A few minutes later, the King leisurely sat on the shoulder of the Wandering Mage big sister licking his paws, while the Young Swordsman, the village girl Priest, and the mysterious silent Stalker from the adventurer team formed a circle not far away, shouting things like "For everyone in the village," "Don't underestimate our bond," "This is the power of our mutual trust," which were incomprehensible phrases, while beating up a cat with clangs and clashes. Anyone just hearing the sounds might have thought the three were attacking the Demon King City. "Cats are , 'the entity' is no exception," the King lazily looked at Zheng Zhi, who was about to speak, "You save it, it will hiss at you, you're polite to it, it will still hiss at you, you ignore it, it's likely to hiss at you as well, so sometimes it's better to give it a beating—but it's only effective right after the beating, next time you meet it, it will still hiss at you..." Zheng Zhi held back for a while and finally couldn't resist: "But you're also a cat." "I'm a cat and I say so—because the difference between cats is sometimes greater than between you and me," said the King, stretching vigorously and yawning, then lightly jumping off the Wandering Mage and walking gracefully forward, "Alright alright, you can stop now, this level should be sufficient for proper communication." The village girl Priest, who was swinging a short staff excitedly, stopped first, then quickly pulled the Young Swordsman and Stalker, and the three turned respectfully to bow to the King, quickly stepping aside. The black cat, which was just moments ago hissing at everyone in its spiky dragon form, obediently lay on the ground, showing a submissive stance to the approaching tabby cat. The King then started to meow with this local cat, inquiring about the current situation in the Dark Alley—interspersed with gestures, anxious expressions, mutual paw waving, and the King's frustrated low growls about the inferior language skills and poor vocabulary of his fellow cats. Yu Sheng seized the moment to let Erin promptly deal with the remaining spider webs covering the Dark Alley. "...Not really working, Yu Sheng," the little Puppet, fiddling with a handful of threads, stopped with a worried face, "Seems I've hit a limit—even with the Omen Wandering Star 'amplifying,' I can only control the nearby threads, the farther I go, the more I feel a... 'resistance,' as if something is constantly pushing back the threads I'm extending." "Resistance?" Yu Sheng frowned instantly at this, instinctively looking into the depth of the Dark Alley—of course, seeing nothing, "Can you find the source of that 'resistance'?" "Can't find it," Erin sensed seriously for a moment, shaking her head, "Just feels like... it's everywhere." As they spoke, Luna's figure suddenly leaped from the team again, lightly stepping onto a nearby rooftop, crossing the intertwining black spider silk, soon reaching the highest building beside the Dark Alley, observing for a few seconds before lightly returning to Yu Sheng's side. "Spider webs, extending infinitely," the Holy Lady said, sharing her discovery, "Structure, like a cocoon." Hu Li also approached a spider silk hanging from mid-air, holding a large tail, rubbing the tip to create a bright blue-white flame, nearly dazzling, using argon fox welding to scorch the seemingly fragile thread. Fox Fire spread along the spider silk, the black thread momentarily disappeared in the air, but the instant Hu Li retracted the Fox Fire, the burnt spider silk returned to its original state. The demon fox girl raised her head: "Can't burn it, Savior, this thing regenerates instantly." Yu Sheng felt there was something off about the fox girl's phrasing... But before he could speak, the King completed his communication with the local cat, seeing the serious look on its face as it approached, he quickly stopped his idle thoughts: "What's the situation?" "According to 'the cats,' these 'threads' originally appeared suddenly over by the crossroads, and then starting from the crossroads, began to emerge from every building in the alley outward," said the King, cat face stern, "They have now actually stabilized, at least not increasing." Erin immediately nudged Yu Sheng's head: "Hey, looks like it's not your fault digging holes in the old bookstore, it started appearing from the crossroads." Little Red Riding Hood then raised her head, looking at those black cats trapped and still struggling within the spider silk above the Dark Alley. "Then why do these spider threads 'capture' the 'cats' in the Dark Alley?" she frowned in confusion, "We've tested for a long time, these spider threads don't seem to react much to external stimuli." The King licked his paws: "Purely mischievous." Little Red Riding Hood: "...?" "They saw something unfamiliar appearing in the alley and pounced on it," the King said lazily, "And then hung around here." And at the same time, in the silence, Yu Sheng seemed to suddenly think of something, a trace of contemplation appearing on his face. The little Puppet quickly noticed the change in his expression: "What are you thinking about?" "According to the rules of the Dark Alley, normally 'cats' don't appear on the first level," Yu Sheng broke the