platform vanished.
Chen Xiaojia looked around, and except for the circular platform under her feet, the surrounding environment had completely changed.
A blue sky, white clouds.
Mountain peaks were layered upon one another in the distance, with many strange tall towers similar to those in the underground space visible.
Chen Xiaojia turned to Xiong Qianqian, looking at her angrily, "Why did you hit me!"
The baby-faced girl felt aggrieved, "I just wanted to test if it's an Illusion Realm... Stop hitting me! The Illusion Technique Handbook says that interactive resolution is the most efficient way to break an illusion."
The other apprentices were all caught in the "Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?" Illusion Realm triple confusion.
It wasn't until Carmen explained the principles behind the Transmission Array that they came to realize, quickly accepting this setting, and became excited about the strength of their own Martial Arts Hall!
Soon, under the guidance of Wang Zhou and a few others at the reception, Carmen and his group arrived at the office of the Intelligence Department.
Along the way, this group of young apprentices was buzzing and shouting excitedly.
Although Green Shadow wasn't as huge as Luoxia, novel sights were abundant. Mutant Beasts that looked somewhat like deer or horses pulled carts slowly forward, and Puppet creatures standing two or three meters tall, armed with icy weapons, patrolled back and forth in formation.
Construction crews of Metal Series and Earth Series Ability Users worked in unison, quickly shaping the externals of a building, a sight too fast-paced to fully register. Still, they soon arrived at their destination, with many apprentices giving resentful glances at the chubby guide, causing Wang Zhou to stiffen defensively.
Boss Carmen began, "Your training mission this time is to cooperate with the Intelligence Department to investigate clues related to the 'Doomsday Cult' and find the 'Doomsday Cult's' stronghold. This is a comprehensive exercise, where both investigative analysis and combat will serve as factors affecting your training evaluation."