In the originally peaceful Yinou City, thick smoke and flames were now rising from the direction of the City Lord's Mansion.
Alarms rang loudly, the entire city was quickly placed under martial law, all city gates were closed urgently, and the city defense array was activated, covering the entire city like a bucket.
At the same time, the elite guards of the City Lord's Mansion came out in full force, patrolling the city, searching for the culprit who caused all this to happen.
"Some remnants of the rebel army sneaked into the city lord's mansion and attempted to steal the treasure house. They fled into the city after failing. Anyone who dares to provide them with shelter will be treated as an accomplice of the rebels and will be killed without mercy!"
At the same time, related news was spreading wildly in all kinds of backstreets, and various versions of rumors were spreading in the taverns in the lower city.
Some of the more widely acknowledged information is that the City Lord's Mansion was broken into by thieves, who stole the treasures hidden in the secret vault, but accidentally triggered an alarm spell when leaving, so they had no choice but to force their way through.
Viscount Nisphim was furious and publicly executed the soldiers who were negligent in guarding the city. At the same time, the whole city was under martial law, vowing to capture those lawless thieves.
As to what the treasure is, there are many different opinions.
Some said it was dozens of boxes of high-quality magic crystals in stock and high-level magic artifacts passed down from Viscount Nisphim's family, others said it was the core secret key to the city defense array, and still others said it was a treasure brought as a dowry by the city lord's wife.
Fiona, who lived in seclusion in Silver Gull City, was also alarmed by this huge commotion.
Standing in the courtyard of the house she bought, the little girl in light blue magic attire blinked her bright eyes and looked at the city guards searching door to door on the streets with a curious look on her face.
Her current disguise is a fifth-level magician of the School of Illusion, who has traveled all the way from the Distant Kingdom Federation and is currently staying in Silver Gull City.
"The city lord's personal guards have been ordered to search for the remnants of the rebels! Please close the protective magic circle here."
Soon, a team of city guards arrived at the main entrance of the girl's residence. The leading captain of the fourth-level knight team carefully raised his sword and knocked on the door in a relatively polite tone.
He was clear about the identities of those living here. A fifth-rank spellcaster was considered a mid-to-high-level force in the entire continent and a guest of honor for all major forces. He could obtain guest status by joining most of the forces, so these city guards did not dare to be too presumptuous.
"Yes, but no suspicious persons broke into my residence."
Fiona did not make things difficult for these soldiers. She simply removed the intermediate-level protective array she had bought temporarily and let them search inside on their own.
Generally speaking, in this kind of search mission, many guards would rummage through civilians' houses in the name of searching, and take away any good stuff they saw, enriching themselves.
If the homeowner wants to avoid this situation, he must pay the team leader a "hardship fee" in advance, otherwise he can only swallow his anger. If he dares to resist, he will be labeled as "resisting search" and be arrested and imprisoned for several days.
However, when searching Fiona's residence, the soldiers behaved very honestly throughout.
They also look at the person they are dealing with and it is easy to get into an accident if you mess around with things in the residence of a mid to high level spellcaster. This is common sense for survival in this world.
The treasure belongs to Viscount Nisphim, but his life is his own. If he triggers some inexplicable cursed item or spell trap, or angers the other party, his life will definitely be in danger. Even if the city lord pursues them and avenges them afterwards, it will be meaningless to the dead.
The team leader took out a magic detection tool and scanned the courtyard. Not finding anything unusual, he announced the withdrawal of the team and politely and quickly left Fiona's residence with many soldiers.
The girl didn't care much about it, but when she was about to return to her residence, her powerful spiritual power suddenly noticed something was wrong.
In the space in the corner of the courtyard, there was an abnormal fluctuation coming from somewhere, which seemed to be the traces left by some kind of space spell.
This kind of fluctuation is extremely obscure, and it is almost impossible for beings below the seventh level to detect it. The intermediate-level protective array she set up to conceal her identity is even more impossible to stop it.
A series of speculations flashed through her mind. The girl stretched out her fair and slender hand, pressed lightly on the abnormal mark, and activated the secret tracking method she had learned in the magic class.
Soon, an illusory glowing trail with a mixed aura appeared in the girl's spiritual perception. It seemed that there was more than one person on the other side, and they had already sneaked into her house boldly.
Are they the thieves that the city guards were looking for? How dare they come here! Fiona puffed up her cheeks a little angry about this, took out a staff inlaid with ice-blue crystals, and planned to teach these uninvited guests a lesson.
Following the trail, she soon found several sneaky-looking guys in the basement who were disguised with magic. . ….…. "Hey, Silver Wolf, the female mage is back, won't we be discovered?"
"It's okay. According to our investigation, the owner of this house is only a fifth-level spellcaster. If he wants to see through our concealment, at least a seventh-level strongman must come in person.
The soldiers didn't dare to search her residence too recklessly, so we can hide here temporarily. When the contact person arrives, we can leave."
At this moment, a team of elite adventurers were squatting in a corner of the basement wearing arcane cloaks, whispering with the help of a shared mind link.
The team included humans, half-elves, and even rare orcs, all of whom were between level five and level six in strength.
They were from the "Spark" resistance camp, and had just received a secret mission from the resistance high-level officials to steal the city lord's treasure house. Because they had made a detailed plan in advance, there were no problems during the theft process, but they made a mistake when they were leaving, which led to a city-wide hunt.
As for this room, they chose it from several secret hiding places previously provided to them by the top leaders of the resistance army.
In the backup plan, if something went wrong during their mission and the city guards were alerted, they would hide here immediately.
The owner of the house here is a spellcaster from a foreign country. He is powerful enough to deal with the searches of ordinary soldiers, but not too strong to see through their concealment. He can provide them with a period of safety.
"We have obtained the magic device hidden in the secret vault, as well as the key in Viscount Nisphim's hand. After they hear the news, they will come here to pick us up tonight at the latest."
"Wait...Silver Wolf, is she watching us?"
At this moment, the half-elf thieves in the team suddenly felt that the girl's eyes seemed to have fallen on them.
"Don't worry, it's probably just a coincidence that she happened to be facing our direction."
"Let's not look at her. Some spellcasters are particularly sensitive to gazes."
The human warrior also carefully raised his head and glanced in the direction of the girl, then turned his head back as if nothing had happened, pretending not to see it.
It is impossible for a fifth-level spellcaster to see through the disposable concealment cloaks provided by high-level spellcasters.
But what they didn't know was that Fiona could hear their entire conversation in the mind link clearly.
But just as the girl was about to catch them directly, a loud noise and strong vibration suddenly came from the door.
The next moment, the soil and rocks above everyone's heads slowly parted to the sides under the effect of magic, and a ray of light from the sky shone through the huge crack into the basement, illuminating the team's dazed faces in the dust. (End of this chapter)
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