104 Mysterious Dark Energy

Creak!

Sound of door opening resounded and two figures entered an empty room.

"As I thought, they already left!"

"They don't even leave a table and chair here." Musashi Hirata mumbled as he scanned the empty room. There was nothing in this room but the lamp on the ceiling.

He already predicted the Shadow Fang's men would leave the secret base when he went missing. However, he did not expect they would go to this extreme. It was totally empty, not leaving single furniture.

Based on the thick dust on the floor, this place must be emptied a long time ago. They might leave as soon as he went missing.

Musashi Hirata turned around and asked Heero in helplessness, "What do we do next, Master?"

They came here to find clues, hoping the Shadow Fang's men would leave some clues. But with this empty room, proof of how meticulous Shadow Fang's men were. It was impossible to get clues from this abandoned secret base.

Heero scanned the room carefully for a moment and shook his head. Without clues, it was hard to find these people. Moreover, the people who stayed in the secret base was only normal people. These people could blend within the crowd and live normally like normal citizens, then he would not be able to find them amongst the crowd.

Musashi Hirata also told him that these people were proficient in disguise. If the disguise used Ki to morph their face, Heero could use his Mystical Eyes to uncover the disguise. But these people were using a mask to change their faces.

Coming out of the building, Heero looked at the surroundings. This place was seven districts away from the Xing District. The building behind was used to be a bakery. The Shadow Fang's men opened the bakery and used it as a post.

The disguise was perfect and everyone would never expect this place that used to be a bakery was Shadow Fang's secret base. After a quick scan, Heero found the surveillance cameras and one camera directed to Shadow Fang's secret base.

"Can we get footage from the surveillance camera? We can track these people with the camera and find where they move out!"

Musashi Hirata shook his head in uncertainties as he replied, "I don't know, but maybe I can get the footage with my identity. I am still Gold Class Ranker after all…"

"No, we can the footage from the Central Government. I am from Musashi Clan, they will not dare to refuse my request if I use my clan's name,"

'Look like I just found another useful disciple…' Thought Heero after hearing the reply. He did not feel ashamed by relying on his disciples to get the footage from the Central Government.

*** ***

As Heero and Musashi Hirata tracked down the Shadow Fang, the expedition team that was supposed to be exploring the second dungeon encountered trouble.

The trouble was that only a limited number of people who could enter the dungeon. Excluding the Silver Class heroes, only seventy-one out of a hundred and twenty that could stay inside the dungeon longer.

After the first attempt, the expedition made more attempts and discovered this problem. Asides two Emperor Class and seventy-one Gold Class, the rest would experience dizziness, nausea, and the worst-case fainted instantly right after they stepped inside the dungeon.

Because of this problem, Musashi Naizen postponed their plan to scout the dungeon. The plan was to scout the dungeon made a temporary base inside the dungeon, but with this problem arise, they had to make a new plan.

They tried to use a special mask, but the problem seemed not the air of the dungeon. Based on the Silver Class Heroes experienced, staying longer in the dungeon could cause harm to them.

Command House, Ence Fort

Inside the command house, Musashi Naizen held an emergency meeting. Musashi Naizen, Huo Liang Xun, Sun Zhou Yi, Bai Xin Yue, and Kang Seo Yeon gathered inside a room. Besides the heroes, Park Yong Gi and his two assistants also attended the meeting.

He was the executive in charge of this expedition. With the experiences from the first dungeon, he thought the second dungeon's exploration would be easier. However, his thought proved to be wrong with the trouble they encountered.

"Should we cancel this operation until we have enough heroes with us?" Park Yong Gi's assistant broke the silence. He was older than Park Yong Gi to be his assistant, about fifty.

But his proposal received a sharp glare from Musashi Naizen. Park Yong Gi's assistant immediately lowered his head.

"We can't cancel the expedition, we have to continue with the expedition, but we have to make some changes," Huo Liang Xun voiced his thoughts with a thoughtful expression.

"We change the operation from exploring to scouting. I mean we don't have to conquer the dungeon now, but we at least have to scout the things inside. We have to be prepared if the things inside the dungeon came out."

The dungeon environment is so harsh, can you imagine what creatures live inside? We might encounter the monster we never met before. So rather than canceling the operation, we can send a few teams inside to scout the dungeon to find what we will face later,"

That was what they could do for now. Everyone in the room must have the same thoughts.

"That's what we can do for now," Park Yong Gi nodded in agreement. For now, he just hoped the creatures lived in the dungeon no different from the normal creature outside the dungeon.

"But we have to set a time limit for each exploration. The environment is harmful to our body, so we can't for a long time inside," Sun Zhou Yi that rarely talked voiced his thought as he realized the meeting almost over.

Seven pairs of eyes stared at him as soon as he said that. From the look of these people, he realized they demanded a reasonable reason to set a time limit.

"For us, we can stay longer inside the dungeon, but what about the others?" Sun Zhou Yi returned with a question. Even though he did not mention who the others were, but Park Yong Gi and the others caught Heero's intention by setting the time limit.

Yes, the Silver Class heroes and fifty Gold Class heroes could not stay longer than a minute inside the dungeon while the others holding on. But it did not guarantee that the seventy-one Gold Class heroes could stay longer than an hour.

