"..."

The man, or rather, the monster,

seemed to have been startled by Ronald's series of actions.

At first, when he was violently seized by the spell, he had been caught off guard; now, slapped in the face by the force of "Fury," and then feeling the Magic Fluctuation of Ronald's incantations up close,

it took several instances before he finally realized just how strong the Caster before him was.

To put it mildly,

even since the foundation of Twin Streams City, there hadn't been a Caster as powerful as this!

—An absolutely unexpected formidable adversary.

The magical foundation beneath Twin Streams City, although it blocked the outside world from detecting this place, also prevented him from understanding the strength of the invaders in time!

"Human... we can... talk..."

The man or the monster occupying these ruins,

now spoke with difficulty, attempting to negotiate with Ronald.

"Ugh—ah!"

But his attempt at dialogue was met with a scream of pain.

Ronald simply increased his grip, then repeated in the same flat tone as Costate:

"I said—tell me about your identity and origin."

"..."

"I, I am a member of the Nigars!"

"How did you come by this body?"

"Your expedition team... I took it over!"

This time, the man answered honestly.

Through the feedback of the [Lie Detector], Ronald confirmed that the guy before him wasn't lying.

After a brief few seconds of thought,

Ronald immediately pushed forward with his questioning:

"How did you manage to preserve your consciousness in a True Core being?"

"The heritage spells of the Nigar temple!"

"What happened at the sacrifice that led to the destruction of Twin Streams City, and those animals that have been possessed can still live until now; you must also have others hiding here, right?"

"I wasn't in the temple at that time, I don't know what happened outside—ah!"

"Don't lie." The spell precisely identified the lie.

After Ronald warned him, he lifted his arm and smashed the other down to the ground, and then followed up by stomping and breaking the man's ankle.

"Tell me, where are the rest of the expedition team who came in before? It's not possible that you're the only one who took over a body, right?"

"They're, in the sacred lands deeper in the canyon." Intimidated by Ronald's brutal actions and feeling the hard-won body already damaged, the man spoke truthfully, "The intervention of the body cannot be reversed, the first group of people is completely beyond salvation!"

"..."

Ronald sighed almost imperceptibly.

Although he had anticipated such a situation before entering, deep down, he still felt somewhat annoyed.

"Right, what about Ina?"

"..."

The man fell silent again.

This question was clearly more important than the previous ones, so much so that he dared not speak right away, even starting to consider whether to answer.

Click—

Ronald didn't mind doing it again at all.

Without any hesitation, he disabled the man's other foot as well.

"Ahh—ah—"

"I'll talk! I'll talk!"

The interrogation turned out to be unprecedentedly easy.

The man trapped here hadn't been injured for a long time, and his body was now a precious commodity.

With both forms of assault coming at him at once, he was completely defenseless and blurted out:

"Ina is our inside agent!"

"Her summoning creature bloodline ratio is just right, so we used a spell to activate her bloodline memory and then had her spread messages to lure people here to help us escape!"

"So that's how it is..."

Ronald's eyebrows relaxed.

This clarified the specific situation with Ina.

This girl wasn't just problematic after entering the ruins, she had been a mole for the monsters of Twin Creek City from the start!

"Milord, I can tell you everything I know," Ronald, who was sorting through the newly acquired intelligence, was interrupted as the man he had subdued spoke up again.

After revealing Ina's identity, the man seemed resolved.

Now almost without any hesitation, he shouted:

"I, I just want to leave here and survive!"

However, Ronald wasn't planning on negotiating terms. Still firmly pressing the man underfoot, he continued in an even tone:

"I said—tell me everything you know."

"..."

The man, already frightened, couldn't stand such an unemotional attitude!

Thinking about how Ronald could discern lies, his gaze flickered and he honestly confessed:

"Our people of Costate have mastered a spell for summoning creatures from other realms. Later, the royal family wished to gain the eternal abilities of the summoning creatures and began related experiments."

"Did these experiments destroy this city?" Ronald asked, puzzled.

"Yes!" the man continued hurriedly, "To gather enough research material, the royal family opened a portal and summoned a large number of creatures from other realms. This research apparently angered the normally benign creatures, and a great battle erupted within this sealed city."

Hearing this, Ronald had a question:

"What was the end result?"

"If it was just a one-sided slaughter, you shouldn't have survived till today, right?"

The man continued without much resistance:

"This is one of the outcomes of the research, we were able to change these creatures to favor assimilation characteristics, and then transfer human consciousness onto these creatures! As for the result of the battle—"

At this point, the cowardly man on the ground showed a rare look of sadness.

"We were no match for those creatures."

"When we were backed into a corner, the royal family sealed the city, using their original texts as a sacrifice, and also closed that damned portal. Those creatures, cut off from a continuous supply, were eventually defeated by us, the surviving lucky ones, who then reluctantly underwent consciousness transfer."

"After all, the original texts' seal was too strong; unable to break through, we were left with nothing to do but sit and starve, and could only continue our lives by such means, preserving the legacy of the people of Costate."

After hearing this, the condition of the ruins was essentially explained.

"You and the royal family are worlds apart!"

Ronald swore, ready to finish it all.

But just as he was about to act, he suddenly realized something very important.

When their supporting expedition team entered the ruins, they also encountered an adventurer who was barely alive and beyond saving.

And that half-dead member of the expedition team carried within him a true-core creature with assimilation properties.

This was entirely different from the creatures in the ruins, which had their assimilation traits removed and were used for consciousness transfer.

Not to mention...

The location where the adventurer had fallen.

It was right at the edge of an underground river that participated in the water cycle!

"Hey!"

With this in mind, Ronald involuntarily applied more pressure with his foot.

"Are you sure— that all the summoned creatures inside Twin Creek City have been completely dealt with by you?"

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