Exploring the Ruined City, a Strange Palace

According to Li Nian, when she last came to this Ruins City, she naturally noticed these strange puppets and, after confirming that they were harmless, began to investigate them.

But...

Neither these energy threads nor the puppet itself allowed Li Nian to uncover anything.

The energy threads in the sky converge to a radius of about five meters near the dome, and then suddenly disappear.

Among these puppets, Li Nian did not find any particularly special individuals.

Furthermore, these puppets are unable to interact with her—to them, she appears as a ghost.

Even if you actively touch these puppets, they seem to ignore you and simply continue to act according to the preset program.

For example, after Li Nian tripped over a puppet, the puppet would show an annoyed expression, as if it had accidentally fallen.

"I didn't do any more probing, because I was afraid that if I attacked them and displeased the mastermind, I would be killed right here—after all, I'm weak in Combat Power and a coward."

Li Nian shrugged and said.

"It's not that you're a coward. If I were here at the 'Tier 2' and saw this bizarre sight, I probably would have run away in a panic," Chen Le remarked. "But you managed to stay and even actively study the mechanics of these puppets... A Nian, I've really underestimated you all along."

Li Nian said with a grin, "There's nothing I can do about it; this ruin is rumored to be exceptionally rich."

Lin Yu wasn't surprised by Li Nian's behavior, because he knew very well that Li Nian was indeed a seemingly timid but actually incredibly daring and thrill-seeking guy.

So Lin Yu went on to ask, "Besides these, you should know something else about these puppets, right? Although you might only dare to touch or trip over them in terms of 'contact,' you should have much more to say about observation, right?"

Li Nian stuck out her tongue. "As expected of Sister Zhu Ming, she really understands me—indeed, I did try to follow one or two puppets until they 'went home,' but... to be honest, I didn't come to any conclusions."

"Because when they return home, it's like real 'life'—they chat with their families, eat, and sleep—except for one thing: the food they eat doesn't exist."

"These guys will open the food cabinets and water tanks in their homes, make a 'taking food' gesture, and start cooking and eating."

"But their cabinets and boxes were actually empty—that's really strange, but I don't think it's any useful information."

Lin Yu nodded. "There are still some. At least we can be certain that... the people who create and manipulate these puppets inside [Azure Sea Sky Dome] cannot conjure edible 'food' out of thin air."

Chen Le pondered, "Perhaps this is a mechanism targeting 'outsiders'—it doesn't want outsiders to live here long-term, so it deliberately doesn't provide food."

Lin Yu did not deny Chen Le's conjecture, but simply said, "Perhaps it's because... this is the Nether Void Realm, and there is a deity here who, although not directly in control Authority 'food,' possesses similar Deity."

Chen Le looked at Lin Yu: "You mean... the absence of 'food' here might be related to the God of Banquets?"

Lin Yu nodded.

Since the God of the Ocean can draw away the Ocean from the Barren Realm in order to consolidate the Authority the "Ocean," it is quite reasonable that the Authority the "Banquet" would restrict the ability of another high-ranking being to create food out of thin air.

At the same time, based on this, Lin Yu can also be certain...

The puppets moving within the ruins of [Azure Sea Sky Dome] are indeed probably not related to the God of Banquets at all.

"In short, since these puppets won't make contact or interact with us, and A Nian followed them for a long time without any problems last time, can't we just ignore them this time?" Chen Le suggested. "If we want to explore this place, since you two both used the method of breaking through the [Azure Sea Sky Dome], we have plenty of opportunities."

"Time is of the essence this time, so let's find that instrument first," Chen Le said, looking up into the depths of the Ruins City. "If I'm not mistaken... it should be located in the center of this city, right?"

Li Nian laughed, "Hey, you guessed right, Brother Le —it's true, that instrument is in a particularly magnificent landmark building in the very center of this Ruins City."

"That building looks like a Palace, and it must have lots of nice things inside!"

Li Nian rubbed his hands together excitedly as he spoke, and Chen Le jokingly remarked.

"You probably wouldn't go if it weren't Palace- like place... But you already came last time, so why do you seem so eager to try it again this time?"

Chen Le asked with some curiosity.

