Illusory Glass sprinted across the ruins, with several weak Monsters trailing behind her. She didn’t deal with them immediately. She simply let them follow.

Defeating them would’ve been effortless. But Illusory Glass didn’t want to waste even that little time.

Combining Night Frost’s father’s notes from District Twenty One with Blade’s deductions, Illusory Glass had learned many things.

Something unknown was sealed beneath the gate. And that Key was the key to opening it.

So where was the Key to the Twelfth District?

Illusory Glass didn’t know. But she had a few rough guesses.

According to the Old Woman, she had once possessed a counterfeit Key that could search for the others. Night Frost’s father had entrusted it to the Old Woman’s husband for safekeeping.

That Key could locate the presence of the other Keys.

After the battle in District Twenty One, the black-market boss had used special means to find the Key left behind in the ruins of the Divine Cult Modification Center.

With this Key, Illusory Glass firmly believed she could find the location of the Twelfth District’s Key.

But Illusory Glass had already gone around the Twelfth District twice, and the Key still hadn’t reacted.

Could it be that the Twelfth District no longer had a Key?

Impossible.

Even if Night Frost’s father had used some special method to keep the Keys of the Twelfth District and District Twenty One in his hands, he had left the Key to District Twenty One behind.

There was no reason for him not to leave the Twelfth District’s Key behind as well…

Still, Night Frost’s father was a master of Formations. What if he had created a Formation that could block this Key’s detection?

Wouldn’t that make the Key completely useless?

“No, that’s not right! Grandma said that as long as this Key is close enough to the real one, it’ll react whether or not it’s being blocked. Back then, Night Frost’s father only placed a Formation on the District Twenty One Key to block mental detection. The Twelfth District Key should be the same.”

But why hadn’t this Key reacted?

Could it really not be in the Twelfth District? Could Night Frost’s father have hidden it somewhere else?

But Night Frost’s father had died in the Twelfth District. He’d never had the chance to take the Key elsewhere.

Could it be that Night Frost’s father hadn’t died?

Or had someone else gotten to the Twelfth District’s Key first?

But if those people had obtained the Key, why would they still come to the Twelfth District to wipe everything out? Why not just open the gate?

“Could there be another faction?”

Illusory Glass was thinking this when she realized she had returned to her starting point.

She had already searched the entire city center, yet the Key remained silent.

It couldn’t possibly be broken…

She looked at the tide of Monsters behind her. After applying a time lock to them, she sliced open their throats one by one.

“Time, resume.”

In that instant, all the Monsters’ heads fell to the ground.

Illusory Glass quickly counted the Magic Stones in her palm. There weren’t many. That was only natural. Most of the Monsters before her were merely 【First Symphony】, with a large number of beasts mixed among them.

“I remember there’s still one place in the Twelfth District I haven’t visited. That’s where Grandma found the District Twenty One Key. It was also the residence of Yuan Dai, the former guardian of the Twelfth District.”

Illusory Glass had heard that it was a Daoist temple. But after enduring several battles, it had long since fallen into ruin.

There was practically nothing left inside, only an empty courtyard.

“Could it still be hidden in the temple?”

Night Frost’s father had already left one Key there. He couldn’t possibly have hidden another one there too, right?

If the temple had been wiped out, wouldn’t both Keys have fallen into the enemy’s hands?

Night Frost was famous for being sharp. Her father couldn’t have been that stupid, could he?

Wait…

Illusory Glass suddenly snapped to attention and looked at the Key in her hand.

“What if… what if this Key can only locate the one nearest Key at a time?”

“And what if both Keys were hidden in the same place? One outside, and one deeper inside.”

“Even if someone with ulterior motives obtained this counterfeit Key and found the real Key to District Twenty One, they’d never know there was another Key here…”

Illusory Glass understood.

“This temple was the residence of the former guardian and the guardian before her. Both were 【Chapter Three】. They had the strength to protect the Key. That’s the first layer of security.”

“Then Night Frost’s father placed a Formation around the Key. That’s the second layer of security…”

“And then there’s a third layer. A failsafe to ensure the Twelfth District survives.”

“It’s just that this failsafe will probably bring trouble to District Twenty One.”

Thinking about it carefully, Night Frost’s father hadn’t done this without reason.

Most of the Twelfth District had been wiped clean. Aside from a few buildings on the outskirts, almost everything had suffered.

Yet this temple had never been bombed.

And because a 【Chapter Three】 had once guarded it, random nobodies had never dared to attack. Otherwise, they would’ve suffered a crushing defeat.

Illusory Glass spent more than half an hour rushing there at full speed. At the same time, she used time acceleration to speed herself up.

She stood at the edge of the hills and raised the Key in her palm.

The Key reacted.

It seemed to be answering her guess.

A faint silver glow spread across its surface. The instant Illusory Glass aimed it at the temple, the light grew even brighter.

Just as she had suspected, Night Frost’s father had hidden both Keys in the same place.

Illusory Glass headed toward the middle of the hillside, feeling the endless silence surrounding her.

