Mushroom Lord in the Underground City

Chapter 529 - 519: Shaping Faith

Poom—

Amid Julia’s eager anticipation, a Puki with a colorful mushroom cap emerged from the cocoon.

"God of Puki? Or... a messenger from the gods, Lord of the Mushroom Race?" Julia asked tentatively.

However, the Puki didn’t immediately respond to Julia after coming out. It first stood firmly and then methodically started organizing the scattered hay in the corner of the cell.

Its tentacles skillfully divided the hay left and right, stacking them into two neat piles of identical height, carefully tucking back any protruding edges.

After finishing everything, it sat down in the center of the cell and gestured to the bewildered Julia to sit in the designated spot.

"I am Twelve. The Mushroom Lord heard your voice and commanded me to guide you to understand the truth."

For the first time, Julia heard a voice from the Fungal Network.

"Truth...?" Julia repeated, a bit confused.

Twelve led her to the cell door, lightly brushed with its tentacle, and the iron lock fell to the ground.

The noise alerted a guard. He ran over and collided with Julia, who had just stepped out of the cell.

"Breaking out?" He reached for his sword, but soon, a wash of color completely captured his attention, "Puki...?"

Twelve’s mushroom cap shimmered with various colors, illuminated by fluorescence.

The guard’s gaze gradually became hazy, and his grip on the sword handle loosened, eventually scratching his head in confusion and sitting back in place, ignoring Twelve and Julia, who boldly walked away.

Not only the guard, but even the other prisoners in the cell fell into the same daze.

Julia, an ordinary person witnessing this miraculous scene, murmured, "Is this... divine intervention?"

"What are you thinking? This is just a charm skill." Twelve mercilessly interrupted Julia’s fantasy, "Don’t always attribute phenomena you can’t understand to divine intervention, it leads to misunderstandings. We value truthfulness..."

As Twelve led Julia out, it educated her on how to properly worship the Mushroom Lord, whom she referred to as the Puki god.

Along the way, several guards were easily charmed.

These jailers, typically only at Copper Level strength, were completely unable to resist the power of [Charm Level 9], even though Puki had already discounted its potency.

Once out of the prison, things became even simpler.

With a complete map navigation, the bustling Mushroom City seemed like an empty town, all the way to the entrance of Pujie Dungeon, Julia didn’t bump into anyone.

Entering the dungeon, Julia additionally witnessed the legendary hidden Puki room of the dungeon.

Unfortunately, she didn’t get to experience Puki’s full service because as soon as the hidden room’s door closed and opened again, she suddenly found herself on the tenth floor!

It was like a divine intervention.

Entering the dungeon for the first time, she was reasonably afraid.

Although the dungeon’s danger level significantly dropped since it became Pujie Dungeon, that was more for adventurers.

In the end, Julia was just an ordinary woman.

However, guided by Twelve, naturally no danger was encountered.

Underground, she witnessed a scene both surprising and frightening—Demon Race!

In the Deep Area of Pujie Dungeon, a considerable number of demons were living!

They, along with Puki, were busy in various caves.

Some were excavating ores or Demon Crystals, while others were cultivating Firefly Grass that had become increasingly scarce in recent markets.

Strangely, when these demons noticed her, there was no greed, hostility, or even much curiosity, much like encountering an incidental passerby of no concern.

This was completely different from the demon image she had previously heard of.

She cautiously asked, "These... are demons, right? How are they here?"

"What’s this Mushroom Envoy? It sounds odd, just call me Twelve. And, you should also try communicating through the Fungal Network, the Mushroom Lord should have given you permission. Speaking directly, I can’t hear clearly."

"As for these, these are citizens of the Mushroom Garden."

"Citizens of the Mushroom Garden? Aren’t they demons?"

"That’s where the issue lies." Twelve extended a tentacle, pointing towards a female lizardman, who was picking mushrooms in the mushroom field with her young ones, her movements gentle and practiced, "Do you think there is any difference between you and her?"

"Difference?" Julia looked over, bewildered, "I’m human, she is... a lizardman, a type of demon race, right?"

This was her first time seeing a living lizardman in the flesh.

