Pei Yan didn't know that long before they dragged Liang Guangsheng into Jiezhi Space for a battle, the doors of two vans across the street from the Capital Investigation Bureau Headquarters slowly opened, and eleven figures filed out, leisurely heading toward the bureau building.

On a summer night, as people's nightlife just began, the street wasn't as crowded as during the day, but it was still bustling with voices and traffic. When this group appeared in the crowd, it immediately attracted the side glances of passersby.

It was hard not to attract attention on this sultry night, with ten strange figures dressed alike, enveloped in pitch-black cloaks, walking toward you. Fortunately, people today have seen all sorts of bizarre attire on the streets, so passersby just cast a few more glances and murmured a few words before retracting their gaze.

"Is this the investigation bureau headquarters you mentioned? Could it be a mistake? In this building, I can't feel the presence of any living person!" After stepping into the bureau building, several people removed the hoods covering their heads. A middle-aged Caucasian man with a rugged face, a full beard, and a bald head sniffed the air with his nose and awkwardly asked the leader in broken Chinese.

The leader took off his hat, revealing a face that Pei Yan loathed most, casually loosened his cloak, and tossed it aside. His empty left sleeve fluttered in the wind, "At this point and this close, no matter how much we use magical artifacts and secret techniques to conceal the heavenly secrets and hide our forms, they are sure to have detected us. It wouldn't take much time to move irrelevant personnel out of the building beforehand."

"We won't come up empty this time, will we?" The old man with a longsword on his back and a childlike complexion asked in a displeased tone.

"No, the outside is just a decoy. The real bureau can't get away!" Saying this, Mu Fanchen paused and looked around with a touch of emotion, "It's been over ten years, and nothing much has changed here!"

After speaking, a hint of loneliness flashed in his gaze, which quickly turned stern. He took the lead into the elevator as everyone else entered, holding the elevator door while turning his head to softly instruct a Caucasian woman with striking red hair and freckles on her face at the back of the group: "Sarah Witch, you may begin!"

The woman called Sarah Witch said nothing more. Standing outside the elevator, she raised her right arm and began to chant incantations from the Magic Realm. A massive magic array, shining with bright red light, appeared before her. When she finished chanting, a towering Flame Giant slowly stepped out from within, turned around, and knelt on one knee before the witch.

Without even glancing at the Flame Giant, Sarah completed her spell and turned into the elevator. As the elevator doors closed, the Flame Giant straightened, spread its arms wide, and opened its mouth while its body began expanding until it was engulfed in a burst of red light.

Outside the bureau on the bustling street, passersby occasionally noticed a flash of red light in the old office building. Before they could react to what had happened, a tremendous explosion rang in their ears. The massive shockwave, carrying debris from the building, swept over, engulfing the nearest passers in it.

Diners sitting in a barbecue shop across the street, munching on grilled food, watched in horror as the office building's glass windows shattered from bottom to top in an instant. Towering flames and dense smoke enveloped the entire building, shattering the glass of the barbecue shop. Diners by the window shouted sharply, pierced by the splintered glass.

Once people adapted to the initial explosion, they were met with the roaring sounds of collapsing, fiery structures, mingled with cries for help from adults and sobbing from mothers. Outside the investigation bureau, the ruins stretched on both sides of the street with unending groans. Bloodied injured individuals climbed confusedly from the debris, while those still able to move exerted all their effort to pull those unconscious to a relatively safe place. In less than five minutes, fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars arrived, sealing off this old street entirely.

The culprits behind all this were now inside the elevator, expressionlessly watching the descending floor numbers leap until they stopped at eighteen. As the elevator lights dimmed and then brightened again, an entirely different scene unfolded before them.

"It seems there's been some change here since I left," Mu Fanchen squinted at the shadowy cave entrance ahead. Amid the flickering ghostly fires, platoons of ghost soldiers, gripping decayed, tattered weapons, emerged from the darkness and surrounded them.

"An Illusion Array?" The old man with the longsword walked into the cave, uttering a sound of interest while stretching a finger to ruffle the ghost fires. Feeling the burning sensation from his hand, he disdainfully commented, "This is the common flaw of your Foundation Plane. You mix and match, learning without excellence, coveting the best from all planes yet creating something neither here nor there. Although this Illusion Array is so lifelike it feels as if one is truly present, it is merely superficial. Injecting multiple planes' spiritual qi for activation instead creates many flaws. If one disregards the appearance and destroys the balance points among the spiritual qi, this array collapses without attack!"

Mu Fanchen didn't dispute the old man's words. He bent forward, extended his hand towards the cave, and smiled, "Since Elder Sword God Shen has already seen the flaws, we won't take the stage. Please, Elder Sword God Shen, show some skills and break this array."

Elder Shen glanced back at the others in the elevator to see their many mixed expressions of discontent. He understood that these experts, gathered from various planes, each harbor their own secrets and nobody really submits to anyone, especially Mu Fanchen, who deceptively respects outwardly but is cunning inwardly. This move to praise was nothing more than an attempt to make him a fool.

No matter, since he had stepped forward, he intended to let them see his skills, so they would respect him and not attack later, and so there would be none trying to snatch the divine artifact from him unwisely.

With this thought, Elder Shen made up his mind. Raising his left hand, two longswords appeared from nowhere. He then formed seals with both hands as the swords multiplied to four and then to eight. Repeating this cycle for a while, a circle of longswords hovered before him. With a swift move of his right hand into the cave, more than a dozen swords rushed forward to slay the oncoming ghost soldiers, while the remaining swords traced a circle in the air and vanished into thin air.

Having done all this, Elder Shen closed his eyes, ignoring everything outside. Those in the elevator remained silent, quietly awaiting the outcome. After a while, a piercing scream of a woman, accompanied by ghostly wails, curses, and the sound of a violent explosion, echoed from within the cave, causing the entire elevator car to shake. This was followed by a surge of blue ghost fires erupting from the cave.

Faced with the oncoming feverish flames, Fu Rui, the weakest among the group in the elevator, could not help but panic. She looked around to see the old man with the back sword, Mu Fanchen, and others remaining unmoved and composed, which calmed her a bit despite this. Yet when the ghost fires burst through the cave entrance into the elevator room, she instinctively raised her arms, mobilizing her internal energy to defend herself.

No sensation! The fire passed through her without any burning feeling. Lowering her arms, Fu Rui looked around to find herself still in the dimly lit elevator car. The elevator doors were closed, and the previous cave entrance and ghost fires had completely disappeared, as if nothing had ever happened.

Ding, the elevator car gently quivered and stopped descending. It seemed they had reached their destination.