Sir! Don't close the net!

“So, why not just swipe it off?” Li Yili said, closing her pocket watch. “At your current pace, you wouldn’t be able to finish swiping this lady even if you had another seven or eight hours. Remember, this lady.”

Abel's lips twitched.

“Alright then, I promise I won’t touch any of the ladies here,” Li Yili said, spreading her arms wide in front of her to make a large circle. “So let this lady stay here in the most respectable way.”

Abel gripped the brush in his hand, glanced at the noblewoman lying on the bed, then at Li Yili, took a deep breath to relax, and said, "You can't touch the men here either."

“I can’t guarantee that,” Li Yili spread her hands. “Hey, hey, hey, what kind of look is that? I came to Thorn City to find out about the so-called exiles. How am I supposed to figure out their situation if I don’t let them touch me? Men or women, you have to let me touch one of them.”

Abel's eyes flickered for a while before he rubbed his forehead. "Just don't go too far."

"Understood, the future is set, sir."

Li Yili whistled, put her hands behind her back, and walked quickly out. Abel looked again.

He glanced at the noblewoman lying on the bed, let out a long sigh, and turned to follow her.

After that, Li Yili did not kick open any other doors. She would occasionally peek out of the window to check the situation. She wandered around Thorn City and finally came to the castle called Apple Tree. Unlike the gates of Thorn City, the gates of Apple Tree Castle were not blocked by thorns. The thorns only spread along the outer edge.

It does give the impression that the thorns sprouted from the city.

After pacing back and forth for a while with her chin in her hand, Li Yili stepped aside and looked at Abel with clear eyes. "I have a feeling it's dangerous. You go first."

Abel's lips twitched. He pulled on the suitcase on his back and braced himself as he stepped through the gate of Apple Tree Castle. Before he had taken more than a few steps, a deep chill, like thorns, silently wrapped around him. Even Abel felt a sense of urgency, as if someone was squeezing his heart out.

"Should I yell something?" Li Yili muttered, standing outside the Apple Tree Castle, "to ease the tension or something."

"No need, thank you," Abel said weakly, waving his hand. "It's nothing."

“As expected of Mr. The Future Is Already Determined,” Li Yili said, whistling as she walked through the gates of Apple Tree Castle with her hands behind her back, following behind Abel. “This is the only building in Thorn City that is so expensive and labor-intensive.”

“This was built by the King of Eden for his newborn daughter,” Abel breathed a sigh of relief. “At that time, the king was not yet called the King of Thorns; he was just an ordinary king with the same flaws as all kings in the world.”

“I see. Building a castle for one’s daughter is indeed something an ordinary king would do,” Li Yili nodded. “So? After building this apple tree, this king suddenly realized that his actions had burdened his people with unimaginable weight, turning him into the King of Thorns?”

Do you think an ordinary king would have such self-awareness?

“That makes sense,” Li Yili shrugged. “So? It really was that one, wasn’t it? The act of building the castle angered some chosen one of the gods, and then he was warned or cursed?”

"Which chosen one do you think could warn the King of Eden, who is supported by the Crusades?"

“Ha…” Li Yili raised an eyebrow. “Your Crusade doesn’t seem like the type to advise the king to be frugal.”

Abel's eye twitched, then he turned and climbed the steps that were entangled in thorns on both sides.

"The king received something."

"So...you're here to retrieve that thing?" Li Yili stood before the steps, not going up, her gaze fixed intently on Abel's back as he stopped moving. "Is it that thing that caused Thorn City to become like this?"

Abel exhaled softly, turned to look at Li Yili, and rolled his eyes slightly. "Mr. Sole Ruler, you seem to be trying to trick me into saying things. You seem to think that making me hold a brush and dust for that lady for two hours will make me mentally exhausted and prone to saying things I shouldn't."

“Aren’t you tired? I feel tired just watching you from the side,” Li Yili gestured.

……

“Of course I’m exhausted!” Abel raised his voice. “But I hope you understand that we knew from the beginning that the king had obtained something, and if we wanted to take it back, we would have done so long ago. There was no need to wait until now.”

“So you’re really here to recycle things,” Li Yili raised an eyebrow.

Abel's lips twitched, but he didn't say anything.

