"right!"

Leng Yue drew her dagger and nodded, saying, "There should be a secret passage or a hidden room here!"

"A secret room?" Jiang Yuan frowned, pondered for a moment, and then unleashed the Stone Breath.

Although Stone Breath can only detect stones, what if he does the opposite? The secret chamber hidden in a place that can avoid his Stone Breath's detection is naturally not made of cement. It is very likely that it is made of extremely hard metal and alloy. As long as he can detect which part is impervious to his Stone Breath, he can roughly determine the location of the secret chamber.

Leng Yue searched everywhere very professionally, tapping here and flipping through there.

"Yes, there really is!"

While Leng Yue was still busy, Jiang Yuan exclaimed in surprise. When he used the Stone Breath to search specifically, he actually found a place next to the underground parking garage that could not be detected.

"What's wrong?" Ning Yanlan turned her head and asked curiously.

"Follow me, I know where it is!" Jiang Yuan glanced smugly at Leng Yue. So what if she's a professional? She's still no match for me, who's got cheat codes!

"You found it?" Leng Yue wasn't entirely convinced.

Jiang Yuan smiled without saying a word, then walked a few steps to a location where Shi Zhixi could not detect him, and said mysteriously, "Come on, let me test your professional skills!"

"What do you mean?" Leng Yue didn't understand.

"Aren't scouts supposed to be all-powerful? This secret room is right behind this wall. Let's see if you have the ability to open it!" Jiang Yuan would never admit that he was out of options and had to lie to Leng Yue to survive.

Are you sure?

"Of course I'm sure. If I wasn't sure, why would I give you this opportunity to prove yourself?" Jiang Yuan said calmly.

Leng Yue frowned, and just as she was about to speak, a voice filled with murderous intent suddenly rang in their minds.

"Get out of my way, or I'll kill you all!"

The three of them assumed fighting stances almost simultaneously. Ning Yanlan asked curiously, "Did you hear a child's voice?"

"He doesn't look like a child; he must be sixteen or seventeen!" Jiang Yuan said after a moment's thought.

The other party used soul energy to transmit sound, and although the voice was slightly immature, it did not mean that he was a child.

"Who are you? Show yourself!" Leng Yue thrust his dagger directly into the tile seam, and as he pried it open, several tiles quickly fell off.

However, what was revealed after the tiles fell off was not a wall shell, but a smooth steel plate.

"This is our territory, please stop bothering us!"

The person inside transmitted their voice again, but this time the message conveyed to Jiang Yuan and the others was very clear: the other party was not just one person, but must have had accomplices.

Jiang Yuan covered the steel plate with one hand, then closed his eyes. His divine energy entered the space inside the steel plate, which was a full meter thick.

Mind control!

With a sweep of divine power, Jiang Yuan's talent directly controlled the person who had just communicated with them using soul energy.

"Open this space!" Jiang Yuan coldly ordered.

With the help of divine power, his mind control could even affect seventh-tier lord-level monsters, not to mention the people inside who were trembling as they spoke.

Not long after, a banging sound was heard inside, indicating a conflict had arisen over opening the hideout.

With a slam, a heavy steel door was kicked open, and the person under Jiang Yuan's mind control pushed it open.

"Qin Yangshu, are you crazy?"

The boy roared the moment the heavy steel door opened.

"If you want to hide in this godforsaken place for the rest of your lives, then you can close the door!" Jiang Yuan said calmly after releasing his mind control.

"lifetime!"

Jiang Yuan's words clearly had a huge impact on the people inside, because the steel door, which had been swaying back and forth, came to a complete stop.

"Come out!" Jiang Yuan's voice was cold, and his body was already on guard. If the other party showed any sign of trouble, they would be met with his ruthless methods.

After a few seconds of stalemate, the first figure emerged from the steel door. It was a boy who still looked very young, just as Jiang Yuan had estimated, only sixteen or seventeen years old.

The second person emerged; he was also a boy of similar age.

"Just the two of you?" Jiang Yuan asked, frowning. He could clearly smell the blood emanating from the secret room.

"Haha!" A strange laugh rang out, and then a girl of the same age emerged, though her clothes were extremely disheveled, which matched her strange behavior.

"Are you from Refugee Camp No. 9?" Jiang Yuan immediately used his Heavenly Eye, but the three of them were all low-level Spirit Awakeners, the strongest of whom was only at the third level, so they were not worth worrying about.

The two boys nodded, but the girl's eyes were somewhat vacant, and she couldn't answer for a moment.

"Where are all the people here? Where did they all go?" Jiang Yuan was still very interested in the sudden disappearance of Refugee Camp No. 9.

"They're all dead! They're all dead!" the strange girl suddenly shouted, gesturing wildly as she exclaimed, "So many monsters! They rushed in and ate so many people!"

Jiang Yuan and the other two's expressions gradually darkened. If that were the case, the probability of survival in Refugee Camp No. 9 would be very low, and the deep pit that had just appeared might just be one of countless graveyards.

"Siyin, don't talk nonsense. It's impossible for the entire Ninth Legion to be wiped out!" Another boy immediately stopped the outspoken girl.

Everyone present knew what the Ninth Legion was. To outsiders, those who hadn't entered the South City were all refugees, so they were called refugee camps. But among the refugees, they naturally wouldn't acknowledge the identity of refugees, so they used the title of Legion.

"Lin Siyin, shut up!" The boy, who had just been mind-controlled by Jiang Yuan, glared fiercely at the crazy girl.

Jiang Yuan looked at the three people who seemed rather strange, and then asked, "Where did the people from your Ninth Legion go?"

After being threatened, the girl didn't respond rashly. One of the boys mustered up his courage and said, "The beast tide came too fast. After holding out for half a day, the Ninth Legion's defenses collapsed completely, and the survivors retreated to the Third Legion in the rear."

"Then why are you staying here?" Jiang Yuan asked.

"There was no escape!" another boy said bitterly. "All those who couldn't evacuate in time became food for the giant earthworms outside. The few of us could only panic and find a place to hide, which is how we survived!"

Jiang Yuan, Ning Yanlan, and Leng Yue exchanged glances. Trust is hard to establish in the apocalypse, even if the other party seems to be just a few harmless teenagers.

"Why does the secret room behind you smell so strongly of blood!" Jiang Yuan pushed aside the two boys blocking the doorway.

"Don't!"

The boy tried to stop them, but how could someone at the third level possibly stop Jiang Yuan? Jiang Yuan pushed the two aside, and the scene inside the secret room was revealed to the three of them.

"How could someone die while hiding here?" Jiang Yuan frowned. The foul smell of blood that he found unpleasant was coming from the secret room, and the source of the smell was a male corpse inside the secret room.

"Actually, we were forced into this situation!"