Hu Tiancheng stood in the stairwell, looking at Lin Fan with an expression that seemed a bit excited.
"I saw the news about Li Cheng's death. It was probably you who killed him, right?" he asked in a familiar tone, striking up a conversation with Lin Fan.
Lin Fan shot him a cold glance and flatly denied it.
"It wasn't me."
"Oh." Hu Tiancheng saw that Lin Fan had no intention of admitting it and didn't press the matter any further.
Standing beside Lin Fan, he continued chatting.
"Are you planning to go to the third floor?"
"Yeah," Lin Fan responded, disinterested.
He didn't particularly dislike Hu Tiancheng, but he wasn't the type to warm up to people easily. As a result, he didn't have much to say to him.
But that didn't dampen Hu Tiancheng's enthusiasm. He walked alongside Lin Fan, glancing at him before looking toward the staircase.
"If you're planning to go to the third floor, I think you might as well give up."
Lin Fan, who had been about to ascend the stairs, paused for a moment, looking at Hu Tiancheng with a puzzled expression.
Seeing Lin Fan's reaction, Hu Tiancheng quickly waved his hands.
"Don't get me wrong. I don't mean anything bad."
"It's just that the third floor doesn't have any monsters or rewards left. There's no point in going."
"No rewards?" Lin Fan was a bit surprised.
That didn't make sense. He had personally cleared the first and second floors, looting every chest. How could the third floor suddenly be empty?
Did someone skip the first and second floors and go straight to the third?
Lin Fan clearly didn't believe Hu Tiancheng's words and continued toward the third floor.
Since Lin Fan didn't believe him, Hu Tiancheng didn't say anything more and simply followed behind.
As they climbed the stairs, Lin Fan noticed something strange—he didn't hear the usual growls of monsters, nor did he sense any presence of creatures.
He frowned and took the final step onto the third floor.
It was just as Hu Tiancheng had said—not a single monster was in sight. The entire floor was eerily empty, without even the slightest sound.
"What's going on?" Lin Fan furrowed his brows.
Could it be that someone really ignored the monsters and loot on the first and second floors and went straight to the third?
But even if that were the case, how could they have wiped out every monster on this floor?
The Nine-Story Monster Tower had thousands of monsters per floor.
For an entire floor's worth of monsters to be wiped out completely… that was unbelievable.
Lin Fan frowned and walked toward one of the rooms on the third floor. Inside, the place was completely empty. The monster spawner that should have been in the center was missing, leaving only four loot chests in the corners.
The loot chests were still there—but when he opened them, they were completely empty.
"Who could have cleared out this entire floor so thoroughly, even taking the monster spawner?" Lin Fan raised an eyebrow.
Hu Tiancheng, standing beside him, shook his head.
"I have no idea. It was already like this when I got here."
Lin Fan pondered for a moment before heading to the fourth floor.
At first, he thought the third floor might have been an anomaly, but when he arrived at the fourth floor, he found the exact same situation—not a single monster, and all the monster spawners were gone.
It wasn't a coincidence. Someone had cleared out the Nine-Story Monster Tower.
But… why did they start from the third floor?
"This person is way more ruthless than you," Hu Tiancheng said in amazement as he stood in the empty fourth-floor room. "They didn't leave a single thing behind."
Lin Fan snapped out of his thoughts.
"Let's go check the fifth floor."
Lin Fan led the other three up to the fifth floor.
As expected, the fifth floor was just like the ones below—not a single monster remained.
The same was true for the rest of the floors.
"The Nine-Serpent King is dead too?" Lin Fan raised an eyebrow.
This situation was beyond his expectations.
Lilian checked the boss room for a while before walking back over.
"The Nine-Serpent King isn't dead." She said calmly.
"If the Nine-Serpent King had died, the 'Nine Nether Buff' on you would have disappeared. But since it's still there, that means the boss is still alive."
The Nine Nether Buff was essentially a portion of the Serpent King's power. As long as Lin Fan had this buff, he shared a part of the boss's abilities.
Because of this connection, if the Serpent King died, Lin Fan's buff would disappear along with it.
Hearing this, Lin Fan nodded thoughtfully.
"But… if it hasn't disappeared, then where did it go? Isn't the Nine-Serpent King supposed to be sealed inside the Nine-Story Monster Tower? It shouldn't be able to leave, right?" Lin Fan asked.
Lilian's expression turned a bit serious.
"That's the problem. Last year, the Serpent King was still inside the Monster Tower. But this year… the seal might have been broken."
"Broken by someone?" Lin Fan glanced at the boss room, then stepped out.
"If this was really done by a person, then they must be someone quite extraordinary."
From the third floor all the way to the ninth floor, every monster had been wiped out, including the bosses.
Lin Fan had fought these bosses himself—he knew how powerful they were.
Which was exactly why he found it hard to believe that someone could eliminate them all.
Hearing Lin Fan's thoughts, Lilian gazed out of the Nine-Story Monster Tower's window.
The white clouds were within reach, with a sliver of sunlight peeking through the horizon.
"Maybe it's an old acquaintance." Lilian chuckled and turned toward Lin Fan.
"Let's go, Master. We'll talk more once we're back home."
<+>
With the Nine-Story Monster Tower's situation settled for now, Lin Fan, Lilian, and Heloise returned home.
At that moment, Store No. 1 and the glass bottle shop were still open for business.
The trip to the Monster Tower had gone much smoother than expected—Lin Fan was already back within half a day.
The precautions he had left with Chris turned out to be unnecessary.
This event had brought huge profits to most people, with Blue Star residents making a lot of gold coins. As a result, the glass bottle shop was also booming.
With the loot from the Nine-Story Monster Tower and the money earned from the business, Lin Fan's total wealth had grown to 200,000 gold coins.
With this, he expanded his land to 40x40 and planned to improve the farm and plant an orchard the next day.
The Monster Tower trip had provided him with many fruit tree seeds.
Although fruit trees took up space, both Lilian and Heloise loved eating fruit.
These two girls—one his contract maid, the other his contract beast—were under his care.
Lin Fan had no choice but to spoil them!
<+>
After checking in on the shop's operations and confirming that everything was running smoothly, Lin Fan finally returned home with Lilian and Heloise.
But his curiosity about the Nine-Story Monster Tower only grew stronger.
He knew very well that he had only managed to defeat the first and second-floor bosses thanks to the Nine Nether Buff.
So, he couldn't help but wonder—who was strong enough to slaughter every monster in the Monster Tower?
Especially since Lilian had suggested that this person might be… an old acquaintance.
<+>
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