I can see experience bars after being transported to another world.

The Night Watch Division.

When Klaus rushed back, the branch office was already crowded with people, all residents of Bronze City.

Several thousand people blocked the entrance to the branch and the open space on both sides, forming a huge, dark mass that stretched from the entrance all the way to the street corner.

Most of these people were gathered from all directions outside the city.

Klaus had previously ordered the residents to be moved to the area around the branch. Now that they have been moved, the scene is chaotic with so many people crammed together, hungry, scared, cold, and stuffy in the white fog.

The crowd was filled with the sounds of crying, children's shouts, and adults' whispers.

Some people were trembling, while others squatted on the ground with empty eyes, clearly unable to accept the sight of their own people dying before their eyes.

Some people were clutching weapons issued by the branch, but most people were still holding things like iron bars and kitchen knives.

Klaus walked out of the white mist, with Blue Knight and Lu Yuan following behind.

The crowd saw him, and the noise subsided slightly, but it quickly rose again. Some people called his name, and others asked what to do. The voices were layered together, and nothing could be heard clearly.

Klaus didn't stop. He walked through the crowd, strode to the steps in front of the branch's main entrance, and turned around.

The Blue Knight stood calmly to the side of the steps.

Lu Yuan stood on the other side, looking at the dark mass of people in front of him, his heart felt like it was being blocked by something.

He recognized some of the faces.

There was that bakery owner; he had bought bread from his shop a few times before, but it wasn't very good, not even as good as the food at the Night Watch branch.

There were several workers working in Bronze City;

There were also textile factory weavers I'd seen during previous missions.

He couldn't name most of these people, but having stayed in Bronze City for so long, he had some impression of each of their faces.

They must have been informed of Klaus's evacuation beforehand, but they did not leave.

They were still here, clutching those weapons that were of little use.

Klaus stood on the steps, gazing at the endless rows of faces before him.

The white mist surged in from all directions, making his vision somewhat hazy.

He then spoke, his voice not loud, but it reached everyone's ears steadily in the white mist.

"I know you are among those who chose to stay."

The noise in the crowd suddenly subsided as he spoke.

"You didn't leave when you had the chance. You weren't willing to give up your home, to abandon this city, and to start over somewhere else."

Klaus spoke slowly, word by word, his gaze sweeping over the pale faces in the crowd.

"As you can see from the current situation, Bronze City is facing an unprecedented crisis. No one knows what's sealed underground, but it's currently surging upwards relentlessly. No one can predict the future of Bronze City."

He paused, then changed the subject.

"But the Night's Watch is still here, the Holy Armored Army is still here, the Empire hasn't abandoned this place, and we won't abandon it either."

The crowd fell silent. Thousands of people stared at Klaus on the steps, and not a single person uttered a sound.

"So please don't despair." Klaus's gaze swept past the old woman holding a child at the front of the crowd, landing on the distant expanse of white mist. "Those monstrous scum, we will crush them all, leaving not a single one behind."

His voice held a hint of determination as he stood on the steps and uttered his final words.

"Please have hope and believe in us."

Lu Yuan stood on the side of the steps, watching Klaus's back.

This deputy chief of staff was usually serious and didn't talk much about "for the empire" or "for glory".

But today, standing here facing thousands of desperate people, he uttered only a "please." Klaus rarely used that word.

Someone in the crowd was crying, wiping away tears, and keeping their head down so that others wouldn't see.

Some people gripped their weapons tightly, children cried softly, and everyone stared intently at Klaus on the steps.

Unlike the others, Lu Yuan suddenly realized something at this moment.

Unlike the constant notifications that "environmental awareness detected" and "pollution source detected," a completely new term suddenly appeared in the gray and white text in my field of vision.

[Environmental awareness detected an unusual object. Please take note.]

Lu Yuan stared at that line of text.

The next moment, he noticed, or rather, the knowledge worm in his left eye noticed, that it was the direction of room number seven in section C.

The sapling suddenly lit up in his senses; it was a burst of golden light, growing wildly outward from its branches and trunk, so bright that it stung his senses.

The seeds of hope are growing wildly.

The emotions of those thousands of people were being channeled into that sapling through some unseen force, and it was swallowing them up in large gulps.

Lu Yuan's heart suddenly raced.

He opened his eyes. Klaus's mobilization was still going on, and the crowd's emotions were still surging.

A heavy, suffocating aura emanated from within the Tower of Learning, its dark energy piercing through the unknown white mist, penetrating the entire bronze city, and pressing heavily on everyone's senses.

