On the third day after the alarm was lifted, the Valkyrie of Destiny launched a carpet search of the city.

"An abnormality was found in the sewer of District 7!" A young Valkyrie reported hastily over the communicator, "There are…there are corpses everywhere!"

When Zijing and Desdobia arrived at the scene, the stench of decay had already filled the entire underground passage. Under the cold light of the emergency lights, dozens of twisted bodies were piled on both sides of the sewage canal—all of them were invaders wearing smiling masks.

"The time of death is no more than 24 hours." The accompanying medical officer squatted beside a corpse, "But their biological tissues have been highly decomposed, as if... the decay process has been accelerated hundreds of times."

Desdobia used telekinesis to lift the coat of a corpse, revealing a huge penetrating wound on the chest: "There are traces of crystallization on the edge of the wound. This is not caused by our weapons."

Zijing squatted down and lightly touched the purple crystals on the ground with his fingertips. The energy resonance allowed him to instantly recognize this power - it was the breath of "Li". He did not use his own power, but instead used the ability to mobilize local Honkai energy.

"They were silenced." Amethyst stood up and looked around the underground cemetery. "It seems that she... or they did exist in this city some time ago, and these 'aliens' were killed in return."

"So... the clue is broken?" asked Desdobia.

"Let's check the surveillance of this city," Zijing thought, "especially the ground records of the 24 hours before these bodies were found."

Desdobia immediately answered the call: "Vilvi, can you access the city surveillance system?"

"We're already working on it~" Vilvi's brisk voice came from the communicator, "But there's a small problem... The surveillance in some urban areas has been out of order 48 hours ago. I'll try the special satellite imagery." Vilvi's voice was filled with electronic noise, "Aha! Found something interesting~"

The holographic projection unfolded on the damp sewer wall, and the blurry picture showed two slender figures moving quickly between the rooftops of the city late at night two days ago. Although the image quality was extremely poor, Zijing immediately recognized the identities of the two people.

"It's them..." Amethyst's voice tightened slightly.

In the picture, two figures suddenly stopped, one of them turned around and raised his hand, and a purple beam of light accurately shot down something in the air - it was the city surveillance drone.

"They realized they were being watched," Destobia said. "They reacted really quickly."

Wei Liwei continued: "More exciting things are coming~" The screen switched to thermal imaging mode, and the two figures suddenly split into four and dispersed in different directions.

"Holographic projection?" Desdobia frowned.

"No, they are physical clones." Weiwei explained excitedly, "I analyzed the energy fluctuations, and all four of them are real! They changed their routes at least 48 times in 17 hours, and finally..."

The scene freezes in front of a dilapidated church, and one of the figures suddenly looks up, as if looking at them through time and space. The eyes glow with a strange black and white light under the night vision lens.

"They... cooperated." Zijing concluded.

"That's it. Let's go see the church first?" Weiwei suggested.

"Let's go." Amethyst said.

……

Pushing open the mottled wooden door of the church, a pungent smell of disinfectant hit her in the face. Zijing saw dozens of young girls tied to the benches with restraints. They had different skin colors and were obviously from different countries. Each of them had a metal device flashing red behind their necks, and their chests were rising and falling faintly.

"This is..." Desdobia's voice choked in her throat.

Zijing stepped forward quickly, and a faint purple light condensed from her fingertips, gently sweeping across the neck of the nearest unconscious girl. The energy scan showed that there was an abnormal fluctuation of Honkai energy flowing in her body.

"They are used as media." Zijing said solemnly, "These devices are converting their life energy into some kind of signal."

Desdobia used telekinesis to gently lift up a girl's wrist and asked, "Can you remove these devices?"

"Wait." Zijing suddenly held her arm. "Confirm the identities of these girls first." He told Wei Wei, "Retrieve the global missing persons records for the past three months."

"The match has been completed..." Wei Wei's voice came, "I'll tell you an interesting discovery. Several of them are confirmed dead, including this one—" The projection marked a brown-haired girl, "The funeral scene just appeared in the news last week."

Zijing's eyes suddenly changed color. A faint purple light condensed in his palm and directly penetrated into the chest of the unconscious woman. The energy penetrated the camouflage on the surface, exposing the reflection of the mechanical structure under the skin.

"It's not a human." Zijing stepped back a few steps, "Is it a bionic doll?"

As if responding to his words, some of the "girls" suddenly opened their eyes at the same time, with strange lights flashing in their pupils. The restraints untied automatically, their joints made mechanical clicks, and the corners of their mouths rose in exactly the same arc.

"We've been discovered~" Multiple voices overlapped and echoed under the church dome.

They rushed towards Zijing. However, there was no need for Zijing to make a move, as Desdobia had already subdued them with telekinesis.

"Find someone to take it over later. The technology of the 'aliens' may also be helpful to humans on Earth." Zijing instructed a Valkyrie who was following behind her.

Then, Zijing went to check the bodies of those ordinary human girls. Although they were weak, fortunately they were not in danger of life.

During the process, he was also checking whether these girls were really "ordinary". After all, he did not forget that it was one of them, "Li", who led them here.

However, the result told him that he was overthinking.

These are really just ordinary girls, some of whom have good adaptability to Honkai energy and are suitable to become Valkyries.

What happened next was not something he needed to consider, so he would leave it to Tianming to handle, and send those who could be sent home. But considering the physical conditions of some girls, Tianming would probably try to recruit them.

"..."

Before leaving the church, Amethyst once again conducted a thorough inspection of the girls, and only left after finding nothing.

Soon after, a group of Valkyries rushed in to assist Desdobia in the aftermath work.

Zijing got on Tianming's car and spread out the map to check it out. But at this moment, Nienen sent a message, saying that he was invited to come over.

Amethyst asked why, and Einstein on the other side said that the thing he had asked him to do before had encountered a bottleneck and he needed Amethyst's help.

What I asked you to do before...

Zijing suddenly realized and immediately expressed her willingness to go, and agreed to arrive in three days.