“Today is your sixth day in this Shadow World."

"Although you've made some progress, you're not happy, as news of the neighboring Bliss Kingdom's continuous defeats arrives."

"You know you can't afford to be lost any longer."

Boss Cat said to Lan Qi, while curiously pawing at a music box, which began to play a tense tune.

The soaring and unrestrained strings carried a sense of anxiety, the elusive melody like a lonely dancer in the mud, searching for light in the darkness.

In Lan Qi Hershalem's home, it was late at night.

He sat alone behind an old-fashioned wooden desk, surrounded by dense stacks of books.

In front of him were many magical engineering instruments. The one that most attracted Boss Cat's attention was a nixie tube timer. The tube emitted a saturated orange-red light, like lava illuminating the numbers, appearing especially mysterious in the dim room.

The faint hum of the timer echoed in the quiet room, as if reminding them of the passage of time.

"It's indeed time for me to leave Hershalem."

Lan Qi's face was obliquely illuminated by the desk lamp, his expression deep and his eyes bright, his gaze seemingly piercing through the snowy plains to the north.

These days, the Huning Empire was not only attacking the neighboring Bliss Kingdom head-on, but he had also received intelligence that the Huning Empire's special forces were simultaneously launching infiltrations into the Fu Keluo Kingdom and the Idis Kingdom to the east and west.

But Lan Qi himself could have guessed it.

The perpetual night of the northern snowy plains, where there are few daylight hours year-round, was not a strategic location in history, but it was a treasure trove for the Blood Clan.

Because the nights there were too long and the sun rarely appeared, they could avoid their only weakness.

Once the Blood Clan opened a gap in the east or west, occupied the Land of Eternal Night, and began to encircle the Polant Empire from the north and south, it would be a true disaster.

The Land of Eternal Night might already be much more dangerous than before. No one was sure if any Blood Clan vanguards had successfully infiltrated.

But fortunately, the Blood Clan's progenitor had been monitored by the Demon Realm for many years. If any Blood Clan progenitor of the eighth-rank Marquis or above went north, it would definitely trigger a reaction from the Demon Clan first.

One of the clauses in the Blood Clan and Demon Clan's "North-South Treaty" was that the Blood Clan could not easily cross the Land of Eternal Night without permission, unless it was a Blood Clan special envoy like Baron Sanchez of the Shadow World's Purgatory Corridor Academy. After advance negotiations between the Demon Clan and Blood Clan, he could be openly received into the Demon Realm and search for humans lurking in the Purgatory Corridor Academy together with the Demon Realm investigators.

"Boss Cat, tomorrow morning we should leave Hershalem and take a trip to the Demon Realm."

Lan Qi's fingers tapped lightly on the desk as he gazed at a [Transformation Technique: Human] card he had just made.

This was a spell card that could transform him into Lan Qi Wilford, crafted by his own hands these past two days.

Because he was bringing Boss Cat this time, he had plenty of card slots, even allowing it to carry a portable card-making tool set consisting of ten equipment cards, so he could make magic cards even in the Shadow World.

However, this compressed portable tool was far inferior to the high-end tools in the real-world workshop, and the difficulty of making cards in the Shadow World was much higher than in the real world.

Lan Qi would have a trusted subordinate from his faction transform into him, playing his role and maintaining activities in Hershalem according to his plan for the next three to four weeks.

During this time, he would become Loki McCarthy, cross the Land of Eternal Night, go to the Demon Realm, find Hyperion, and seek some possible negotiations with the Great Demon Clans.

During this time, he would turn off the Shadow World livestream, not only because he didn't want the people of the Southern Continent to see Loki McCarthy, but also because he didn't want the people of the real world to see his current Demon Clan appearance.

As long as he transformed into a Demon Clan, losing the disguise of human skin, other Demon Clans in the Demon Realm might discover that he was a Great Demon Clan member, which would be difficult to explain to the people of the Southern Continent.

"Miao, I wonder how Hyperion's demon veins are doing in the Demon Realm. I'm so worried she won't adapt to the environment."

Boss Cat was very concerned about Hyperion.

Previously, when Hyperion fell into the Etherland Kingdom, it was not worried about Hyperion at all, because that was a pure land, but the Demon Realm, it was terrified just thinking about it.

"Don't worry, I'll bring her back."

Lan Qi reached out and stroked the little black cat, saying firmly.

"Mm."

The little black cat nodded its head.