“Let me think… You have confirmed through Gungnir that the King has also obtained something else that you desperately need.”

Li Yili, with her chin held high, stepped onto the stairs.

As Li Yili drew closer, Abel remained silent.

Soon Li Yili caught up with and overtook Abel, continuing to climb the stairs.

"Speaking of which, don't you all feel a sense of the absurdity of fate? The things you pursue are actually so close to you, within reach."

Li Yili raised her finger and shook it from side to side.

"But don't worry, even now, I don't know what you're trying to reclaim. I have no interest in it, nor the ability to do so. I'm just curious about the truth about the exiles. If you're willing to tell me what the so-called exiles are, I promise I won't cause you any trouble afterward, and I'll forget what I saw in Thorn City."

"There have never been any exiles in this world."

"As expected~"

"They've just reverted to their original state. You're lucky, but also unlucky. This is the third type you've seen."

Li Yili's right foot landed heavily on the steps, her pupils contracting slightly.

Chapter 83 The Secret Chamber

Instead of being banished, they returned to their original state?

The third type?

The third refers to the residents of the slumbering Thorn City in front of them, the second refers to the crew of the Instas Dead Sea Silver Queen, so who is the first?

The caramel figure he saw at the Temple of Gowwitton was...

Are the residents of Guoweidun who became fat people after swallowing pollutants?

Li Yili resisted the urge to turn around. A chill crept up her spine, and her stomach began to churn.

“That’s quite a strange metaphor,” Li Yili said, suppressing her nausea as she continued up the stairs. “Are you saying they deserved to end up like this because of the crimes they committed? I understand, I understand.”

. "

“I don’t like using metaphors, especially not on serious topics,” Abel tugged at his suitcase. “And I’ve already told you the truth about the exiles. You must keep your promise not to cause me trouble, and forget everything you saw in Thorn City, of course—”

"The best thing for you is to stay here. If you keep going, you might see some things that you'll never forget."

Li Yili walked slower and slower, while Abel maintained his original pace. Soon, Abel overtook Li Yili and walked up the stairs to a higher level.

Li Yili stopped in her tracks, turned her head to look at the thorns spreading on the wall, and sighed deeply, one hand on her waist.

"What should I do?"

"Should we continue the investigation?"

"The purpose of coming to Thorn City has been achieved. In terms of results alone, it's as expected and has no impact on the subsequent plans, but..."

Li Yili pinched the bridge of her nose and fell into deep thought.

Of course, no one would answer his question, and he didn't expect anyone to be able to solve it for him in this situation. He just spoke up to clear his mind of other questions and focus on the current problem.

He already knows; he can't pretend not to know and just stand there.

If it ended there, this question would torment him forever, and he would never have another chance to answer Thorn City.

Li Yili exhaled, made up her mind, and continued upward.

The higher you go, the fewer thorns there are, but the thorns themselves become increasingly eerie in color, like some kind of living thing. Every now and then, Li Yili would feel a chilling sense of being watched by something.

Soon, Li Yili arrived at the hall of Apple Tree Castle used to receive the nobles of Eden. At the end of the red carpet, which had become dull due to the dust, there was a throne covered with thorns. The throne was empty. On both sides of the red carpet lay several people whose clothes were more elegant than those of the noblewoman who had been lying on the bed at the beginning. Judging from their posture, they must have suddenly encountered this slumber.

There was a pile of documents scattered around one of the women.

Li Yili exhaled, straightened the bodies of the people lying on both sides of the red carpet one by one, wiped the dust off their faces, and finally came to the woman with documents scattered around.

Li Yili didn't pick up the documents directly. Instead, he straightened the woman's body and carefully examined her clothing. This woman's attire was distinctly different from the others lying on the ground. Coincidentally, he remembered this style of robe, which was the distinctive attire of the members of the Church of Steam and Steel, the wasteland capital of Millennium.

Li Yili reached out and lifted the collar of the woman's gown. Inside the collar were embroidered three overlapping stars, one of which was rainbow-colored like the starry sky.

"He's a high-ranking official," Li Yili said with some surprise, glancing at the woman who was sleeping peacefully.

