Led by Claude, the group walked deeper into the Ice Fortress. Along the way, Claude told them about the changes among the Demon Hunters since Hao Ren and the others had left.
"...Last month, the demons opened a portal. They withdrew from Korperus together as agreed, and they left very decisively. To be honest, I was rather surprised. Those demons seemed more honest and reliable than the other races. Before leaving, they also helped us clear many battlefields, which made our subsequent reconstruction work much easier." Claude continued walking as he spoke. "The temples in Korperus are extremely sturdy. The war did not destroy those buildings, so the main facilities in the holy land are still intact. However, because the energy nodes shut down and the area was bombarded with large-scale magic, residual energy fields and arcane pollution can be found everywhere in Korperus. It is no longer suitable for habitation, and it will take time to clear everything out.
"The Spirit Realm Bell Tower is still closed. After you stopped that evil ritual, the distortions in space and time inside the tower have recovered. However, the tower itself has long been in a state of spatial and temporal instability. The previous incident completely reset the tower's order of space and time, and many mysterious new areas have now appeared inside. For safety reasons, the Elder Council has temporarily forbidden ordinary Demon Hunters from approaching the tower. We have organized several investigation teams to explore it, and the Spirit Realm Bell Tower will not reopen until a new 'map' has been drawn.
"Overall, things are improving. The greatest disaster has passed, and the biggest problem we face now is simply a lack of manpower. The Elder Council has ordered all Demon Hunter organizations in the Southern Hemisphere to scale back