In the central plaza of the Mushroom Fortress, beneath the giant Puchi statue stepping on a dragon horn, there was no banquet today, yet it was still packed with Fungal Citizens.
Dwarves leaned against stone pillars with crossed arms, Mush-kin stood on their tiptoes holding their newly issued delicious mushroom rations and peered over the crowd, human women held their children above their heads, and Lizardmen swung their tails back and forth in the crowd, not getting angry even when stepped on.
Even those Empire Demon-kin who had recently surrendered huddled in the corners, looking with complex expressions at the stone platform in the center of the plaza.
On the stone platform, a Vampire knelt.
His robe was still tailored from top-tier enchanted iridescent cloth, the gold threads at the cuffs still dazzling, but the robe had been torn in several places, and the gemstone at the collar was missing.
Spark held a parchment scroll in his hand, reading out the crimes of this Count.
"Crime number three: Organizing the slave trade for over one hundred and fifty years, handling over a hundred thousand slaves, among which countless were executed for entertainment. Those with clear records include, but are not limited to: burying alive, starving to death, and feeding slaves to his kept magical beasts."
"Crime number four: Funding and participating in the cult activities of the Hand of the Ferryman, providing living people for sacrifices in exchange for assassination services provided by the cult."
"Crime number five—"
Item by item, word by word, Spark read through the mycelial network for a full eight minutes.
When he finished reading the last item, sitting right in the center, a Judge Puchi with a white mushroom cap and white mycelium curled on both sides raised a small wooden gavel.
Thump!
"This Mushroom declares Forrest Reed guilty! Sentenced to the penalty of Eternal Sunlight!"
Lin Jun didn't ask if the Vampire on the stage had anything to say, and no one off the stage felt there was a need to ask. Only the man himself whimpered, begging for a chance to pledge his loyalty.
And the only answer he received was the cheers of the Fungal Citizens echoing throughout the entire plaza.
This Vampire Count was quickly taken away, but the trials continued. Next was a Horned Demon Lord. The Judge Puchi jumped onto the table and slammed the gavel! Leaned back and slammed the gavel! Did a handstand on its tentacles and slammed the gavel!
"Guilty!"
"Guilty!!"
"Guilty!!!"
Amidst the crowd's revelry, Spark quietly sent a private message in the mycelial network to remind the completely hyped-up Boss: "Ahem, Boss, this last Vampire... is not guilty..."
Lin Jun finally paused and observed that last terrified young Vampire. "Ah? Oh, oh! He's not guilty. Then let him go, let him go."
To think there was actually a good person among the Empire's nobles; if you live long enough, you really see everything.
This Vampire, who was merely a Viscount, became the only innocent defendant in this trial, and was led down by the Puchis trembling with fear.
As the trials concluded, down in the plaza, let alone the original residents of the Mushroom Fortress, even those newly joined former Empire slaves and Demon-kin couldn't help but loudly praise the Mushroom Fortress and the Boss.
In the Empire, the value of a powerful noble was far higher than thousands upon thousands of cannon-fodder Demon-kin.
To punish the strong for the sake of commoners and slaves was completely unreasonable.
This principle applied even in the United Kingdom and the Mountains. It was just that compared to the Empire's blatant law of the jungle, humans and dwarves were more tactful in handling similar incidents, appropriately issuing "minor punishments as major warnings" to maintain a facade of justice and decency.
Specifically targeting powerful nobles with batch trials—the Mushroom Fortress was the first to do so.
Furthermore, such trials were held in every city occupied by the Puchis, practically putting all the rulers of the occupied territories on trial one by one.
However, unlike the new and old Fungal Citizens below who hated the nobles, Lin Jun thanked these guys from the bottom of his heart.
Thanks to their centuries of inhumanly cruel rule, they were able to so perfectly draw all the hatred onto themselves.
And now, all Lin Jun needed to do was wipe them out. Combined with the Ministry of Truth's propaganda, he could easily win over the hearts of the people and strengthen their faith.
