The firewood pile was quickly emptied again. While moving the wood, Jian Gui said, "No one touched it. I remember the shape we stacked it in."

Gu Fei looked at him. "We were only gone for a little while..."

"We can't be careless," Jian Gui said seriously.

"Okay, okay, unlock it!" Being serious wasn't a bad thing, so Gu Fei didn't know what to say. He simply gestured for Xi Yao Wu to start working.

The locksmith, Xi Yao Wu, who had come all the way from afar, demonstrated the demeanor of a master. She waved her hand and pushed Gu Fei aside. "Get out of the way, I'll do it." Her air made it seem like she wasn't unlocking a lock, but defusing a time bomb.

Gu Fei and Jian Gui stood respectfully on either side, craning their necks in anticipation of witnessing the divine skill of lock picking. But the process turned out to be extremely simple. Xi Yao Wu reached into her pocket, pulled out a key that looked like a can opener, inserted it into the iron lock on the old cellar door, and with a "click," the lock was open.

"Amazing!" Gu Fei and Jian Gui both gave her a thumbs-up, as they craned their necks, wanting to get a closer look at Xi Yao Wu's magical can opener key.

"What are you looking at! It's useless even if you have it without the skill," Xi Yao Wu rolled her eyes at them.

"Cough, cough..." The two coughed. Jian Gui stepped forward and forcefully lifted the cellar door.

"Damn, another tunnel..." Gu Fei glanced at it. He could see a ladder, followed by a black void. He immediately thought of the Wulong Mountain Secret Passage from back then. The layout was pretty much the same.

"What could it be?" Xi Yao Wu asked with some excitement.

"It wouldn't just lead to the administrative building, would it?" Gu Fei thought. If that was the case, it would be really disappointing.

"Or maybe it just leads out of the courtyard?" Jian Gui suggested, an even more disappointing possibility.

"Let's go take a look," Xi Yao Wu said.

So, Gu Fei reached into his pocket and pulled out a torch. Jian Gui and Xi Yao Wu looked at him in surprise. While it was a common item, most people wouldn't have one.

"Local custom," Gu Fei explained quickly. The torch was a reward he received after joining the Nine Lords.

The torch was lit. Gu Fei stuck it into the cellar entrance and took a look. It wasn't too deep, so he grabbed the ladder and started climbing down. Xi Yao Wu and Jian Gui followed behind.

The tunnel was damp and filled with a musty smell. The three covered their mouths and noses as they groped forward.

"It feels like a downward slope," Jian Gui said.

"Mmm, mmm..." Gu Fei and Xi Yao Wu responded vaguely. Neither wanted to let go and open their mouths.

The path gradually widened and turned, as if it were a spiral staircase. Finally, Gu Fei, who was in the lead, saw a flickering light. This was usually a sign of an exit. And since the exit was so deep, it probably didn't lead to a building or outside the courtyard. This place must be some kind of secret location.

"Exit, it's an exit!" Xi Yao Wu didn't want to open her mouth to speak, so she sent a message instead and tugged hard on Gu Fei's clothes to get his attention.

"Mmm, mmm!" Gu Fei nodded frantically and quickened his pace.

In the blink of an eye, the three of them reached the exit and stepped inside. Before them was a spacious area, actually a secret chamber hidden deep underground. And the scene before them caused their eyes to widen, speechless for a long time.

"This... what is it?" Gu Fei was the first to speak. He looked at Jian Gui, the veteran expert in online games.

Jian Gui frowned deeply, walked around in circles twice, and shook his head seriously. "I don't know."

"It's a bit disgusting..." Xi Yao Wu blurted out.

In front of the three of them was a strangely shaped, large object. It didn't look like a stone, and it was hard to tell if it was crystal. The flickering light came from it. There seemed to be something constantly flowing inside the object, and its surface was covered with strips of some unknown substance. It was no exaggeration for Xi Yao Wu to call it "disgusting."

"Can we touch it?" Gu Fei took two steps closer. He didn't feel anything unusual with his body, so he wanted to try touching it.

"I don't know." The other two shook their heads, but their eyes encouraged Gu Fei to give it a try.

The brave Gu Fei reached out and lightly touched the object. It was hard and icy cold to the touch, but otherwise nothing unusual. He also touched those strips of stuff. They were dry and still unknown.

When the two saw that Gu Fei was fine, they also came forward to study it carefully. Gu Fei, on the other hand, retreated to a distance, paying attention to those strips of stuff. The stuff covered the object and went upwards. As Gu Fei looked, he suddenly realized, "These are tree roots!!!"

"Tree roots?" The two were startled and ran to where Gu Fei was standing.

"Look, it's like a big tree is growing on the ground, but the roots underground are gripping this thing," Gu Fei said.

"If the roots are this big, the tree must be huge, right?" Xi Yao Wu said.

"The backyard doesn't seem to have any big trees," Jian Gui added.

Gu Fei continued to observe carefully. Following the veins of the tree roots, he discovered that after leaving the object, many roots twisted together in a knot and then scattered, inserting themselves into the soil above.