These days, Lan Qi was unexpectedly normal, although it didn't understand what Lan Qi was doing every day.

Besides discussing matters and writing project proposals, he was just normally doing the work of a prime minister, and after getting off work, he was doing small-scale magical engineering research and development, and he didn't give a grand speech as expected.

It was very happy that Lan Qi finally listened to it and Hyperion.

Although this Shadow World seemed very desperate, after the trip to the Northern Continent, it was very confident in Lan Qi's abilities and limits, and this Shadow World was Lan Qi's forte. As long as he worked hard, it might not be difficult to increase the odds from 0% to the target of 1% after forty days.

And it just needed to take care of Lan Qi's daily balanced diet and health.

It saw that the situation of the Polant Empire had now become—

[People's Hearts: 145 → 276/1000 (The people's support rate and cohesiveness)]

[Parliament: 252 → 227/1000 (The Polant Empire's internal high-level support rate)]

[Military Strength: 124/1000 (With the Huning Empire as a reference)]

[Finance: 222 → 236/1000 (The Polant Empire's current productivity situation)]

[Diplomacy: 115/1000 (Diplomatic relations with the Demon Realm and surrounding countries that have not yet surrendered)]

The odds of winning were still 0.0000%, and even the fourth decimal place didn't show a positive number.

But it was understandable, because the effectiveness of Lan Qi's week was actually very small. In addition to basically stabilizing the two items of people's hearts and parliament, the decisive factor was only a slight increase in finance, which was still derived from the related impact of the rise in people's hearts.

Boss Cat felt that because Lan Qi's decision-making this time was too stable and normal, in the eyes of the people outside the Shadow World, Lan Qi could almost be regarded as idling for a week, used to familiarize himself with this Shadow World.

Or rather, out of a total of forty-five rounds, he had already wasted the first six. It was hard to imagine how much pressure Lan Qi's teacher Loren was facing outside now.

The upcoming trip to the Demon Realm would also cut off the Shadow World livestream for three to four weeks. When the Shadow World livestream was turned on again, it didn't know if Loren could hold on.

This desperate diplomatic trip could only win and not lose, otherwise Lan Qi and Loren might have to protect their families in the face of public opinion.

"Speaking of Lan Qi, what's the use of this thing you prepared?"

Standing on the table, Boss Cat patted some handwritten notes and complex planning projects scattered in front of Lan Qi with its paw.

Lan Qi had arranged a lot of work before his departure. It could understand a little of the one in front of it, which didn't involve too many Polant Empire political power issues, but was just a simple engineering strategic plan.

Its cover was named—"Sha Lei Mu Plan"

It would be led by the army, using a lot of resources and manpower. The plan would be initiated by magical engineers conducting research and experiments in a secret research institute located in the suburbs of the capital Hershalem, and at the same time, the construction and expansion would be closely followed, with multiple laboratories and factories assisting throughout the country.

"Whether it succeeds or not is not important. What I need is to do my best during this time to let the spies in the south know that we have a 'Sha Lei Mu Plan' and are devoting all our efforts to manufacturing a secret weapon. Anyway, it's to make the Huning Empire suspect us."

Lan Qi replied.

He had no secrets from the cat.

"Then can you make something?"

Boss Cat was even more puzzled.

It actually felt that being able to complete the initial stage in just over forty days would be good, and it was impossible to produce any results at all.

"Can't make it."

Lan Qi shook his head frankly,

"But as long as we can make the Huning Empire not sure whether we have a 'Sha Lei Mu Plan' or not, that's enough."

"But we really don't have one."

Boss Cat was confused.

"Who knows?"

Lan Qi spread his hands.

Can't make it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

When the time comes, if he air-drops a [Nuclear Fusion Wolf] to the Huning Empire, the Huning Empire might believe it.

They might even believe that this kind of bomb can be manufactured continuously, and the Polant Empire can air-drop a second one.

Anyway, for now, he would fabricate a void "Sha Lei Mu Plan" to make the Huning Empire generate a chain of suspicion, and when the time comes, it would naturally give the Blood Clan a little shock of light and heat.

Throwing nuclear fusion wolves in this era shouldn't land him in a military court, so he could safely press the button.

The key now was to go to the Demon Realm to find fuel.

And early tomorrow morning, the secretary would help him find a snowfield coachman who could take him and Boss Cat safely through the Land of Eternal Night, and the journey would begin.

(End of this chapter)