"Where is it?" There was a rare urgency in Solarin's voice.
The reason she wasn't in the meeting hall was because when the message arrived, she had already been called out of the guild by Mein.
At this moment, they were weaving through the noisy, bustling free market. This was paradise for adventurers and small merchants, where the air was thick with the mingled scents of leather, herbs, cheap tobacco, and sweat. The sounds of haggling and boasting rose and fell continuously.
"Right there!" Mein pointed toward a small stall squeezed into the edge of the crowd not far away.
The stall owner was a shifty-eyed middle-aged man, and beside the stall stood two church warriors.
Solarin's gaze swept over the jumbled old items on the stall. Then her breathing suddenly stopped—there at the edge of a pile of broken copper items, quietly lay that simply-crafted silver pendant!
Like a fallen star, lost and found again!
Recently, equipment stripped from church warriors had been gradually recovered, forcing these frustrated warriors to patrol the market daily like treasure hunters, buying back armor that may or may not have belonged to them.
Today, it was these two warriors who, while rummaging through a pile of miscellaneous items, accidentally discovered the small photograph inside the pendant. They immediately stood guard over the stall as if facing a great enemy while urgently dispatching someone to notify Solarin.
Solarin's hands trembled slightly as she picked up the pendant and opened it to see the familiar photograph inside. She had thought she'd lost it forever, but unexpectedly...
"This..." Solarin forcibly suppressed her surging emotions and turned her gaze to the stall owner. "How much?"
Even though it was her lost property, the ownership of this pendant now rested in the hands of the stall owner before her.
The stall owner's eyes rolled cunningly. He glanced at the church warriors standing rigidly beside him with expressionless faces, then looked at Solarin's obviously anxious expression. A greedy smile spread across his face as he held up one finger: "One price—ten gold coins!"
"Greedy cur!" This absurd price was like lighting a powder keg. The two church warriors exploded instantly, one of them stepping forward aggressively with blazing eyes: "You dare ask ten gold coins for a silver pendant? You're looking for trouble!"
The merchant clearly knew the identity of the warriors before him and felt some fear, but the greed in his eyes didn't diminish one bit. He quickly pulled the pendant back, clutching it tightly in his filthy palm and pressing it to his chest. He deliberately raised his voice to a shrill pitch that cut through the nearby din: "Tsk! My lords, you can't say that! We're doing business here—it's all about mutual consent! The value of something depends entirely on how precious it is to someone, right? Besides—"
He drew out his tone, his gaze sweeping challengingly over the holy emblems on the warriors' chests: "This is legitimate business, fair dealing, free trade! Under the great God of Light, these are market rules that even the church lords... surely wouldn't break, would they?"
He deliberately emphasized "free trade" and "church," his voice booming, successfully attracting many curious adventurers to gather around and point.
"You bastard!" Being publicly cornered, the impulsive warrior's temples bulged with veins, nearly drawing his sword, causing the merchant to retreat repeatedly.
Just then, Solarin extended her hand and steadily pressed it on the arm of the warrior who was about to lose control.
Her face was cold as frost, but her eyes were unusually calm.
She didn't look at the merchant again, nor did she pay attention to the surrounding gazes. She simply silently untied a heavy leather purse from her waist and counted out ten gold coins.
The merchant's eyes instantly blazed with the green light of a hungry wolf. He lunged forward, his claw-like hands quick as lightning, snatching all ten gold coins into his palm!
His wrinkled face immediately bloomed like a rotten chrysanthemum, filled with the most obsequious smile. He almost held the pendant with both hands, bowing as he presented it to Solarin: "Heh heh, my lady is truly straightforward! Please take it!"
Solarin didn't look at his face, only pinched the pendant's chain and "lifted" it from the merchant's palm.
The cool metal chain against her palm carried that familiar sensation with a slight tremor of relief. She didn't immediately close her fist, but lowered her head, her gaze falling once again on that tiny photograph, her fingertip extremely gently and almost tenderly caressing those two young, smiling faces.
Then, an extremely complex smile slowly bloomed at the corner of her lips.
