After casually dropping Keli off in an uninhabited town, Saul straightened his clothing and prepared to enter Caugust's inner city directly.
During his last visit, he had inadvertently discovered the existence of the Inverted Tree, then been chased away in embarrassnt by a bunch of branches and roots.
"So this ti could be considered returning in glory. Exchanging for a branch of the Inverted Tree shouldn't be too excessive a request, right?"
There was no one here who could allow Saul to teleport, so he followed ordinary people through the outer city gates.
This ti he was careful with his disguise—the ordinary wizard apprentices guarding the gates definitely wouldn't recognize him.
However, when Saul mixed into the outer city and looked around, he didn't recognize a single person.
He had once spent over half a year here, but now the place had changed and the people were different too.
Everything had truly changed beyond recognition.
While lanting the changes, Saul wandered around the outer city, observing for half an hour.
But after his observations, he discovered a strange phenonon.
There was only one entrance between the outer and inner cities. This entrance was embedded in the mountainside, the only place among the ring of waterfalls around the inner city without water.
Presumably, one entered the inner city through passages inside the mountain.
But the gates to the entrance were tightly closed, looking as if people weren't allowed to pass through.
There were always people coming and going near the passage in the outer city, but no one went inside.
Seeing that no one ever entered, Saul knew he probably couldn't blend in.
"Then it's plan B." Saul approached the waterfall and looked up at the water mist before him.
The magical elent concentration here was very high, but he couldn't see any formations maintaining it—obviously another type of magical tool newly developed by Caugust City.
Saul's figure suddenly beca transparent, rging with the waterfall in front of him.
Since Saul looked unfamiliar, several wizard apprentices in the outer city had been watching his movents.
However, these people all lost track of Saul in an instant.
Just as they realized soone was trying to break into the inner city and were preparing to report it, a silver butterfly suddenly appeared before them.
This butterfly swayed back and forth, circling each of them once.
These apprentices suddenly forgot what they had originally intended to do.
They looked at each other, montarily unable to understand how they had all gathered together.
Although puzzled, since each had their own duties, they soon pushed their inner doubts aside and dispersed again.
By this ti, Saul had already flown into the air, waiting for the Nightmare Butterfly to return.
"Brother Saul, mission complete."
Saul retrieved Penny, thinking, "Can't take the normal passage. The surrounding passages seem to have no defenses, but there are definitely plenty of traps. I could force my way through, but that Inverted Tree is sowhat evil. Before finding its core, it's better not to expose third-rank power, lest it run away directly."
Whether the Inverted Tree ran away or hid deep underground, it would be very difficult for Saul to track.
Next, Saul proceeded cautiously, avoiding every place that might be a trap, not disturbing nearby magical power fluctuations.
The short distance of just over ten ters took him nearly twenty minutes to get through.
At the last mont of crossing the inner city's protective barrier, the resistance in front of Saul suddenly dropped, and he stepped forward, successfully reaching the inner city.
However, upon seeing the inner city's appearance, even Saul, who considered himself well-traveled, couldn't help but be shocked into stillness.
Caugust's inner city, where Bayton Academy was located, looked like the end of the world!
The once-towering buildings and spacious roads were all covered with a thick layer of dust.
Broken parts and collapsed buildings were everywhere.
Although sunlight could penetrate the isolating protective layer above the entire city, it couldn't change the gloomy tone here.
Saul stepped forward and imdiately sank into thick dust.
"This should be... near the high-rise where I used to rent."
But looking around, he couldn't find any buildings over ten stories tall. Most had beco ruins or were lying directly on the ground as wreckage.
"The magical power fluctuations here are abnormally chaotic." Penny also couldn't help but erge from the diary, flying several circles around Saul, taking in all the surrounding devastation. "Even if we cast magic directly, it wouldn't attract others' attention."
A black shadow erged from Saul's chest, transforming into a young man.
He crossed his arms. "I seriously doubt whether there are any other people here!"
Saul returned his cloak to storage, leaving only form-fitting black shirt and pants.
He crouched down to examine the dust on the ground.
"The dust thickness already exceeds a palm's width. From its looseness, almost no one has set foot here."
Saul then flew up to the top of the nearest tallest building, standing on a steel beam protruding outside.
Overlooking the land from above could provide more information.
Not just nearby—the entire inner city within sight had no buildings exceeding ten stories in height.
"The entire inner city has beco like this."
Herman also flew beside Saul. "It looks like so violent force exploded in mid-air and directly destroyed the upper half of the city. The dust from the explosion directly covered all the city's buildings with a layer of dust coating."
Saul nodded. "The question now is: when did the inner city beco like this?"
Did the inner city beco these ruins due to an accident, or was it artificially divided into inner and outer cities after becoming ruins?
Did the outer city people know the inner city had beco like this?
And where were the people who had originally been in the inner city?
When Saul was observing in the outer city, he hadn't seen any formal wizards—all positions were held by wizard apprentices.
And they were all newcors.
"Caugust and Bayton Academy seem to have truly undergone enormous changes."
Saul didn't discover any trace of the Inverted Tree, and with the inner city's chaotic magical power fluctuations, he instructed Penny and Herman beside him.
"Split up and search for whether there are any survivors in the inner city."
"Yes!" × 2
The two went left and right to explore separately.
Saul wasn't idle either. He jumped down from the tall building, hovering half a ter above the ground, searching for possible survivors.
Or corpses.
But after searching the ground and inside building corridors for a long ti, he didn't see a single person.
However, he saw quite a lot of rotten food and dust-covered furniture.
Most furnishings were very neat, without the chaotic scenes that would result from people fleeing in disorder.
"People should have evacuated in an orderly fashion."
Saul climbed through a window and saw several plates of food on the dining table that had turned green and black, their original appearance unrecognizable.
He opened storage cabinets and saw them full of food and drinks. So locked cabinets still contained silver coins and paper money unique to Caugust.
"When evacuating, these people probably didn't know they would never return. Otherwise they wouldn't have left behind even necessities and money."
An hour later, Saul, Penny, and Herman regrouped on top of a tall building near the city center.
"Did you find anything?" Saul asked them.
Herman shook his head. "It's as if no one ever lived here—couldn't find even a finger."
Penny brought back good news.
"I didn't find any people either—it's as if the people here vanished into thin air. However, I sensed active dreams in the city center area."
Dreams?
If there were dreams, there should still be living people.
Saul imdiately decided, "Let's go to the city center!"
(End of Chapter)
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