Mushroom Lord in the Underground City

Chapter 568 - 558: The Damaged Seal

When the main force charged out with Louisa, some soldiers stayed behind to deal with the surrendering snake-man captives.

They placed a Puki lock on each snake-man captive, which meant hanging a Puki on their back to bind their arms.

A soldier waved his hand, signaling the next snake-man to step forward.

The snake-man hung its head low, dragging its tail as it swam slowly forward, its eyes gray and resigned to its fate.

"Haiyi?" the soldier suddenly spoke, calling out a name.

The snake-man raised its head in confusion, looking at the face of the half-demon soldier, with no recollection.

"Of course you don’t remember." The soldier tugged the corner of his mouth, self-deprecatingly, "It’s normal, back then you were an upper-level warrior of a large snake-man tribe, while we were just a medium tribe, and I was just an ordinary warrior. We only met twice during material trades, so it’s normal you don’t remember."

"Half-demon tribe... From the Northern Territory?" the snake-man was dazed for a while before reacting, "You actually joined the Empire early, and didn’t perish in that great cold wave!"

At this moment, he still firmly believed that these soldiers in front of him belonged to the regular army of some Lord of the Empire, as the tribes of the Northern Territory had no capabilities for seafaring.

Moreover, as far as he knew, the Northern Territory had already become a forbidden zone due to that all-encompassing cold wave. Even the frontier cities of the northern border of the Empire were now sparsely populated.

If even the Empire’s cities were like this, it’s not hard to imagine the fate of those tribes already struggling in harsh cold lands.

Those who didn’t seek the Empire’s protection early on were frozen into sculptures in the endless snow.

For this reason, though the snake-man tribes’ current situation in the Empire was not as expected, they secretly rejoiced at their past choice, at least they survived.

So suddenly encountering an "old acquaintance" from tribal times, he thought the other party must have also sought refuge under the Empire to survive.

However, the half-demon soldier across from him listened, and then laughed almost uncontrollably, as if hearing the funniest joke ever.

After a long time, he finally stopped laughing and patted the snake-man on the shoulder, "Forget it... You’ll understand in time. It’s just unfortunate that you chose the Empire back then... Really missed the golden opportunity."

The Puki lock was already secured. The soldier casually waved his hand, indicating for this former upper-level warrior to swim into the group of captives.

The snake-man Haiyi felt utterly confused but, being a captive, dared not ask more, only turning silently.

As he slowly swam towards the captives’ line, on the other side, a Diamond Level snake-man warrior he knew, seeing that the half-demon soldiers didn’t tightly watch over them after the bindings were complete and that the main force had temporarily left, suddenly considered making a break for escape.

He suddenly exerted all his strength, shooting forward like an arrow, heading straight for the exit of the Underground City!

The muscles in his arms bulged, and the mycelium tendrils binding him began to show signs of tearing under his monstrous strength.

Haiyi watched that swiftly departing figure, his heart pounding uncontrollably.

If he could escape... should he also...?

"Sigh, there’s always a fool like this." came the calm sigh from a half-demon soldier behind him.

Only then did Haiyi realize that none of the guards around him made a move to chase.

The escaping snake-man unleashed a tremendous force, finally breaking the tendrils binding him!

Then, with a "boom," he exploded into many small fragments.

The shattered scales, broken bones, and fragments of flesh slowly sank in front of the many pale-faced snake-men.

Haiyi obediently swam into the group of captives, trying his best to relax his tense body, afraid of accidentally breaking the mycelium tendrils on him...

...

Lin Jun didn’t pay much attention to the loss of one Diamond Level captive.

This was just a normal casualty incurred in killing a chicken to scare the monkeys.

Similar probing and cleansing would happen several times during the subsequent containment stage.

After this, these snake-men would gradually be transformed into compliant captives of the Fungus Castle, willingly dedicating all their efforts to the great construction of the Mushroom Garden in exchange for freedom.

Compared to the captives, Lin Jun’s attention was almost entirely focused on the seal in front of him at this moment.

Outside the Underground City, soldiers were both clearing the wandering fog monsters and spreading across the sea area, trying to find traces left by ships.

However, Lin Jun didn’t hold much hope for this.

Now it seemed, the seal had been damaged at a corner by some strange tool snatched by Knight Puki, but the overall structure was still functioning.

From the chaotic magic power constantly escaping from the damaged area, if left unattended, collapse was probably just a matter of time.

The problem was, Lin Jun didn’t know how to fix it!

Or rather, does anyone actually know how to repair the seal inside the Underground City?

Speaking of which, what exactly is going on with this Tide Sanctuary?

His Pujie Dungeon still had two old watchdogs at its core, while this place was empty, letting people come and go, relying solely on an air wall to block people?

He spread his perception around, but aside from a broken large metal ring, there was nothing special.

After pondering for a moment, Lin Jun decided to notify the Elder Fishman and have him come take a look.

In reality, the Yellow-covered Book was most likely to know the relevant knowledge about repairing seals.

But Lin Jun didn’t dare risk it; if that damn book suddenly went insane, choosing to sacrifice its own existence to release its former master, that would be a great trouble.

Norris and Ming were also hurrying over from the rear at this moment.

Ming looked very downhearted. He felt he hardly helped this time, probably wouldn’t earn any praise from the boss.

He was still a weak Mushroom Race needing Brother Norris’s care... He had to become stronger, strong enough to truly be a help to the boss!

While waiting, Lin Jun suddenly felt a strange fluctuation of magic power.

Its source was... within the seal!

Was the escaping magic power being used by the Demon King inside the seal to cast a spell?

But with such sparse magic power... what could possibly be cast?

Despite the doubts, Knight Puki, Norris, and Ming immediately went on alert.

Knight Puki slightly raised its tentacle, Ming tensed his whole body, while Jida, controlled by Norris, charged the Resonance Cannon to its fullest, the barrel subtly trembling, ready to fire at any moment.

Time passed slowly in silence.

Lin Jun could clearly sense, under the seal that magic was gradually taking shape.

What was exasperating was that there was nothing he could do, with a seal between them; "to prevent the Demon King from using magic to break the seal, Lin Jun would have to break the seal himself to interrupt the Demon King’s casting", right?

The army was already on the way, if the Demon King truly broke through the seal, then... wait and see the opponent’s strength before deciding.

As the magic under the seal took shape, something began to emerge from within.

Knight Puki kept poised for action, Ming clenched his fists, and Norris maintained the full charge of Jida’s Resonance Cannon, ready to fire at any moment.

Finally, the faint light on the surface of the seal flickered, and something began to seep out from inside.

All eyes were fixed on that point.

In the tension-laden atmosphere, a gelatinous phantom floated out from beyond the seal.

Lin Jun recognized the magic. It was a second-tier imaging spell.

Completely non-threatening, not even a physical projection, too simplistic to deceive any enemy.

Of course, given the scant magic power, it was simply impossible to cast any threatening spell.

The previous readiness was indeed the oppressive weight of the "Demon King" title.

But... in front of him, what exactly was this phantom?

Ming blinked, muttering softly, "Slime?"

The phantom turned around, "How rude, young man. It’s clearly a Slime Man... Whoa, since when could Puki go underwater?!"