After the machine stopped beeping, Zhao Li took out her identity token from the notch and put it back into her pocket.

Special privilege holder: This privilege is exclusive to members of the royal family, and there are only four people in total who have this privilege.

They are the Emperor, Zhao Li, the Empress, and the Eldest Prince.

With this privilege, one can enter and exit any part of the palace without any hindrance, simply by presenting their identity token.

Although the director of the Imperial Capital's Institute of Mysteries is Marshal Morris, he does not have such authority, since he is not considered a member of the royal family.

As Zhao Li took the token out of the notch, the two huge black and white palace doors made a rumbling sound.

The black and white palace doors also moved slowly inwards towards the walls on both sides, following the sound.

The black and white palace doors stopped moving toward the wall when a passage about two meters wide appeared.

The moment the passage came into Zhao Li's view, a soft white light emanated from the top of the passage, illuminating the dark passage and allowing her to see a room at the end of it.

Without much hesitation, Zhao Li strode towards the room at the end of the passage.

The two black and white palace doors also made a rumbling sound again after Zhao Li entered the passage, and then closed again without leaving a gap, as if they were originally a whole.

Zhao Li didn't look back at the closed black and white palace doors, after all, she had been here many times before, and just walked towards the room without paying any attention.

The passage wasn't very long, only about two hundred meters. Zhao Li arrived at the room at the end of the passage in just over ten seconds.

This room is exactly the same as the elevator room where Gu Changqing was taken out of the strange research institute by Marshal Morris when he first entered this world.

The same luxurious decor, the same red carpet, the same plush sofa, the same round desk.

Zhao Li had no interest in looking at the lavishly decorated interior of the room; she only looked at the control panel on the side of the door.

Extending his wheat-colored right hand, he manipulated the control panel, producing the same mechanical sound as that from the temple gate.

"Hello, esteemed holder of special privileges, you are currently in the private elevator room of the Imperial Capital Mystery Research Institute. Your destination is the 145th basement level. Please press the green button to confirm. If no action is taken within ten seconds, the process will be automatically cancelled."

Without thinking, Zhao Li pressed the green button on the control panel.

"Target floor confirmed, operation initiated, expected arrival in 5 minutes, please wait patiently."

As the machine's noise subsided, a feeling of weightlessness filled the room, caused by the room rapidly descending. However, this feeling lasted only a moment before disappearing without a trace.

Seeing that the room had started automatically heading to the target floor, Zhao Li also walked towards the sofa in the center.

Lying on the sofa, looking up at the expensive chandelier on the ceiling, Zhao Li's eyes revealed a hint of confusion and doubt. However, this confusion was fleeting, and soon the image of the Second Prince appeared in her mind.

When she thought of the news of her son's death, the slight confusion in Zhao Li's heart was immediately dispelled by anger.

...

Five minutes passed quickly as Zhao Li stared at the ceiling.

"Hello, esteemed privileged user, you have arrived at your destination, the 145th floor."

The machine sounds coming from the control panel pulled Zhao Li out of her reverie, restoring her scattered gaze to clarity.

Without lingering, Zhao Li opened the door and walked into the 145th floor passage of the eerie research institute.

The walls of the passageway emitted a pure white light that illuminated the view without being glaring.

Based on her memory of the location of Marshal Maurice's office, Zhao Li walked quickly through the maze of passageways. If someone who had never been here before were to get lost in this confusing maze without a guide, they would probably be lost.

Along the way, the researchers looked at the beautiful woman in military uniform, who was in a hurry, with puzzled eyes.

They were all a little curious: who was this person, and why was he in such a hurry? However, they quickly put these questions aside, since this matter had nothing to do with them, and they were only concerned with the research they were working on.

Zhao Li didn't care about the stares of these people, and just walked quickly toward Marshal Morris's office.

...

At that moment, Marshal Maurice was holding a report in one hand about the members of the Mysterious Squad collecting strange objects, and supporting his forehead with the other.

Because of recent events, he has not rested for two days and two nights, continuously issuing orders to various departments of the empire and reviewing all kinds of reports.

Finally, after reading the report on the strange team's collection of strange objects, Marshal Maurice was about to lean back in his chair, close his eyes, and relieve the fatigue of the past two days.

His office door was flung open, and the figures of two women came into view.

"Marshal Maurice, I'm sorry, the Princess has something important to discuss with you."

One of the women, his mature secretary, was speaking apologetically.

He recognized the other woman without his secretary's prompting; she was none other than Zhao Li, the emperor's consort, who should have been the chief of staff in the northern border of the empire.

Without much thought, Marshal Morris knew that Zhao Li's visit was definitely about the Second Prince.

He then waved to his secretary, signaling her to leave, and said he would speak with the princess himself.

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