Mushroom Lord in the Underground City

At midday, the scorching sun hung high, and the blazing sunlight roasted the earth.

For the Blood Race, this was the most uncomfortable time of day, yet Visarius’s confidant Ern appeared at the camp closest to Three Mountains City.

Ever since Shi Wu broke through the defense line and infiltrated Three Mountains City, this matter was like a thorn in his heart.

Although the Prince had already indicated that preparations had been made for contingencies, Ern did not intend to let the camp he was responsible for show any flaws and give humans an opportunity.

"Double the patrol density of the Shadow Bats," Ern instructed his subordinates behind him.

The adjutant showed a difficult expression: "Master, deploying the Shadow Bats at this time will result in a high attrition rate..."

"It doesn’t matter if some die," Ern coldly interrupted, "The number of Shadow Bats in the army is sufficient to support until this battle ends. I want them to patrol in shifts, unable to ignore any suspicious disturbances."

Shadow Bats were not easy to cultivate; although the subordinates felt some heartache, since Ern had spoken, they had no choice but to comply.

The adjutant dared not speak further and quickly passed down the orders.

Ern turned his gaze to the outskirts of the camp again: "Set up Blood Thorn traps on both sides of the camp, arranged in three cross-sectional layers... Also, underground..."

Under his arrangement, there were corresponding defense measures in the air, on the ground, and underground.

If any humans dared to attack from the city, he would turn this raid into a decisive battle, utterly annihilating the living forces of the defenders!

Seeing his orders executed one by one, Ern was satisfied and planned to leave.

After confirming that all directives were being strictly followed, Ern finally prepared to return to the cool tent. Just as he turned around, he inadvertently glanced towards Three Mountains City and suddenly stopped.

He summoned the officer responsible for vigilance, pointing at the piled-up corpses at the outer wall ruins, and asked: "In the past two days, have humans come to collect bodies?"

The officer looked in his direction, puzzled, and replied: "Probably not, Three Mountains City likely doesn’t even have space for burial. Look, their soldiers’ bodies are still mixed in with the pile, aren’t they?"

"Then why is the height of the corpse pile... lower than yesterday?" Ern frowned slightly.

"Is it?" The officer squinted, examining closely, "I think it’s been like this all along..."

"Is it..." Ern withdrew his gaze, half-believing.

He had asked based on instinct and wasn’t very certain himself. After hearing the officer’s words, Ern suspected he might just be paranoid.

Just then, one of Ern’s Blood descendants swiftly approached him, kneeling on one knee: "Master, we found an anomaly on the east side of the camp while strengthening the outer vigilance per your order."

Led by the soldier, Ern arrived at an open area less than half a mile from the camp.

A few strong Demon Race soldiers had already dug a deep pit five meters square here, with the bottom revealing a section of a deep tunnel.

"What is this?" Ern squinted his blood-red eyes.

"The origin is unclear, but it’s evidently not naturally formed," said the leading Blood Race member, jumping to the pit bottom and patting the tunnel walls, "Look, it’s reinforced, though roughly, but very sturdy."

"Human secret passage?" Ern voiced this guess before negating it himself, "No, it’s too narrow."

The size of this tunnel was such that humans couldn’t possibly squeeze through.

It was the smallest creatures among the Demon Race, the Goblins, who might barely fit through.

Even though it didn’t seem like a human secret passage, since they had found this suspicious tunnel, it couldn’t be ignored.

Ern immediately ordered a few small-sized Goblins, under the command of a Blood Race in bat form, to enter the tunnel and scout.

And soon after this Blood Race team entered the tunnel, they encountered their first fork.

The pitch-black tunnel split into two, extending into the unknown darkness.

After hesitating for a moment, the Blood Race assigned two Goblins to explore the other passage.

However, not long after moving forward, they encountered the second and third forks in succession.

Especially arriving at a wide node where five passages converged, the Blood Race realized that this underground was a massive labyrinth. Continuing to divide forces would only spread the already thin team further, so they decided to maintain the current formation and continue.

So they wandered aimlessly underground for a long time.

Just as this Blood Race member planned to give up and return to report, the team finally discovered something different.

A web of fine mycelium clung to the wall of the tunnel, with a couple of mushrooms emitting a faint fluorescence, marking the first signs of living things since their entry into the underground.

Following this mycelium-covered tunnel, they arrived at a cave that made the Demons’ fur stand on end.

The ceiling was dotted with dozens of entrances similar to the ones they had come through, while the bottom was piled with corpses like a mountain.

The broken bodies of both Demons and humans were intertwined and pressed together, some reduced to bare bones, others decaying as mushrooms on them slowly decomposed.

It felt like a lair of terrifying monsters; not only Vampires but even the usually noisy Goblins were rendered silent by the scene before them.

As all the Demon Race members were stunned into inaction by the spectacle before them, a wriggling sound came from another passage overhead.

First, a severed Lizardman tail fell, followed by broken limbs, and finally a blood-drenched Puki popped out, hanging upside down from the cave ceiling.

Despite Puki having no eyes, everyone present in the Demon Race felt that they had been discovered.

"Retreat!" the Blood Race member ordered in a hoarse voice.

The Goblins screamed as they rushed back, only to hear the same wriggling sounds coming from all directions in the passage they’d arrived in.

Countless Pukis were swarming from all the forks, sealing off all escape routes.

Above ground, Ern vaguely heard several dull sounds from underground.

After waiting for a long time, only a few Goblins emerged one by one.

These were the Goblins who had been assigned to explore other forks earlier, and when they heard the strange dull sounds from the passage, they returned the way they came out of fear.

Yet, the Blood Race member never managed to emerge from within.

Not coming out was an answer in itself.

Ern immediately drew more forces together, not only reorganizing a larger exploration team but also ordering a widespread search in the surrounding area.

Predictably, within half a day, three more similar secret tunnels were discovered at different locations.

...

Elsewhere, the matter of kindly helping with burials was discovered, forcing Lin Jun to start producing more Battle Pukis underground for defense, while also accelerating the laying of fungal mats in the tunnel network.

The Demon Race’s nearly blatant excavation activities naturally attracted human attention.

However, they clearly didn’t know what was happening on the Demon Race’s side.

The underground of Three Mountains City also had Defense Magic Array protection, so even if the Demon Race dug through, it would merely open another attack point, not a possibility for a sneak attack.

Humans, unable to figure it out for the moment, could only enhance their vigilance against Ern.