Tap— tap— tap—
Footsteps echoed in the corridor outside the cell door. Sitting on the stone bench, Grey set down the book in his hands and shifted his attention to the doorway.
Back then, because the intelligence he brought back from the Northern Territory was flawed, the Demon-kin had consecutively lost two members with extraordinary potential.
Although the blame couldn't be entirely pinned on Grey, he indeed couldn't escape involvement.
Upon his return, Grey was thrown into a cell by Patriarch Dean, handed a sentence of ten years.
For a Demon-kin with a lifespan of three hundred years, this couldn't be considered a very severe punishment.
Considering further that the Vampire Prince Vesalius had lost his precious daughter and was currently in a fit of rage—potentially targeting the returned Grey—even Grey himself wasn't sure how much of this imprisonment was actually meant for his protection.
At the very least, his living conditions in prison weren't bad.
He wasn't chained with heavy, sturdy Lodestone shackles, nor was he starved or left freezing. The jailers even occasionally brought him a book or two to relieve his boredom.
Grey was fully prepared to obediently serve out his ten years, but an unexpected turn of events occurred.
"Grey, you have been pardoned," the messenger outside the cell door announced.
"Why?" Grey looked confused.
The Demon-kin messenger wasn't in a rush and gave Grey a rough explanation of the current situation outside.
The rise of the Northern Territory, Eugene's final words, the routed soldiers fleeing back...
"Those guys in the Mushroom Fortress are highly likely monitoring all outsiders through their fungal mat, and they even have several Lord-tier powerhouses!"
"Looking at it now, the fact that you managed to escape back alive twice is already considered very lucky. You can't be blamed for the intelligence issue."
"But don't blame the Patriarch either. Back then, no one knew the situation was like this. The Patriarch locked you up according to the rules, and the moment he realized it was a mistake, didn't he immediately send me to bring you out?"
Grey nodded blankly. "I don't have any complaints, it's just that what you said..."
He couldn't figure it out. In just over a year, how did that tribe, which had previously fought back and forth with the Empire's Second Army, develop to the point where even a Duke couldn't escape alive?
Were they pretending to be weak back then?
After all, a faction's influence could suddenly swell, but experts required time to grow. Cultivating several Lord-tier combatants in less than two years was impossible no matter how you thought about it.
Moreover, the fungal mat... monitoring...?
Recalling how his completely ignorant past self had ventured deep into the fungal mat, Grey couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine.
As they walked, the messenger continued, "Anyway, we are short on manpower right now. Even though you were just released, you have to get to work as soon as possible. Change your outfit; I'll take you to meet your mission partner."
The partner arranged for Grey was named Ke, a rare mind-system spellcaster among the new generation of Demon-kin.
LV41, having just crossed the threshold of the Gold tier. His strength wasn't considered outstanding, but his ability was incredibly rare. Such spellcasters had always been scarce; even with a lower level, it was enough to make people treat him with high regard.
Their mission was to head to the northern frontline city, Cold Bay Fort, to root out the problematic parasitized individuals.
This city's location wasn't great. It lacked highly robust defenses, yet it was one of the cities closest to the Northern Territory, enduring the encroachment of the fungal mat every single day.
Clearing the continuously spreading mycelium had become a daily routine for the city's laborers and even its soldiers.
When Grey and Ke arrived outside the city, they caught the busiest time of the day.
Outside the city gates, a dense mass of people spread across the wasteland, stretching as far as the eye could see.
Some were swinging hoes to dig up the ground, some were pouring pungent potions onto the mycelium, and others were holding torches, burning things everywhere.
But honestly, the effects were very limited.
Flames, which used to be effective, suddenly had little impact, leaving them to rely purely on manpower to resist the fungal mat.
When Withering Powder was sprinkled, the surface layer indeed withered and died, but before long, fresh mycelium from below would surge back up.
What was even more troublesome was underground. From time to time, Earth-system spellcasters would force out several Puchis that were digging holes. Those round things would still be wriggling desperately when dragged out.
