Nelly knelt on the ground and said respectfully, "Yes, Lord Deity. The raw ore was lost while we were fleeing through the city; otherwise I would certainly have presented it to you!"
To stay alive he had already abandoned all shame; from Jiang Yan's questions he could tell this being was definitely not from their world, or else he wouldn't be asking about everything in such detail.
Yet to command such a vast, bizarre city— in his eyes Jiang Yan was basically no different from a god.
Hearing that, Jiang Yan simply glanced at the Lord of the Mist.
The Lord of the Mist immediately bowed. "Master, please wait a moment."
With a thought, every foreign object inside the entire City of Mist appeared in his mind within a second.
Filtering out some trashy clothing and weapons, he quickly locked onto a fist-sized silver ore.
A tentacle extended; white fog appeared in front of it, and the tentacle plunged into the mist.
The next second the tentacle withdrew from the fog, bringing with it the fist-sized silver ore.
The tentacle, coiling around the silver ore, came to Jiang Yan's side. At close range Jiang Yan instantly sensed a peculiar power within it.
Jiang Yan stretched out his right hand, picked up the origin stone and studied it carefully.
A moment later he set the stone down and looked at Harold, the most knowledgeable person present. "How does this thing make someone superhuman?"
Harold's face showed embarrassment; he only knew some rough facts and understood none of the details.
Still, he spoke up: "Lord Deity, this is one of the main materials for forging a source artifact. All I know is that anyone holding a source artifact can erupt with terrifying strength ordinary people can hardly believe."
Jiang Yan turned to Nelly and Maggie. "Since you two stole this item, you should know how to forge it, right?"
But both of them looked troubled; finally Maggie cautiously said, "Lord Deity, we don't know how to forge it either. We just heard this thing can grant miraculous power, so we borrowed it."
Jiang Yan realized these people couldn't give him any specifics, but he also understood that this world's superhuman power came from external objects, not from within.
The major powers of this world emerged through the explanations of these few people.
The Tianlun Empire ruled the entire world, and within the Empire several famous forces existed.
They were the Eternal Church to which Harold belonged, the Revolutionary Army aiming to overthrow the Empire, and the Seven Rings organization that sowed chaos throughout the world. Under these great powers were many local factions.
But the strongest remained the Empire and those three forces; these four great powers each commanded formidable superhuman might.
As for the population count most important to Jiang Yan, there was no answer. The Empire's countless mixed factions caused so much interference that the Tianlun Empire still hadn't been able to conduct a complete census.
All this came from Harold's mouth.
Jiang Yan stood, glanced at Harold and the others, and said calmly, "In a moment I'll send people to verify whether what you've said is true."
After that, Jiang Yan looked at the Lord of the Mist, who immediately nodded and sent him out of the City of Mist.
The several people kneeling on the ground paled at Jiang Yan's words, their expressions flickering uncertainly.
Although Jiang Yan hadn't stated the penalty for lying, they all understood the outcome would surely be death.
Inside the cavern, Jiang Yan's figure appeared.
He held the origin stone; the star seal on his hand flickered as he contacted Dong Guangjie.
Jiang Yan: "Come yourself. There are a few volunteers from another world inside the City of Mist for you to handle. Bring a Mental-type Monster capable of memory probing when you get here!"
Dong Guangjie: "Good stuff so soon? I'll be right there!"
Meanwhile, at the cavern entrance stood seven or eight Monsters Jiang Yan had summoned earlier.
Jiang Yan looked at them and said, "Go back and prepare the equipment the Laboratory needs—top specifications—then transport it directly here."
"Yes, President!" The Monsters answered respectfully, turned, and left to prepare the apparatus.
Three minutes after Jiang Yan messaged Dong Guangjie, a commotion came from the cavern entrance.
Dong Guangjie, clad in a white lab coat, his skin entirely purple, appeared with two purple fleshy antennae on his forehead.
Behind him, Yun Xia followed in, her face a little pale.
Dong Guangjie had suddenly found her, said nothing, and dragged her along at several times the speed of sound toward this place.
Only because she herself was a Fourth-level Awakener turned Monster could her body endure it.
The moment Dong Guangjie entered, he shot straight into the white fog. He merely nodded at Jiang Yan, took the origin stone, and stepped into the mist.
After the Lord of the Mist appeared, Dong Guangjie had entered the City of Mist several times to inspect, but all he found were corpses empowered by mist. Their insides were pure mist-force; once dissected they turned to ash—no research value—so he lost interest.
When Yun Xia saw Jiang Yan she greeted him respectfully, "President!"
"Go in. Keep Harold; the rest are up to you." Jiang Yan gestured for her to enter.
"Yes!" Curious, Yun Xia stepped into the white fog; it was her first time entering it.
Several hours after Dong Guangjie and Yun Xia entered, the various precision instruments required for the Laboratory began arriving.
One heavy piece of equipment after another was carried in directly by Monsters.
The terrain inside could be altered at the Lord of the Mist's will; no construction was needed—just a thought.
A day later, Jiang Yan entered the City of Mist again.
Outside the church, everything had returned to silence. Jiang Yan stood at the doorway.
The Lord of the Mist appeared beside him.
Jiang Yan looked around, detected no sign of the Laboratory or Dong Guangjie's group, and turned to the Lord of the Mist. "Good concealment. Where did you build the Laboratory?"
The Lord of the Mist pointed his spear at the small moon in the sky. "Master, the Laboratory was built inside the little moon. That way it stays hidden, and if powerful enemies appear it won't be found and destroyed immediately."
"Dong Guangjie's idea. Take me to see it." Jiang Yan looked up at the unremarkable little moon tens of thousands of meters in the sky; it had grown bigger—probably enlarged to house the Laboratory.
The Lord of the Mist swung his spear, and white fog wrapped around Jiang Yan.
When the fog dispersed, Jiang Yan was already inside an alloy-plated room filled with precision instruments.
The small moon was over five hundred meters in diameter—more than enough space inside for a small living-subject research Laboratory.
Five researchers in white coats were conducting experiments, while Dong Guangjie reviewed a data report.