The Earth Dwellers generously provided the interrogation site. Clearly, their neutrality is not absolute.

Scattered shackles, a foul-smelling dungeon. Derek McCalester was bound to a stone pillar, covered in sticky spider webs.

Nunes fastened the shackles and retreated to Lu Li's side.

"Your name."

Derek McCalester refused to answer, believing that revealing his name under interrogation would bring shame to his family.

"Where is the exit to the first stage?"

Derek McCalester continued to remain silent.

"Let me do it."

Ida took over from Lu Li, moving with chittering limbs toward Derek McCalester.

"You monster—"

Sharp, scythe-like limbs pierced the air, stabbing into Derek McCalester's robe, penetrating flesh.

"You might want to try saying that word…"

Ida approached Derek McCalester's face, whispering maliciously, as though it were a personality switch, or perhaps this was her true nature, arrogant and cruel.

"Monster... Ah!!!"

The limb twisted in his shoulder, wrinkling the robe, causing Derek McCalester's scream to echo in the dungeon.

"Tsk... I thought the Bloodline Family offspring would all be smart, or perhaps... they are not afraid of pain?"

The barbed forelimb slowly, torturously dug deeper into Derek McCalester's flesh, Ida basking in his pain, his screams,

Heinz Ellis watched everything with complexity. He could feel Derek McCalester's pride. In the eyes of the public, Bloodline Families had always been the upper echelon of the Midnight City nobility, both in status and mystery.

Sadly, they were naturally opposed. Both in tournaments and reality.

The 6-centimeter forelimb fully embedded in Derek McCalester's shoulder, blood flowed along the limb, dripping onto the muddy ground.

"I didn't know exorcists were such vile executioners." Derek McCalester panted, ignoring the true executioner Ida, who stared intently at Lu Li.

"Do those who occupy a mining district and kill contestants have the right to say that?"

Feeling overlooked, Ida took it as provocation, slowly withdrawing the limb, granting torment and pain.

Barbs tore flesh, Derek McCalester's entire body trembled violently, pain turned to anger, screaming: "Betrayal shames the family, death will be glory!"

His loyalty to the family was akin to a fanatic.

"You think this only because... we are just beginning."

The spider-like malice in the compound eyes hidden beneath the bangs flickered. Ida moved closer, revealing the ugly, venomous spider abdominal pattern, the spinneret nearing the bleeding wound.

"For instance... when thousands of my offspring hatch in your body, releasing venom to corrode your flesh, so that while conscious, you feel your flesh and bones melt into liquid, able to hear sounds as if your soul is being drained..."

Pale cheeks twitching, Derek McCalester kept his lips tightly sealed, maintaining silence.

"Stop."

As Ida's spinneret was about to touch Derek McCalester, Lu Li stopped her.

Interrogation wouldn't make him speak, and they shouldn't become enemies.

But time was running out for them.

Derek McCalester's companions above might grow suspicious from waiting too long, but they could set traps in advance.

Ida retracted her abdomen, returned to Lu Li's side, becoming obedient and loyal again, "I was just tricking him; I'm still single."

"Pasha Rivas and Tote have not arrived yet," Lu Li turned his head to Nunes and said.

"...I'll go find them."

Nunes frowned as he left, called back by Lu Li, who handed him two Merchant's Eyes.

After Nunes left the dungeon, Lu Li looked at Derek McCalester, who was enjoying a rare moment of peace.

"Tell us the exit information for the first stage, and I'll release you."

"Exorcist, do you dare believe it?" Derek McCalester mocked, but deep down, hid a sense of survival relief.

Perhaps with a hint of gratitude.

"That's my concern."

A tremor arrived at just the right moment, pausing Lu Li's questioning.

It was a tremor that resonated with the heartbeat and soul. During its brief disappearance, Derek McCalester uttered a proverb-like phrase: "'It's as if it's always been with us, like a casually placed object, like something seen everywhere'... that's the hint I know, believe it or not."

Derek McCalester fell into silence, speaking no more.

"You'll stay here temporarily until your companions come to rescue you."

Lu Li took out a blood-stopping potion labeled [Do not drink] and approached Derek McCalester to sprinkle it on the bleeding wound.

"My name is Derek McCalester..."

A whisper that only Lu Li could hear sounded.

Lu Li remained calm and left the dungeon with his allies.

"Can we trust what this guy said?" Ida began to tear away mature growths hanging from her body.

"At best, it's like the Earth Dwellers' aphorism, secondly, part true, part false," Lu Li answered.

"What if it's false information?"

"No one would lie to an exorcist," said Kaiser, clutching his gun, inexplicably firm.

"But how do we discern which part is true and which part is false?"

"Catch another one."

For the Earth Dwellers, Lu Li's "customer ranking" was better, and coupled with a generous reward, they agreed to the task of "going to the surface to lure Bloodline Family Alliance contestants into the mining cave" without hesitation.

But at this moment, Lu Li looked towards the abandoned mine leading to the outside world.

Returning to find Pasha Rivas and Tote, Nunes hadn't returned either.

Summoning Merchant Anthony, he appeared beside Tovani, quickly returning from the Inner World with bad news.

Tovani had also lost contact.

"Do you know that mine tunnel?"

Lu Li asked the Earth Dwellers beside him.

"No value, only rocks!" The Earth Dwellers clearly didn't know the abandoned mine tunnel had an exit to the surface created by flowing mud corrosion.

Due to the disappearance of the three companions, Lu Li temporarily halted the plan, and with others, returned via the abandoned mine tunnel.

Passing that fork, Lu Li turned to look at Heinz Ellis.

"They didn't go in here." Heinz Ellis replied.

Continuing forward, approaching where senses felt close to the end, the curtain wall formed by flowing mud became visible.

Yet they did not see Nunes, Pasha Rivas, or Tote.

Near the foot, dry mud spots scattered, with no miner's lamps or Fluorite Lamps around.

"Did they return to the surface?"

In Ida's self-talk, the tremor from the depths of the earth emerged.

As gravel and dust trickled down, a strange phenomenon suddenly descended upon this place.

The flowing mud blocking the entrance rippled, like a veiled water curtain, slowly sliding to both sides, revealing the deep mine path it concealed leading to the depths of the abandoned mine tunnel.

Distant tremors gently arrived, forming an inexplicable call.

"Something inside is calling us..."

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