The presence of the Seed, which they had remained connected to all along, suddenly seemed to be blocked by something. They could no longer sense even a trace of it.
The man in the lead stopped and closed his eyes as though listening to something, then gave a cold laugh.
"I sensed it too. Looks like the rats hiding in the Holy Sovereign's residence have made their move. Only they could pull this off. Those outsiders could never sever the connection between the Seed and this world."
"Perfect," another man said. "We can wipe them all out together. Those damned rats have been hiding in our Holy Sovereign's residence for so long, and we've never been able to root them out. Now we finally have a chance."
"Since those rats have shown themselves," the man on the right said after a moment's thought, "shouldn't we summon more people to keep them from escaping?"
The man in the lead nodded.
"Yes."
And so, the message spread through the dark red earth.
Before long, more than a dozen figures in archaic clothing silently gathered behind the three men.
Flesh light flickered over the three men, and the dozen or so figures following them suddenly accelerated as well.
Clearly, they were already impatient to capture these outsiders and those rats.
Meanwhile, the camp was silent.
That prickling sense of being watched had vanished without a trace beneath the Seventh Seat's presence, allowing everyone a rare stretch of peaceful sleep.
Lu Yuan did not wake on his own. Something seemed to be gently patting his shoulder.
He opened his eyes. The gray-white text floated quietly at the edge of his vision.
[Sanity: +14...80/140]
The results of his rest had arrived. Lu Yuan's gaze lingered on the numbers for a moment before shifting