"I don't know this person."
The burly man shook his head.
Xu Mu narrowed his eyes slightly. "Then do you know Liang Yi?"
"I know her. She is a captain of the Immortality Research Institute. I'm not clear about the rest, because captains only interface with our boss here, and then the boss passes the information down to us," the burly man continued to explain.
"In a moment, a few of you will accompany me to the palace in the back to find your boss," Xu Mu said to the men in front of him.
"We can't! If the boss finds out, he will definitely kill us!"
"But if you don't go with me, I will kill you right now. What? Facing an evil organization like the Immortality Research Institute, are you also planning to earn a good reputation after death?" Xu Mu said to the burly man in front of him.
Hearing this, the men present looked at each other in dismay.
They certainly knew what they were doing right now.
They say that a man's words are kind when death is near. These words represent not only what one says, but also what one does.
As death neared, their inner distractions and utilitarian thoughts gradually faded. Most of them wanted to do some good deeds to make up for their sins.
"Alright, I'll go with you."
The burly man with the severed arm nodded heavily.
Xu Mu then looked at the remaining men. "Who among you is unwilling to go?"
The remaining men looked at each other. One middle-aged man slowly backed away and suddenly turned to flee.
Xu Mu unleashed a phantom sword, piercing right through the man's body on the spot.
Thud!
The man fell flat on the ground, blood pooling all over.
"Is there anyone else unwilling to go?"
Xu Mu looked at the others with a calm expression.
This scene had completely terrified everyone present. The man in front of them wasn't lying; if they didn't go, he would really kill them.
They could only nod, not daring to show the slightest disobedience.
The workers toiling in the distance saw this and stopped what they were doing one after another.
However, they didn't dare to approach Xu Mu either. Judging from Xu Mu's ruthless actions, the other party might not be here to save them, but rather it was just a case of criminals preying on each other.
"Old Chen, Wanyue, you guys stay here for now and keep an eye on them. I'm going out for a bit to notify the others," Xu Mu said to the two.
It was always better to be cautious in everything. He felt he should notify the Sanitation Department first.
Let the experts over there come and help.
Chen Xuan and Meng Wanyue both nodded. The few people in front of them were not enough to pose a threat to them.
Xu Mu immediately turned around and hurried toward the outside of the ruins.
Crossing the distant hill again, Xu Mu found that the battle between Jiang Huihui and Dai Xingluo had already ended.
At this moment, Liang Yi was paralyzed on the ground, covered in blood and completely drained.
"Brother! Should we kill this woman? She didn't let me kill her just now."
Dai Xingluo pointed at Jiang Huihui next to her.
"I was probably injured by her poison last time. This person's strength is enough to qualify her as a captain of the Immortality Research Institute. Keeping her alive is useful," Jiang Huihui explained.
Liang Yi squinted at Xu Mu in front of her, full of surprise.
Just now, she was so focused on the battle that she didn't see this man at all.
Xu Mu took a deep breath. This woman was considered a member of his Judo club.
If she came from another organization, Xu Mu would have planned to let her go.
But she just had to be from the Immortality Research Institute.
"Huihui, according to my investigation just now, there is a vice-minister-level figure from the Immortality Research Institute here. Go out immediately and notify the Sanitation Department to send experts over," Xu Mu said to Jiang Huihui.
Hearing this, the most shocked person was not Jiang Huihui, but Liang Yi lying on the ground.
She widened her eyes in disbelief. In these ruins, other than herself, no one knew Zi Wangyou's true identity.
Even the boss here, Liu Ge, only thought that Zi Wangyou was at the captain level like himself.
This Xu Mu was lying!
It was absolutely impossible for him to have investigated Zi Wangyou's identity.
"What? A vice-minister level? I'll go notify them right away!"
Jiang Huihui immediately ran toward the exit of the ruins.
Liang Yi looked weakly at Xu Mu. "Just who are you? How do you know there's a vice-minister here?"
She still remembered that earlier, he had also clearly known her name and position.
But after she went back and investigated carefully, she found that there was absolutely no such person in the Immortality Research Institute.
"You are a captive now. Do you think you have the right to ask me questions?"
After Xu Mu finished speaking, he looked at Dai Xingluo and said, "Xingluo, I'll leave this person in your custody for now."
"Okay, brother."
Dai Xingluo smiled and nodded.
...
Xu Mu returned to the factory and headed to the back mountain with Chen Xuan and Meng Wanyue.
Xu Mu didn't bother with the workers here; staying here was the safest for them.
Under the guidance of the guards, Xu Mu and the others hurried toward the distant mountain peak.
His perception constantly monitored the surroundings for any rustling of the grass or wind, but he didn't see any trace of the woman from earlier.
She was a vice-minister, already considered a high-level executive of the Immortality Research Institute.
She definitely knew a great deal of the Immortality Research Institute's secrets.
As they were about to reach the top of the mountain, Xu Mu saw the situation inside the palace.
There were only a few guards inside. Other than that, no one else was in sight.
Stepping into the palace.
Just as Xu Mu had seen, there were only guards here.
"Where is Liu Ge? I am the Vice Minister of the Defense Department of the Immortality Research Institute!"
Xu Mu said to the few guards in front of him.
The guards here first looked at Xu Mu, then at the people who came with him.
One of them, a middle-aged man with a full beard, asked, "Is this truly the Lord Minister?"
"Yes, it was precisely because I failed to recognize him that I lost an arm."
The burly man with the severed arm said in a deep voice.
Hearing this, the bearded man didn't dare to be negligent. He didn't want to lose his arm.
So, he said, "Just now, our boss and a female captain from the Immortality Research Institute entered the formation behind the palace together."
Through his perception, Xu Mu indeed found that the area in the back was pitch black and impossible to probe.
"You few, lead the way in front and accompany me over there. The news I bring this time is extremely important. I must see Liu Ge immediately," Xu Mu said with a calm expression.
"Yes, but my lord, we don't know how to unlock the formation," the bearded man said respectfully.
"Just take me there first."
Xu Mu said indifferently.
In the end, a full twenty or so guards were all leading the way in front.
They came to the back of the palace, where there was a stone door. At this moment, the stone door was open.
The crowd filed in.
Following this passage, after walking for about a few dozen meters, the environment in front of them suddenly changed.
They now appeared on a grassy plain.
The grassy plain stretched as far as the eye could see. Not far away on the grass, there was a black stone tower.
The base area of the stone tower was about several hundred square meters, equivalent to a small to medium-sized supermarket.
It was over twenty meters high. From the outside, it only had three floors.
At this time, the previous Zi Wangyou was standing in front of the main door on the first floor of the stone tower.
"Kid, you're finally here. I've been waiting for you for a long time."
Zi Wangyou still had a face full of smiles. "Do you dare to come in with me?"

ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!

and couldn't return to the real world. Finally, I gave up and decided to go with the flow, only to discover that writing a diary could make me stronger. Since no one could read it, Su Luo wrote freely, daring to pen anything and everything. Female Lead #1: "Not bad. This diary helped me steal all the protagonist's opportunities. I just want to get stronger." Female Lead #2: "I don’t care about reaching the peak of the cultivation world. Right now, I just want to enjoy the chaos." Female Lead #3: "What? Everyone around me is a spy? I’m the Joker Demon Lord?" ... It’s so strange. Why is the plot completely off track, yet the ending remains the same? Are you all just messing with me?!

grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)

iaobai: "Councilor Dad, front me some funds. I want to hire ten thousand professional miners for a project!" [Five-Star Mission Issued: Capture the leader of the Blood Heaven Pirate Gang, who is on the run in the Radiant Star Sector. It is said the gang has over a hundred members. Proceed with caution.] Lu Xiaobai: "Councilor Dad, lend me the family's hundred-thousand-strong Lu Army!" [Seven-Star Mission Issued: Subdue a juvenile Void Dragon Beast.] Lu Xiaobai: "Councilor Dad, I'm taking your tamed Void Dragon Beast King out for a family reunion!" I said, System, don't you have any slightly more challenging missions? You're just not up to par! [Nine-Star Mission Issued: Become the Human Councilor.] Lu Xiaobai: "Dad, there's a small matter I'd like to discuss with you..."