"Do you know that the Mushroom Lord sees no difference between you?"

"How could there be no difference?" Clearly, they were entirely different.

"You both need food and water, you both experience joy and sorrow, you both yearn for safety and belonging. More importantly, as the Mushroom Lord said, your souls after death are essentially the same, there’s no distinction between ’human soul’ or ’demon soul’."

"Souls?" Julia had never thought about such matters before, "But the war between humans and demons..."

"Yes, due to language barriers, different appearances, opposing nations, compounded by mountains of old hatred, you fall into endless slaughter, breeding suffering in the process."

In the distance, a dwarf miner handed over extracted minerals to a half-demon teaching them to distinguish different ores, Mushroom Race following behind an elf taller than several heads, listening to her lecture on selecting magic potion ingredients.

"But here, it’s different. Here, you’re all merely citizens of the Mushroom Garden."

Following Twelve’s guidance, Julia gazed at the scene of breaking racial barriers and coexisting.

Twelve continued to lead, "Imagine if dwarves, elves, humans, demons, and even deep sea mermaids and fishmen... all intelligent beings in the world became mushroom citizens..."

"A world without... conflict..." Julia murmured.

"Exactly, that’s the truth." Twelve’s mushroom cap glowed with a layer of gentle, colorful radiance, seemingly responding to this vision, "Not just sheltering you from hunger and cold, but eliminating all conflict, bringing eternal peace to this world."

Julia seemed to visualize her husband no longer needing to don cold armor and step onto uncertain battlefields, children growing up in an environment without hunger or fear, hands of different races clasped together without distrust, a world where all intelligent life smiled peacefully.

Before this, her gratitude towards the Puki god was simple and concrete.

Thanks to Him for letting her husband return alive from the blood-soaked corpses of Dragon Roar Valley, thanks to Him for filling her family’s stomachs with mushrooms, her faith stemmed from the most direct survival favor.

But now, looking at the human-demon pair working and living together, as if seeing a miniature of the world Twelve depicted, having experienced the pain of war, tears unconsciously flowed from her eyes.

Twelve did not disturb her emotional moment, merely using tentacles to gently hold her hand, continuing to lead her through various tunnels.

Of course, it skillfully avoided areas not conducive to showcasing the "benevolence of the Puki god," such as caverns housing D Level personnel or arenas echoing with roars and clashes.

A significant portion of the discourse on "eternal peace" came from Lin Jun’s prepared script, supplemented by a bit of spontaneous performance.

Lin Jun hoped through this portrayal to shift Julia’s faith from a straightforward gratitude based on personal gains to more grand and resolute ideals.

An exalted goal and a beautiful vision are indispensable for sustaining faith.

Similar to the Hand of Death’s concept of the afterlife, though Lin Jun presented a more tangible beautiful future, even with the Mushroom Garden as an exemplar.

Moreover, it’s not deceiving her.

Although Lin Jun’s spreading fungal mat and parasitizing various races are to strengthen its own power for freer and happier existence.

But if one day, Lin Jun’s fungal mat truly permeates every corner of the world, achieving symbiosis with everyone, eliminating war would be merely a thought—by directly eradicating all who attempt to ignite fires of war.

Of course, the premise is to overcome the so-called apocalypse crisis.

As for the truth regarding the apocalypse crisis, naturally, it’s unnecessary to inform Julia.

At present, this is just an observation experiment concerning faith.

After visiting various caves and even interacting with some mushroom denizens, Twelve brought Julia, still immersed in the experience, back to the cell.

Using [Charm] and the Fungal Network’s navigation, not even a soul realized Julia had left for an extended period.

Even Julia herself, sitting back on the cold hay mat, felt that what she had just witnessed was like an overly beautiful dream.

"Rest assured, you need not be confined here too long." Twelve’s voice gently resonated through the Fungal Network, "You are chosen by the Mushroom Lord; if needed, call my number at any time within the Fungal Network."

Before leaving, it even fed her a sip of the pre-prepared Water of Life.

Julia knelt before the fungal mat as Twelve departed in a special manner, clasped hands pressed against her chest: "Praise the Mushroom Lord."