The room fell into silence for a moment.

The silence lasted for more than ten seconds before Agatha heard Bishop Ivan's low and hoarse voice coming from under the bandage: "Oh..."

"…Your reaction is a bit unexpected."

"Because your information is too unexpected," Bishop Ivan seemed to have finally recovered. He adjusted his sitting posture and his tone became particularly serious. "You said that the boiling gold veins in the Frost City-State had been exhausted decades ago? Is this the truth you discovered down there?"

"Yes. There is a door at the deepest part of the second waterway. It might have been blocked by the first generation of the city hall. Behind the door is a long-exhausted mine tunnel. Judging from its location, it should be in the enriched area at the bottom of the mine, and theoretically the last area to be mined..."

Agatha did not hide anything and told Bishop Ivan everything she had discovered underground. During this process, Bishop Ivan's eyes became visibly more and more solemn.

After a while, Agatha finished talking about her findings down there, but added with some hesitation: "... that was just one tunnel. There are countless tunnels in the mine. Even if that was the deepest part of the enriched area, it cannot be concluded that the entire mine has been exhausted. So a large part of my conclusion is based on conjecture... I know, this conjecture is too crazy."

"...Yes, it's an overly crazy guess," Bishop Ivan said slowly. "After all, if what you said is true, the boiling gold mine has long been exhausted - then what have we been transporting out of the mine for the past half century? What is the boiling gold catalyst that the Frost City-State has transported to other cities over the years?"

Agatha did not speak, for she knew that the question raised by Bishop Ivan could not be avoided or answered.

The Frost City-State has always produced the highest quality boiling gold ore and finished catalyst rods. Over the past fifty years, the boiling gold production of Frost City alone is almost equal to the total output of all other city-states in the entire Frigid Sea. The boiling gold in the mines is inexhaustible, the excavation machinery is spewing out wealth day and night, the catalysts produced by the smelting plants are transported to the entire world, and the ships using those catalysts are spread all over the vast sea.

And in the entire half century, there has never been a problem with any boiling gold order.

If the ore veins had really been exhausted decades ago, then let's not talk about the problem of the Frost Mine - there are so many ships on the vast sea, what is burning in their steam cores? Phantoms?

After a long time, the gatekeeper could only sigh softly: "If that is also a polluted creation, then our world is really absurd to a terrifying degree."

"Our world has always been absurd, but perhaps... you really found the key clue this time," Bishop Ivan shook his head. "Let's not worry about whether the conjecture is crazy or not. From a rational point of view, the contradiction between the mine that was exhausted decades ago and the mine that is still producing steadily today is very likely related to the abnormality in the city-state now."

"...But according to the clues we got before, the current abnormality should be caused by those Annihilation Cultists," Agatha reminded, "What is their relationship with the mine?"

"They may not be related to the mine - they may just use this crisis to trigger it," Bishop Ivan thought quickly. The experience he had accumulated over decades of life, especially the experience of dealing with cultists, was helping him to complete the puzzle. "It is impossible for those heretics to have been in the city-state for decades without being discovered. Moreover, the depletion of the mine may date back to the Queen's era. At that time, the Frost's crackdown on heretics was much stronger than today. No cultist can escape the eyes of the Frost Queen..."

At this point, the old bishop paused and suddenly asked, "You just said that Governor Winston knew nothing about the door deep in the second waterway?"

Agatha nodded: "That's what he said."

"...I don't quite believe what he said," Bishop Ivan shook his head hesitantly. "The situation at the first city hall was indeed a bit chaotic, but the handover between the first few consuls and the government team should not have had such a big mistake, especially with such a critical and sensitive secret..."

"You mean, Governor Winston is hiding something from me?" Agatha frowned. "Why would he do that?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's to maintain the authority of the City Hall. Maybe there's something bigger behind this secret. Maybe he's controlled by something. I can't say for sure," Bishop Ivan said, but his eyes suddenly fell on Agatha. "I'm even more surprised that you didn't have any doubts in this regard. You wouldn't have made such a mistake before."

Agatha was stunned.

In this moment of daze, she recalled the scene she experienced when she returned from the second waterway - the reflection in the pool, and the "other self" walking in the opposite direction in the reflection.

"Agatha, what's wrong with you?" Bishop Ivan's voice woke her up from her distraction.

Agatha blinked and shook her head slightly.

