In the morning, Lu Li awoke from his soft bed.
Donning a black robe, Lu Li stepped out of the castle.
Mycelium Monsters painted with red dye extended from the garden to the gate, while another Mycelium Monster continued to disguise itself as a lawn outside the moat, with clustered flowers accentuating the atmosphere. The nectar of the Queen of Flowers refilled the dried fountain, the mysterious and viscous dark purple shifting in hue under the Sunshine Box.
Ophelia dressed in a laundered maid outfit, hands placed as Claire taught last ti, stood on the red carpet alongside Elena, cloaked in black, waiting for guests.
Crisp autumn morning winds blew through the silent and empty castle garden, with ti quietly passing under the leaden sky.
Claire, drowsily resting on Ophelia’s shoulder, suddenly raised her head, gazing at a distant figure that erged, then uttered a complaint.
"The Rat n are here to freeload again."
But this ti, the arrival of the Rat n did not signify an end:
The Ghoul Warriors were gradually appearing, surrounding the Ghoul Sorcerer; outlines of mist condensed and floated in; the Mud Monster extended its tentacles towards Yundis, blocked by the erected Mycelium wall.
And these attending enigmatic forces would serve as examples, encouraging more hesitant creatures to co.
More and more creatures attended the banquet, well-prepared to cater to each creature’s preference—food and flesh, smoke-makers, and shadowy corners...
However, this was destined to be challenging.
The Mycelium Monster accused the Mud Monster of eating it; the Rat n ate while excreting; mist people clung to smoke-makers without letting go; the Ghouls, wearing cotton gloves, clumsily grabbed raw at to eat, growling confrontation with Yundis who also coveted the at; naless wraiths communicated solely with Ophelia; other wraiths ca close to digest each other, discovered wanting to rge actively; creatures averse to bright light extended limbs deep within, hooking flesh and blood on the table into the shadows.
The garden serving as the banquet hall buzzed with noise and chaos, and due to lack of staff, Lu Li had to temporarily disguise as a waiter to maintain order.
"How does it feel?"
Claire perched on his shoulder.
"Very interesting."
Lu Li answered.
Creatures differed in form and personality, and their interactions sparked many wondrous atmospheres—provided their lethality was ignored.
Just as humans kept cats as pets, but birds didn’t view it the sa way.
Nevertheless, they successfully earned a promising start infiltrating Midnight City: most creatures didn’t resist contact.
But the real focus was ahead: signing contracts with them, forming alliances, or at least stopping their mutual slaughter.
On this matter, Lu Li, Claire, Elena, and the Land of Light concluded: coercion.
Coerce creatures into signing contracts, forming alliances, ceasing slaughter.
But the threat should not co from them but from beyond the southern Midnight City.
What could better unite within than external threats?
"How can we control creature invasion to the southern Midnight City, or have them threaten the south without launching an attack?" Claire once asked.
"We don’t need to have the creatures invade; we just need to make them think the southern Midnight City will be invaded..."
It was said Land of Light prepared a speech for this, but the Mother of the Marsh tore it apart. She believed Lu Li could do better—though many Tea Party mbers thought the Mother of the Marsh simply did not want Lu Li to beco a puppet of the Land of Light.
Claire flapped her wings, encouraging Lu Li with her clear voice:
"Use your charm to make males followers, and females admirers."
Like a white dove, Claire circled above the garden, flying over the mist outline and the Ghoul Sorcerer’s head, dodging the Mud Monster’s shooting filth, landing on Elena’s hunched back.
"Gather the creatures, our leader is about to give a speech."
"King of Remi," the new lord proclaid by the castle.
When Elena announced the appearance of the King of Remi, creatures cooperated by gathering in the garden center.
As the assembly of creatures resembled the most profound and terrifying Nightmare, Lu Li cloaked in black erged as if in a dream-like void.
Dreamwalker barred all probing, and the lighthouse blocked most malice.
Stirring, the mist outline was both illusory and solid, seemingly finding Lu Li sowhat familiar.
"You may wonder why this banquet exists."
Elena stood beside Lu Li, conveying King of Remi’s words to the creatures:
[You may wonder where I co from, worry about weaving sches, or puzzled by gathering you here... but all this has a reason.]
"The southern Midnight City is a scattered ss, I hope we can unify."
[Sand is soft and loose, it never congeals, nor harms. Even soaked by seawater, it only superficially unites... We need to beco rocks.]
"Midnight City is fraught with danger; only unity allows us to withstand threats."
[Scattered sand will be devoured entirely by fearso foes. We are weak... but if united, they beco the weak.]
Lu Li couldn’t think of anything else to say. The speech draft should have been prepared before the banquet.
"That’s basically the situation."
[This is what I want to say. Survival, or death, it’s not a question.]
Whispers faded in the garden, creatures flailing their limbs chaotically or shrieked in response. Even without Elena translating, Lu Li could see they weren’t rejecting what was being said.
These creatures were more approachable than imagined.
Then it was ti to plan the next step—
Claire quietly left the banquet to carry out plans.
At so point, an ominous shriek suddenly resounded in the sky, shadowing beneath the clouds, unsettling aura approached the South.
The originally "festive" banquet fell into chaos; tables were overturned, weaker creatures scread, releasing power, burrowing under tables, fleeing in every direction. anwhile, creature forces converged, preparing to face the impending assault.
Lu Li took a stand then, soothing them, and the terrifying aura from afar gradually faded.
Decades of minutes later, Claire returned shrouded in a cloak covering her bandaged appearance.
"Is it over?"
Claire marveled at the banquet’s aftermath.
"You did very well," Lu Li said.
The interloper’s disturbance terrified the creatures; though unfortunate, the good news was that a third of the attending creatures agreed to form an alliance, and a third of those alliance-forrs signed a contract, such as the Yundis Tribe and Ratman Tribe.
Though the seemingly friendliest, Misty Manor and wraiths refused alliances—for Lu Li and others, secretly from the Land of Light, this was a favorable result.
Claire’s effort was indispensable.
More crucially, no creature suspected nor died.
Unexpectedly, Claire lifted her head blankly:
"I just went to the farm to fetch sesa oil... What did I do well?"
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