They were all good demons who sacrificed themselves for the mushrooms. As a token of gratitude, Lin Jun decided to let them stay in the D-class Paradise for a few more days. At the very least, he had to let them experience all the entertainment programs before using them up.
As for the loss of this bit of "high-end" combat power?
Regrettably, in the Mushroom Garden, numbers were the true foundation of combat power.
As for individual strength, it was unimportant amidst the general trend of the Puchi tide. If absolutely necessary, Lin Jun could also forcefully boost it using the Water of Life.
The "value" of these Empire powerhouses in the eyes of other factions had to be heavily discounted here in the Mushroom Garden.
In comparison, the domestication progress on the Demon-kin's side was much slower.
Although there were also many unjust incidents among the Demon-kin, under Dean's leadership, the race as a whole was relatively united.
Right now, these Demon-kin were merely defeated, not subjugated.
If Dean had survived to take the lead in surrendering, things probably would have been much easier to handle. It was a pity that the guy's prejudice against mycelium was deeply rooted, and his magic core had been sent flying away by his subordinate's arrow, remaining unrecovered to this day.
However, the Demon-kin population wasn't large to begin with, so their value wasn't considered high.
There weren't many opportunities to synthesize level-less skills anyway, so the Mush-kin of the Northern Territory were perfectly sufficient.
Therefore, there was no need for Lin Jun to spend too much effort on subduing these stubborn stones. Letting nature take its course and allowing them to be slowly assimilated was also fine.
After this war, there were two newborn Mush-kin, one with [Cold Immunity] and one with [Heat Immunity], whom Lin Jun named Yue and Ri respectively.
It was a pity that [Swordsmanship LV10] couldn't stack to become [Zenith of the Sword]; otherwise, Lin Jun could have mass-produced Sword Saint Mushrooms.
On the other hand, due to the sudden surge in D-class personnel, the demand of the Inner Mushroom Garden was greatly exceeded.
Lin Jun had to appropriately carry out some layoffs.
For example, letting some Vampires—who had been basking in the sun for over half a year or even more than a year, and whose screams had grown weak—retire to make room for newcomers, while also contributing their well-trained skill proficiencies.
As a result, Little Pig acquired [Sunlight Resistance LV7].
Now, although she would still feel discomfort walking under the sun, the damage caused by sunlight was far outpaced by her regenerative abilities, and even the weakening effect was greatly diminished.
Once this skill was trained to LV10, could a Vampire who didn't fear the sun still be considered a Vampire?
One could imagine that if she were sent to fight a Vampire civil war in the future, she could totally choose to conduct it in broad daylight.
While the Mushroom Fortress digested its territory, the other factions weren't idle either.
The dwarves, holding the mentality of beating a drowning dog, ruthlessly pursued and relentlessly attacked the continuously retracting defenses of Levi. They crushed all resistance along the way, only to bash their heads bloody against Levi's core territory before finally settling down.
However, Levi didn't dare to pursue either. Not far to his west, a Mushroom Fortress army was stationed.
Although it didn't look like the main force and had not launched an attack, with the precedents of Eugene and Dean, and Emperor Mortis having shown no reaction to the situation in the North to this day, Levi was panicked internally. All his actions prioritized safety and stability, so pursuing was naturally impossible.
The humans received the news through the dwarves. Guessing that some unforeseen event might have occurred within the Empire, they also wanted to get involved.
Unfortunately, what they had to face was the High Keep Fortress, garrisoned by Sigmund and newly rebuilt and reinforced.
This sturdy fortress that used to protect humanity had now paradoxically become an obstacle to the United Kingdom's advance.
No one knew the sturdiness of the High Keep Fortress better than its former master, Alamar.
Therefore, after leading the army in a standoff for a week, he helplessly chose to retreat back to the new defensive line.
However, when passing through Dragon Roar Valley, he discovered that the magic interference phenomenon inside had become increasingly severe, yet no cause could be found.
Meanwhile, in the center of the continent, the core region of the Empire, the clash between the new and old kings also entered its countdown, alongside the changes inside the Dragon Cliff Underground City.
(End of Chapter)
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