"Are you sure everything is alright?" Bishop Ivan's tone was clearly filled with doubt. "You've been distracted more than once in the past two days, and..."

"I'm fine, always fine," Agatha interrupted the old bishop. For some reason, after a brief trance, her tone became relaxed. She exhaled lightly and stood up from the chair. "I just suddenly realized something - I should set off."

Bishop Ivan stood up and said, "...You are going to the mines?"

"The navy is holding back the enemy, and the sheriffs and defenders are controlling the situation. They have bought me time, and I still have a chance to figure out the source behind all this. It's time to set off."

Agatha paused for a moment, and then added, as if to emphasize, "Time is limited. I can't rest here for too long."

"Okay, let's go," Bishop Ivan nodded gently, "I hope you can find out the truth and return safely."

"I will find out the truth."

※※※

From time to time, distant gunshots could be heard in the thick fog, interspersed with occasional warning broadcasts from sheriff's or defenders' forces, as well as the sound of sirens automatically sounded by certain facilities.

The city-state has become blurred in the fog, and the fog is filled with invisible terror.

"In comparison, I would rather deal with hundreds or thousands of fully armed cultists, or charge into a burning city a few more times."

Fanna casually dispersed the giant sword condensed from ice, frowned, looked at the ground in front of her and said.

In the limited field of vision, the ground was covered with criss-crossing terrifying cracks, and a large amount of dirty black mud was slowly flowing and squirming between those cracks, and quickly solidified. Some of the mud even barely retained the outline of a human figure, but the key limbs showed a chilling distortion.

"How disgusting." Vanna muttered again.

"Seriously, are you really willing to have another fight in a burning city?"

Morris's voice came from the side. The old scholar, holding his cane, glanced at the shattered "battlefield" in front of him and spoke casually to Vanna.

"...Well, I don't want to," Vanna shrugged. "Whether it's a fake city-state filled with thick fog or a burning city with the black sun descending, it's not much better."

As she was speaking, thick fog began to flow, and a tall figure suddenly emerged from the fog behind Fanna. The figure's head was swollen and deformed, and its huge single eye was trembling violently in the fog. The next second, the monster pounced on Fanna.

Fanna did not look back, but just stomped on the ground hard - the invisible shock wave spread instantly, and the deformed and twisted creature only took one step forward before its lower body was shattered, and it quickly turned into mud after falling to the ground.

And under her conscious control, Morris, who was close by, was not affected by the shock wave at all - the old scholar just adjusted his monocle and looked around calmly at the foggy streets.

The next second, he suddenly looked towards a certain location, and a silver light appeared in his eyes:

"McAfeeney conjecture and proof."

The next second, continuous, low explosions like watermelons being stepped on came from the fog. Several figures could be vaguely seen emerging from the fog, and their heads exploded like fireworks.

"The good news is that these inferior counterfeits can imitate a certain degree of thinking ability, and the controllers behind them need to be more intelligent." Morris looked away, and the silver light in his eyes gradually faded. "I was worried at first that they were just empty shells of chaos. In that case, the power of knowledge would not be of much use to them."

Vanna looked at the monsters with exploding heads and gradually turned into mud in the distance with a strange expression. She turned back to look at Morris and said, "When you taught me, you never told me that the 'power of knowledge' would be so useful."

"That's when I decided that you were not suitable for this path." Morris said casually.

Vanna: “…”

The judge felt as if she was being mocked for a moment, but after recalling her test scores that year, she decided to continue to maintain a humble attitude.

"Are there any more around?"

She remained alert and asked in a low voice.

"Not for now." Morris shook his head.

He was always aware of the situation around him - when the monsters emerged from the fog, their confused thoughts would first appear in his perception. The fog could block people's vision, but the brilliance of their thoughts was as eye-catching as a bright light in the dark night in his eyes.

Very few people can actively control their own thoughts, so in the field of "detecting intelligent creatures", no one can compare to the saints of the God of Wisdom.

"It's good that there are none for now, although new ones will appear soon," Vanna exhaled and moved her hands and feet slightly, "Do you feel that... there are a lot of fake monsters in this direction, and their offensiveness is obviously stronger than that in other places?"

"You felt it too?" Morris raised his eyebrows. "Then it seems my judgment was correct."

"You mean..."

"Those 'fakes' that emerged from the fog were not all acting blindly. Some of them were controlled by people behind the scenes."