The executive branch of the Church of Steam and Steel is called Sanxingdui. The closer the color of the three overlapping stars is to the starry sky, the higher the status of the person in Sanxingdui. If one of the stars is completely the color of the starry sky, it means that she is no longer a member of Sanxingdui, but that Sanxingdui serves her.

Such people usually stay at the headquarters of the Church of Steam and Steel in Millennium, where they continue their research.

Li Yili reached out and pinched the woman's chin, looking her over from side to side. Then she lifted the woman's eyelids to confirm her pupil color. "So that's how it is. The residents of Eden really have it tough. It's so hard to finally graduate and serve your country, only to encounter such an 'accident.' Although I really want to say that..."

Li Yili glanced at the documents scattered around her; even a thick layer of dust couldn't obscure the contents of the black and white paper.

[Thorn City Resident Filtering Progress]

"You bastard, it looks like you're experimenting on the people of Thorn City," Li Yili sneered, bending down to organize the documents, shaking off the dust, and looking towards the throne.

Using the entire capital city for experiments must have been authorized by the king. It's possible that this woman induced the king of Thorn City to conduct the experiment, or perhaps the king and this woman reached a cooperation agreement. In any case, judging from the position where the woman fell and the direction in which the documents were scattered, this woman is now probably planning to report the results of the experiment.

But the throne was empty, and the surrounding area was deserted, with no sign of the king.

Li Yili tilted her head and pondered for a while before carrying the documents to the throne. After circling the throne once, she stopped at the back of the throne, where there were some scratches on the bottom.

"A government agency? That really sounds like something from the Millennium."

Li Yili raised her leg and kicked the throne, but the throne did not move at all, as if it were grown into the ground.

After circling the throne once more, Li Yili stopped on one side of the armrest and scratched the sphere of the armrest with her fingernail. "Is this the usual procedure?"

Li Yili gripped the sphere on the armrest and spun it forcefully. With a heavy spinning sound and the cracking of thorns being broken, the throne sank downwards. The wall behind the throne, covered by dust and thorns, slowly descended, revealing a passageway.

The sides of the passageway were inlaid with luminescent stones or something similar, and they shimmered with a faint light.

Li Yili whistled, clutching the documents, and reached out to push aside the drooping thorns, peering into the passage. Lights were installed on both sides of the passage, their interconnected mechanisms suggesting they would illuminate the moment the walls descended; however, these lighting mechanisms had lost their function due to a lack of maintenance in a long time.

Li Yili leaned closer to the fluorescent light and reached out to tap it; it wasn't luminescent stone, but luminescent moss.

After swaying slightly from side to side, Li Yili gripped the thumb ring on her left hand and stepped into the passage.

Whether the designer thought that since the user was the king, there was no need to be overly cautious in the design, Li Yili felt that she had only walked a few steps before passing through the tunnel and arriving at the secret room.

The bookshelves attached to the wall, the dusty tables and chairs, the various shaped jars on one side containing unknown contents, and the spiderwebs everywhere with a dried spider hanging down beside them all reminded Li Yili of the parchment scrolls of the past. To show everyone that each parchment scroll was unique, the creator's finger would be cut off and hung on the scroll after it was completed.

However, this place is more like a secret laboratory than a sealed room, with a skylight overhead that allows starlight to flow into this secret laboratory.

Li Yili looked around, but there was no sign of the Thorn King.

Where will this king go in his slumber?

Li Yili was curious about this matter, but now he was even more curious about what the Thorn King was researching.

Li Yili pulled out a chair, plopped down, placed the documents in her hand on her left, picked up the documents on the table, let them hang down by her legs and shook them vigorously to make sure there was no dust, then put them back on the table. But she didn't start reading them immediately; instead, she opened each drawer.

Chapter 84 Diary

Soon, Li Yili found a palm-sized notebook in the drawer's inner compartment. Most of the pages were wrinkled and yellowed. Although she hadn't started reading it yet, Li Yili could already sense the king's mental journey.

Although Li Yili belongs to the group of serious people who keep diaries, sometimes people keep diaries not so that others might accidentally see them and think they are so great, but so that they can save themselves.

March 21, 1974

I know everyone is against me building a castle, thinking it's too expensive and time-consuming, but please! My daughter is about to be born! I'm the king! Is it really that extravagant for a king to build a castle for his first child?

Exaggeration is the way to go! Because I am the king!