silence, speaking as he looked up at the dimly lit, sign-blurred shops in the alley, "Only when someone activates a deeper layer of the Dark Alley at the crossroad do entities begin to appear here—including last time when we saw a large number of 'cats' in the alley, it was because the collapse of the old bookstore forced everyone straight into the deep layer of the Dark Alley." Hearing this reminder from Yu Sheng, Little Red Riding Hood also realized abruptly, looking up towards the depths of the alley. The latest_epɪ_sodes are on_the 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡•𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢•𝕟𝕖𝕥 When they first entered, everyone initially noticed only the eerie scene of webs covering the place, so much so that even Little Red Riding Hood, a seasoned Spirit Realm detective, didn't notice certain environmental details beneath the webs. Now, she finally realized the source of the persistent sense of dissonance. The signs of the street-facing shops were blurry, and the text on the signs seemed unreadable and chaotic from the start; the strings of lights wrapped in webs glowed with an eerie luminescence, not a result of spider silk interference; the edges of the puddles on the road were covered with dirty moss, which extended to the nearby walls, displaying various bizarre contours. In the alley, the daylight was dim, mingling with a faint tinge of blood red. All these are typical features of the "Dark Alley" having entered a Deep Layer! "No wonder there are so many cats!" Little Red Riding Hood took a gentle breath, "When we first came in, it was already in a Deep Layer state!" Zheng Zhi thought for a moment before hesitantly speaking, "Could it be the influence of these spider silks? This place has turned so bizarre, maybe the operational rules have also changed along with it..." "Although this possibility can't be ruled out, it's best not to lightly attribute unexpected situations in the Exotic Realm to 'rule failure'," Little Red Riding Hood quickly said, reminding Zheng Zhi, the purest of newcomers, "Rules are the most stable 'underlying structure' in the Exotic Realm, and in all causes that might lead to unexpected events, 'rule failure' should always be placed last." Zheng Zhi opened his mouth, "Then, then this situation now is..." "Surely someone else entered the Dark Alley and triggered the conditions for generating entities here," Little Red Riding Hood said, her eyes reflecting a wolf-like vigilance in the twilight, "And whatever that person did, it clearly 'maintained' the Dark Alley in a Deep Layer state." The King seemed to catch on quickly as well, speaking rapidly, "Maybe that's why these spider silks can spread over such a wide range—normally the Exotic Realm periodically resets itself, but now it's the time of day when the Dark Alley has just opened, yet the state here seems frozen..." A slight chill spread through the air, and Zheng Zhi subconsciously rubbed his arms, but when he looked up at the depths of the alley, all he could see were crisscrossing spider silks, silent and deserted streets, and shuttered shops on both sides. There was no sign of any "other visitor" in sight. "People... must have already left, right," he spoke hesitantly, "Could it be other Spirit Realm detectives or investigators? Your peers..." But before he could finish, Little Red Riding Hood interrupted him, "Impossible, after we returned from the Dark Alley last time, we reported the situation here to the Special Service Bureau, and they suspended the access permissions to the Dark Alley. Currently, only the 'Travel Agency' and 'Fairy Tales' have access here, and any other investigators or Spirit Realm detectives approaching the node device here would directly trigger an alarm." Zheng Zhi immediately fell silent, while Yu Sheng couldn't help but recall the intelligence information Baili Qing mentioned to him earlier regarding the Black Dot Group, he broke the silence after a brief contemplation, "Let's go to the crossroad—if the spider silk is spreading from there, there may be some traces at the crossroad." "But the road leading to the crossroad seems to be completely blocked by webs," Little Red Riding Hood looked up towards the end of the alley, her eyes glowing faintly in the dim light, "The closer we get to there, the more spider silk there is." Yu Sheng didn't speak, just slightly turned his head to glance at the little Puppet on his shoulder. "I, I'll try my best," Erin nodded immediately, but the usually fearless and always arrogant little Puppet seemed a bit lacking in confidence this time, "Not sure if it'll work, these threads don't really listen to me." Yu Sheng, on the other hand, was quite nonchalant, "Go as far as we can, and if we really can't get through, let's have Hu Li do a saturation bombardment, just to get a peek at the situation at the crossroads." At these words, Little Red Riding Hood opened her mouth as if she had suddenly bottled up a lot to say, but when she looked at Yu Sheng's matter-of-fact expression, and then glanced at the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox beside him whose eyes were gleaming, she eventually swallowed all her words back down. Oh well, every organization has its own corporate culture...