Chapter 1

Greenway was the last major city located in the north-central part of the Empire's southern territory. Beyond the city to the north lay the vast and perilous Black Pine Forest. This immense forest, perpetually shrouded in shadows, occupied nearly a tenth of the entire kingdom. Within its depths, one could find poisonous swamps, beast lairs, and the nests of ancient creatures. Although the Black Pine Forest was also rich in rare alchemical materials and ores, few were willing to venture deep into the forest due to its dangers and terrifying legends.

For many years, the Empire had been committed to developing this vast forest. After all, leaving such fertile land untouched in the heart of the empire seemed a waste. However, the Black Pine Forest's exceptional vitality and the numerous beast packs within made development extremely slow. After so many years, the Empire had only managed to establish a handful of cities around the edges of the forest—Greenway being one of them.

This city could be considered one of the most successful examples of the "Black Pine Forest Development Project." The land it occupied had been part of the dark, dense forest two hundred years ago, but the efforts of generations of druids and mages had separated this land from the Black Pine Forest's "life cycle," stopping the rampant growth and rebirth of trees at the city's northern woodland barrier. The people of the Empire then thrived in Greenway, building cities, cultivating farmland, and establishing a solid stronghold of civilization.

But the cost of building such a city was enormous.

The manpower, resources, and energy spent to seize a piece of land from the Black Pine Forest were enough to build ten cities of the same size in any other wild place on the planet, without worrying about the forest's counterattack. Therefore, this ambitious development project did not last. Greenway was the most successful, and the last, of the pioneering cities. Since Greenway's complete stabilization two hundred years ago, the Empire's attitude towards the Black Pine Forest had shifted from development and expansion to maintaining the status quo. This policy continues to this day, and perhaps few remember the days of braving the dense forest and measuring the land inch by inch.

With Leah's assistance, passing through the checkpoints was not difficult. The caravan smoothly obtained all the necessary legal documents and entered this legendary city.

Greenway was clearly more prosperous and larger than any previous town. This bridgehead city had been expanded and fortified by countless generations, now standing on the edge of the forest like a giant anthill. The workshops and camps once set up for the pioneers had become residences and shops. The people living in this city made their living by selling various resources extracted from the Black Pine Forest. Caravans from all directions gathered here, seeking to purchase specialties from the Black Pine Forest at relatively low prices. The city even had three towers capable of accommodating medium-sized airships, which served as military ports for transporting supplies to the north—after all, building a pioneering city here at great human and material cost had to yield some return.

In the north of the city, a magnificent high wall stood between the Black Pine Forest and the city's buildings. The light green wall constantly shimmered with magical light, and elven artisans had inlaid rune-stones into the wall. Its purpose was to prevent the Black Pine Forest from encroaching on the city. Although this land had been separated from the Black Pine Forest's life cycle, small-scale plant expansion had never stopped. Without this wall, the rampant bushes and weeds would probably drive any municipal official mad.

The magic-powered wagon traveled along the avenue, but Hao Ren didn't admire the scenery outside for long. He closed the curtains and gently tapped the data terminal that was playing dead on his shoulder: "Have the data analyses come out?"

"Tsk, you only remember me when you need something," the data terminal grumbled. "But I must say, your senses are sharp. There's definitely something wrong with those Black Sword Knights."

"Undead?" Vivian raised an eyebrow. "I don't feel like their aura is that of living people... their thermal signatures and blood distribution are also off."

"They are alive, but it's strange... not complete," the data terminal said. "The sample size is limited, and the results I've analyzed may not be accurate, but it seems the so-called Black Sword Knights are soldiers who have been modified by magic or some other means. Their bodies are still active, but there are many non-biological components operating within them. The nerve signals throughout their bodies are relatively normal, but their brain activity is unbelievably low—this situation is indeed a bit like zombies driven by necromancy, but as I said, their bodies are alive."

"Synthetics acting on command," Hao Ren muttered, stroking his chin. "Let's classify them that way for now."

"Why are you so interested in those Black Sword Knights?" Leah asked Hao Ren curiously. "Isn't your job to save the world?"

Mentioning this only made Hao Ren's face crease up: "Don't even mention it. Observing and recording the ecosystem of civilizations is the true job of an inspector—saving the world was supposed to be my boss's job! If the Dream Plane situation wasn't so special, I should be spending my days recording things related to civilization observation..."

Leah was immediately shocked: "So that's your job?! I thought your main task was to clean up civilizations and scheme for my inheritance..."