---
What does it mean that a Sword Saint wants to come visit my home?
Me fight a Sword Saint? For real?
After Adin got the news, he naturally informed Lin Jun.
At this moment, a certain mushroom in the dungeon was trembling.
When all was said and done, Lin Jun didn't understand why what was originally just calling over the pink puffshroom to operate had somehow gotten mixed up with that "expert team."
But trembling aside, after carefully thinking it through, Lin Jun felt this worry might be somewhat excessive.
Other unknown masters aside, a Sword Saint?
He'd actually encountered one before.
At that time, the Sword Saint had only sensed something about the scout puffshroom but hadn't directly acted to eliminate it. What did this indicate?
It indicated he wasn't skilled at detection!
At least not at the level of "I can tell at a glance you're not human!"
Maybe Adin would still be the one responsible for detection when the time came!
If his main body stayed far away, there probably wouldn't be any problems.
Besides, Sword Saint, Sword Saint—he definitely used swords, not magic. He couldn't possibly swing his sword all the way through and shovel up all the mycelial carpet Lin Jun had laid out, right?
Thinking this way, at worst he'd just have some unimportant puffshrooms chopped up.
Of course, he also had to consider the possibility of the Sword Saint cooperating with mages for carpet-bombing cleanup.
However, if this had been before, Lin Jun might have panicked a bit, but now?
The mycelial network passages throughout all levels of the dungeon had long been completed, extending in all directions.
Cleaning up the surface mycelial carpet was just scraping off a layer of skin—it couldn't hurt his foundation at all.
Most importantly, this didn't conflict with his original plan. His plan only required the pink puffshroom's cooperation; whether the combat power that came was strong or weak didn't matter.
With his thoughts turning in this direction, Lin Jun's focus regarding the Sword Saint quietly shifted from his own survival crisis to a direction that made him more curious.
Sword Saint—one of humanity's top-tier combat forces.
Just how strong was he?
Lin Jun had already sampled a LV61 Sword Saint disciple. Very strong, extremely strong, but not impossible to deal with, even... not impossible to handle.
So what about the Sword Saint himself, whose level differed by less than 10?
Although Adin had repeatedly mentioned how powerful the Sword Saint was, how many demons he'd killed where, what impressive achievements he had.
But hearing about achievements, no matter how many, wasn't as good as personally testing his mettle.
It was fine if he couldn't win—Lin Jun was mentally prepared for that.
He just wanted to determine his own combat positioning in this world through battle.
Thinking this way...
Tsk, he was actually getting a little excited.
However, according to Adin, the "expert team" wouldn't arrive for another half month.
Before then, Lin Jun still wanted to deal with the trouble in his own backyard first.
...
An invisible scout puffshroom silently folded its wings and hung inverted from a jagged rocky ridge.
At the other end of the cavern, a spatial rift—the largest and most menacing Lin Jun had seen apart from the demon tide—was brutally tearing open a giant maw in the rock wall with overwhelming force!
Within the rift flickered unnatural ghostly light, and bone-chilling cold was constantly pouring out from within.
Everything in front of where the puffshroom had landed was covered in a layer of ice.
Just as Lin Jun was hesitating whether to have the scout puffshroom brave the severe cold and get closer, an oversized eye tyrant silently "swam" out from the dark depths of that rift!
Its massive eyeball, without the slightest hesitation, instantly and precisely locked onto the puffshroom hanging inverted from the distant rocky ceiling in its invisible state!
A pale ray instantly crossed most of the cavern's distance, accurately striking the hanging puffshroom.
The moment it was hit, the puffshroom's transparent body instantly stiffened and solidified, no longer able to maintain its inverted position, falling straight down from the rocky ridge.
During its descent, the puffshroom's body visibly turned inch by inch into lifeless gray-white stone!
Finally, it crashed heavily onto the ice-covered ground below. Accompanied by a dull and cruel shattering sound, it became a pile of cold, lifeless stone fragments.
The brief encounter only allowed Lin Jun enough time to glimpse its basic information.
【Race: Githis-Evil Eye】
【Level: LV50】
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