There was no bustle from the streets. No restless crowds.

There was only deathly stillness.

The air seemed frozen in place. It was so quiet that she could hear only her own breathing and heartbeat.

Sparse grass and trees swayed gently in the breeze, yet they couldn’t summon even a trace of life.

Now and then, a few birds flew past. Their cries echoed through the empty mountains, making the silence feel even deeper.

“It’s just like the Twelfth District tonight…”

Everyone had withdrawn. Only a few people remained to fight across the wasteland.

Aside from that, there was little difference between the Twelfth District and this place.

Illusory Glass stood before the ruined temple, the Key in her hand flashing with cold light beneath the weak sunlight.

The temple had endured years of wind and frost. It was visibly dilapidated.

Unexpectedly, though, it had been cleaned until it was neat and spotless.

Every stone slab seemed to have been carefully scrubbed.

The contrast between its cleanliness and ruin gave Illusory Glass an indescribably strange feeling.

It was as if the temple concealed some unknown secret—and some hidden danger.

She stepped inside without hesitation.

That didn’t mean she had lowered her guard. She knew Blade had sent people to clean this temple.

They were still trustworthy enough.

Illusory Glass took a deep breath. After setting an anchor point, she pushed open the temple’s main door.

As the door slowly swung open, an empty, hollow atmosphere rushed toward her.

There was nothing inside the temple.

Only mottled walls and broken beams remained. Moonlight slanted through the holes in the roof, scattering patches of light across the floor.

Illusory Glass slowly entered the temple.

The stone slabs beneath her feet gave off a faint echo.

Her footsteps rang especially clearly through the empty space, as if each one could summon another echo.

She looked around. The walls were still covered in traces left by the previous battles.

She walked to the ruined Array Pattern.

The place where the District Twenty One Key had once been placed was just ahead.

Illusory Glass stepped before the platform and raised the Key.

It was still glowing.

“How am I supposed to know where it is?”

It seemed she would have to dig three feet into the ground…

With the aid of time magic, Illusory Glass moved quickly.

She searched every room in the temple first. After finding nothing, she began digging up the floor.

For some reason, many people in this world loved building secret tunnels underground.

If someone wanted to hide a Key, constructing a passage into the earth would make perfect sense.

But this time, Illusory Glass seemed to have guessed wrong.

She lifted the temple’s stone bricks and wooden flooring, yet found nothing.

“This time, the author didn’t even make an underground tunnel? That’s impossible! Huh? What was I saying just now?”

Illusory Glass looked toward the sky.

The moon had already drifted to the other side of the heavens.

The distant battle was still raging. Even from more than half a Twelfth District away, she could feel the roaring space and that invisible, pitch-black wind.

Where the hell was this thing?

Illusory Glass reached out and angrily slapped the wall.

The ruined wall beside her collapsed with a thunderous crash, revealing a room only a few square meters in size.

The small room was covered in dust.

And in its very center lay a Key.

“?”

Illusory Glass glanced at her hand, then at the Key before her.

Without bothering to think, she grabbed it and closed her fingers around it.

“I got it!”

“What did you get?”

A languid voice drifted from behind Illusory Glass.

She immediately cast time slow in that direction and spun around.

But there was no one behind her.

“I’m over here.”

A figure in a black robe stood silently beneath the moonlight.

She looked down at Illusory Glass as if she were nothing more than an ant she could crush with ease.

“A Seeker? A 【Chapter Three】?!”

Illusory Glass sensed the aura radiating from the black-robed woman and froze.

That woman was one of the Three Pillars of the Seeker faction.

There were two other Seekers at the border of the Twelfth District. All of the Seeker faction’s 【Chapter Three】 should’ve been on the battlefield.

Then where had this woman come from?

“You must be wondering. If all of the Seeker faction’s 【Chapter Three】 are on the battlefield, where did I come from?”

“Have you ever heard this saying? Why must the Three Pillars consist of only three people?”

“Wouldn’t four people among the Three Pillars be perfectly reasonable?”

Illusory Glass’s lips twitched.

What did she mean, four people among the Three Pillars?

This woman really didn’t play by the rules.

“If you give me the Key, I might let you go.”

“Although you can manipulate time, that doesn’t mean you can necessarily escape from me.”

Illusory Glass said nothing. She only took two steps back.

If she rewound time now, she could tell Moon Owl about the Key ahead of time and have her come retrieve it.

Or she could simply tell no one.

As long as she alone knew where the Key was, that would be enough.

“You’re not thinking about rewinding time, are you?”

“Ertis may be foolish, but even she knew to share information about time with us.”

“Did you really think no one besides Ertis knew that time reversal existed?”

“To keep you from making a grave mistake, let me give you a warning…”

“Do you know how Ertis died?”

“Oh~ You were unconscious back then. You don’t know anything.”

“Then let me tell you~”

“Ertis rewound time.”

“But gods are beings beyond the reach of time reversal.”

“And then… she died.”