After a day of scorching sun and boring waiting, the few people had gained nothing.
"Ah... night is so much more comfortable."
"Little sister, you look like you might scare away passersby."
By the end of the day, Lu Shuishui and Hai Ren had become quite familiar, reaching a point where they could tease each other.
Hai Ren lazily rubbed against her shoulder.
"Are you okay? No one will be here."
Lu Shuishui's eyes flickered.
Indeed, after a full day, no matter how lively or crowded the temple was, no one seemed to have come here, which she found a bit strange.
"Haa— so sleepy."
"Don't sleep! Shouldn't you be energetic at night? Besides, I need to sleep, so we'll take shifts."
"..."
Lu Shuishui gritted her teeth.
"What's with that reluctant look?"
"Alright, alright, just let me lie here."
But with her lying like this, Lu Shuishui couldn't lean against the wall to sleep.
"You lie down in the front."
"Oh..."
Hai Ren wasn't picky.
Holding her like this, Lu Shuishui thought of her childhood, when she often clung to Xi Er. He always had a blank expression, but he would always hold her properly.
Lost in thought, she fell asleep.
Meanwhile, Long Yi also planned to rest for a while, with the two of them taking turns on watch.
"I don't need to sleep much. If you want, you can sleep the whole time."
After all, Ni Ya still possessed the power of an Apostle, and strictly speaking, he wasn't purely human.
"No way!"
Long Yi's refusal was righteous.
"I'm an adult, and you're a child. How can I let you guard all night? We'll take turns."
"Oh ho... you actually care about your great Grandpa Galote?"
"Get lost! I care about Ni Ya."
He could now distinguish between the two of them.
"Tch..."
As for Wang Zihao, he was completely unable to sleep.
"You sleep for a bit, I'll keep watch for you."
Duan Chen suddenly appeared beside him and said calmly.
"Ah! Instructor, today we..."
"No comment."
Wang Zihao was choked.
"For this mission, except for necessary situations, you must complete it yourselves."
His tone was undeniable.
"Yes!"
After all, he was still young and eager, and Wang Zihao also wanted to prove himself to Duan Chen.
"You sleep."
"Yes, thank you, Instructor."
...
Under the sea, Mirror City.
"What exactly is going on? Where did they all go? Why haven't we received any contact?"
In the alley between two houses, two sea monsters, clad in black cloaks, spoke in low voices.
They weren't Apostles, after all, and couldn't appear in Mirror City as humans.
"You ask me, how would I know?"
One of the short sea monsters retorted in a low voice.
The taller one looked fierce, "This is a rare opportunity for us! As long as we infiltrate from the temple, our forces on land will definitely be greater than those of the Apostles! Then we can attract more comrades to join us!"
"Do you think I don't know that? But Weir, think about it, in terms of strength or influence, how can we compare to those Apostles?"
The short sea monster seemed agitated, his voice even rising by an octave.
Weir was startled and hit his head hard with his tentacles.
"Tor! Keep your voice down! While we can't compensate in terms of strength, we can in influence. Think about it, if Master 01 had high influence, would Masters 06 and 05 have defected to the Spirit Hunter Guild?"
Tor thought for a moment and seemed to agree, nodding.
"The problem is, we can't contact them at all, and our teleportation arrays are also problematic. As far as I know, all the sea monsters who have reached land have some physical defects—some are missing an eye, some have lost their hair, and some are missing toes. This... what should we do?"
"We can't abandon the root for the branches. The important thing now is to infiltrate the land, not these minor issues! What does it matter if there are defects? They are just small problems."
Weir, the tall one, seemed unconcerned about this issue.
"What about the communication problem?"
"It's simple, we can just send out a sea monster team to test the waters first!"
"What if there are Spirit Hunter Agents or psychic users involved?"
Weir's eyes turned fierce.
"Then we'll kill them all! With the numbers of our sea monster teams, even if we can't kill them, we can drown them!"
"But aren't our actions no different from those Apostles who treat lives as grass?!"
Tor retorted loudly.
"Calm down! Don't forget, our sea monster team members are all willing contributors!"
Weir's words pulled Tor back.
It seemed true...
But...
It was clear that Tor still had concerns.
"Forget it! There's nothing to hesitate about! Think about those sea monsters sacrificed by the Apostles!"
Tor's gaze sharpened.
"Alright! I believe you. Let's prepare to release the sea monster team! If there are Spirit Hunter Agents, even if we can't kill them, we'll drown them!"
"Yes!"
Weir forced an ugly smile onto his face.
"Don't worry, the sea monsters will not sacrifice in vain. We must defeat the Apostles!"
"Good!"
They arrived together in an open space in Mirror City. Many sea monsters had already gathered there. Upon seeing Weir and Tor, they all turned their gazes towards them.
The two exchanged glances and nodded forcefully.
...
Duan Chen, of course, had no idea what the sea monsters were planning. He sat on the ground, observing the broken formation.
In terms of its shape, it had striking similarities to the patterns on the altar, indicating that these sea monsters had replicated the altar's formation.
However, it was incomplete. For instance, earlier, before the sea monster could emerge, slime had swallowed it whole. This formation was still a flawed product.
As he was thinking, whether it was his imagination or not, he seemed to see the formation light up with a faint gray glow in the darkness, only to dim again abruptly.
"Huh?"
"Everyone, prepare for battle!"
As soon as he spoke, a blinding blue light appeared in the north.
Immediately followed by Long Yi's shouts.
"Damn it! Why are there so many?!"
Just as Duan Chen was about to issue an order, he suddenly remembered something and directly woke Wang Zihao.
"Instructor... what happened?!"
He sat up abruptly, rubbing his dry eyes.
Duan Chen's tone was calm.
"An unexpected situation. Let me see how you handle it?"
Wang Zihao also heard Long Yi's voice, and he immediately woke up, his mind racing to calculate.