After being reborn, the villain comes with a spoiler tag.

Huo Yu and Long Yucheng's trip took only half a day, but when they returned to the site they had chosen to build the city, they saw that the majestic city walls had already risen from the ground.

The entire city is a neat square, and its black walls gleam with a cold, hard luster under the dim light, forming a unified whole.

At each of the four corners of the city wall stood a towering black spire, exactly the same as the one Huo Yu had seen in Xuandu. However, there was no trace of demonic power flowing through it, indicating that the core protective formation had not yet been officially activated.

On the east and west sides of the city, there are two simple military camps built of black stone, with a uniform design; to the north stands a slightly larger city lord's mansion, also built of black stone, with a rugged and austere style.

Apart from that, there were no other buildings in the vast city. The ground had been completely leveled, but it was empty and desolate.

The thousand Elven soldiers who should have been stationed at the military camp were now standing silently in neat square formations outside the south gate, their military bearing impeccable. At the very front of the formation stood the half-blooded Gulong and Wubo, who had taken human form, seemingly having been waiting for some time.

"Master! You're finally back!"

As soon as Huo Yu and Long Yucheng's escape light landed, the mixed-blood dragon, which was almost doubting that it had been forgotten by its master again, immediately wanted to rush forward. However, when it met Huo Yu's indifferent gaze, it suddenly stopped and stood three steps away.

Huo Yu's gaze swept over the already formed city wall behind the demons, ignoring the exaggerated performance of the hybrid grain dragon, and simply asked:

How long have we been gone?

"Seven whole days, Master!"

The mixed-race Gu Long immediately began to cry with great emotion.

"For the past seven days, I haven't been able to eat or drink, and I've been longing for your return day and night, fearing..."

Huo Yu had no interest in listening to what was to come.

He and Long Yucheng beside him exchanged a quick glance, clearly seeing the shock in the black-clad youth's eyes—for them, only half a day had passed since they left.

However, Long Yucheng knew that this was not the place to talk, so he swallowed back the question that was on the tip of his tongue.

Once Huo Yu's conversation with the hybrid dragon seemed to have come to an end, Wu Bo, who had been waiting quietly in the distance, stepped forward and presented a token with both hands:

"General, the city walls and core buildings within the city are now complete. Please name this city and activate the city's protective array."

Huo Yu took the black token. The token had a smooth surface and was blank, but the moment he held it, Huo Yu knew its purpose.

With a slight thought, the token's surface rippled with a soft, watery light. As the light shifted, three golden characters gradually emerged from it—

"Black Mountain City".

As the city's name was finalized, the black spires at the four corners of the city wall seemed to respond to the token, their bodies trembling slightly and emitting a low hum.

Immediately afterwards, four invisible energy beams shot up from the top of the tower, converging and combining in the sky to form a seamless array network that enveloped the entire empty city.

Almost simultaneously, a powerful and pure surge of demonic energy erupted from Black Mountain City, spreading outwards like a tidal wave, as if announcing the existence of this new city to the outside world.

Huo Yu looked up at the sky above the city. Although he could not see anything unusual with his naked eye, his divine sense could clearly perceive that there was a barrier there—this was the Spirit Clan's city-protecting formation.

It is far more than just a defensive barrier; it is a highly integrated and precisely functioning war machine that combines protection, counterattack, gathering of demonic energy, identity verification, and energy transmission.

—In a sense, this formless and invisible formation is the true soul and core of this city.

Huo Yu ran his fingertips along the three characters "Black Mountain City" on the token, clearly sensing the connection he had established with the four spires. He had complete control over every subtle change in the entire formation: from adjusting the concentration of demonic energy within the city to unleashing a thunderous strike, it was all within his control.

This demonstrates the absolute control that the city lord has over this newly established city.

Putting away the token, Huo Yu turned his gaze to Wu Bai and gave the order:

"Bring soldiers into the military camp."

"Follow the order!"

As a thousand Spirit Clan soldiers marched in perfect unison toward the military camps on the east and west sides, Huo Yu and Long Yucheng headed straight for the general's mansion located in the north of the city.

The mixed-race Gu Long followed closely behind Huo Yu, never leaving his side, as if afraid of being left behind again.

The general's mansion was not large, just a standard three-courtyard complex with a very simple layout. Moreover, there was no special formation that suppressed divine sense like the one in Xuanheng's mansion.

However, since this mansion is located at the core of the city's protective array, in time, as the array gathers the demonic energy from the surrounding areas, the concentration of demonic energy within Black Mountain City will stabilize at a level higher than that outside. This general's mansion, located at the center of the array, will become the place with the most abundant demonic energy in the city.

Huo Yu and Long Yucheng slowly entered the main hall. The interior furnishings were extremely simple, with no decorations or furnishings other than the necessary tables and chairs, exuding a cold pragmatism.

The mixed-race Gu Long wanted to follow them in, but stopped immediately after Huo Yu glanced at him indifferently. He wisely turned around and went to guard the gate for the two of them.

Long Yucheng took his seat at the head of the table on the right, his fingertips unconsciously tapping lightly on the cool, smooth tabletop, producing a disordered tapping sound.

Now that it was just the two of them, he finally couldn't help but ask the question that had been lingering in his mind:

"Senior brother, we've clearly only traveled for half a day, so why does Little Eel say that seven days have passed... Could it be that we still couldn't avoid that strange time fluctuation and were sent seven days into the future?"

"It's not the effect of that fluctuation."

Huo Yu, seated in the main seat on the left, shook his head slightly upon hearing this, denying the conjecture.

"Instead, from the moment we crossed the first stone wall, time around us was accelerated."

Upon hearing this, Long Yucheng's pupils suddenly contracted, and a look of astonishment appeared on his face.

But when he carefully recalled the situation, trying to find any clues in his memory, he couldn't detect anything unusual and couldn't help but mutter to himself:

"...I didn't even realize that time was passing faster."

"I didn't realize it at the time either."

Huo Yu said in a calm tone,

"The distortion of time is inherently difficult to perceive intuitively. However, after eliminating all other possibilities, only this one answer remains."

Long Yucheng nodded, pondered for a moment, his brows gradually furrowing, and his fingertips unconsciously traced lines on the table:

"But just getting close to that stone wall will unknowingly draw us into the abnormal time flow... If we go deep into the core of the anomaly to investigate its root cause, what will the outside world look like when we come out?"

Huo Yu's expression remained unchanged; he simply said calmly:

"Until a means of resisting the erosion of time is found, one should not approach that stone wall rashly. However, the leakage of the Black Mountain's core power is not limited to that one crack."

Upon hearing this, Long Yucheng's eyes flashed with understanding, and he unconsciously sat up straight.

"That's it! And the Netherworld Cave! Although I've never actually been there, the strange feeling it gave me when I explored it with my divine sense was exactly the same as the stone wall I just saw!"