By the time the Sword Saint Puchi moved from the south side of Elinore's territory to the north side, it was already seven days later.
The Sword Saint's speed was very fast. The reason it took so long, apart from having to avoid cities and crowds, was mainly because the Boss forcibly assigned him a helper.
When passing by a certain city, the Boss said, "Oh right, this will be useful." Then a disturbance broke out in the city's Blood Livestock Factory, and a burly Lizardman with a cloth wrapped around his head rushed out, followed by a bunch of pursuers. This caused the Sword Saint Puchi to also have to run for quite a distance.
Although this Lizardman was now draped in a cloak, the Sword Saint knew clearly that beneath the cloak was a puppet body sprouting mushrooms.
The Sword Saint truly felt that many of the Boss's abilities were quite wicked.
It was only because the Mushroom Fortress and the Mushroom Garden presented a thriving and harmonious picture among multiple races that the Sword Saint had a basis for trust.
He didn't know what special abilities this Lizardman had that the Boss insisted on bringing him along.
Moreover, according to the Sword Saint's observation, the cloth wrapped around the head of this Lizardman mushroom puppet should be a simple sealing item.
As for what exactly was sealed, Alvione didn't know. After all, he was a Sword Saint, not good at magic.
The Sword Saint and the Lizardman puppet had already searched several areas on the edge of the fungal mat where cultists had left traces, but they found nothing.
This wasn't surprising. Now that the Hand of Passage had been forced into a corner, they would inevitably be more cautious than in the past, creating a large number of false clues to mislead potential trackers.
Unfortunately, above the fungal mat, Lin Jun, who was paying attention to this side, wouldn't miss any information.
Although he wasn't sure of the exact location of the cult stronghold, if they searched the places where they had appeared one by one, they would find it eventually.
And the facts were indeed so.
...
Elinore's territory, northern edge area.
A Horned Demon veered off the main road, weaving through the forest while looking back every three steps.
After taking several large detours and confirming no one was following, he quickly ducked into a small ditch.
There, the only two remaining Priestesses of the Hand of Passage were waiting for him.
"Meow, how is it?" Crescent asked expectantly.
The Horned Demon believer lowered his head somewhat guiltily and shook it: "I staked out continuously for several days, but that Mushroom Tribe member never came out. It's said that it did go out once a few days ago, but we missed it completely."
Crescent sighed, looking at the believers around her.
They were all believers lurking within Elinore's territory who were arranged to try and contact the Mushroom Tribe.
Unfortunately, they all failed.
Ultimately, this improvised plan was too rushed.
Gini, on the side, had anticipated this and comforted them: "Don't be discouraged. Everyone, go back and hold the ritual first. It won't be too late to plan the matter of contacting the Mushroom Tribe after the ritual."
Although she said this, everyone also knew that it was an internal sacrifice ritual.
After the ritual ended, it was uncertain how many believers would be left.
When the time came, having even fewer people would inevitably make it more difficult.
But there were no other choices.
Just then, from the entrance of the small ditch came a sticky, disgusting, and terrifying overlapping voice: "Jie jie, sneaking around hiding here, what bad deeds are you discussing?"
It was even spoken simultaneously in both the Human language and Demon language, ensuring that every person or mushroom present could understand.
"Who?!" The cultists hiding here drew their weapons one after another, staring nervously at the entrance.
Puchi puchi—
The Sword Saint, with tentacles resting on his sword hilts, walked in first.
He completely couldn't understand what exactly was going through the Boss's mind. It was clearly a very good opportunity for a sneak attack, yet he insisted on a "striking first to awe the enemy" entrance.
Subsequently, the burly Lizardman puppet also walked in.
Seeing that figure, Crescent suddenly widened her cat eyes, but quickly calmed down, feeling she was overthinking it.
"Could it... be the Mushroom Tribe?" a believer beside her asked softly.
"That Mushroom Tribe member called No. 13 doesn't seem to look like this, right?" Someone also questioned.
If one were to say that their recent actions attempting to contact the Mushroom Tribe attracted their attention and brought them here, it seemed plausible.
Gini felt the newcomer was hostile, but thinking of the High Priestess's expectations, she still spoke up and said to the Sword Saint: "Are you of the Mushroom Tribe? We have no malicious intent, we just want to..."
Before her words fell, the heads of the two outermost cultists flew up.
And the Sword Saint Puchi, stepping on moonlight, was already spinning and slashing toward Gini.
The Sword Saint had spent half his life hunting down evil cults. Based on his experience, whether it was the Hand of Passage or any other evil cult, opening their mouths meant schemes and tricks.
Either attempting to beguile people's minds or wanting to stall for time; anyway, harboring no good intentions.
After suffering a few minor losses, the young Alvione learned to have no distracting thoughts in his mind. Chopping off their heads before they finished speaking was the safest method.
Even though he had become a Puchi now and didn't have to be as cautious as when he only had one life in the past, this habit still remained.
The words of cultists are not worth listening to!
Gini hadn't expected a Puchi to actually be this fast. Seeing the sword edge closing in, it was too late to defend.
At the critical moment, a giant rock hand rose up in front of Gini. At the cost of half its palm shattering, it delayed the Sword Saint Puchi for a moment, allowing Gini to retreat and adjust her posture.
Ever since the Lizardman entered, Crescent had maintained a tense state, which also allowed her to barely react under the sudden attack.
Before the stone golem could fully climb out of the ground, it was turned into crushed stones under the sword aura.
The Sword Saint wanted to pursue, but Gini had already raised her staff high.
"Fear!"
An invisible fluctuation spread out.
The scene before the Sword Saint's eyes changed, returning to the Elven Royal Palace.
Inanna and Galadriel, one on the left and one on the right, were rubbing his mushroom body. However, there were no smiles on their faces; instead, they stared at him coldly.
Alamar, Lorenzo, No. 15, and so on... those people who knew the Sword Saint stood at the door, silently watching this scene.
Alamar even held an intelligence report regarding reincarnated Puchis in his hand.
Suddenly, a flash of sword light crossed, and the entire scene shattered to pieces.
[Sword Heart (Counterattacks Mental Damage)]
Gini was as if struck by a heavy blow. Leaning on her staff, massive amounts of blood seeped from her mouth and nose as she was pulled backward by the believers beside her to run.
The Cat-person retreated rapidly while doing her best to use stone walls to separate the two sides.
The Sword Saint wasn't in a hurry to pursue.
This was clearly a temporary stronghold. What he wanted was to take out the Hand of Passage in one fell swoop as much as possible.
With the tracking ability of this Puchi body, these cultists couldn't escape. It was just perfect to let them lead the way.
However, when he turned his head, he found the Lizardman puppet standing motionless.
No way? Is the Boss afraid of mental attacks?
The Sword Saint silently noted this possibility in his heart, and then tried calling out to the Boss.
Lin Jun, who had actively fallen into the fear illusion out of curiosity, felt his mushroom main body being wrapped and decomposed bit by bit by a slime. This further solidified his determination to eliminate all evil slimes.
As for what an evil slime was? Living slimes were all evil!
(End of Chapter)
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