The crowd at the branch entrance froze, and thousands of people simultaneously looked up towards the direction of the Boxue Tower.

The white mist was torn open in that instant.

Klaus sensed it too.

His gaze shifted from the crowd to the direction of the Tower of Learning, and a crack appeared in the calm on his face, revealing the expression that only a Night Watchman would have when witnessing his fifth-tier master's attack.

He didn't stop.

"Did you see that?" Klaus turned to face the crowd, his voice suddenly rising, "This is our Night's Watch's predecessor! He's made his move! Bronze City still has hope!"

The crowd erupted.

Cries and howls mingled together. Some people raised their weapons and shouted to the sky, some hugged the people next to them and wailed, and most people just stared intently in the direction of the Tower of Learning, at the gap in the white mist that had been torn open, at the cluster of light that seemed to be a glimmer of hope in the face of death.

Before the cheers of the crowd had subsided, Lu Yuan sensed that something was wrong.

The guardian's heavy, dark aura had just exploded from the Tower of Learning, filling the entire sky above the Bronze City.

Thousands of people were looking up and cheering at the gap in the white mist that had been torn open.

Lu Yuan noticed something was wrong. He stared at the sky, because the white mist that had been suppressed by the aura was changing.

The entire white mist began to change color from the bottom up.

A layer of gray fog rolled in from the inner city, gradually replacing the original white.

Lu Yuan initially thought he was seeing things, but although the gray mist was not moving very fast, its direction was extremely firm, and it rolled straight down from the inner city to the outer city.

The crowd at the branch entrance gradually noticed, and the cheers suddenly subsided.

Thousands of people craned their necks, looking at the white sky above that was being swallowed by the gray fog, their joy turning back into bewilderment.

Lu Yuan stared at the layer of gray mist, and a strange thought suddenly came to mind.

This is not a means for the guardians.

The senior's aura was dark and dense, with a strong polluting quality; he had seen him several times.

The gray mist before them was completely different; it carried no sense of oppression, nor even a trace of malice, yet everything fell silent wherever it passed.

In the distance, a large ghoul that was still wandering around the street corner was shrouded in gray mist, its entire body seemingly frozen in place.

Its claws were suspended in mid-air, its mouth was still hissing, but it couldn't make a sound. Only an empty shell remained there.

More than one.

Wherever the gray fog passed, all the ghouls that were still active froze in place, whether they were lying in the cracks of the ruins or squatting on the rooftops.

Even those special individuals dragged out of the wall of flesh and blood were no exception.

Lu Yuan didn't know what was happening, but he had already sensed what the layer of gray mist was doing, or rather, he had already sensed who the layer of gray mist was.

Because he was surrounded by gray fog, he could feel his senses being greatly suppressed.

The gray text that had been constantly appearing around suddenly disappeared.

This means that the ghouls that were originally scattered around are now either dead or have severed all ties with the flesh and blood below.

And that's exactly what this layer of gray fog accomplished.

Clearly, this is someone on the wall.

Lu Yuan didn't say the name, but he was certain of it.

Because only when taboos exist can taboos be dealt with.

It immediately recognized the origins of this flesh and blood, these ghouls.

The gray fog was still spreading towards the outer city, and had already covered the entire inner city.

The surroundings were eerily quiet.

The grayish fog hung there, neither churning nor flowing, and the entire inner city seemed to be frozen in a deathly silence.

The moment the gray mist spread out, the guardians made their move.

A dark aura suddenly exploded from the direction of the Tower of Learning.

Even from a great distance, Lu Yuan could see everything clearly from the branch office entrance.

The dark aura spread out along the gray fog, shattering the entire fog and turning the whole sky black.

Immediately afterwards, several enormous eyes appeared simultaneously at the four corners of the Bronze City.

Each one was enormous, completely black, with no visible pupils, and hovered in mid-air, slowly rotating.

Their gazes swept across all directions, almost covering the entire inner city.

Any pollution that is observed by those eyes, whatever it may be, begins to grow from within.

Their flesh surged upwards, and one by one, jet-black eyeballs emerged from beneath their skin and flesh, pushing aside their bodies and tearing flesh apart.

Those eerie skins were visibly pushed open and rolled back, flesh and blood rapidly withered, bones crumbled little by little, and finally the entire body shattered like porcelain under the pressure of the dark eyeballs.

Even the special individuals still indiscriminately killing in the inner city were no exception.