Even after mobilizing so much manpower, they could only barely hold the line within the city walls. The grayish-white fungal mat outside the city had long since blanketed the hills and fields, stretching endlessly to the horizon.
If viewed from the sky, Cold Bay Fort looked like an isolated island surrounded by a grayish-white tide.
The noble in charge of the city's defense saw all this but was completely helpless.
If it weren't for his duties, he would have wanted to abandon this city entirely.
Looking at the current state, all manpower was tied up fighting the fungal mat. The enemy didn't even need to lay siege; they just needed to send a few small units to harass the laborers and delay the clearing progress. It wouldn't be long before the inside of the city was also overgrown with mycelium.
What was worse, traitors had already begun to appear among the parasitized soldiers.
The "problematic parasitized individuals" Grey and Ke were looking for referred precisely to those who, for whatever reason, were trying to bring Puchis into the city to spread spores.
Upon entering the city, Grey quickly noticed that the atmosphere was wrong.
As a city that wasn't overly important and had a high probability of falling quickly if the Mushroom Fortress attacked, many parasitized soldiers were naturally assigned here for defense.
They made up roughly one-third of the city's total military force.
Grey noticed that within the city, the parasitized individuals and the normal soldiers were distinctly divided, with very little communication between them.
The ordinary soldiers looked at the parasitized with deep vigilance, and even disgust.
And the gazes returned by the parasitized were mixed with resentment and anger.
"This won't do," Grey judged after standing in the middle of the street and looking around. "If this continues, before the enemy even attacks, the city will likely descend into chaos."
"That's exactly why we're here to prevent it, Senior Grey. As long as we root out the traitors among the parasitized, the situation will improve."
They eventually arrived at a corner of the city where a spore-spreading incident had just occurred.
Grey saw some scorched mycelium in the corner of a wall that had already been burned over.
Clearly, before they arrived, the city's soldiers had already brought the situation under control. They had also called over the laborers living nearby for questioning, trying to find the culprit who spread the spores, but had obviously turned up empty-handed.
"Let me ask!" Ke swaggered over.
"Who are you...?" A Vampire who looked like a squad captain frowned at them.
Failing to interrogate the culprit had already annoyed him enough; for two flamboyant guys to suddenly pop up out of nowhere, it would be a miracle if he gave them a good look.
However, after Grey and Ke produced the investigation warrant signed by Patriarch Dean, he had no choice but to let the two step in.
Ke didn't delay. He walked straight up to the first laborer, placed a hand on his shoulder, and asked, "Do you know who planted these mushrooms?"
The lizardman laborer hurriedly shook his head. "I really don't know. Although I live nearby, I haven't passed by this way recently!"
Ke nodded, moved his hand to the second person, and continued asking the same question.
Seeing this, the squad captain couldn't help but sneer, saying grumpily, "What can you possibly find out like this? Even jokes should have a limit. We don't have that much time—"
Ke, whose hand was already on the third person, suddenly interrupted, "You're lying!"
"I— I didn't—"
The eyes of that parasitized individual, who had mycelium creeping on his face, flashed with panic, and then he suddenly reached out to grab Ke.
However, before he could touch Ke, Grey had already rushed up, grabbed him by the neck with one hand, and slammed him against the wall.
Following that, blazing fire ignited on Grey's arm, engulfing the guy who was still trying to counterattack, directly burning him half to death.
"Phew— thanks!"
Dropping the guy who was now powerless to resist, Grey turned to look at Ke. "You don't have much combat power. Next time you find someone suspicious, remember to give me a look in advance."
Then he looked at the squad captain who was standing to the side, stunned. "Interrogate him. You should be able to get something out of him."
"Ah— oh, oh—"
Not long after, the interrogation results came out.
This specific parasitized individual wasn't the one who planted the spores, but he knew some inside information.
From his mouth, Grey and the others learned that a group of parasitized individuals dissatisfied with the current situation had indeed gathered in the city, seemingly plotting something.
And they usually gathered in a place in the city known as the Abandoned Alley.
(End of Chapter)
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