Hao Ren: "...Have you finished your homework?"

Leah: "You can't do this to me!"

Hao Ren revealed a victorious smile, then turned to analyze the planetary analysis report that had just been transmitted from Nolan.

His expression changed slightly.

There was a particularly striking annotation in the analysis report: Abnormal signal reactions were detected within the core of Lahrehn.

Precision scanning probes had completed scanning most of the planet's structure. Nolan herself had even run to the vicinity of the core to establish a temporary mooring point. The continuous stream of planetary analysis reports was being summarized into the main computer of the Petrified Tortoise, and then uploaded to Hao Ren's terminal.

Because the planet had been split in two, the core had been exposed for a long time. The once molten and scorching core had now cooled into an iron-rich sphere. Although its temperature was still deadly to humans, it was already considered "cold" for a planetary core.

After many days of careful searching, Nolan had finally found something interesting in the cooled core.

"Boss, I've scanned a dense, special area deep within the core. There's a mass of unknown material with density and energy intensity exceeding the average hidden below, and it's constantly releasing strange energy pulses."

Hao Ren suppressed the surprise and excitement in his heart and asked for details: "Only such vague information? Can't you tell what it is specifically?"

Nolan hesitated for a second: "...The scanning system is encountering some trouble. There's interference."

A peculiar energy field enveloped the vicinity of Lahrehn's core. This energy field even interfered with Nolan's advanced radar system, so the ship-girl couldn't completely figure out what was buried inside the core.

But one thing was certain: A normal planet's interior wouldn't naturally produce such a thing.

It was man-made, and it was definitely not something that the current civilization on the planet's surface could create.

In the mental connection, Nolan's image appeared in Hao Ren's mind. Her background was a mass of dark red, still faintly glowing, core material. Various small fragments floated in the low-gravity environment around the core, which was the "dust" raised by the core oscillation.

The expression on Nolan's face was a bit tangled: "Boss, the thing inside the core is still releasing energy pulses, but the signals are chaotic and can't be deciphered for useful information at all. Who do you think left this behind?"

"This planet has been destroyed once, but even before its destruction, it only supported a planetary-level native civilization. According to Leah's observations back then, that civilization couldn't have placed anything in their home planet's core," Hao Ren pondered. "So what you've discovered is likely a relic left by a previous era—something that existed before the formation of the Dark Domain."

Nolan frowned: "This thing might be related to the 'vaccine' we're looking for, but it's currently wrapped in an energy field. This energy field has obvious encryption traces, and it looks like a password box—forced decryption could cause big problems."

"Don't force a decryption," Hao Ren said immediately. "It's buried deep in the core. If something goes wrong there, it would be a disaster for the entire planet. If it explodes, we'll be in deep trouble."

"...Boss, I always feel like you shouldn't say things like that, given your constitution. What if it comes true?"

Hao Ren was a little embarrassed: "How come even you're starting to act like that... Seriously, don't stimulate that thing casually. You need to safely crack that energy barrier. If the ship's computing power isn't enough, I authorize you to use the World Tree's computing support. There's only one requirement: stability. Be as stable as possible, understand?"

"Nolan understands."

The communication was cut off, and Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief.

Nolan had already made considerable progress.

The trip to Lahrehn was divided into two routes. One route was Hao Ren and his companions, whose main task was to operate on the planet's surface, personally participating in and observing the civilization's forms, recording how this civilization survived and operated in a special environment. Observing the changes taking place in the Dragoon Empire was one of their tasks. The other route was Nolan and her army of probes, whose task was to scan the entire planet's material structure and deep secrets, looking for clues in those inanimate objects. The two routes proceeded in parallel, to simultaneously complete the observation of civilization and the recording of the local environment.

Incidentally, they could also search for traces related to the Lord of Madness.

Hao Ren felt a myriad of emotions: This was, in fact, the normal workflow that a normal inspector should follow under normal circumstances—damn it, the previous method of pulling out the main guns and blasting everything before landing was not normal at all!

After expressing his feelings, he felt a slight sense of urgency: Nolan had already found a significant anomaly on this planet. Although the anomaly was shrouded by an energy barrier, cracking the barrier was only a matter of time. Could his actions on the planet's surface also achieve some results?

Instinct told him that the Dragoon Empire must be hiding some secret. It was this secret that made it so different from any other country on Lahrehn. He believed that as long as this journey came to an end, this secret would definitely be revealed...