Duanmu Huai felt like this whole trip had been cursed.
He had just contacted the others. Ann, Mary, and Minme Satori had all arrived at the research institute safely and begun recovering the God Keys and Herrscher Cores.
Although it couldn't be called a complete success yet, as the saying went, a good beginning was half the battle.
But what about him?
He had rushed all the way here, only to find a research institute blown in half and Death Warriors wandering everywhere. After finally locating the place where the Herrscher of Wind Core had been stored, he unsurprisingly discovered that the Herrscher Core was gone. Then, by performing a Past Recollection on the remains, Duanmu Huai learned what had happened here—the institute's members had included a Thousand-Person Herrscher. When several Herrscher clones attacked the institute, she had joined forces with them from within, suddenly launched an attack, and broken through the institute's defenses.
Fortunately, the people at the institute had also realized something was wrong. Moreover, the Herrscher clones themselves weren't very strong, so they had enough time to send someone away with the Herrscher of Wind's Core before the clones broke through the institute.
The person who transported the Herrscher of Wind Core wasn't the traitor, but his adjutant was. After he drove away from the institute with the Herrscher of Wind Core, the traitor revealed her true colors. However, the researcher didn't choose to give up. Instead, he summoned his courage, sped up, and then crashed headfirst into a nearby district.
The Herrscher clone was thrown out of the vehicle, while he himself escaped the battered car with the box containing the sealed Herrscher of Wind Core in his arms.
When Duanmu Huai followed the trail of blood to the end of this alley, all he found