At this moment, faced with the Shadow Demon that suddenly fled after a lightning strike, Sariel was momentarily stunned, but he still instinctively commanded the Eye of Omniscience to track it.

However, the Shadow Demon's speed was quite fast, and Sariel had no choice but to increase the Eye of Omniscience's power to keep up.

After a while of chasing, Sariel suddenly realized that the Shadow Demon should be returning to the city, which was still some distance away. He feared that the energy inherent in the divine artifact was running low. The key issue was that increasing the power might alert the other party to the Eye of Omniscience's presence.

Sariel thought about it and found it boring: "Forget it, let's not chase."

Just as Sariel decelerated, the Shadow Demon also suddenly slowed down and changed direction, clearly not heading towards Black Iron City.

Sariel was suddenly startled: "What's going on?"

Sela was baffled: "Could it be that the Shadow Demon's base is outside the city?"

Sariel was suddenly torn: "Should we continue to pursue?"

Sela thought for a moment: "Yes, let's pursue! Just thinking that such a secretive organization could infiltrate and monitor Black Iron City unnerves me!"

Sariel also made up his mind: "Then we'll pursue, at least to locate its base roughly."

...

Meanwhile, Chun and Bilenna were tracking the Shadow Demon with all their might when suddenly, the Shadow Demon changed direction.

Chun was astonished, could the Shadow Demon's base be outside the city? It's possible, just like the Dragon Concealment Hall mentioned by the Divine Fall Wind which teleports in from outside the city.

Great, this means there's a chance to discover a hidden map.

At this moment, a faint dot suddenly appeared on the radar, moving at high speed.

Chun doubted his eyes: "What's this?"

Bilenna immediately became alert: "Something else is chasing the Shadow Demon too!"

Holy Shit, it must be the Ten Lords' surveillance artifact, it actually followed all the way here! But seeing its direction, it seems it only discovered the Shadow Demon and not me, so I need to be extra careful.

Chun immediately instructed: "Let's slow down a bit and just track this thing."

"Alright."

Then continued chasing for another ten or so minutes, the location was getting closer to the West City Fortress, and the Shadow Demon's speed was slowing down too, could the Shadow Demon's headquarters be at the fortress?

Thinking about the two fatty Mammon also at the fortress, one is the Marquis's nephew, the other is Fafnir's cousin, Chun felt the City Lord's grip on the situation seemed unstable! Unstable City Lord means unstable Fafnir, this issue is serious!

Ahead at the junction, there was an abandoned farmhouse, after slowing down, the Shadow Demon slowly entered the farmhouse.

Chun felt his heart skip a beat, indeed, abandoned houses in the wild often have hidden meanings, usually with intact secret rooms under the floor, passageways, or teleportation arrays, right?

Chun dared not follow in, ever since the Shadow Demon slowed down, the Ten Lords' artifact also slowed down and went invisible. Evidently, once this artifact accelerates, it emits energy which exposes it.

Now he had no idea whether the Ten Lords' artifact had followed in or was monitoring at the door? If it hadn't entered and was just monitoring at the door, wouldn't following in foolishly get him caught by the Ten Lords?

...

At this moment, Sariel's Eye of Omniscience was staring at the door of the broken house, also in a dilemma: "What's going on? Could this be the Shadow Demon's secret headquarters?"

Sela was dumbfounded: "There's no mention of it in the data! Could it be again the intelligent system automatically generating it?"

Sariel was very uneasy: "I suspect that my earlier acceleration has alerted it, it might be hiding behind the door to ambush me."

Raphael laughed: "If it's really a secret headquarters, and you hesitate like this, and if it teleports away, you'll have run all this way for nothing without discovering anything."

Gabriel chuckled: "Let's vote, Yes or No, agree with Sariel going in, type YES!"

Michael: "yes!"

Raphael: "yes!"

Gabriel: "yes!"

Uriel: "yes!"

Sela: "yes!"

Metatron: "yes!"

Sariel: "or!"

The crowd burst into laughter: "Sariel, are you that timid?"

Sariel replied angrily: "I just don't want to appear foolish! Forget it, if indeed ambushed, I'll self-destruct!"

Michael warned: "The Shadow Demon's ability is to sever any spatial connection, if you plan to self-destruct, set a countdown beforehand, otherwise once ambushed, with the divine artifact fully cocooned, you can't send any commands."

Sariel snorted coldly: "Then I'll set a 30-second countdown for the explosion, if there's no ambush, it can still be aborted in time..."

...

At this moment, Chun was in a deep dilemma. This feeling of being unable to make a decision was truly unbearable, is this what they mean by "hesitation leads to failure, decisiveness leads to vulnerability"?

Still, being cautious takes precedence, there's no need to take this risk, better stick to the original plan to investigate the mirror Aileen left behind in the Count's Mansion.

Just as Chun was about to leave, the door to the house suddenly flashed dark, and dust flew!

At the same time, the Ten Lords' artifact flashed slightly on the radar, and then disappeared instantly.

Chun was utterly shocked: "Bilenna, did you see what happened?"

Bilenna cried out: "It seems that the tracking little thing was ambushed and swallowed by the Shadow Demon."

Holy Shit, is the Shadow Demon this cunning?

Chun was sweating profusely: "Good thing we didn't rush in."

Bilenna and Mina wholeheartedly agreed: "Because of dear's (master's) foresight."

It was my indecisiveness that saved me! Now, do I dare to continue tracking this Shadow Demon? What if it has already discovered me, or if it actually detected Mina's spray, and ambushed me in a similar way, then—

Just as he thought this, a flash of fire erupted inside the room, followed by a booming explosion!

Holy Shit?!

The next moment, a blazing smoke cloud rolled on the ground, quickly extinguishing the flames.

Chun instantly understood, it's likely the Ten Lords' artifact self-destructed! The Ten Lords are cunning too!

So what now? Tracking it is risky, better to take this chance to eliminate it and pin the blame on the Ten Lords. As for investigating the Shadow Demon Organization, can I alone contend with such a deceptive demon organization? There's no time for it tonight, better leave it to the Ten Lords, having swallowed their artifact, they definitely won't let them go!

Chun's mind raced and he made a swift decision: "Bilenna, do you have confidence in dealing with it now?"

Bilenna laughed: "I think, very much so!"

Indeed, this Shadow Demon has been struck by lightning and self-detonated, if such conditions can't silence it, it wouldn't make sense.

"Then let's go!"

...

At this moment, staring at the pitch-black surveillance screen, Sariel fumed: "See why I said or? It's because I noticed something was off long ago!"

Raphael awkwardly smiled: "It's only an artifact, sacrificing one for investigating the Shadow Demon is worth it."

Sariel angrily retorted: "But nothing was uncovered! I'm not sure if this guy deliberately led me here, the West City Fortress might have nothing to do with the Shadow Demon headquarters at all."

Sela said deeply: "Not only is the Shadow Demon's infiltration capacity strong, but its intelligence is also astonishingly high, we can't leave them!" I will immediately consult with Fafnir to discuss eliminating the Shadow Demon."

Michael reminded: "Saying elimination isn't appropriate, find a way to bring them under control instead."