Moreover, they still did not know if the harmful environment inside the dungeon could permanently damage the human body or not. The first exploration contained a huge yet unknown risk.

"Let's set the time-limit to an hour for now. After an hour, whether you make discoveries or not, you have to get back!" Musashi Naizen took a decisive decision in an instant after hearing Sun Zhou Yi's words.

The decision got Park Yong Gi's approval as the youngest executive of the Hero League nodded.

As the meeting was over, Musashi Naizen immediately set out of the Command House and followed by the other heroes. Leaving Park Yong Gi and his assistant in the room.

This was the first time Park Yong Gi met Sun Zhou Yi in a person. The phenomenal hero who stopped Level 10 Calamity alone. Even though there were many abnormalities could be found from the beast horde that was supposed to be Level 10 Calamity.

For example, the Hero League could only find a few Emperor Beasts, less than ten which quite weird. Based on the information they received from Musashi Naizen, there were a lot of Emperor Beasts that passed through the gate.

However, because they had announced it was Level 10 Calamity, the Hero League could take their words back. This was one reason that Sun Zhou Yi did not get promoted to Emperor Class. Many executives against the decision to promote Sun Zhou Yi to Emperor Class because of the abnormalities they found.

"Do you have Sun Zhou Yi's details?" Park Yong Gi asked.

It only took a few seconds and Park Yong Gi's smartwatch beeped. He looked down and found his assistant had sent the details through the smartwatch.

He opened the smartwatch and opened the file. The file was Sun Zhou Yi's profile, a photo that looked younger than the current Sun Zhou Yi, name, birth date, etc. When he read Sun Zhou Yi's address, his mouth twitched.

"He lives at the Xing District?" Park Yong Gi blurted out when he read out the address. Upon finding the address, a young man's image appeared in his mind. It was a bold young man who offered himself to be an instructor.

"Yes, he moved to Xing District on the same day of his ranked-up ceremony," the younger assistant replied.

"He refused to stay in the core region and chose to stay at Xing District? What's so special about the district?" Park Yong Gi mumbled.

Park Yong Gi was the executive in charge of the dungeon incident. After the dungeon break, he was busy that almost had no time even for his family. So he missed many updates about the Xing District.

"I heard there's a hidden master stays in that district and a week of Huo Liang Xun's disappearance related to this hidden master. Huo Liang Xun was defeated with ease and it went viral in heroes and rankers community,"

"Also, there are rumors say this hidden master is Sun Zhou Yi's Master."

As Park Yong Gi heard this, another image flashed in his mind as the young man's bold remarks repeated in his mind again.

"Ah, what about if you hire me as Hero Instructor?"

"I say, what about if you hire me as Hero Instructor? You only need to pay me a million WD per month. I promise, in one year, Hero League will give birth to many Emperor Class Hero!"

…

"It can't be, right?" Park Yong Gi mumbled unbelievably.

Meanwhile, Musashi Naizen, Huo Liang Xun, and Sun Zhou Yi formed a new team that consisted of twenty people. The one who led the operation was still the same, the difference was that the group comprised Gold Class Hero.

In Sun Zhou Yi, there was an additional Bai Xin Yue and twelve Gold Class Heroes. Based on the Gold Class formation, Sun Zhou Yi's team was the strongest while the other two groups had Emperor Class as the leader.

"Let's go!" Musashi opened his mouth and entered the dungeon. The others followed in tow with Sun Zhou Yi was the second person entered the dungeon after Musashi Naizen.

As he stepped into the dungeon for the n-th time, a gush of uncomfortable feeling emerged inside him. At this time, Sun Zhou Yi already used to this uncomfortable feeling. The sixty heroes immediately formed three teams as soon as they stepped into the dungeon.

"I will go to the north!" Without many words, Musashi Naizen led his team marched forward. The north in his mouth was the path ahead of him.

"Then I will go to the east…" here Huo Liang Xun stopped and glanced at Sun Zhou Yi and smirked, "Boy, don't die, we have a score to settle later!"

With that said, Huo Liang Xun led his team to the left path. Leaving only Sun Zhou Yi's team near the gate. Despite having limited time, Sun Zhou Yi did not rush to explore the dungeon. Instead, he activated his Mystical Eyes and scanned the black land.

Yes, he and his group were standing on a flatland, a black flatland with the soil was as black as charcoal. As he activated his Mystical Eyes, the scene changed. With Mystical Eyes, he could see the Dark Energy he saw at the gate seeped out of the ground.

The Dark Energy was thick and his vision was almost blocked by this unknown black energy. He looked back to his team, they were standing amidst the thick dark energy.

Sun Zhou Yi found that the dark energy tried to enter the body, but there was blue energy inside these people's bodies which repelled the black energy. He was sure this dark energy was the one caused the strange phenomenon to Silver Class Heroes.

"Oy, what's wrong with you?"

Suddenly, Sun Zhou Yi felt something nudged his waist. It was Kang Seo Yeon elbowed him as she found something strange within Sun Zhou Yi. The others also looked at Sun Zhou Yi strangely.

Sun Zhou Yi's snapped out of his thoughts and shook his head, "Nothing. Let's go!"

Then, he led his team to the right path. Ahead of them, about five hundred meters, a forest had waited for them. The team entered the forest under his lead.