Li Nian sighed and said, "As I just said, last time I entered this Ruins City, I studied the puppets and energy threads here. In addition, I was alone and was more cautious, so I wandered around the perimeter for a long time, which took a lot of time."

"The last time I came here, it was a 'survival' type [Instance], Clearance Conditions was to survive for a certain period of time... So I deliberately waited until the very last minute before exploring the core of this Ruins City —therefore, although I finally found that building that looked easy to steal, I didn't have much time left."

"I rushed in and quickly looked around, unable to even break into most of the locked rooms. In the end, I left the [Instance] without taking anything, and now that I think about it, it's really a pity."

Li Nian said with great sorrow.

Hearing Li Nian's words, Lin Yu smiled and said, "That's alright. This time we'll head straight there—after confirming the location of the other 'Nine Treasures,' we'll give you more time to see if you can smuggle anything out."

As Lin Yu spoke, Li Nian was naturally very happy.

"Yay, thank you, Sister Zhu Ming!"

"There's no time to lose... let's go quickly—you two, come with me!"

As Li Nian spoke, she led Chen Le and Lin Yu along the road toward the city center.

Although Li Nian had only been here once, the little girl had a very good memory, and the city's roads were very well-organized, so Li Nian could almost say she knew the way like the back of her hand.

When she occasionally encountered a fork in the road, Li Nian would only pause briefly, look at the surrounding buildings, and recall her surroundings before quickly finding her way.

The building that the three were targeting soon came into view.

Although only Li Nian among the three had been to and seen the building once, even Chen Le and Lin Yu, who had never seen the building before, could immediately determine that it was their target.

Even if Li Nian didn't tell them that their destination was a magnificent Palace, when the building came into view, it would definitely become Lin Yu and Chen Le's first choice for exploration.

Because this Palace... is indeed different in style from all the surrounding buildings.

The other buildings are futuristic, streamlined or spindle-shaped skyscrapers with glass curtain walls, standing on the ground like nails or wedges.

And this Palace...

But suddenly it shrank a bit.

Surrounded by high-tech skyscrapers, this Palace, despite its towering walls and main building, with its seven or eight-story main hall, does resemble a mushroom Village Chief a reed bed compared to other supertall buildings.

Of course, it's not particularly incongruous to see some ancient buildings in a modern or even futuristic city; in fact, it's quite common. In the Never- City That Never Sleeps of the Barren Realm, the mansions of Noble, especially Royal Nobles, are often in a simple and rustic style.

There's not even a need to be in the Ten Realms...

Even in the Real World, Yanjing City simultaneously has an internet technology park, old hutongs, and the Forbidden City.

So...

In this Ruins City of the Nether Void Realm, it's not surprising to find a Palace.

Only...

This Palace differs from the surrounding city not only in its age but also in its historical significance.

The main buildings behind the Palace walls are even wood and stone structures, primarily made of wood.

This art style is indeed somewhat different from other buildings—even in the Nether Void Realm, it's considered a rare type.

After all...

In a world that consists almost entirely of Ocean, rocks are not so bad.

But finding timber thick and tall enough to build Palace...

That would be a bit difficult.

But this Palace truly exists— Lin Yu could clearly see the more than ten supporting wooden pillars standing in front of the Palace, as well as the main truss beams on the pillars, which were also made of wood.

These pieces of wood have weathered countless years; the lacquer on the surface has cracked, and some cracks have even appeared on the wood itself...

Despite being on the seabed, it showed no signs of decay other than cracks caused by moisture.

"This Ruins City is suspicious enough, but this Palace... is even more suspicious than the rest."

Lin Yu couldn't help but complain.

"Yes, and this Palace has another unique feature—every building in the city has different puppets operating inside," Li Nian paused, "But this Palace... doesn't have those puppets."

The entire Palace was empty, except for various instruments and equipment that were still running.

Lin Yu frowned even more upon hearing Li Nian's words.

After a mere 0.1 seconds of deep thought, Chen Le gave his reply.

"That's a good thing!"

"This at least shows that we were unlikely to be disturbed by suddenly appearing puppets while exploring and reconstructing the facilities related to those Nine Treasures."