Mushroom Lord in the Underground City

Chapter 517 - 507: Unknown Switch in the Ruins

In the middle layer of the spiral ruins structure, a room full of demon crystal-embedded instruments.

Three blood relatives are dealing with the frostbite and lacerations accumulated along the way, with dark red blood frost congealing on their pale skin.

Casinar was observing the room: "Is this... some kind of control room?"

His fingertips hovered over the nearest demon crystal but didn’t use magic power to activate it.

In these ancient ruins, recklessly activating unknown devices typically doesn’t end well; at best, it’s futile, at worst, it may cause the entire structure to collapse and bury oneself.

After a brief rest, the team continued to advance upward, traversing several corridors without encountering any Cold Spirits?!

"Perhaps the upper area is inherently safe?" a blood relative quietly speculated.

"Or it could be that something more dangerous resides here," another cautiously reminded.

Casinar suddenly raised his hand to signal silence.

The next second, three scarlet blades tore the air, shooting towards the corner of the room.

From the seemingly empty space came muffled sounds of "pupu," revealing several bisected Puki.

"Puki?" The blood relatives looked at those now silent clumps of mycelium with uncertainty, unable to understand why such creatures existed in the ruins.

Casinar didn’t look at the recently dealt with Puki but was staring hard at the corridor opposite the room, where a pair of scarlet eyes were slowly illuminating.

Step, step, step—

Louisa sauntered out of the darkness, the expression playful as she observed their party.

Casinar’s face immediately turned grim.

It’s not Louisa’s power he feared; he didn’t know Louisa, but with a sense through the power of blood, he instantly understood the strength of the tall woman across—an Earl, possibly not even reaching Palace Level.

The real worry was that this female blood race couldn’t possibly be here alone; there surely exists other forces behind her.

Could the scroll not be unique?

How long had the opponent been here?

Had the secret treasures already been taken?

Countless questions swirled in his mind.

And moreover...

"Unexpectedly, we meet a compatriot here." Casinar donned a sincere smile, speaking as he retracted the blood swirling around him into his sleeve, indicating that he did not mean to start a conflict.

But in reality, the blood still entwined his arm, ready to strike or defend.

He elegantly bowed as if this were not dangerous ruins, but a court ball: "Honorable lady, I am Casinar Ulbick, a Marquis of the Empire. Forgive my poor eyesight, to which colleague does the esteemed lady pledge allegiance?"

The tone of his words exceeded friendliness, even placing himself ostensibly in a lower position before an Earl, given the unknown power behind her.

And here, outside the Empire’s borders, even if meeting blood race colleagues from the Empire, for the sake of profit, it’s not impossible to kill, as long as it’s done cleanly, who could trace it?

The most crucial point was, the way this female Earl looked at him was really peculiar.

Those scarlet eyes were entirely unlike ordinary low-tier blood race, containing neither reverence nor trepidation, only a greed that made even him shiver.

As if he wasn’t a marquis higher than her, but instead some treasure of heavenly and earthly rarity?!

Louisa finally spoke, her words sent Casinar’s heart sinking to the bottom.

"Regrettably, my master is not your colleague. As for its name," Louisa gently bit her fingertip, a strand of blood thread rose and curled like a living thing, "there’s no need for the dead to know."

Just as she finished speaking, several Resonance Cannons fired from both sides of the corridor.

At this position and distance, no matter how Casinar dodged, he would be affected by the explosion.

Unexpectedly, Casinar merged into the shadow beneath him and instantly moved to the rear, evading the attack.

The massive explosion caused the entire room to tremble, and Casinar’s three blood relatives looked at the aftermath of the explosion, cold sweat streaming, knowing if it were them being ambushed...

Chaotic footsteps and "pupupu" sounds surged from all directions.

Except for the passage they came from, all corridor entrances swarmed with enemies.

What sent chills down Casinar’s spine was the composition of the enemy forces.

Human soldiers alongside the Demon Race, dwarves accompanying four-meter-tall unknown humanoid creatures, and a multitude of Puki overflowing the vision.

This mixed-race troop didn’t belong to any forces of the Empire.

"Norris, you are too greedy," Louisa admonished.

"Apologies," Norris swiftly lowered his head to admit fault: "I thought of dealing with the greatest threat first..."

"A blood race... traitor?" Casinar never expected to encounter such a century-rare blood race defector.

This also meant there was no room for negotiation between the two sides.

Without a moment’s hesitation, the marquis retreated rapidly, followed closely by three blood relatives, blood spells exploding behind them into a sight-obstructing scarlet fog.

"Can you run away?" Louisa coldly laughed, waving her hand, a mass of Puki condensed into balls, rolling like waves toward the enemy.

Charging at the forefront was Norris; with Jida by his side, he soon caught up to the three blood relatives, engaging together.

As for Casinar, being a Level 70 marquis with the talent of Shadow Shuttle, he truly couldn’t be caught.

However, Lin Jun had already sensed the presence of a third party long ago, personally leading half of the Puki Master Corps, circling from outside the spiral structure to block the escape route, so it’s not a big issue.

But no one expected Casinar didn’t just run directly out.

Instead, he retreated into the previous control room and undoubtedly activated all the demon crystal instruments with his magic power!

Most demon crystal arrays were unresponsive, some lit up momentarily before going dark again; nonetheless, several crystal stones were activated!

Rumble——!

The entire spiral structure began to moan.

Norris, dragging the three blood relatives and waiting for the following troops, only felt the corridor suddenly vibrate violently.

Then he was shocked to see that the corridor he was in and the room they came from suddenly disconnected, the Puki unable to stop in time plummeted into the darkness below like raindrops.

Collapsing sounds came from all directions, echoing tooth-achingly, the frozen building structure crumbling in brutal reformation, chain collapses spreading like dominoes into the depths.

Norris was fortunate that the corridor he was on miraculously remained intact when everything was quiet.

Norris was unfortunate; the place he stood was a dead end, leaving only him and those three Diamond Level blood relatives.

Accompanying him, apart from Jida, was only the Yellow-covered Book.

Seeing those three pairs of crimson eyes, Norris felt it might be too late to say it was all a misunderstanding...

[Little Norris, have you ever thought about coming into the pages with me after death?]