Mushroom Lord in the Underground City

Chapter 531 - 521: Malice

After entering the small town, the envoy’s group noticed something strange and became vigilant.

Ten disappeared silently while walking, without even a trace of footsteps. Four slipped out of Inanna’s arms, climbing onto the top of her head, ready to handle any ambush coming from any direction.

Only the Sword Saint Puki continued swaggering at the front of the team, "puki puki," seemingly without a hint of caution.

The scattered adventurers in the town, upon glimpsing this clearly marked and well-armored team, instinctively shrank back into the shadows.

Looking at the desolate and chilling scene before them, Inanna quietly asked the person beside her, "Is it always like this here?"

Beside her was Ronan, the envoy’s manager.

"Something must have gone wrong. I’ll send someone to investigate, Lady Inanna."

However, before anyone could be dispatched, a sudden surge of magic power erupted from the tavern nearby!

The heavy armored guards on the team’s flank reacted quickly. As soon as the wave appeared, they took a heavy step forward, and a giant shield pounded into the ground with a "boom," activating defensive combat techniques, raising a steel barrier on the left side of the team.

The anticipated attack didn’t come.

"I’ll teach you to cheat, bastard!" With a crude curse, a figure was thrown out, covered in a frenzied air current, smashed through the half-closed wooden tavern door, and crashed into the newly raised shield wall!

It was an adventurer warrior with a face full of scars, and his armor was soaked with booze.

He was dazed from the crash, shaking his head as he climbed up, muttering curse words, "Damn! Who’s the bastard holding that stick, knocked on my head..."

Before finishing his sentence, he looked up to meet the cold eyes of the heavy-armored guards and the sharp blades of long halberds protruding from the shield gaps, all murderous intent locked onto him.

The warrior’s curses got stuck in his throat, his arrogance doused like a fire under cold water, leaving only a wisp of smoke.

He froze in place, even his breathing became lighter.

Soon after, a middle-aged man wearing a wrinkled mage robe, holding a magic staff shimmering with magical brilliance, stormed out of the tavern: "If I don’t take your cheating hand today, I’ll..."

He too fell silent.

Seeing the fully armed envoy team outside, especially those weapons pointed at him, the mage’s mouth trembled, and instinctively he wanted to retreat back through the door.

"Please hold on, sir." Ronan’s calm voice rose, as two guards subtly blocked the tavern entrance.

The mage was "invited" to the center of the street to stand with the warrior.

Under the gaze of the armed envoy, the two looked especially small and uneasy, even when Four ran over and poked their cheeks with its tentacles, they didn’t dare to show any dissatisfaction.

Ronan rode forward, his gaze sweeping over the two without pursuing their actions for disrupting the team, and directly cut to the point, "What happened in this town? Why are so few people here?"

The warrior swallowed hard and was the first to speak, his voice somewhat trembling, "Sir, I don’t know! When I arrived three days ago, the town was almost like this! It’s as if everyone had been blown away by the wind, but the stores were still pretty full, unlike they’ve been gone for long."

The mage, slightly more composed, added quickly, "I arrived just a bit earlier, checked a few houses, some food had spoiled, but not badly. Those people have been gone for at most a week. But there were no signs of fighting except near the apothecary."

"The apothecary?"

The team found the apothecary; it had clearly been ransacked by adventurers, leaving it in ruins.

Under the mage’s guidance, they did find some traces of a fight, but not many, suggesting it was either stopped in time or one side was far superior.

During the subsequent conversation, the two mentioned various rumors circulating in the town over the past few days.

Some said a demon race team found a way through the Decay Lake and attacked the town, others claimed the Scarecrow Abyss curse had poured over, turning everyone into scarecrows dragged into the abyss. There were also rumors about cult sacrifices, elf dwarves driving them away, mutant demons, and even Puki’s betrayal.

In general, none of the claims were particularly valuable.

Finally, Ronan signaled for the guards to release the two: "Stay where you belong."

He said these words, then turned his horse, returning to Inanna’s side, and the envoy team began to slowly move again.

They couldn’t just stop due to some unknowns.

However, unbeknownst to anyone else, unlike the envoy’s lack of findings, Sword Saint Puki sensed something unusual.

The scenario seemed familiar to him, familiar from his youthful experiences...

Additionally, he discovered a sneaky figure.

Other adventurers were hiding and watching to avoid trouble, only that one wasn’t just hiding but also emitted a clear malevolence.

Such a person, unable to conceal his malice, appearing before the Sword Saint was as good as having "I am problematic" written across his face.

By the way, during his time in the Mushroom Garden, he often sensed that kind of unabashed malevolence. The difference was, it was much greater there, so vast that he never found the source, just guessing it came from the Mushroom Lord.

He thought to himself that someone hiding behind the scenes, controlling everything, ambitious and deep, wouldn’t be fixated on the little matter of the Underground City.

That sinister person quietly slipped away after observing the envoy for a while.

The Sword Saint Puki initially intended to follow but noticed that Ten, also hidden, had already taken action.

Through the journey, the Sword Saint had grown quite fond of Ten.

He hadn’t expected to find such a reliable Puki, at least more dependable than his own disciple.

The only problem was it was too aloof; whenever he wanted to talk a little with Ten, there were almost no responses.

Since Ten was already on it, the Sword Saint didn’t move, after all, he still needed to ensure his niece’s safety.

A while after the envoy set off, Ten returned.

Some bloodstains were on him, and Puki didn’t bleed, so it must have been someone else’s. The tentacles on his left were regenerating, but almost fully healed.

Upon its return, it shared the tracking results in the Fungal Network.

"There’s a group of black-robed people conducting some sacrificial ritual in a hillside ditch beside that mountain over there, probably some human cult," Ten said, uncertainly, having never seen a cult before, "They’re strong but show no signs of ambushing us."

"Cult!" Inanna’s eyes widened, recalling terrifying myths about cults.

"Should we go take them out?" Four perked up.

"They aren’t weak; their leader is definitely at the Palace Level, he spotted me from afar. We’re an envoy, not a military force."

To Ten, the key was that the other side didn’t seem to be planning to provoke them, so there was no need to engage such a daunting task.

It only cared about the Mushroom Lord’s task to protect Pink Puki. As for other threats, whether cults or demon races, as long as they didn’t obstruct, it didn’t matter.

However, the Sword Saint clearly thought otherwise.

"Cult? Hand of Death?" Some things wouldn’t change just because the Sword Saint had become Fourteen Puki; his tentacle gripping the sword started to itch, "This is perfect!"