"This might not even be one tree, maybe it's many plants that have been knotted together and then attached to this thing," Gu Fei said.

"So what exactly is this thing?" The three continued to be puzzled. They had looked at it, touched it, but the system hadn't given them any prompts.

"Let's look around the room!" Gu Fei said. It wasn't exactly a room, just an underground cave. The three wandered around, searching. Suddenly, Xi Yao Wu shouted, "Here!!!"

Gu Fei and Jian Gui quickly rushed over. Xi Yao Wu was wiping away some dirt, and a copper plate embedded in the earthen wall gradually appeared before their eyes, with writing on it. The three hastily scanned a few lines and exclaimed in unison, "Moisture Absorber???"

"Reduces the moisture content in the air?" Jian Gui repeated a key phrase.

"Does that mean, it eliminates the fog?" Gu Fei said.

"So, the reason there's no fog in the administrative courtyard is because of this thing," Jian Gui said.

"Oh yeah! This place really doesn't have any fog..." Xi Yao Wu, like Gu Fei who was here for the first time, hadn't noticed the strangeness of the courtyard.

Gu Fei didn't respond, because he suddenly thought of the Fog Shadow Assassin's diary again. He quickly took it out and turned to the third page. A short sentence: "The fog is heavy. In this environment, it's easy to attack and escape. It seems this mission will go smoothly."

Could this actually be a mission hint? Was it implying to the player that in order to assassinate Giordano, one had to take advantage of the weather conditions in Xiawu City? And this courtyard just happened to have no fog, so there was a sleeping assassin whose feet were pointing towards the passage to the moisture absorber?

That must be it! Gu Fei felt that this could all be explained. The Fog Shadow Assassin's diary was essentially a guide to completing this assassination mission. Hidden within were hints. To assassinate Giordano, one must first destroy this absorber and change the weather conditions.

Gu Fei explained his theory. Jian Gui and Xi Yao Wu both agreed that it made sense.

"So, how do we destroy it?" Gu Fei said.

"Attack it?" The simplest assumption.

"The problem is we're all down here. We won't know if it's working or not!" Gu Fei said.

"Then I'll go up to the wood shed and watch. You guys try things out!" Jian Gui said.

Gu Fei nodded. Jian Gui left the cave and returned to the wood shed above ground.

"You can start now," Jian Gui said.

"Twin Flames Flash, Flash!" Gu Fei didn't hesitate and immediately unleashed a Super Kill move. The stone was just an inanimate object, so of course it hit directly.

"How is it?" Gu Fei immediately asked Jian Gui.

"It probably takes some time for the fog to appear, right? Observe for a bit," Jian Gui replied.

While Jian Gui was observing, Xi Yao Wu stabbed the thing countless times, without even leaving a small scratch. Gu Fei vaguely felt that directly attacking it probably wasn't going to work.

Sure enough, Jian Gui sent a message saying that there was no change at all.

"These tree roots connect this thing all the way to the ground. What if we cut them all off?" Xi Yao Wu said.

"I'll try!" Gu Fei said, using Instant Movement to fly onto the stone. He took his sword and slashed at the knotted roots. But it seemed that the roots had been entangled with the stone for so long that they had a blood relationship. They were so hard that not even a scar was left. Gu Fei jumped down dejectedly, but then he heard Xi Yao Wu shout, "Hey, look here! It turns out there's more to the copper plate!!!"

Gu Fei quickly ran over. It turned out that it wasn't actually a copper plate, but a book-shaped object that was opened. Gu Fei and the others had only looked at the left half of the record earlier, and hadn't noticed the right half. After Gu Fei went up, Xi Yao Wu went back to read the copper plate and noticed the strangeness of the right side.

"The moisture absorber can absorb excessive moisture content within a range of 1 minute and 22 seconds."

"The moisture absorber will automatically start working after the air moisture content exceeds the standard for 3 minutes."

"Turning off the moisture absorber will release a large amount of moisture. A super fog will form within the range in 35 seconds."

"Haha, so there's a switch here!!!" After wiping and reading the three sentences on the right side of the copper plate, Xi Yao Wu was surprised to find that the empty half of the copper plate on the right had a switch installed. Excitedly, she raised her hand to press it down.

"Wait!!!" Gu Fei quickly grabbed her hand to stop her.

"The time!" Gu Fei said, "We have to calculate the time!!!"

This hint was still in the Fog Shadow Assassin's diary: How could an assassin not remember the date clearly? Even being off by a second or a minute could be fatal to us.

This must be a hint about the time!! Gu Fei thought. If they hadn't discovered this half of the information and had just recklessly found a way to stop the moisture absorber, then it really could have been fatal because of this time issue.

"This requires calculation," Gu Fei said.

"Calculate what?"

"The fog doesn't affect the inside of the building. We need to take advantage of the fog when Giordano goes out of the building to patrol. So, we need to calculate the time first!!" Gu Fei said.

＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝

Today's update isn't too late, right? Hahaha～～～